Ohio: Economically depressed? (Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati: how much, hotels, home)

[Midwesterns45]

Every summer when i drive out to the midwest from the east coast i pass cities like youngstown, toledo and elyria and stay in hotels.
I always squeeze some time in to talk to some locals about the cities they live in and they have told me for past 10 years, ever since i have been driving, that the cities are losing their population, industries are destroying neighborhoods and people are relocating either west to chicago or east to new york.
I just wanted to know if the whole state of ohio is expirencing this or if its just the northern part of the state??
Also while i was on this trip these residents told me to either stay in the northeast ( new york city, nj,boston, dc etc) or stay in the western midwest (chicago, wisconsin areas, minneapolis) but not to migrate in the eastern great lakes/midwest (toledo, detroit, gary, clevland, erie)
DOES ANYBODY AGREE? ANYBODY WHO LIVES IN THIS REGION HAVE FEEDBACK?

[BelieveInCleve]

I live in Northeast Ohio and a lot of people do think that things are going really down hill here. A lot of people either are leaving or want to leave but cant yet. The rest of the state isnt as bad but the attitude is about the same. Ohio is going downhill especially NE Ohio.

I disagree about people moving to either Chicago or NYC though. I dont think I have ever met a person that wanted to move, and actually wanted to move deeper into the midwest. 95% of the people I know who have either moved or want to move either went down south or far west, nothing east of Denver. Never met anyone that actually wanted to move to Minneapolis or Milwaukee or really even Chicago. They are all trying to go to the southern states (mainly florida, Georgia, South Carolina) or far west (mainly California, arizona, or Colorado). I only met a few people that wanted to move east.

[JefferyT]

I just wanted to know if the whole state of ohio is expirencing this or if its just the northern part of the state??

It depends on the city, actually.

For Columbus, this has become a white collar place, so the atmosphere is not that gloom and doom as the economy isnt that tied to manufacturing. More.

Dayton is in much worse shape as there's been a lot of job loss here, partly due to manufacturing, partly due to other things.

Cincinnati is becoming more like Columbus, more white collar/corporate so the economy in the Cincy metro area is doing "OK".

[Buckeye in SC]

Originally Posted by Midwesterns45

Every summer when i drive out to the midwest from the east coast i pass cities like youngstown, toledo and elyria and stay in hotels.
I always squeeze some time in to talk to some locals about the cities they live in and they have told me for past 10 years, ever since i have been driving, that the cities are losing their population, industries are destroying neighborhoods and people are relocating either west to chicago or east to new york.
I just wanted to know if the whole state of ohio is expirencing this or if its just the northern part of the state??
Also while i was on this trip these residents told me to either stay in the northeast ( new york city, nj,boston, dc etc) or stay in the western midwest (chicago, wisconsin areas, minneapolis) but not to migrate in the eastern great lakes/midwest (toledo, detroit, gary, clevland, erie)
DOES ANYBODY AGREE? ANYBODY WHO LIVES IN THIS REGION HAVE FEEDBACK?

Absolutely agree, census statistics back it up as well. I grew up in Stark County (Canton area), and the population has been stagnant for 20 years there, and all of the NE Ohio cities are rapidly losing population. For instance, Canton had over 110,000 people in 1970, today it's under 80k; Youngstown & Cleveland are even worse, they have lost over half of their population in less than 50 years - Youngstown: 1960 = 166k, today under 75k people, Cleveland: 1960 = 876k, today under 440k. While there is a great pride in growing up in the NE Ohio communities (i.e. Massillon Tigers, McKinley Bulldogs & Cleveland fans are some of the most passionate in the country), it can only take you so far, there has to be quality jobs for you to provide a decent standard of living for your family and hope for the future.

My wife and I are only 27, and we picked up our lives last year after living in Ohio our who life and moved to Columbia, SC. We have friends that also grew up in Ohio that have done the same thing in moving here, Charlotte, Charleston, Florida, Denver, & California. My wife is a teacher, and she just met the new teachers at her school for the upcoming school year, and 10 of them had just moved from Ohio & Michigan. It's no coincidence that at the same time that northern Ohio & Michigan cities are shrinking (Pittsburgh as well), that southern cities have been booming. In 1960, Charlotte had just over 200k people, today it has over 630k; Raleigh had 93k in 1960, today it has over 370k people; Columbia hasn't grown quite as rapidly - 95k in 1960, about 120k today, it should be noted though that SC has very strict annexation laws, and the metro area which is close to 700k now, has grown much more than the city has in that span of time. Many other Carolina & other southeastern cities/metros have been growing substantially as well.

I don't want to bash Ohio, I think it will always be 'home' to us, we still have most of our family & friends there. The problem w/living in a depressed area, is that it starts to wear off on it's people, even those who still have decent jobs start wondering if they are next to be outsourced or let go of.

The other posters are right though, Columbus & Cincinnati are 2 areas in Ohio that have seemed to buck the trend. Cbus as grown quite a bit - 471k in 1960, today over 745k. Cincy while having lost population from the city, has seen it's economy hold somewhat stable benefitting from having a lot of white collar jobs from large corporations like Proctor & Gamble, Kroger, Macy's & Fifth Third Bank to name a few.

The region as a whole though needs to reestablish itself away from a manufacturing heavy image. It's not positive being known as the "Rust Belt"

[NewPhilaOH_Bound]

I'm relocating to New Philadelphia, OH in less than 2 weeks. I will be moving in
with a friend, and I am hoping to find a job fairly quickly as a server/waitress
in a restaurant -- or I have worked in a factory before, and I have 20+ years
office experience (inside sales, administrative assistant, etc.). My friend says
I will have no problem finding a job here, and I am trusting him that this is true.

While for the past 20 years I have worked in an office, I will accept a server job
or even fast food position, just to get some money flowing and back on my feet.
My friend says if you're willing to work, there are jobs out there. They may not
be high paying, but with two incomes, we will survive. I hope this will be the
start of a wonderful new life.

I am tired of Chicago - tired of the crime, the number of people, the traffic,
and everything that goes along with living in a major city. I am very much
looking forward to a more rural environment, and taking a major pay cut will
be worth it to me to feel safer, more secure in my home and happy. I was
born and raised in a small town of only 500 people, and I miss that life.

[chikaranotori]

NewPhilaOH_Bound, i'm originally from the Canton area (north on 77 from Dover/New New Philly) and it is a nice, more rural sort of area. are there alot of jobs? no. depending on how much your friend is making, you probably will live rather comfortably.

New Philly is the most northern tip of central ohio and it is feeling the burn of the lost of manufacturing jobs. and because it's next closest neighbor of a (large) city is Canton, you might have consider that drive every day to go to work.

or you might look south, closer to the Urichsville area for a manufacturing job. though again, the pay might not be worth gas. unless there is a major turn-around, Ohio will probably continue on its downward spiral.

[NewPhilaOH_Bound]

Thanks for the info chikaranotori. My friend said a new restaurant is even
opening up in the New Phila area - surprising considering the economy. That
was a good sign, for me. I haven't been a server for 20 years, but if they'd
hire me (early 40's, in shape) I'd be a hard worker and hopefully do well with
tips. Depending on what type of server job I find, I could quite possibly wind
up making just as much with tips as in an office. Plus get exercise to boot.

My friend said if you're willing to work, and aren't expecting a huge salary, jobs
are available. I'm willing to work, and I am a reliable and hard worker at that -
so I hope this will definitely be a good move for me.

I really am looking forward to a much more quiet type of living than Chicago.
Not sure what people who live away from this city know or read about the
city, but we've had nothing but murders, violence, gangs, drugs, etc. and it
only seems to get worse, the worse the economy gets.

Although I know there are gangs and drugs even in the smaller towns, hopefully
it is not to the extent it is here. For the time I spent in New Phila, I didn't feel
like it was a bad area or unsafe at all.

[Paddington]

Northern Ohio has been economically depressed since the 1960's. Toledo, Cleveland, Youngstown metros haven't seen any real growth in decades.

That's not to say it's bad for everyone. I'm in medicine, in which there's lots of growth, and everyone makes good money (in fact much better than what you would make in California or New York). But for the average person, getting a job can be a struggle.

What gets me is that people here still don't "get it". They think that you can drop out of high school at the age of 16 and General Motors will hire you for $85,000 a year to turn a wrench for 35 hours a week like a monkey, or the ones with enough brains to go to college unfortunately don't have quite enough brains to realize that college is a place to get ahead academically not to spend 4 years watching idiot football games.

What's worse is that the politicians don't "get it" either. They don't seem to realize that states with Right-to-Work laws and low taxes have boomed over the past 30 years, and they insist on pandering to trade unions that cripple the state's productivity and employment prospects, while funding more and more bizarre, needless government programs that only raise the demand for more business strangulating taxes on the other side.

[Zippy7fo]

Stay on the east coast....or chicago, minny, cincy, indy, and columbus, and des moines....everything else is dead or dying..

[ryanek9freak]

Yes, most of Ohio has totally died. I waited 20 years to move to Colorado, and I finally did it.

Things are on fire out here in Denver.