likes/dislikes about Columbus, Ohio (Cleveland, Cincinnati: crime, home, neighborhoods)

[UNT_Eagle]

Hello,
I'd like to know what some of y'alls opinions are on the Columbus area, good and bad.. My wife and I lived there about a year and a half and really didn't like it. Since I'm from Texas and she's from N. Ohio we decided to settle on the Nashville TN area and love it.

Take care

[streetcreed]

Columbus is a great city and is often overlooked
What i love is that Columbus is open and middle of the road politically, the people are generally educated and the economy is decent.

I love that downtown columbus and the neighborhoods around it are nice and always improving.

The arts and culture in Columbus is really great for a metro of just under 2million.

Some similar size metros lack some of the culturals aspects Columbus has. The Wexner Center for the Arts, The WEX! it is Amazing and on high st in the OSU campus. This is a modern arts center, and brings in some amazing performances that can only be seen a few places in the world.

www.wexarts.org.

Alot of this has to do with having the largest university in the USA stuck just north of your downtown.

So you have great arts in columbus, theater, and music and bands that choose to play in Columbus but will only stop in major major major markets usually. Another example is that Columbus is home to some interesting industries for a city of its size. What other city in the midwest is home to almost a dozen retail/fashion companies that host their own fashion week? This concentration of artistic people gives Columbus a different flavor than say Indianapolis, a nearby city. This can be seen in Columbus' Short North arts district.

Also, Columbus is easy to get around, has great shopping, and has a generally progressive attitude on the cities future, columbus moves ahead and doesn't sit still waiting for things to get done.

Columbus is not oldfashioned, Columbus is great for someone in college or a young professional, but is also great for older more mature families. That is a tricky combination that somehow Columbus has been able to pull off.

[maestro]

I've lived in Ohio for 10 years, and Columbus for the last 5 years.

My non-native Ohioan take on Columbus:

-- it's a lot more white collar than Cleveland and Cincinnati, but yet it is overshadowed by it's more well-known counterparts.
-- everything is NEW NEW NEW. The neighborhood that was cool 5 years ago is now on the way down. The neighborhood that was cool 10 years ago is now borderline ghetto.
-- great place to raise a family.
-- If you don't love OSU (or heaven forbid are a fan of another Big Ten team), be prepared to start hating OSU. You are inundated with Buckeye coverage/Buckeye love/Buckeye everything all year round.
-- there are a lot of cool neighborhoods (Grandview, Short North, German Village, Arlington, Worthington, downtown Westerville, etc). There's plenty to choose from depending on your preferences.

-- Lastly, I think Columbus is a very "safe" city, meaning that it's totally middle-of-the-road. Nothing too exciting, but that's the way people seem to like it. If you are from another part of Ohio and moved here, you love it here. If you are from somewhere more "moving and shaking", like a San Fran or a New York or a Chicago kind of city, you may find Columbus very boring.

[UNT_Eagle]

Regarding your view on OSU, that was one of the toughest things to get used to. I was used to several good Texas teams and came to C'Bus and was pretty much shunned because I didn't keep up with the Buckeyes. It made me dislike the fan base up there big time.. Basically it felt that if you couldn't have a conversation about OSU, you are not worth talking to, but the team is really good!
Glad that others like Columbus, it just wasn't a good fit for us.

[LancasterNative]

Y'all are definitely better off in Nashville. I've been to Music City twice and totally love it! As larger cities go, Nashville is among my favorites and I wouldn't mind living there at all.

Columbus, on the other hand, is where I've been "trapped" for the last 10+ years. Family & loved ones are here, which for me is really the only positive thing about it. Other than that, Columbus has...

• Too many liberals!!!
  
  
• High property taxes
  
  
• The rudest, most aggravating motorists in the entire Midwest (...and inadequate infrastructre to handle all these cranky drivers)
  
  
• An startlingly high concentration of homosexuals (...and an almost dogmatic, mandatory acceptance of their lifestyle choice)
  
  
• OSU - the reason central Ohio will never get real (NFL) football
  
  
• A claustrophobia-inducing downtown and urban core in general (...with nowhere to park if you're unfortunate enough to drive there)
  
  
• Poorly planned, haphazardly sprawling suburban areas of cookie-cutter McMansions, big-box stores and chain restaurants which lend a flavorless, generic atmosphere
  
  
• Rising crime w/lots of gangbangers
  
  
• Erstwhile farmland receding further and further out into the county, soon to disappear altogether

So yes, good choice in moving to Nashville.

Of course...you being from Texas, then by gosh...you've pretty much experienced heaven on Earth, my friend! I love the Lone Star state...

[UNT_Eagle]

Hey Lancasternative,

Yeah, Texas is great! It sure was hard to move from the South to North but I love my wife and would do anything for her so we tried it out up there, and all of her family was even up there in the Findlay area, and we still moved back down south. Needless to say, the fam was a little shocked that we would move out of Ohio but they forgot that I'm a Texan and we just do things different down there, I guess. I will say that TN is very similar to Texas! It's a relatively short drive to Ohio so we can get back up to visit in-laws quickly.

[Herculaneum]

What types of gangs are you talking about in Columbus? I am from Northern Virginia, where there are major problems (machete fights, etc.) with a Hispanic (El Salvadoran) gang called MS 13.

[LancasterNative]

Originally Posted by UNT_Eagle

Hey Lancasternative,

Yeah, Texas is great! It sure was hard to move from the South to North but I love my wife and would do anything for her so we tried it out up there, and all of her family was even up there in the Findlay area, and we still moved back down south. Needless to say, the fam was a little shocked that we would move out of Ohio but they forgot that I'm a Texan and we just do things different down there, I guess. I will say that TN is very similar to Texas! It's a relatively short drive to Ohio so we can get back up to visit in-laws quickly.

Howdy Eagle!

Findlay is actually one of the nicer spots in NW Ohio. Neat little town, and some nice folks there. But yeah, it can't really hold a candle to Dixie.

Tennessee and Texas have some great historic bonds between them, and it doesn't surprise me to find similarities between them. I've spent time in both states, and love them both! I could definitely see myself living happily in either place someday. (As many of my posts here reflect, I'm a huge fan of the South in general!)

And for y'all it sounds being in Nashville is a great middle ground. You're maybe 7 hrs. from her folks by freeway, and 9-10 hrs. from Dallas—although you'd probably fly there instead

[LancasterNative]

Originally Posted by Herculaneum

What types of gangs are you talking about in Columbus? I am from Northern Virginia, where there are major problems (machete fights, etc.) with a Hispanic (El Salvadoran) gang called MS 13.

For a number of years, Cols. had been plagued by your garden-variety youth gangs (black-on-black turf warfare), but then in the last 5-10 yrs. the Crips & Bloods arrived. Most recently, there's been notable organized criminal/gang activity among the hordes of Muslim Somalis who've settled here.

What fun...

[UNT_Eagle]

So whatcha waiting for? Come on down here and we'll set you up with some fried okra and sweet tea! No, actually, I visited Lancaster before and really liked it.. I too am sick of trying to be "forced" to not say anything about one's sexual orientation even if I don't believe that it is what God had designed for man(and I mean men and women for those of you who don't understand.) God commands us to love the sinner, and hate the sin, and that is my goal as a follower of Christ! Sure, we all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory but once we repent of our sins and recieve Christ in our hearts, He begins to change our perspective as to what He (God)has designed, and what is right and wrong, and there is a black and white in life (not always gray as some people want to point out).

Didn't mean to start preaching but I just couldn't help it!