Your impressions of Columbia (West Columbia: bars, town, good)

[Akhenaton06]

Originally Posted by bigmig

Im not sure there is any reason to move here. Its has all the problems you mentioned (except dust). Even the college area is a ghost town on saturadys (fridays pretty good). I would spend a GOOD amount of time here before you move. Ther is nothing in the way of culture or sports if thats your thing.

There's culture in Columbia--the art museum, the state museum, Trustus, Nickelodeon, Koger Center, etc. It's not Broadway, but there are cultural venues to take advantage of. If you like professional sports, then you may find the city lacking in that regard, but there are college and minor league sports and Charlotte and Atlanta aren't far drives to get your pro sports fix from time to time.

[verseau279]

I'll put in a plug for equestrian events. If you like to watch steeplechase, polo, jumping, etc. There are plenty of those events around in Aiken (1 hr) and Camden (40 min).

And if you want to actually participate in riding, there is plenty of that to be had even closer in.

[RybarSC]

Originally Posted by bigmig

Im not sure there is any reason to move here. Its has all the problems you mentioned (except dust). Even the college area is a ghost town on saturadys (fridays pretty good). I would spend a GOOD amount of time here before you move. Ther is nothing in the way of culture or sports if thats your thing.

Wow!!! You really say there is no culture in Columbia? I beg to differ.

Five local theatres in downtown area (Workshop, Trustus, Town, Drayton Hall, Longstreet) all producing top-notch shows throughout the year. 'Broadway in Columbia' also produces around one show per month (Cats, Chicago, Movin' Out, Rat Pack are all on schedule for this year).

Many, many excellent, local (non-chain) restaurants that you cannot find anywhere else. I very seldom eat at a chain restaurant that you can find in other cities. (Yesterday's, Blue Marlin, Mr. Friendly's, Motor Supply Co, Bull Market, just to name a few of the hundreds of unique restaurants here.)

Columbia City Ballet is recognized as one of the top ballets in the southeast.

Columbia has a good deal of history for a visitor (State House grounds, USC Horseshoe, State Museum, Confederate Relic Room, South Caroliniana Library, Historic Houses, McKissick Museum)

SEC Football, basketball, baseball

Nickolodean Theatre shows independent films that you often can't see elsewhere.

Columbia Museum of Art, as well as other art galleries around town.

Two separate, unique nightlife districts (Five Points and the Vista) with many bars, varying from older hippie (Utopia, The Whig) to younger hippie (Tavern on Greene) to frat (Pavlov's) to gay (PT Cabaret) to professional (Za's) to European influence (**** N' Bull) to free spirit (Art Bar).

St. Patrick's Day festival is one of largest in the nation, and World Beer Festival was a major success last week.

18,000 seat arena has hosted concerts in recent years of Pearl Jam, Jimmy Buffet, Kenny Chesney, Elton John/Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, etc.

SC Gay Pride festival is an annual big event at Finley Park, with a ton of support from the City of Columbia.

If you like outdoors, you've got Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Gardens, Lake Murray, Three Rivers Greenway, 7 miles of riverfront walking/biking paths in downtown Columbia, Saluda Shoals Park, Harbison State Forest, Sesqui State Park, Congaree National Swamp, golf, hunting, etc. If you want more outdoors, you are less than two hours from either the beach or the mountains (something very few cities in the US can say).

In addition to all this, one of the best things that gives Columbia 'culture' is that Columbia lacks the "urban sprawl" of many US cities. Columbia is, quite literally, a "city of many neighborhoods." This overall lack of urban sprawl makes Columbia "feel" smaller than it truly is, because you are almost always in a distinct neighborhood, as opposed to driving down the interstate or fighting traffic on a congested major road. There are so many electic neighborhoods close to downtown such as Rosewood, Shandon, Heathwood, Olympia, Earlewood, etc.


ok, I'm taking a break from typing.....

[mpaquette]

Excellent post RybarSC. Couldn't have said it better myself!

[ranger17]

if I may add as a "soon to be" resident of the area: I don't know if 'locals' view this the same way, but for us it is a huge plus to not only have things to see/do that have already been posted above, BUT also the fact that one can take a couple hour drive and spend a day at the beach ( or Charleston, or... ). What Cola area offers us is in many ways similar to what we're leaving in Madison area which was nice. But to be able to take day trips to other spots that before meant only airfare and vacation time.... again that is huge. After all, if we wanted a big city feel, that is what we would have looked for.

[Buckeye in SC]

Originally Posted by ranger17

if I may add as a "soon to be" resident of the area: I don't know if 'locals' view this the same way, but for us it is a huge plus to not only have things to see/do that have already been posted above, BUT also the fact that one can take a couple hour drive and spend a day at the beach ( or Charleston, or... ). What Cola area offers us is in many ways similar to what we're leaving in Madison area which was nice. But to be able to take day trips to other spots that before meant only airfare and vacation time.... again that is huge. After all, if we wanted a big city feel, that is what we would have looked for.

Agreed ranger, that was a big reason we chose Columbia when moving from Ohio, some natives take for granted the proximity to the beach/ocean, but when you live in the midwest, it truly was a vacation when you had to take 2 entire days just to travel.

We've loved in our short time here being able to get up early on a Saturday morning, drive to Charleston or HHI, spend a few hours at the beach, grab a bite to eat, and be back home by early evening. While we would've loved to be even closer, for the cost and job opportunities, Columbia was the best fit. Charleston is a great city, but the cost of living is quite a bit higher.

[RybarSC]

Originally Posted by Buckeye in SC

Agreed ranger, that was a big reason we chose Columbia when moving from Ohio, some natives take for granted the proximity to the beach/ocean, but when you live in the midwest, it truly was a vacation when you had to take 2 entire days just to travel.
.

I had to chuckle at your post, because you are so right! I have many friends in Charleston who have often said (seriously) that a negative thing about Columbia is that it is just soooo far from the beach!!! It takes exactly 1 hour and 53 minutes to drive from downtown Columbia to the Isle of Palms or Sullivan's Island (I've actually timed this ). Last Friday, I got off work at 5:00pm in Columbia, went home and watched tv for awhile, ate dinner at my house, and then left for Charleston. I was sitting on the beach at 8:45pm that same night.

If Charlestonians or Myrtle Beach natives ever lived anywhere in the rest of the country (especially the entire midwest) they would know what "landlocked" truly means!! It's all about your perspective!

[mmposting]

Good to know.

Originally Posted by melskybell

Well, I've "run the gamut" of west vs. east and humidity vs. dry. I lived in AZ and loved it. I live in TX and hate it (dust AND wind). I lived in Tampa and loved it. Summer afternoon thunderstorms came through and cooled it off every afternoon (at least to me).

High heat with high humidity ie; Houston is darn near unbearable (and many over 100+ degree days). Dallas/Ft. Worth isn't far behind in high heat and medium humidity.

I think Columbia would be quite tolerable for the few months it appears to be hot and humid.

Mel

[mmposting]

Interesting impressions. good to know Columbia is less humid than Houston

Originally Posted by Chi2Midlands

I'll second that - I've been to Houston in early July twice and it's an Amazon tropical rainforest compared to Columbia. Two things that really made me notice it:

(1) Because of air-conditioners running full blast inside my hotel, and the high heat/humidity outside, condensation was positivily DRIPPING on the inside of the windows. I've never seen this in Columbia.

(2) Houston's Intercontinental Airport, while a pretty pleasant facility for a fairly large hub airport, had a sort of "musty basement" smell to it. I'm sure it's partially because they have heavy use of concrete in their terminal architecture (as opposed to steel & glass), which makes the basement-look really stand out. But I've only sensed that kind of a smell in an airport in Miami and Orlando.

Houston definitely has a "flat, green, and swampy" feel to it, whereas the Midlands is not particularly green, especially in the Sandhills areas on the northeast side of town, and outside of Lower Richland County near the Congaree, there really isn't a swampy feel to the area. Palm trees have to be imported here from the Lowcountry - in Houston they're right at home.

I will say that Columbia's summer heat reaches the truly "unbearable" stage only for a few weeks in late July/early August. We've had family down here in early July, and while it was hot, it was still bearable for young kids to play outside a little in the afternoon.

[mmposting]

The issue of crime makes sense only when comparing incidence of crime to total population.

Originally Posted by Njincola

Well hate to disapoint you but we have crime here too a lady just got shot to death at an atm of bankofamerica in one of our best neighborhoods in Columbia,but the good news is the person that did this is already caught.