Is Columbus Ghetto (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton: rent, crime rate, home)

[LancasterNative]

Thanks UlsterScot! And dittos on Pataskala...great little community

An excellent point you made about Canal Winchester vs. German Village. The double standard is really appalling.

I don't want to get too political here, but it always seems to be OK and dandy whenever liberals want to socially-engineer a neighborhood, either by gentrifying it (German Village, Short North) or by crapping it up with ghetto elements (anyplace the gov't decides to put Section 8 or plop down foreign refugees). But whever the rest of us [non-liberals] object and speak up, we're accused of being close-minded, racist, bigoted, uncaring, mean-spirited, etc!

It's pure BS, but that's just how it works

[LancasterNative]

Originally Posted by streetcreed

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.

This one?...

http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2003/flagwars/

Interesting indeed. I first thought it was just a PSA or a special feature in Columbus Monthly...then I actually realized it was a comprehensive and well-researched documentary that the powers at PBS had undertaken right here in ol' Columbus.

[ulsterscot]

I'll check out the "Flag Wars" link. Sounds interesting, thanks.

[trying2bloom]

I'm jumping in here a little late in the game but I thought I'd add something to the mix : ) My husband and I were so excited to finally buy a home a couple of years ago. The "white flight" that some have referred to is something I can understand now that we are in our neighborhood. We are NOT racist and feel we are pretty open-minded about people of all types. We have been disappointed however with the people who have moved into our neighborhood. What causes us to wish to leave is that several rarely mow their grass and generally let things go in their yards, it's disheartening to those of us who try hard and do care what our yard looks like. We have had to hear many fights around us and loud vulgar music (the lyrics blasting so that we must keep our young children indoors to avoid hearing the profanities/sexual words.) Young children are allowed to run the streets unsupervised - dashing out into the street in front of your car constantly, etc...
We live in Canal Winchester which is really a nice place and our house is mid-range in price for the area so it's not as if we came to a run down area crawling with drug dealers and vacant buildings.
I realize this thread is really about making sure Columbus was not "ghetto"-- but there's been a lot of tangents : ) and so I thought I'd put my 2cents in about why people might be the moving further and further away from the "city."

[Paddington]

I live between Easton and the airport. There are some stark contrasts here. If I go 2 miles North, there's Easton, an example of shiny, new wealth built in the neotraditional (?) style. If I go 2 miles west, the roads are cracked, the fried chicken is $2 a pound and dripping with oil, and the houses look bombed out.

[rklesla]

Columbus' crime is pretty good for a city its size.

[CTownNative]

trying2bloom thats not even that bad of stuff,I remember my old neighborhood in Euclid.In 2004 the retuarant right my house was robbed 3 times in one summer,a bullet was right in the middle of the street in front of my house,Im glad my lil brothers weren't outside.One of the times the two guys who robbed the restuarnt ran through my backyard.We've actually had a bunch of armed robberies in the past couple of years.A person was shot and killed at a bar down the street from where I lived.And the thing is this really isn't even one of the high crime areas in Cleveland/Euclid.

[Subprime5]

When I first moved to Columbus about 7 years ago, a co-worker of mine told me there were many apartments on Morse Rd. When I went to the area, I just shook my head. There was no way on God's green earth that I would live there unless I absolutely had to. Maybe 20 years ago the area was okay, but you have continually go east past Easton into Gahanna before it gets better or west on Morse Rd until you get into Clintonville and that's not even the best part of Clintinvill, but better than most of Morse Rd.

[BelieveInCleve]

As a major City in the midwest i think Columbus is nicer than average. Columbus never really had a white flight that big and is still only about 24% black while Detroit is 80% and Cleveland is about 55%. I been to Columbus before and i didnt really see any areas that were even close to being that bad. Columbus does have ghetto areas but last year it had 109 murders which is way above what it usually has and Cleveland had 120 murders and has 240,000 less ppl than Columbus. Compared to Detroit, Cleveland, St. louis, and Cincinnati Columbus is really nice

[DonnaTate]

Cleveland is definitely much more ghetto than Columbus, although cities on the east side like Whitehall or Reynoldsburg are not exactly places I'd ever consider living. There are lots of very nice communities around Columbus though