Columbus = Industrial City? (Cleveland, Marysville, Baltimore: real estate, apartments, insurance)

[xmjm924x]

I'm checking out a few different cities in the midwest and Columbus popped up as a possible good choice from what I've read. What is the job scene like in Columbus? Is it more of an industrial city like Detroit?..or is it more of a white collar city?

Thanks,
-Mike

[GeminiGal]

Originally Posted by xmjm924x

I'm checking out a few different cities in the midwest and Columbus popped up as a possible good choice from what I've read. What is the job scene like in Columbus? Is it more of an industrial city like Detroit?..or is it more of a white collar city?

Thanks,
-Mike

Columbus is nothing at all like Detroit.

Actually when DH was offered a promotion we had the choice between Detroit and Columbus. I know it sounds like an off the wall selection but even a couple of years ago folks in his accting firm would not transfer to MI under any circumstances. We looked at Detroit and it was just was not the right fit and being native Southerners it was a bit extreme.

Columbus is more of a white collar jobs city. Ohio State is also a very large employer as well as being the state capital there are many government jobs as well.

There are a few Midwestern cities that are fairing rather well and Columbus is one of them.

Good luck with your decision!

[xmjm924x]

Thanks for the helpful reply GeminiGal. Here's the criteria I'm looking for in a city:

-Needs to have a large amount of factories/plants
-Needs have cheap real estate
-Snow is alright as long as there's not as much as in Buffalo, NY
-Needs to have a decent economy
-Needs to not be super ghetto in general like Detroit, Baltimore, or Philadelphia
-Needs to not have super high humidity
-Can be anywhere in the US except for "the south" or California

Anyone got any suggestions?

[sauerkraut145]

Originally Posted by xmjm924x

Thanks for the helpful reply GeminiGal. Here's the criteria I'm looking for in a city:

-Needs to have a large amount of factories/plants
-Needs have cheap real estate
-Snow is alright as long as there's not as much as in Buffalo, NY
-Needs to have a decent economy
-Needs to not be super ghetto in general like Detroit, Baltimore, or Philadelphia
-Needs to not have super high humidity
-Can be anywhere in the US except for "the south" or California

Anyone got any suggestions?

Columbus is mostly a warehouse city. Not many factory jobs, It's mostly white collar. However the Honda Marysville plant is blue collar that's about a 40 minute drive from Columbus. The only places I can think of with factory jobs and low housing is Tulsa, OK. and Dallas/Fort Worth. Indianapolis had alot of factory jobs many years ago, not so today. I lived in the Dallas area (Arlington) Texas back in the 1980's I liked the warm weather and I hate cold, Dallas is a up & coming city with lots of growth. Dallas has alot of everything, the D/FW MetroPlex is like one huge city. Every city has high unemployment today. Oklahoma City can also be a good pick.

[streetcreed]

Thanks for the helpful reply GeminiGal. Here's the criteria I'm looking for in a city:

-Needs to have a large amount of factories/plants
-Needs have cheap real estate
-Snow is alright as long as there's not as much as in Buffalo, NY
-Needs to have a decent economy
-Needs to not be super ghetto in general like Detroit, Baltimore, or Philadelphia
-Needs to not have super high humidity
-Can be anywhere in the US except for "the south" or California

Anyone got any suggestions?

Columbus meets all of your requirements. Columbus is the complete opposite of Detroit. The city is one of the most gentrified urban inner cities in the midwest.

If you are looking for great urban neighborhoods that are safe and have lots of renovations Columbus should be a good fit.

Or if you are looking for modern suburbs with good schools Columbus is a good fit. It is truely a metro of both living styles, lower cost of living than most coastal areas, and good deals to be found in real estate.

Now how cheap are you talking? Columbus is not cheapest place for real estate in all of the us, hardly. However, overall Columbus is often ranked as one of the cheaper places for homes and apartments of all large metros, but the difference in price between an average middle class neighborhood and the most sought after neighborhoods and suburbs is not small by any margin. Columbus has more "million dollar homes" in its city limits than Cleveland or Pittsburgh. So there is a large range of prices but many affordable prices as well. I think more information on your ideal type of property would help in deciding how much it would cost and in what kind of neighborhood or suburb.

[Tenzo]

Originally Posted by streetcreed

Columbus meets all of your requirements. .

Except his first one

[streetcreed]

Except his first one

Tenzo his first requirement was that Columbus is not an industrial city. By no ones definition is Columbus an industrial city. Columbus has a decent amount of light industry, warehouses, in pockets of the metro (mostly in the west, SW, and SE sides)

However, Columbus has very little of its metro taken up (in percentage) by industry. And the number of civilians employed in the industrial workforce is very low.

Columbus' metro is more defined by office parks than industry. The way Cleveland was built with a factory adjacent to a neighborhood modern Columbus was built with an office park behind a series of residential developments. Only some areas of CBUS built in pre 1950 have some factories and this is a minority of the city and metro, mostly on the near south side.

Columbus is the Midwestern definition of a white collar city. We are the most white collar of nearly any metro over 1.5 million in the Midwest (only Indianapolis could compete in this realm but they have a slightly more industrial past than Columbus.)

[Clevelander17]

Columbus is very white collar: lots of people are employed in education, government, banking, and insurance. If Columbus has a lot of factories/plants, I don't know where they are.

[Tenzo]

Originally Posted by streetcreed

Tenzo his first requirement was that Columbus is not an industrial city.

My bad, I must have read it as....

Originally Posted by xmjm924x

Here's the criteria I'm looking for in a city:

-Needs to have a large amount of factories/plants

I realize that you feel that Columbus meets Anyone's requirements as a perfect city, but it can't be both industrial and not industrial

[bgo]

Like everything else in Columbus, Columbus' interpretation of factories would be chain factories: Cheesecake Factory, Burlington Coat Factory, Original Mattress Factory....

Answer to the original question: There really are no factories to speak of in Cowtown. If you work in production management or another factory-oriented line of work, Columbus is not for you.