Would it be crazy to leave California for Dayton? (Columbus: employment, transfer to)

[JefferyT]

Dayton has one thing many places do not. Good people.

It's the people here I like the least. This is the Dayton areas greatest drawback, IMO, at least for me, personally

[mohogany3]

I live in Columbus and almost everyone I know from Dayton has moved to Columbus or Cincinnati. The thing I hear the most is because its hard to get jobs. You may want to look into Columbus.

[Trabuco72]

I've spent a good couple of hours reading valuable posts regarding Dayton and its sourroundings. The reason is that I might be one of the crazy ones trading Southern California for a good job opportunity in the Dayton area.

I have two children aged 3 and 1. We love outdoors, riding bicycles and a little bit of access to Metropolitan areas for shopping and entertainment. Our main concern is to find a place to live that is safe (crime-related) and has a top rated school district.

In two weeks I will be driving around Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus and having the same questions that other ones had posted already. I will appreciate any suggestions regarding which cities/suburbs I could visit that could meet our expectations and also, what your thoughts are regarding the option of daily commuting from either west Columbus or northern Cincinnati to work in Dayton.

Thanks in advance.

A prospective Ohio resident.

[Beavercreek33]

Originally Posted by Trabuco72

I've spent a good couple of hours reading valuable posts regarding Dayton and its sourroundings. The reason is that I might be one of the crazy ones trading Southern California for a good job opportunity in the Dayton area.

I have two children aged 3 and 1. We love outdoors, riding bicycles and a little bit of access to Metropolitan areas for shopping and entertainment. Our main concern is to find a place to live that is safe (crime-related) and has a top rated school district.

In two weeks I will be driving around Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus and having the same questions that other ones had posted already. I will appreciate any suggestions regarding which cities/suburbs I could visit that could meet our expectations and also, what your thoughts are regarding the option of daily commuting from either west Columbus or northern Cincinnati to work in Dayton.

Thanks in advance.

A prospective Ohio resident.

Well I hope you find what you are looking for in SW Ohio!

Dayton is not a bad area at all. Just like every area you look into moving to, make sure you can get a job first. You will not want to move to an area first, then get the job later.

SW Ohio is joined by three great cities. Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus. All have great ammenities to them. You just have to look into which one best fits your interests and likings the best.

I live in Beavercreek outisde of Dayton. Its a great suburb, with great shopping, awesome parks, and my office is in downtown Dayton. Beavercreek has a top ranked school system. And Beavecreek was also just recently voted one of America's Top 100 places to live.

Just look around, all three cities have a lot to offer, and a lot of diversity. Not only in its people, but the suburbs, city districts, parks, economic diversity, and history.

Best of luck, and keep us informed. This site is made to help people just like yourself.

Heres Beavercreek's Website: (Just to give you an idea)

City of Beavercreek

[wrightflyer]

Exactly how long of a commute do you wish to have? I find it senseless to drive from Cincinnati or Columbus to work in Dayton, especially since gas is heading back up into the stratosphere. You can always take a weekend to go to those cities and live close to your workplace where you must be every weekday.

I would say that if you wanted to live in Dayton, and you wanted to have all your criteria met, I'd pick a suburb that sits along I-675. This includes Centerville, Washington Township, Bellbrook, Sugarcreek Township, and Beavercreek. These are all suburbs south and east of Dayton.

Each of these areas are safe and have excellent rated schools per Ohio state proficiency test (a.k.a. No Child Left Behind), requirments. But these cities respective school districts also have excellent extracurricular and sport programs, so it is not all teaching to the test.

I mention these cities in particular because being on I-675 will put you within 45 minutes to downtown Cincy and about 1 hour to downtown Columbus.

Vandalia and Butler Township might also be a good option as it sits at the crossroads of I-70 (Columbus) and I-75 (Cincy) and is about one hour to both. Vandalia also has excellent schools and numerous amenities similar to the southern suburbs such as numerous parks, rec center/YMCA, shops and dinning. The one thing it lacks is a mall as north Dayton has no malls and south/east Dayton has three.

Finally, may I ask what field your job is in? My mother has been looking for a job since she got laid off. She was a project manager for an international IT company. I'm going to guess you work in the defense industry as those are the only jobs in Dayton that she is finding. That and SoCal is a hot bed with defense work as well.

Here are some more city websites (Centerville's doesn't seem to be working at the moment):

http://www.cityofbellbrook.org/
http://www.ci.vandalia.oh.us/

Good luck with your search! XD

[Beavercreek33]

Originally Posted by wrightflyer

Exactly how long of a commute do you wish to have? I find it senseless to drive from Cincinnati or Columbus to work in Dayton, especially since gas is heading back up into the stratosphere. You can always take a weekend to go to those cities and live close to your workplace where you must be every weekday.

I would say that if you wanted to live in Dayton, and you wanted to have all your criteria met, I'd pick a suburb that sits along I-675. This includes Centerville, Washington Township, Bellbrook, Sugarcreek Township, and Beavercreek. These are all suburbs south and east of Dayton.

Each of these areas are safe and have excellent rated schools per Ohio state proficiency test (a.k.a. No Child Left Behind), requirments. But these cities respective school districts also have excellent extracurricular and sport programs, so it is not all teaching to the test.

I mention these cities in particular because being on I-675 will put you within 45 minutes to downtown Cincy and about 1 hour to downtown Columbus.

Vandalia and Butler Township might also be a good option as it sits at the crossroads of I-70 (Columbus) and I-75 (Cincy) and is about one hour to both. Vandalia also has excellent schools and numerous amenities similar to the southern suburbs such as numerous parks, rec center/YMCA, shops and dinning. The one thing it lacks is a mall as north Dayton has no malls and south/east Dayton has three.

Finally, may I ask what field your job is in? My mother has been looking for a job since she got laid off. She was a project manager for an international IT company. I'm going to guess you work in the defense industry as those are the only jobs in Dayton that she is finding. That and SoCal is a hot bed with defense work as well.

Here are some more city websites (Centerville's doesn't seem to be working at the moment):

http://www.cityofbellbrook.org/
Vandalia Ohio

Good luck with your search! XD

Great post!

My Beavercreek website didn't seem to work either.

[prfcttimeofday]

Originally Posted by Trabuco72

I've spent a good couple of hours reading valuable posts regarding Dayton and its sourroundings. The reason is that I might be one of the crazy ones trading Southern California for a good job opportunity in the Dayton area.

I have two children aged 3 and 1. We love outdoors, riding bicycles and a little bit of access to Metropolitan areas for shopping and entertainment. Our main concern is to find a place to live that is safe (crime-related) and has a top rated school district.

In two weeks I will be driving around Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus and having the same questions that other ones had posted already. I will appreciate any suggestions regarding which cities/suburbs I could visit that could meet our expectations and also, what your thoughts are regarding the option of daily commuting from either west Columbus or northern Cincinnati to work in Dayton.

Thanks in advance.

A prospective Ohio resident.

My personal opinion is that a drive in from Columbus or Cincinnati is going to get really old very fast....and if you find a place you like in Dayton, you'll get to spend more time at home as opposed to being stuck in a car with a long commute.

The reality is you can find the same kind of upper-middle class suburbs in Dayton that are in Cincy or Columbus. The southern Dayton suburbs are probably one of the safest areas in the state along with having some of the best schools in the state. I would concentrate your search in Centerville/Washington Twp, Bellbrook/Sugarcreek Twp, Beavercreek and Oakwood. Each is unique in its own right and will offer you and your family everything you are looking for. Also Dayton is connected by all kinds of bike baths, you can bike just about anywhere around the metro area, and Dayton has all kinds of metro parks all over the area!

Gathering from your screename, are you by chance from the Trabuco Hills area in Mission Viejo? If so, you'll probably like any of the places mentioned above.

Also, if you decided to live in a southern dayton suburb it'll put you about 45 minutes from downtown cincy, about an hour from columbus, 20 minutes from downtown dayton and about 15 minutes from WPAFB.

If you have a good job lined up, I'd say go for it, you're going to get so much more for your money in Dayton than in cali. . .you can probably buy a house 3 times the size of the one you could get in orange county fpr the same amount of money.

If you really want to make that commute from cincy or columbus, I'd look at Mason and West Chester in Cincy .. .which would give you about a 45 minute commute in rush hour and perhaps Hilliard or Grandview Heights in Columbus but both are going to be a good hour to Dayton in rush hour.

But to recap. . .take a good hard look at Centerville/Washington Twp, Bellbrook/Sugarcreek Twp, Beavercreek and Oakwood in the Dayton area, I think you'll most definitely find something there you'll be happy with..

Good Luck!

[Trabuco72]

Thanks everyone! All your replies have been of great help. I look forward to having my "recon trip" done.

Very appreciated and I will contribute with more inputs after our visit in order to help otherones like myself.

Thanks again.

[Trabuco72]

Thanks for the reply and input wrightflyer.

The job opportunity is in the environmental management business, I guess related to the $95 billion stimulus package. Nothing firm yet, let's see.

Thanks!

[JefferyT]

Good luck. Look forward to hearing about your visit.

You mentioned the outdoors. What kind of outdoors activity do you like. Compared to California we dont have a coast or high mountains so that limits things, but I could link you to some other things available here, to give you a taste of what we do have?