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I'd also add the Brewery District and German Village to your list of Columbus neighborhoods, both of which are south of downtown. There is also a good number of new downtown Columbus properties as well, i.e. the Gay St. town homes and condos. Not as familiar with the other three, though I think the best order would be Louisville, Indy and then Detroit. That's without considering Cincy or Columbus.
For anyone looking for a whole foods style grocery, there is Earth Fare in the Cross Point Shopping Center in Centerville. They are a south east based chain. Reminded me of the old Wild Oats Markets.
Since you all are very knowledgeable and have great perspectives, do you guys happen to know how Louisville, Detroit, or Indianapolis would be for a young professional?
Not to profess any sort of knowledge, but Detroit is a national embarrassment and in comparison makes Dayton look like a thriving urban turnaround-story. Actually, Detroit and Dayton share similar problems: decline of the US auto industry, and lingering racial tensions. If you have any interest in SE Michigan, definitely Ann Arbor would be ground zero. Ann Arbor is a brilliant gem, a real treasure in the Midwest. Just be prepared for an expensive real estate market! Consider for example that when European symphony orchestras tour the US, as they pass through the North East, they might stop in Pittsburgh or Cleveland, then skip Toledo and Detroit and stop in Ann Arbor, before continuing to Chicago.
Come to think of it, if I were to settle anywhere in the Midwest, it would be Chicago.
Louisville is also a good alternative. It's a sort of crossroads between the South and the Midwest. Though not much larger than Dayton, it appears to be doing well economically, and its university has a substantial footprint in the local community.
If you're interested in some of the problems that Detroit faces, you should consider reading Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff. It's pretty interesting and a fast read as well. He also has some illuminating and entertaining YouTube videos.
Since you all are very knowledgeable and have great perspectives, do you guys happen to know how Louisville, Detroit, or Indianapolis would be for a young professional?
I know quite a bit about Louisville since I have family there, grew up there (in part) and return there probably once a month at least.
Of the three you listed Louisville is probably the best in terms of lifestyle choice. The vibe seems to be very 20-30 something, very young adult/hipster (in a positive sense), creative class. A LOT of places to go out (mainly restaurants, but other things), BIG coffeehouse scene for a city of its size, a lot of festivals, street fairs, events, etc, during the better weather months.
The city also has some great urban parks, one, Cherokee Park, is right next door to the Highlands, one of the hottest areas in town. But there are others, including this huge tract of hill country south of town thats been developed as a hiking area/forest preserve (this is where I used to live when I lived there)..the "Jefferson Mermorial Forest". I can spend an entire day hiking there...
Post some queries at the Louisville forum here at C-D and you'll get some good recs. A website called "New to Lou" seems to get linked a lot, for in-migrants.
The Louisville metro area has been seeing an in-migration of young adults, who seem to be locating in what used to be the old city (Louisville has merged city-county government). Unlike Dayton the city is perhaps one the most popular places to live, and the desirability is driving demand for neighborhoods that used to be consdered sort of ho-hum. So its a hot place to be. A travel guide series (I think Lonley Planet) called it a possible "New Portland".
Basically, Louisville is everything Dayton is not, when it comes to city living.
For neighborhoods these are the accepted hot locations:
The Highlands: a catch-all term for a collection of neighborhoods along Baxter Avenue and Bardstown Road, east end of the city
Clifton and Crescent Hill: two neighborhoods along Frankfort Avenue, east end of the city.
The Highlands, and particularly Clifton and Crescent Hill are like urban versions of Yellow Springs. In fact the director of the Clifton Community Center (which puts on a lot of shows and stuff) used to be the director of CityFolk here in Dayton. He specifically chose Louisville because of the scene and progressive vibe there.
Others to look at:
Germantown/Schinztelburg/St Joseph: this is that "ho hum" area that is the new hot location for people priced out of the Highlands. Used to be sort of like..say..Linden Heights or Walnut Hills, generic blue collar area, that is getting more of a hipster/young adult influx, "early career" types.
Old Louisville: Absolutley beautiful old victorian and ..really..art noveau architecture area between downtown and the university...mix of mansions and old apartments, with some more blue collar areas (Limerick) mixed in.
Butchertown: old working class area running east of downtown, sort of a mix of stuff there, but convenient to the NuLu arts & restaurant district.
Last edited by Dayton Sux; 05-31-2013 at 06:23 AM..
i'm in my mid 20's, single, atheist, politically progressive and i make my own happiness wherever i go, but dang....this thread is making me miss big city life. and you know it's sad when i'm calling phoenix big city life....
Quote:
If you're interested in some of the problems that Detroit faces, you should consider reading Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff. It's pretty interesting and a fast read as well. He also has some illuminating and entertaining YouTube videos.
He was on Bill Maher's show a couple months back. He had a great line when Bill asked if Detroit would ever make a comeback: "Rome fell, but today you still have Italians wearing alligator shoes, so Detroit will be alright."
I read that LeDuff book. Guys got a gift for writing dialogue...and this book moved fast. Like a good gory car wreck you just have to look...in this case read...
After reading it I will never say Dayton is "Little Detroit" again. Dayton hasnt quite gone that far down the tubes. Maybe in the future, but not now, not yet that bad.
Another good book, maybe more historical, is Driving Detroit, The Quest for Respect in the Motor City, which also talks to suburbia a bit. I read both of them together. With this book you can see the Dayton<--->Detroit analogy a bit more.
Despite LeDuffs comment on Maher, there was no Jerry Springer-esque homily or happy ending in his book, nor was there one in Driving Detroit. Which is one reason I liked these books. No wishfull thinking about urban pioneering (cf Braddock PA & "Rustbelt Chic") or city farming or that stuff.
Thanks for all the advice everyone! This has been very helpful! A ton to think about.... but basically everyone here confirmed what I already thought.
So I have not overlooked any young professional communities, nor does there appear to be any "underground" young professional community here in the Dayton area, like in a particular area of Kettering or anything like that. I drove through the OD today (which I hadn't done in about a year or so), and it looked pretty good... and big! I didn't remember it having as much stuff as it did, I guess I just didn't pay enough attention to it before haha.
Lucy Striker, very cool perspective! I guess that is the good thing about a smaller city like Dayton (kinda like the university I attend) - it's big enough to have a lot of opportunity, but it's small enough to let anyone access it with enough due diligence. That's probably the #1 thing I thought would be good about coming back to Dayton after graduation, really nice to hear it from someone else who has done it!
But after reading through all of this, I think USA Wayfarer and others are probably right. I should go to some other city and experience it, just for broadening perspectives in general. I love this city (yes, I'm one of those people haha), but getting a little culture from somewhere else within a reasonable distance would be good. Also ohio_peasant, I only meet one of your criteria haha.
Since you all are very knowledgeable and have great perspectives, do you guys happen to know how Louisville, Detroit, or Indianapolis would be for a young professional? Those would probably be my top picks after Cincy (OTR/Downtown or Hyde Park/Oakley) and Columbus (Short North/Arena District to anywhere near OSU I assume is good).
Thanks again for all of the advice!
Columbus has many young professional areas all over the city (that's just how it is) But the central city concentrations are really arena district, downtown, short north area (going all the way up to the university district) and then don't forget to look going NW of the Short North in a neighborhood called "grandview" this area is in a building boom of apartments and condos, and has its own little retail strip on Grandview Ave. It is right next to the Short North and Downtown. Some of the area between the short north and grandview can start to feel a bit more suburban in development patterns though.
Then south of downtown the brewery district and most of german village is pretty good (though it does feel somewhat removed from the action on the north side of downtown/short north) The brewery district has a TON of highend young professional oriented apartment/lofts/etc
Last edited by streetcreed; 05-31-2013 at 11:25 AM..
I know quite a bit about Louisville since I have family there, grew up there (in part) and return there probably once a month at least.
Of the three you listed Louisville is probably the best in terms of lifestyle choice. The vibe seems to be very 20-30 something, very young adult/hipster (in a positive sense), creative class. A LOT of places to go out (mainly restaurants, but other things), BIG coffeehouse scene for a city of its size, a lot of festivals, street fairs, events, etc, during the better weather months.
The city also has some great urban parks, one, Cherokee Park, is right next door to the Highlands, one of the hottest areas in town. But there are others, including this huge tract of hill country south of town thats been developed as a hiking area/forest preserve (this is where I used to live when I lived there)..the "Jefferson Mermorial Forest". I can spend an entire day hiking there...
Post some queries at the Louisville forum here at C-D and you'll get some good recs. A website called "New to Lou" seems to get linked a lot, for in-migrants.
The Louisville metro area has been seeing an in-migration of young adults, who seem to be locating in what used to be the old city (Louisville has merged city-county government). Unlike Dayton the city is perhaps one the most popular places to live, and the desirability is driving demand for neighborhoods that used to be consdered sort of ho-hum. So its a hot place to be. A travel guide series (I think Lonley Planet) called it a possible "New Portland".
Basically, Louisville is everything Dayton is not, when it comes to city living.
For neighborhoods these are the accepted hot locations:
The Highlands: a catch-all term for a collection of neighborhoods along Baxter Avenue and Bardstown Road, east end of the city
Clifton and Crescent Hill: two neighborhoods along Frankfort Avenue, east end of the city.
The Highlands, and particularly Clifton and Crescent Hill are like urban versions of Yellow Springs. In fact the director of the Clifton Community Center (which puts on a lot of shows and stuff) used to be the director of CityFolk here in Dayton. He specifically chose Louisville because of the scene and progressive vibe there.
Others to look at:
Germantown/Schinztelburg/St Joseph: this is that "ho hum" area that is the new hot location for people priced out of the Highlands. Used to be sort of like..say..Linden Heights or Walnut Hills, generic blue collar area, that is getting more of a hipster/young adult influx, "early career" types.
Old Louisville: Absolutley beautiful old victorian and ..really..art noveau architecture area between downtown and the university...mix of mansions and old apartments, with some more blue collar areas (Limerick) mixed in.
Butchertown: old working class area running east of downtown, sort of a mix of stuff there, but convenient to the NuLu arts & restaurant district.
Thank you for the detailed response on Louisville! There are a lot of great job opportunities in the city in my field. I have been there once before, just to some of the more touristy stuff in the Highlands and along Bardstown Rd. (a hot brown at the former Lynn's Paradise Cafe was one stop).
I really liked the area a lot. The city of Louisville itself reminded me of Dayton a lot - until I went in its neighborhoods! That's when I was shocked by how much more progressive Louisville was than Dayton. Despite having about the same size of metro and fairly similar central business districts, the difference in the city's composition itself was astounding. I'm one of the type of people that has always wanted to help build Dayton's old neighborhoods into someplace cool like I saw in the Highlands, so maybe immersion in that culture will be beneficial to see what is being done right to bring it back home?
Cool to see Bardstown Rd. wasn't the only area like that in Louisville. I will have a lot of checking out to do in the future. Buying a reno in Old Louisville in the future sounds particularly intriguing now, off to Zillow to see what's there haha.
Not to profess any sort of knowledge, but Detroit is a national embarrassment and in comparison makes Dayton look like a thriving urban turnaround-story.
If you can't profess that you've any sort of knowledge about Detroit, other then what you've heard/read, I suppose, it is quite unhelpful to bash an an metropolis, isn't it? The fact of the matter is that while Detroit is in dire need of an economic boost and is a sad story about a once thriving and beautiful city (many call their home!), there are many factors that are changing the "media image" of Detroit as a place where you'll immediately be killed/robbed into more of the reality of the situation. I have been to most places in America (46 states) and A LOT of the country is 100% farmland OR EXTREMELY poor. Have you ever been to Reno? Oklahoma City? I would much rather live in Detroit than these places, the former being the ONLY PLACE int he country where I had to hit someone with a motel door to keep them from pulling me into their car. The guy was high as a kite. Talk about rough.
The sad thing is, the Riverfront in Detroit is BEAUTIFUL. Tons of the architecture is AMAZING. The activists and local projects, like the FABULOUS folks running the Heidelberg Project, are inspiring and totally awesome: some of the most serious and loving activists I've ever had the privilege of conversing with. The Motown Museum is totally badass and should not be missed. There are MANY good things about this city that are glossed over, as there are MANY terrible things too (like the 25% population decline, fiscal crisis, and corporate abandonment that's taken place over the last 10 to 15 years).
There ARE many neighborhoods, including Downtown and Midtown, believe it or not, young professional and artists are purposefully moving into. You also have the evolving Mexicantown and Indian Village, and then there's the Woodbridge, East English Village, Minock Park and the Boston-Edison neighborhoods, and more. Detroit, people need to remember, is HUGE. While people LOVE looking at pictures of the most vacant and run down areas (essentially a kind of "poverty porn" I find strange and depressing), folks should look at the OTHER sides of a MASSIVE city, and also read about the ongoing transformations. Downtown Detroit is actually starting to be known as a destination for young professional and areas of Detroit as well for artists because there are more opportunities all the time and a very low cost of living. Let's do these complex cities a service and discuss them in toto rather than in a vacuum or by sweeping generalizations. One of my dearest friend in the world is a D-town baby (now 31!) and believe me, her EXPERIENCES are TOTALLY DIFFERENT than the MASS GENERALIZATIONS in the media and beyond.
If you can't profess that you've any sort of knowledge about Detroit, other then what you've heard/read, I suppose, it is quite unhelpful to bash an an metropolis, isn't it?
I lived in a suburb of Detroit for 3 years, had numerous friends from various neighborhoods around Detroit, bought Craigslist items in Detroit, shopped in Detroit and played in chess tournaments in Detroit. The phrase "Not to profess knowledge" is a polite attempt to keep the conversation abstract.
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