Is Columbus Ghetto (Cleveland, Green, Hudson: roughest, college, high income)

[happymee]

German Village has some nice historic homes but the surrounding area is trashy.. that's why they had that string of home invasions...I go to the Latino festival every year i haven't seen anything too bad...now the state fair is where all the problems are..too many gang banger wanna bees...

[LancasterNative]

Originally Posted by complexsimplicity

When I was in Columbus a while ago, someone mentioned German Village or Gemantown. I forget the name. Is that one of the bad neighborhoods?

Actually, German Village was one of Columbus' first older neighborhoods to get "rediscovered" and gentrified, starting in the late 1960s. Today, it's considered one of the premiere urban addresses in town, and has homes that have cracked the $1 million mark in value.

But right "next door" as the poster above mentioned, there are some very seedy, crime-ridden areas

[BigVill]

I am new on this board, and I had to register just to post on this topic because of the funny things that I have seen on here. There are many things that I consider inaccurate on here.

To the lady living in Canal Winchester, there is no area in Canal that has this out of control environment that you have described. I am in Canal almost every single day. More Black people have moved into the area, but that is about it.

To whoever said that the area behind Eastland Mall is "hardcore ghetto"- I cracked up laughing when I saw this. Nowhere in Columbus is "hardcore" ghetto, but if I am listing the worst spots in Columbus, Eastland Mall is not even in the top ten. Again, there are a lot of Black People there, but that doesn't make it a hardcore ghetto. Most of the actual homes in that area are occupied by the owner not a tenant and apartments and homes are mixed nicely in the area.

Bexley is not surrounded by crackhouses and the "worst of the worst". To the south of Bexley is Berwick, which is a very nice neighborhood. To the East is Eastmoor, which has mostly nice homes in it. To the North is Fifth Avenue, which is Black and poor, but not a ghetto, and to the west is Olde Towne East which is where the PBS special was filmed. Mixed with young proffesionals and older blacks.

It seems that people on here assosciate ghetto with black people. There is no true ghetto in Columbus. The closest thing right now would have to be Franklinton (the Bottoms), which is very poor and the homes are run down. The crime rate is high, there are several homeless shelters and empty buildings in Franklinton and the home values are probably the lowest in Columbus. Franklinton, however, is mostly white, which must be why it wasn't mentioned much on here.

I have spent time in Detroit, Cleveland, Cincy, Indy, New York, Pittsburg, and Baltimore among other places. If you take the poorest, most run down(ghetto) parts of each of these cities and compare them to Columbus worst, it is not even close. I am sure that anyone living in the worst part of East Cleveland would love to live in the "hardcore Ghetto" of Eastland Mall. Columbus was voted as the 2nd best city for Blacks last year and the number one city for blacks in 2001. All this with a black population of just 25-26%. There is a Black Mayor, Black Police Chief, Black Fire Chief, Black Safety Director, Black School Board Director. Blacks and whites live side by side in most areas around the city with no problems(including the poor areas).

Believe me when I say that Columbus does a lot of things right and there is no ghetto anywhere here. You need to really see a ghetto, in order to judge what qualifies as one. Sorry for the long post.

[streetcreed]

Bexley is not surrounded by crackhouses and the "worst of the worst". To the south of Bexley is Berwick, which is a very nice neighborhood. To the East is Eastmoor, which has mostly nice homes in it. To the North is Fifth Avenue, which is Black and poor, but not a ghetto, and to the west is Olde Towne East which is where the PBS special was filmed. Mixed with young proffesionals and older blacks.

It seems that people on here assosciate ghetto with black people. There is no true ghetto in Columbus.

THANK YOU BIGVIL for responding.!

Your feelings are exactly what I have been trying to convey in this post for what seems like a year now.

Just because an area is higher in African Americans does not mean it is ghetto, and by far the poorest section of Columbus is Frankliton which is mostly white, that is the most "ghetto" area of Columbus. Also, King-Lincoln district on the near east side and south linden have a lot of crime, poverty issues and they are mostly African-American.

I agree though, the areas of the far east side like Eastland Mall are hardly ghetto but they are very middle class African-American which is a great thing to have in a city. To be able to say that you have a minority class and they are living in decent conditions in areas with a good housing stock, an alright education system, transportation, and retail is a great thing!

Also, I am so sick of this "everything around Bexley is ghetto." Like you said south of Bexley is Berwick a well off area where the mayor lives. Eastmore is east of Bexley and has very nice houses. And Olde Town East is west of bexley and is a mixed income area with some renovated mansions.

Case Closed

[jajosh07]

What? Are you saying Franklinton is poor and crime-ridden because it is mostly white?

[captaincatfish]

Big Vill...thanks for clarifying a lot of issues in your post---very well and intelligently said...

And to jajosh, the point Big Vill was trying to express was, too often, the word ghetto and black folk are thrown together as some sort of oxymoron (two words which seem funny together, sorta like 'military intelligence' and 'jumbo shrimp' LOL)...I don't think he was labeling Franklinton per se, but he made a good point when he said that Franklinton wasn't mentioned as 'ghetto' even though some of the things people associate with that term (i.e. rundown housing, poverty, crime, etc.) are present, and that most times, folk will say an area is ghetto because of a predominately black populace faster than they would if the same area was predominately white...

[BigVill]

Captaincatfish and streetcred, it looks like you understand exactly what I was trying to say. Thanks for the feedback.

JaJosh, I am in no way saying that Franklinton is ghetto because it is white. I am saying that if you remove the people from the equation and look at the neighborhood, you will see that Franklinton is the largest poor, run down, dirty, crime infested part of Columbus. Anyone can ride through Franklinton and see for themselves. So these are things that people seem to talk about when describing why a place is a ghetto. Franklinton is huge when compared to the pockets of other bad neighborhoods around Columbus, yet Eastland, and Cleveland Ave, are being pointed to as the most ghetto places.

Again, I do not think that Columbus has a true ghetto, but if someone asked me to point out the area that I think is closest to being a ghetto in Columbus, I would say Franklinton. If black people were predominant there and not white people, but the neighborhood was the same, I would still say Franklinton

[Aconite]

Originally Posted by 1watertiger

people in columbus seem to think they are the only city growing (urban sprawl). even greater cleveland where im from still continues to develope farther out from the core city. for example in relationship between cleve/colum >> if you drive east from downtown cleveland 30 miles you would still be in the northeastern suberbs(mentor,mentor-on the-lake.etc). 30 miles east of downtown columbus puts you on buckeye lake. you can look at it this way also >> our far western suburbs in lorain county across are 60

Generally speaking, though, Urban Sprawl isn't considered a good thing. It's not eco-friendly, it's not convenient, and fields o' houses certainly aren't attractive.
Kudos to Columbus for revitalizing the core neighborhoods. I wish more cities would do the same.

[happymee]

Bexley, yes it is surrounded by crack houses I have lived in this area for years..it's a bad area...my teacher lived there too people tried to robe him at gun point jogging down the street they are so stupid he was wearing jogging pants ...hello no pockets...so they took his radio...it's all gang banger wanna bee's...you can drive in these neighborhoods and the dummies are standing outside in the rain, snow and -0 temps selling crack...too lazy to get up find a job so they live off their babies mama in a welfare apt. while the Government foots the bill..oh and all the hard working people...the south end and the north side drive up and down those streets surround Cleveland ave to the short north and look at all the high school dropouts standing around drinking and selling crack they drive around in their busted up cars with their loud bump..lol..heaven forbid you wear a color that they don't like...bang your dead...
and as far as the bottoms go there are blacks and white along with spanish that live in that area...oh for those who don't know what their talking about the (Franklinton area)there are areas in the north and south that are worse...listen to the news you hardly here of anything going on there its in all the neighborhoods that poster above was talking about wow go figure...
now on the eastland area thats where alot of wanna bee's live trying to claim their turff how many young kids have lost their life over there B/C they wasn't from that area of the north side doing drive by's yea get your facts straight columbus has gone to the wanna bee's...it's like a plague it's spreading to the outer cities...now that is a fact.

No columbus is not as bad as those other cities but it is catching up..

check this out...lets see how columbus is really doing...

Moderator cut: linking to competitors sites is not allowed

[1watertiger]

happyme, you should be glad columbus doesnt have some of the terrible areas that the older cities have. and here in columbus murder was down a huge 27.5 % !!! (79 murders in 2007 vs. 109 in 2006). i wish i could say that for my other city.