questions about columbus, indiana.. (Indianapolis, Bloomington: for sale, crime, chapel)

[bingo2]

we are considering a job related move from southeast alabama to columbus, indiana (my husband would come this fall, the girls and i in june after my oldest graduates from h.s.).....we are life long alabama residents and have (many..) questions about our prospective new hometown...

Neighborhoods in columbus.....we have lived in the "garden district" in our town for 20 years...my husband actually grew up in this neighborhood..

are there nice, safe older neighborhoods in columbus? i would prefer to live in another older home...i've seen a little bit about the donner park area.

if not an older neigborhood, which of the newer developments would you suggest? (i do not like cookie cutter, vinyl clad-type neighborhoods)

schools.....my oldest will be in college next year, but my younger child will be entering 7th grade...they have both been in a private school (nondenominational, rigourous academic) since the age of 3.

how are the public schools in columbus?

any information on the various private schools would be appreciated..

your views on public vs private school in columbus..

lakes....would love to hear about the closest lakes to columbus...seems to be a lot of them.....presently we are an 1&1/2 drive from the florida gulf coast and my family has a lake place outside of montgomery.....i would miss water related activities!


wow, that's a boring, dry post!! lol.....anyway, thanks in advance to any of you who have time to answer....sure i will have more questions later!

[domergurl]

We moved to Columbus a year ago. The Donner Park area is beautiful, particularly along Franklin street between 16th & 25th. Tipton Park is also a well established northside neighborhood, lots of trees. Park Forest, again, old established neighborhood on the south side of the neighborhood between National Road & Rocky Ford, with some newer homes (mid 1990's) north of rocky ford to the airport, east of River Road. West of River Road, north of rocky ford, there is a very exclusive enclave called Chapel Bluff and a beautiful street called Woodfield place (yea, I live in the Park Forest area ...)

Now, Tipton Lakes is also very nice. It's on the southwest part of the city. We looked at many houses there, but decided that we wanted to be closer to town and be able to bike to our elementary school and around town. Look in Tipton though, lots of amenities, lakes and the scenery is spectacular.

Best of luck! I have met so many out of staters and expats from other countries here in the last year. I love it!!! Columbus has been a great place to call home.

No, I'm not a realtor.

[bingo2]

thanks, d'gurl!!!

would love to hear your thoughts about schools systems for the older neighborhoods, including your park forest and donner park..also heard there are some great homes on washington avenue (?)...

would also be interested in availabilty of homes in these areas..ie...have you seen any interesting homes for sale...lol!

any info you can give would be much appreciated!!

thank you again!

[domergurl]

Let's take this off board ... look for a dm.

[ExCMIGuy]

Columbus Indiana is not the best place to live in S. Indiana.
1. It is a dirty town .. mold everywhere, filthy streets <mod cut>.
2. The school system is focused on the teachers benefit.. not the
students.
3. Cummins is a nice place to gain experience but it is not a place to
plan a career on. Very unstable with cyclic white collar layoffs.
Oh almost forgot ..<mod cut>.
<mod cut>
5. Lower earnings when compared to other ...nicer areas.
6. Not very accepting of diversity ....<mod cut>
7. Hope you have hip boots cause this place floods regularly.
8. Crime is much higher than the local realtors want you too know.
<mod cut>
11. Avoid SW county ... it is by far the worst palce to live.
12. Terrible traffic ... can't deal with snow and there's lots of ice.
13. Higher than average murder rate.

Move to Indianapolis ...more opportunity , better homes and a much
better living standard.

[rrah]

I'm sure domergurl will be able to easily answer all your questions about Columbus, but I will chime in with some "lake" info. If you move to Columbus you'll be about an hour away from Indiana's largest manmade lake, Lake Monroe, in Bloomington. I don't know what kind of water activities you enjoy, but they do it all on Lake Monroe.

There are also several smaller lakes in Brown County which is midway between Columbus and Bloomington.

[domergurl]

This is an older posting and we did discuss Columbus late last summer.

[rrah]

Well....a bit of brain fog on my part this am. I usually catch that. I wonder if the OP ended up in Columbus?