Moving to Kettering (YMCA, place to live, pool)

[suterjm]

Just joined the forum and will be moving to either Kettering or Beavercreek in the near future. We have family in the area and my husband and I will be looking for work there. If you had to choose, would you prefer Kettering or Beavercreek? Also, any suggestions on the best (most worth my time) place to start job hunting (besides the monsters and careerbuilders).

[paintballer1708]

I would prefer Kettering over Beavercreek, but Beavercreek is nice as well. I just think Kettering offers more.

[Elaine Chambers]

Hello Buckeyes,
Where you move depends on like everwhere else income.
I haven't been back to Centerville, Kettering area in three years. Lots of keeping up with the Jones and yard maintenace in the burbs is a big deal. On the plus side the food is the best. The outskirts of Sugarcreek, Miamisburg,
Clearcreek are real pretty ,but take some driving skills in the winter. Rentals are very reasonable in all these areas and foreclosers are everywhere. Wish I go go back home now in Florida with prehistoric bugs, alligators and grass that looks like weeds. Florida is very sunny no gray skies of Ohio. But frankly the people are the best in the world in this area provided you stay out of low rent disticts. Education is above many other areas and health care is superior to most. Yeh Ohio State!

[Yankee&Proud]

Originally Posted by elainechen

My company will send me to kettering this Aug and I will stay for 6 months. Anyone has some information can share with me, about living, weather, public transportation, people there,etc. I could not find much information about Kettering online. Thank you in advance for the help!

Kettering is a nice place to live. I lived there myself until about 6 months ago. The schools are excellent, the people are generally nice.

As for public transportation, it does exist. How well it will work for your family depends upon which part of Kettering you live in. I was at the boarder of Kettering and Centerville. It took FOREVER to get anywhere using public transporation.

Ohioans or at least those from southern OH are actually as a rule, very pleasant people. Very friendly, willing to help a stranger, that type of thing.

Good luck!

[FrankZappa]

I have to strongly agree with cougie... Paintballer is way off on many points concerning Dayton / Kettering.

As cougie pointed out, the Dayton mall is in Miamisburg (Miami Township police/tax jurisdiction actually). Miamisburg is only 9 miles south of Dayton, and Kettering is in BETWEEN Miamisburg and Dayton, so there's no way Kettering could be farther (15 miles) away. If you drive up Far Hills (Rt. 48), you cross from Kettering, through 2 miles of Oakwood, and you're in Dayton. Some parts of Kettering actually touch Dayton! And Kettering hospital being a "new" place? Nah. Early 1970's if I remember correctly. My cousin was born there, and he just got back from Iraq. One other tidbit to note. Kettering hospital is actually right outside of Kettering. It would be more appropriate to call that area Moraine.

Irregardless, Kettering is a great town. I used to think the real estate there was a bit overpriced, but that's until I moved to the east coast. The houses are a bargain at twice the price by comparison. Comparing it to the surrounding towns, I don't think you can go wrong living there. There are no "slums", no "high crime" areas, etc. I'm not aware of any particularly bad schools there. There are no "apartment districts" to worry about. Worth mentioning is the fact that Kettering is the largest suburb of Dayton, being over twice the size of the next largest suburb (Centerville). The location is perfect for commuting to Dayton (or north of town, i.e. Wright-Patt Air Force Base).

Concerning the Salem Mall mention. Hmmm.. let see. Salem Mall has been closed down and out of business since almost a year before you wrote that post, so its not quite as lively as you say. I'll leave it at that, only to say that of all the suburbs around Dayton to recommend to someone from the east coast, Trotwood would probably be the LAST place I would suggest. Don't get me wrong, I think its a beautiful area, in a Green Acres kind of way. However, its nothing you would "seek out". Its nearly desolate, farm country, very little growth, and because of its juxtaposition with Dayton, the huge sewage treatment facilities, the gigantic landfills, the hazardous waste issues, Superfund sites, and some of the sleeziest trailer parks you've ever laid eyes on, etc. I believe its doomed in terms of property value for the long term.

Triangle park is a disgusting area. Nothing but sex shops, plasma banks, Section-8 housing, and crackheads. My appologies for being so blunt, but frankly I'd be petrified to visit that area after dark. 50 years ago it was probably a fabulous area, however it gives "gone downhill" a whole new meaning. It also floods every couple years and the Miami river makes for a stinky and very unwelcome presence there.

West Carrolton? I'll meet you half-way on that one. The schools are "OK" I suppose, however in my opinion it is hanging by a thread and could decline at any time. The neighboring town of Moraine, because of poor fiscal management has never been able to afford to build their own school system. Nevermind they have a huge General Motors assembly plant complex right smack dab in the center of town... they're on a continuous tax-relief furlough and contribute little or nothing to the tax base. Long story short, its a rinky dink town centered around a failing segment of the industry. They bus all the Moraine kids to West Carrolton, which waters down the West Carrolton district (which wasn't great to begin with). Other than some aging factories, there's really nothing in either town. In the 1930's, with the 3 huge paper mills (smell of sulphur anyone?), it was a thriving town with a lot of potential. Now the only good thing about it is that its close to I-75 (so you can drive somewhere else to work/play/etc.). As far as real estate goes, way overpriced.

[FrankZappa]

You mentioned Miamisburg. Its a good town I think. Huge expansion on the south end, has a mall and major interstate, etc. Its also in a position that makes commuting to northern Cincinnati or Dayton an option. My only complaint about Miamisburg is the culture. Research the demographics and be sure that's your cup of tea. As far as potential goes, its an upwardly-mobile town. The housing boom of the 1990's was terrific for overall property values. They 've also very agressive in their planning and city management (banning of new trailer parks, the city bought out a few slums and turned them into parks, i.e. Miami Ave.) They also turned a DoE (Monsanto) contamination site into a park, but that's a whole different post). Miamisburg's weak spot is its downtown area, however if they could manage to do to it what Lebanon did to theirs, its would be a fabulous place. Its not too late, and last I saw, its in the works.

Speaking of Lebanon. That's a very interesting little town. Its a large-ish town that is isolated amongst rural villages. Thats allowed it to develope its own unique-ish culture over the years. I like to think of it as "upscale Appalacia", but in a good way. A few too many mullets for my taste, but if that's your cup of tea, you'll like the place.

Middletown? Its similar to the West Carrolton description above, without the potential. There are some cozy areas if you know where to look, however it just seems too unstable in my opinion. I've seen the "decline" over the last 30 years there, and the proverbial "where thers smoke, theres fire" applies, as referenced by the other posts here. I think the Brielle/Manchester and Miami Univ campus areas are beautiful, however theres just not enough there to make it worth a move, especially when you can have a more vibrant neighborhood like Kettering for the same price.

I noticed Paintballer is from Mason. I'm surprised he didn't plug for it (?) Mason is a stunningly beautiful area and home of a terrific amusement park (Kings Island). A little too rural and out of the way for my taste, however if that's what you're looking for (retirement perhaps?) its ideal. Same thing goes for surrounding areas like Waynesville.

Someone mentioned Centerville... I lived there for 5 years and its a really nice place if you can afford it. The property taxes are brutal, however unlike a lot of towns, you actually get some bang for your buck. Some of the best schools in the state, beautiful real estate, and its close enough for a reasonable commute to Dayton/N.Cinci. I used to get the "police blotter" once a month from Washington Township (edge of Centerville) and I always got an encouraging chuckle. Apart from the typical domestic disputes inherit in any town, the "crime" there consists of people failing to pick up after their dogs and the occasional shoplifter at the mall. The police there are like Miamisburg police.. very aggressive and pro-active, and again, good value for your tax dollars in my opinion.

A few towns I'm surprised no one has mentioned are Oakwood, Springboro, Bellbrooke, and Sugarcreek Township. Those are the true gems of the area. Smaller versions of the Centerville description above, with varying ratios of convenience and beauty. A lot like my description of Mason, but not so far out of the way. They're too far out of the way to make a commute to N. Cinci viable, however they would be terrific for retirement or Dayton area commutes.

[paintballer1708]

How am i off? I know what i am talking about in the area. I know what is getting built because of the Urban Planners League around SW Ohio. If you work for urban development i could understand where you are getting your facts from. I do know the facts, and the development going on around the Dayton metro.

[htlong]

just to lighten it up a bit kettering was the town where the first pop top can was invented!

[FrankZappa]

I agree, lets lighten this up a bit. I'm glad you brought up Dayton inventions. Dayton is home of the pop-top AND the pull-tab of yesteryear (I recently used a pull-tab style opener in Europe, so perhaps its yesteryear for this country). I'm particularly impressed with the magnitude of some of these. Most of these went well beyond the typical thousands of useless, speculative patents granted on a yearly basis. These are the meatloaf and mashed potatos of industry and a few of these were arguably instrumental in our desire to not be Sprachen Deutsche... if you catch my drift commrade.

Here is a short list of other inventions from Dayton:

Isolated Home and Farm Electric Lighting System
Stepladder
Radio Isotopic Thermoelectric Generator for Spacecraft
Controllable Pitch Propeller
Microfiche
Collapsible Portable Crib
Human Heart-Lung Machine
Motorized Wheelchairs
Walker Attachment for Wheelchairs
Ice Cube Tray with Ejector Mechanism
Automotive & Refrigeration Equipment
Smart Fan (operates based on changes in temperature)
Micro-Encapsulation
Goniometer (measures location of thalamus for surgery)
Manually Operated External Heart Machine and Expiratory Valve
Liquid Crystal Alignment Methodology
Movie Projector, Movie Camera, Movie Film and Movie Theatre
Multiple Array Continuous Inkjet Printer
Automobile Starter and over 300 other patents
100 Octane Aviation Fuel
Price Tag Affixing Machines
Directional Compass with Dual Radio Beam Triangulation System
Flexible Radiator Hoses and Wire Impregnated Sweeper Hoses
Learmatic Electrostatic Gyroscope
Lighted Scoreboard, Leland Refractor
Solenoid
Incentive Stamps
Ethyl-Leaded Gasoline
Airplane Supercharger
Official Building Mail Chutes
Electrically Stimulated Ambulatory Motion
Cash Register
Gas Masks
Portable Breathing Resuscitator
Computing Scale for Butchers and Grocers
Parachute
Continuous Rolling of Wide-Strip Steel Manufacturing Process
Orville & Wilbur Wright:
Airplane, Controls for Rudder, Elevator, Wing Lift Shape
Airplane Ejection Seats
Artificial Heart
Artificial Kidney
Automobile Air Bags
Bionic Organs
Blind Solo Flight
Carbonless Copy Paper
Chrome Plating
Computerized Aircraft Loading System
Double Glass Windows
Electric Cash Register
Filter Cigarettes
Fixed-Focus Headlights
Frost-proof freezer
Fuzzbuster & Radar Detectors
Glass Photographic Negatives
Ice Cream Cone
Instant Blood-Glucose Level Testing
Laser Weapons
Liberty Engine
Night Serial Photography
Nuclear Powered Pacemaker
Quick Process Malleable Iron
Room Air Conditioner

The list is by no means exhaustive either.. a lot of heavy hitters based their R&D and manufacturing here. Again, the magnitude of some of these is just plain awesome. Just the aeronatic aspects alone put any other city in America to shame.

Back to the suburbs though, if you expand the list out to include the DoE facility in Miamisburg, for example (EG&G / Monsanto), you could double the size of this list as they were sole benefactors to countless DoE, NRC, and NASA contracts and projects from 1945 to the present (the Thermoelectic Isotope Generator listed above as well as the tritium capsules used to "boost" nearly every nuclear weapon deployed by the USA since 1951.) Those generators alone, for example, are the primary power source for every spacecraft ever built by this country or the European Union, including both space stations, planetary rovers, satellites, etc.).

[paintballer1708]

^Great list. I had no idea half of those things were made in Dayton or Ohio for that matter. Another thing that gets me is all the major corporations that have their headquarters in Ohio. When i moved to Cincinnati i had no idea Proctor and Gamble was located here.