Why I"m Leaving Ohio (Columbus, Cleveland: jobs, sick, housing)

[west5548]

Originally Posted by CortlandGirl79

Oh yeah, Durham, Charlotte, Wilmington, etc. are so safe!!!!!!!! My brother lives in NC and i didn't think Wilmington was any cleaner than any city that i've been to in Ohio.

BTW, Cleveland has an excellent transportation system..........do any cities in NC have rail???

There are also good, high paying jobs in Ohio, you just have to have the education and experience to get them.

Charlotte has a rail system in place and I lived in Charlotte for 7 years before moving here and frankly Charlotte is a far safer place to live than Columbus. Only problem is that in Charlotte it's sometimes hard to tell where the bad sections are because the city is pretty much clean and new unlike Columbus, Cleveland, Toledo, Cincy, Dayton where homes and buildings are falling apart, trash everywhere, etc. As far as high paying jobs in this state are concerned, Ohio has a problem with keeping companies here. Ohio suffers from brain drain everyone educated is leaving along with the companies.

[Clevelander17]

Originally Posted by west5548

Charlotte has a rail system in place and I lived in Charlotte for 7 years before moving here and frankly Charlotte is a far safer place to live than Columbus. Only problem is that in Charlotte it's sometimes hard to tell where the bad sections are because the city is pretty much clean and new unlike Columbus, Cleveland, Toledo, Cincy, Dayton where homes and buildings are falling apart, trash everywhere, etc. As far as high paying jobs in this state are concerned, Ohio has a problem with keeping companies here. Ohio suffers from brain drain everyone educated is leaving along with the companies.

If you think all of your vast generalizations are applicable to all of the cities and areas you named, then you're not paying attention.

Oh, and look at the latest crime rankings. Charlotte is rated the 8th most dangerous big city, Columbus is ranked 9th. Looks like both have to improve a bit in that area, although Charlotte has a little more work cut out for it.

[brri]

Originally Posted by Clevelander17

If you think all of your vast generalizations are applicable to all of the cities and areas you named, then you're not paying attention.

Oh, and look at the latest crime rankings. Charlotte is rated the 8th most dangerous big city, Columbus is ranked 9th. Looks like both have to improve a bit in that area, although Charlotte has a little more work cut out for it.

I thought Columbus was pretty nice place and Cincy, from the jighway looked pretty spectacular. Charlotte is nice too although your stats are not quite correct. In 2006 Charlotte was ranked the 8th most dangerous CITY OVER 500,000 but overall it was #42 and Columbus was #45. That was in 2006. In 2007 Charlotte fell out of the top ten (again, for cities over 500,000) but Columbus climbed to #7. Take into consideration that Columbus and Charlotte are both top 20 cities in population.

2006 Stats (Ranking of least, most dangerous cities
Updated 10/30/2006 ):

1. Brick, N.J.

2. Amherst, N.Y.

3. Mission Viejo, Calif.

4. Newton, Mass.

5. Troy, Mich.

6. Colonie, N.Y.

7. Irvine, Calif.

8. Cary, N.C.
.
.
.
326. Columbus, Ohio

327. Miami

328. Baton Rouge

329. Charlotte

330. Jackson, Miss.

331. Toledo, Ohio

332. Macon, Ga.

333. Nashville

334. Rochester, N.Y.

335. Tulsa

336. Stockton, Calif.

337. Hartford, Conn.

338. Dallas

339. Miami Gardens, Fla.

340. Buffalo

341. Springfield, Mass.

342. Kansas City, Kan.

343. Philadelphia

344. West Palm Beach, Fla.

345. Minneapolis

346. Dayton, Ohio

347. Orlando

348. San Bernardino, Calif.

349. Little Rock

350. Newark, N.J.

351. Reading, Pa.

352. North Charleston, S.C.

353. Washington

354. Cincinnati

355. Atlanta

356. Kansas City, Mo.

357. Richmond, Va.

358. Trenton, N.J.

359. Memphis

360. Baltimore

361. Richmond, Calif.

362. Gary, Ind.

363. Youngstown, Ohio

364. Oakland

365. Cleveland

366. Birmingham, Ala.

367. Camden, N.J.

368. Compton, Calif.

369. Flint, Mich.

370. Detroit

371. St. Louis

[brri]

^^^

2007 Sats:

Most
Dangerous
Order Safest Order City SCORE
Population

1 378 Detroit, MI 407.15 884,462
2 377 St. Louis, MO 406.15 346,879
3 376 Flint, MI 380.98 118,256
4 375 Oakland, CA 338.87 398,834
5 374 Camden, NJ 323.81 80,071
6 373 Birmingham, AL 268.82 233,577
7 372 North Charleston, SC 254.25 87,655
8 371 Memphis, TN 245.56 680,828
9 370 Richmond, CA 245.07 103,106
10 369 Cleveland, OH 244.41 452,759
11 368 Orlando, FL 237.38 216,819
12 367 Baltimore, MD 236.73 637,556
13 366 Little Rock, AR 233.84 186,670
14 365 Compton, CA 223.58 96,520
15 364 Youngstown, OH 221.96 82,938
16 363 Cincinnati, OH 218.29 309,104
17 362 Gary, IN 214.03 99,369
18 361 Kansas City, MO 203.43 448,218
19 360 Dayton, OH 201.49 159,067
20 359 Newark, NJ 197.32 280,877
21 358 Philadelphia, PA 192.94 1,464,576
22 357 Atlanta, GA 189.86 485,804
23 356 Jackson, MS 188.81 177,334
24 355 Buffalo, NY 187.84 280,494
25 354 Kansas City, KS 187.55 145,229
26 353 Miami Gardens, FL 181.41 101,115
27 352 Washington, DC 181.30 581,530
28 351 Baton Rouge, LA 179.55 210,486
29 350 Richmond, VA 175.16 195,708
30 349 Rochester, NY 170.74 211,656
31 348 Hartford, CT 159.30 124,203
32 347 Reading, PA 159.19 80,927
33 346 Tacoma, WA 156.29 199,264
34 345 Dallas, TX 154.58 1,248,223
35 344 Miami, FL 151.97 392,934
36 343 Milwaukee, WI 151.65 581,005
37 342 Stockton, CA 151.08 289,510
38 341 Springfield, MA 150.73 152,644
39 340 Trenton, NJ 150.30 84,703
40 339 West Palm Beach, FL 148.45 99,142
41 338 Sacramento, CA 147.25 460,552
42 337 San Bernardino, CA 145.75 200,338
43 336 Canton, OH 143.42 79,575
44 335 Houston, TX 141.34 2,073,729
45 334 Indianapolis, IN 140.65 800,969
46 333 Macon, GA 140.51 97,345
47 332 Toledo, OH 136.72 301,652
48 331 Columbus, OH 135.97 731,547
49 330 Tulsa, OK 133.33 385,834
50 329 Charlotte, NC 132.08 699,398

[Stephan_K]

^^^

While all of you are arguing between Charlotte and Cleveland, the one fact that really stands out in this list is that pretty much ALL of Ohio's bigger cities hit the list !

Pretty depressing, OH seems to have more cities in the top 50 when it comes to crime than any other state... I guess that is one thing every other state can't compete with us at .

[Clevelander17]

A few thoughts:

Looks like the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce has their shills working overtime this weekend, eh?

The fact that Charlotte is bouncing around like that wouldn't make me feel comfortable if I were a resident. It seems to go back in forth in its direct comparison with Columbus. What can we make of that? That Charlotte's safe one year but could be very dangerous the next?

As for Cleveland being ranked so highly, I've never lived in Cleveland, only the Cleveland suburbs, which are not a part of this study/ranking. "Cleveland" probably wouldn't do so poorly if it were using the same amount of land area as other big cities use.

[snaps]

I moved from the Cleveland area to Tampa about three years ago. The winters in Ohio are very cold and depressing. You do NOT see the sun during the winter. You see cloudy days several months out of the year. The snow - it snows and snows and snows. You need a good winter coat, snow boots to live in OH. Cleveland city schools do not have a good reputation. We lived in the suburbs - which was the exact opposite. The school district we lived in is a high achieving school district. They concentrated more on maintaining high test scores than student needs. Since my child was not a "brain," he suffered academically in this "high achieving" school district. He hated it and I hated that he suffered in school. He is doing so much better in school here in Tampa. Plus, there is more diversity in the school district here than the one in OH. The racism was bad in OH. It is more subtle, there, but it exists. However, Tampa is just as bad, in my opinion. Overall, I guess there are pros and cons to living any where.

[Agenias]

Originally Posted by CortlandGirl79

I didn't say Charlotte wasn't clean. I just implied that they have pretty bad crime too.

Not all of Ohio is the same and you can't judge all of NC by one city either. West is making it sound like the entire state of Ohio is a crime-ridden and has horrible transportation.

Just curious CortlandGirl79....have you ever lived anywhere else? I've lived in Portland, OR, Peoria, IL, San Jose, CA and 3 cities in OH (Mansfield, Willard and Toledo). I'm currently waiting to move back to San Jose next month and can't wait! Ohio is very depressing, weather is poor quality. Unless you've lived somewhere else besides the midwest, you don't realize how crappy the weather is. Summer isn't sunny in OH. Go to Portland or CA and you'll see what sunshine is. It's like another world there.

I am glad that you like OH, my parents love Ohio. Obviously not everyone can live in the west, so it's good that some people want to stay here and defend it. You can't beat the cost of living here, that's for sure! We'll be trading in our beautiful 2300 sq foot home worth about $170K for a 1500 sq ft for about 600K in CA. It sounds crazy, but weather really makes a difference, I've had anxiety and panic attacks a few months after moving back and I'm confident that much of it has to do with the lack of sunshine (I had them before we moved to CA too).

anyhow, good luck to you!

[Synopsis]

I spent some time in Columbus and I liked it; never felt threatened in any way. Absolutely LOVED German town.

Geez, I think Ohio gets bashed as much if not more than my home state of Oklahoma.

The difference is, we like that way, it keeps the rif raf out.

[JamesAbilene]

There were many things that I loved when I lived in Ohio, but overall, living in Texas, where I grew up (and that probably effects my attitudes) is so much easier. You don't have to shovel sunshine. No winter tires, no heavy winter clothing, fewer taxes, better highways.

But I miss four seasons--especially the beautiful fall and spring--great people, unbelievably great music and entertainment (in NE Ohio where I lived), great and diverse restaurants, diverse population, etc.

I have lived several places in the US, and I find that generally each section has its good and bad points. When you live in a place, enjoy the good points. They are different in each place.