Ashtabula vs. Norwalk (Middletown, Portsmouth: employment, income, quality of life)

[AtlantaAnonymous]

Which town is overall better?

[KY_Transplant]

I do not know too much about Norwalk, but even still, cannot recommend Ashtabula.

Ashtabula has seen much better days and is a decaying city. Ashtabula is a rust belt/Appalachian blended city that has seen it's industry and jobs evaporate over the last few decades with nothing left to replace it.

The city has failed to diversify it's employment base to the point that even retailers have largely abandoned the city, outside of Walmart. Ashtabula Mall is literally a shell of it's former self and all other parcels have mostly closed.

Ashtabula and the surrounding county have largely been hanging their hat on tourism to drive people and income to the area, but I don't think that is super successful outside the Wineries, some of which are closer and actually in Lake County.

Ashtabula has the feel of some places I have visited in Appalachia along the Ohio River such as Portsmouth and other rust belt towns in Ohio like Middletown.

Long story short, I would look more into Norwalk.

[SonnyDaze]

Norwalk is less economically depressed and probably presents a higher quality of life.

With that being said, Ashtabula still has some nicer areas within the city and shouldn't be written off completely depending on what your moving criteria is.

More information would be helpful.