Is Columbus the best city in the Midwest? (Cleveland, Cincinnati: statistics, commuting)

[robertbrianbush]

Originally Posted by dustin183

Sports:
Basketball - OSU Buckeyes
Football - OSU Buckeyes
Soccer - Columbus Crew
Hockey - Bluejackets
Baseball - Columbus Clippers

So yeah, albeit not every team is "pro" - all of the bases are covered. Those are all exciting atmospheres as a spectator. I've been to every one.

I think they should turn the Clippers into an MLB team.

MKB would likely never allow that...that would cut too much into the markets of the Reds and Guardians...which are already considered to be small market teams.

[PerryMason614]

Originally Posted by DannFrankenstein

^^^I agree with the above


C Tier: Columbus, Indianapolis, Des Moines, Omaha


But sometimes, somehow, C Tier cities are where it’s at

Absolutely. All four of those cities are great. Highly livable, clean and not old and run down like the cities in your upper tiers, Chicago and Minneapolis metros being the exception.

If you want some dirty congested city, move to the east coast. This is the Midwest.

[PerryMason614]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

The poster mentioned Boston specifically as doing the same thing as Columbus. Not even close to the same scale. Columbus annexed vastly more suburban land. Boston annexed townships in the 1800s. Not even slightly close to the same thing. Go tell me Rosalindale or Brighton or Roxbury are suburban. Not at all.

Irrelevant. The Columbus Metro area has been mostly the same. Some counties have been added, but not because of annexation, because of population growth. Union County was first added, then Morrow County. Columbus has not annexed in either of those places nor does it matter. The counties have been the same since they were planted.

[Kluch]

As a Columbus native (and OSU alum) it cracks me up that this thread is still going at 51 pages. When I think greatest city in the Midwest I think Chicago because of it's reputation around the world. Now granted, there's a lot of bad in Chicago as well (I know as I'm a former resident) but it's undeniable that when you say Chicago people know it's a great city (if only in size and reputation). Now if we're talking "mid-tier" cities in the Midwest Columbus definitely has a say. We live near Indianapolis now but I think Columbus has the edge on Indy and is a great place to live overall.

[TomJones123]

Checking out other cities sections on the Ohio section and Columbus boosters seem to be the ones clamoring for superiority, which typically points to an inferioroty complex.

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by TomJones123

Checking out other cities sections on the Ohio section and Columbus boosters seem to be the ones clamoring for superiority, which typically points to an inferioroty complex.

The problem with Cbus is that it simply doesn't pass the eye test. You have to defer to growth rates and construction numbers to brag about how it's definintely an awesome city. Then you go there.... I will say, the High Street corridor between Worthington and German Village is mostly pretty solid (except that public transportation is terrible). You can have a good time and a nice life in this area. I had an amazing time over the weekend at the Arnold, walking out to cafes and eating out, seeing everyone out and about enjoying the sun. It was nice! But you don't have to venture very far away to uncover what amounts to 90% of the city - just, well, mediocrity. Forgettableness. Blandness. Predictable, Anywhere USA development. No charm, no history, no roots, just quick cheap nonsense passed off as progress. There really just aren't "neighborhoods" the way there are in other cities. Just a bunch of bedroom communities. The cost to live in this small part of nice Columbus is insanely not worth it.

[TomJones123]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

The problem with Cbus is that it simply doesn't pass the eye test. You have to defer to growth rates and construction numbers to brag about how it's definintely an awesome city. Then you go there.... I will say, the High Street corridor between Worthington and German Village is mostly pretty solid (except that public transportation is terrible). You can have a good time and a nice life in this area. I had an amazing time over the weekend at the Arnold, walking out to cafes and eating out, seeing everyone out and about enjoying the sun. It was nice! But you don't have to venture very far away to uncover what amounts to 90% of the city - just, well, mediocrity. Forgettableness. Blandness. Predictable, Anywhere USA development. No charm, no history, no roots, just quick cheap nonsense passed off as progress. There really just aren't "neighborhoods" the way there are in other cities. Just a bunch of bedroom communities. The cost to live in this small part of nice Columbus is insanely not worth it.

True dat. Its of note too that Columbus population "explosion" came in part from them adopting unigov, similar to what Indy did in merging city and county governements into one. I agree with your assessment.

[Losfrisco]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

The problem with Cbus is that it simply doesn't pass the eye test. You have to defer to growth rates and construction numbers to brag about how it's definintely an awesome city. Then you go there.... I will say, the High Street corridor between Worthington and German Village is mostly pretty solid (except that public transportation is terrible). You can have a good time and a nice life in this area. I had an amazing time over the weekend at the Arnold, walking out to cafes and eating out, seeing everyone out and about enjoying the sun. It was nice! But you don't have to venture very far away to uncover what amounts to 90% of the city - just, well, mediocrity. Forgettableness. Blandness. Predictable, Anywhere USA development. No charm, no history, no roots, just quick cheap nonsense passed off as progress. There really just aren't "neighborhoods" the way there are in other cities. Just a bunch of bedroom communities. The cost to live in this small part of nice Columbus is insanely not worth it.

This exactly.

I often think of the fact that, despite having lived in Columbus for over a decade, how hard it is to remember any of it in detail. I remember places, streets, etc., but conjuring up visual memories is hard as it all just kind of blurs together. Then you take a place like Pittsburgh, where I spent a fraction of the time, and I can practically recreate the entire city in detail in my head when I think back to time spent there.

The last place I lived there was around a place they call "Hilltop", and despite being in city limits it just felt like you were locked out of everything.

[PerryMason614]

Originally Posted by Kluch

As a Columbus native (and OSU alum) it cracks me up that this thread is still going at 51 pages. When I think greatest city in the Midwest I think Chicago because of it's reputation around the world. Now granted, there's a lot of bad in Chicago as well (I know as I'm a former resident) but it's undeniable that when you say Chicago people know it's a great city (if only in size and reputation). Now if we're talking "mid-tier" cities in the Midwest Columbus definitely has a say. We live near Indianapolis now but I think Columbus has the edge on Indy and is a great place to live overall.

I understand all that. Columbus isn't Chicago or San Francisco or Boston or New York. Different peer group. But compared to its peer cities, I think it stacks up pretty well. It's easily among the best cities among its peers.

[PerryMason614]

Originally Posted by TomJones123

True dat. Its of note too that Columbus population "explosion" came in part from them adopting unigov, similar to what Indy did in merging city and county governements into one. I agree with your assessment.

You are sadly misinformed. We do not have unigov. We have 25 or 30 separate suburbs in Franklin County alone. If you're talking about annexation, state law has always contemplated townships being annexed to cities. The township form of government is intended for Rural areas. Once an area becomes populated, it is intended to be a city by framers of state law.

I don't really care about City statistics. They mean nothing. The metro area is what counts and the metro area is and has been largely the same territory for the past 50 plus years. Union and Morrow counties have been added to the metro, but that has nothing to do with annexation. It has to do with an act by the federal government.

Nevertheless, the Columbus Metro has grown from about 1.2 million in 1980 to 2.2 million today. The Columbus Metro is and has always been Franklin, Pickaway, Fairfield, Licking, Delaware and Madison Counties. It's the exact same territory as before except that now the federal government considers Union and Morrow Counties as part of the Metro.

Same exact territory, double the people. Columbus is growing and will continue to grow.