Is Columbus Ghetto (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Euclid: appointed, for rent, high crime)

[proud buckeye]

the one fellow, MABCLe answered very well, i think he said "define getto", well put and i agree, define getto, what in the world does getto mean, does it mean, a home thats worth 10 grand or 200 grand, does it mean if you don't cut your grass once a week its a getto neighborhood, if a guy that lives in bexley that runs illegal crap all over town , is he getto, what does getto mean, is short north becoming getto, i've had guests that have walked the high st. area on campus and thought it was a getto compared to the campus area of u.c.l.a. in california, i personally don't know what getto means either.

[shamrock_71]

Not sure what you mean by ghetto, as this term generally carries a derogatory and often racial connotation. However, if you are asking if there nice areas of Columbus - yes, just as there are nice areas in any city. I would suggest you visit the area and decide if it's somewhere you'd like to live.

[ulsterscot]

Ghetto is a high crime, low income area. If you don't think Columbus has any of those, you haven't been here. The area behind Eastland Mall..hardcore ghetto. The bottoms..ghetto. Most of the south end..ghetto.

I don't see any rich people moving in to the south end and saying "this is my city too". They wouldn't last a day. Perhaps you are thinking of Bexley. Rich people surrounded by ghetto? Yes. But the rich people were there first. The rest of the neighborhoods went to crap, and the folks in Bexley have the money to keep the crap out of their area. But why would anyone want to pay that much money to live literally one block over from cracktown?

Your best bet is not to live anywhere inside 270. A good way to gauge how far the bad areas have spread is to watch the chain stores. For example, HHgregg was located on Alum Creek. They then moved to Brice Rd. They have since closed that store and moved farther out to 256/Hill Rd. The same is true for most of the stores on Hamilton road/Brice rd. They are either closed or in the process of closing once new stores are built further out.

On the west side, I would look in London/West Jeff. On the east side, I wouldn't live any farther in than Pataskala/Jeffersonville.

[LancasterNative]

UlsterScot: your post sums it up very well, and I agree with everything you said. While Columbus hasn't traditionally had as many high crime/low income areas as its more industrial neighbors Cleveland, Cincy or Pittsburgh, such no-go zones certainly have been on the increase in recent years.

The addition of a huge, unassimilable Somali population on the NE side hasn't helped (thank you, Clinton Administration!) and that area, around Cleveland-Agler-Innis Rds., has become one of the most dangerous parts of town, by far. I know a cop who patrolled that area a few yrs. ago, and the stories she told were nothing shy of shocking!

You're absolutely right about "Fort Bexley"—a tiny island of the upper class, surrounded on all four sides by urban war-zones. And no matter how much they spend to keep the riff-raff out, things do happen there occasionally. Mostly property crimes like burglaries, break-ins, etc. Who the heck needs that?

Good call on staying outside of 270. On the far NW side, there are still areas inside the Outerbelt that are comfortable, low crime and suburban, but there you're dealing w/traffic and other headaches.

Tragically, the powers that now run Columbus—mayor and city council—all belong to the same political party, and it just happens to be the party that favors big welfare, leniency for criminals, and more social programs to attract the lazy!

I would expect things in the capital city to get worse before they get better.

BTW, I like your screenname. I have some Ulster Scots heritage as well

[MABCle]

Inside I-270 has spots just as good as outside 270. I think its just the fear these suburbnites or ruralites have of the inner city that makes them think that way, but I digress keep moving further and further away and watch your beloved Columbus fall to the wayside as its tax base erodes and companies and business and residents continue to abandon ship. Just wait till gas creeps to $6/gal you'll be screaming to get back to the CO.

[LancasterNative]

Originally Posted by MABCle

the fear these suburbanites or ruralites have of the inner city

I don't know if I'd call it fear. It's more like revulsion...with a good dose of common sense and the basic survival instinct thrown in...

[streetcreed]

Much of this entire post has been dissolved into compete insanity.

Columbus has many areas which are very nice or mixed incomes.
North campus is mixed, Bexley is not surrounded by poverty. Olde Town East that is just east of Bexley actually has mansions and homes that reach over 300,000.

Some of what is around Bexley is poverty. Yes some suburban 1960s and 70s areas of columbus have seen poverty increase (Hamilton and Morse rd) but alot of that is immigration that has occurred in NE suburban Columbus (morse rd/northland) however many middle class families still live there and coexist with the immigrants. That is not ghetto it is mixed income living. Get use to it. Some people are comfortable living in a nice neighborhood and knowing that immigrants live in apartments near by, not everyone has the same mindset; that is what is beautiful about a city.

And around downtown German Village, the Short North, Victorian Village, all of the area of columbus over to grandview heights, is beautiful urban safe living. Its perfect and should be the model for what other cities can do with the neighborhoods near your downtown.

Basically, Central urban Columbus is on the rise, while some annexed suburban developed areas from the past 60 years are changing into mixed income neighborhoods. People in Columbus should be proud of the diverse neighborhoods. You cannot write off an area becasue its changing. Those who want a completely white neighborhood have fewer options in columbus these days. And if they feel that way, fine, but Columbus is a great city and we should be proud of it.

Areas just north and south of downtown, and east to an extent, are booming with change and new buildings and new stores. Those are neighborhoods on the upswing. And are literally in the centre of the city, not anywhere near the outskirts of 270. These neigborhoods have lower crime rates than sections of columbus further away from downtown.

Gentrification is happening and has occurred all around downtown, its beautiful.
Even on north campus, i was walking around a friends renovated home near Hudson, i saw children playing the yard, a white and black child holding hands walking to school, a couple that has lived in the neighborhood for decades, a young gay couple, grad students, a band practicing in their living room. All in 3 blocks. These sections of columbus are completely unexplored and forgotten by many on this forum. Some really lack an eye for the appreciation of sections of columbus.


The only area of columbus that is truely complete poverty would be the bottoms or Franklinton just west of downtown. Some sections of the south side also approach the complete poverty line.

[ulsterscot]

LancasterNative - Thanks for the welcome. I should have included Lancaster along with Pataskala as a great place to live. Glad to hear from a fellow Ulster-Scot.

StreetCreed - People of your ilk just hate it that others refuse to live as you do. What happened to your love of diversity? Face it, most people want to live in safe, family oriented areas such as the suburbs. I'm tired of hearing liberals screaming that people are racist or bigoted because they don't want to live in bad areas.

This is a forum for people to find nice areas to live, not to hear your political diatribe racism and immigration. The liberals were shouting "NIMBY, NIMBY" when the folks in Canal Winchester didn't want the city buying up property, making it section 8, and moving the inner city welfare folks out there. Look what happened. Property values went down, crime skyrocketed ( what a suprise) and people who saved for years to move their families away from the city got screwed. But where was the "NIMBY" crowd when the poor people were run off from German Village so the homosexuals could buy it up and "gentrify" it. The same thing is happening in the Short North now. They are merely pushing the poor people around to a different area, while developers build condos. The poor aren't going away. They are simply being shuffled around or shoved out to the suburbs on us.

[MABCle]

Well just remember that for the first time ever most poor people live in the suburbs not the inner cities. People from the last 5 decades have been moving further and further out to newer areas thinking they were escaping the poor and their problems. WRONG. As long as people try to runaway from the problem it will persist and follow them. We need to work together to solve social issues like this,not constantly runaway from them like they don't exist.

And just so you know this is a forum to find out about places and express opinion.

[streetcreed]

All of us should in columbus should show our educated attitudes and accept each other's opinions.

I do, and

But where was the "NIMBY" crowd when the poor people were run off from German Village so the homosexuals could buy it up and "gentrify" it. The same thing is happening in the Short North now. They are merely pushing the poor people around to a different area, while developers build condos. The poor aren't going away. They are simply being shuffled around or shoved out to the suburbs on us.

That's very correct, i agree. It is not really a bad thing, because having ALL OF the poor in the inner city would be a bad idea. It works best to divide poor among others with higher incomes. Poor in one concentration rarely works. Columbus is large enough there is plenty of housing for all incomes without the poor really having to move to the suburbs. And i live near the short north and the gentrification of the areas has been amazing, also, most of the people moving into the condos in the short north are not gay. A new issues has come up, the fact that most of the gays that developed the short north are now being pushed out by more wealthy heterosexual couples. The clash's always are ongoing in gentrification.

Also, theres an AMAZING movie called flag wars just about this topic

FLAG WARS: is about the olde town east neighborhood in the near east side of columbus. The movie follows the clash between the gay community fixing up the neighborhood and the black community which is being pushed out by rising taxes and gentrification. Being a gay male it was great to see this issue tackled in an actual film that takes place right in Columbus.

The movie aired on PBS and is now on DVD for rent or purchase.