kent, ohio?

[LizzyJane]

San Diego to Ohio. The traffic is WAY better, but the weather is WAY worse. The snow is no problem, but you may have a tough time with the gray. The seasons are wonderful and there is no smog. Cost of living is way cheaper and it is not such a rat race. The closest thing to Mexican food is Chipotle (I love it). Folks are not too concerned with a few pounds of winter fat. There are way more smokers here than in NY so I would assume there are more here than in CA. They did just outlaw smoking in bars and restuarants so its much better. People have no problem throwing cigs out the car window. There is a pretty good political mix here which I find refreshing, our vote actually does count. Whatever party you can vote in the primary!

Kent is an OK town, when I moved to Twinsburg from Rochester, NY 3 years ago I made my way to Kent to check it out. My first thought was that is was very run down and I felt like I was in a time warp. It could have been the old school, giant Arby's hat sign! I think it would be difficult for you to move from San Diego to Kent. I don't know much about Kent State but if you like the position, there are nice places to live in the area. I would look at Hudson. It's about 15 minutes to Kent with traffic. It has a great "Main Street" with shops and lots of beautiful old houses. They have a nice library and a bunch of nice restaurants. It is close to the Park. The town was founded by someone from Connecticut so it has a New England feel.

ps- make sure you take your vitamin D in the winter

[Traveler87]

Kent is not a bad town at all. Middle sized college city, with lots of new work on the downtown. I go to Kent State right now, Urban Planning. You are not far from Akron, and the big city entertainment of Cleveland. There are a lot of nice towns around Kent that are not far at all, and the traffic can be bad depending on where you are, but nothing compared to Southern California.

[GoodDog2]

We really need to revive this Kent, Ohio thread. There is so much new from 2012 through 2014. The City of Kent is the largest city in all of Portage County. While the population here is slightly less than 29,000, if you include students it is well over 50,000. It obviously swells during the school year with resulting traffic issues and crowds downtown, but then is a little more like a ghost town during the Summer and holiday recess.
It is a nice and safe place to live, but not the friendliest. I think it is the academia influence (just guessing). It is an interesting place and I guess not unlike a lot of other very liberal college towns.
I think that the City manager form of government has served the city very well. Perhaps one of the biggest positive aspects of that is that it provides the ability to bring someone in from outside the area with no biases or inside influences. The City Council hasn't always done that, but when it has, the outcome has been good. I guess that could be another thread.
Let's revive this thread............................

[SquareBetterThanAll]

Originally Posted by GoodDog2

We really need to revive this Kent, Ohio thread. There is so much new from 2012 through 2014. The City of Kent is the largest city in all of Portage County. While the population here is slightly less than 29,000, if you include students it is well over 50,000. It obviously swells during the school year with resulting traffic issues and crowds downtown, but then is a little more like a ghost town during the Summer and holiday recess.
It is a nice and safe place to live, but not the friendliest. I think it is the academia influence (just guessing). It is an interesting place and I guess not unlike a lot of other very liberal college towns.
I think that the City manager form of government has served the city very well. Perhaps one of the biggest positive aspects of that is that it provides the ability to bring someone in from outside the area with no biases or inside influences. The City Council hasn't always done that, but when it has, the outcome has been good. I guess that could be another thread.
Let's revive this thread............................

I would agree that there have been a lot of mostly good changes in Kent, but saying Kent is the largest city in all of Portage County is funny because there are only 2 or 3 cities in the county anyway!

Kent State is the foundation of the city and has really allowed Kent to stand out from other similar sized cities in the area as far as development goes. The new Downtown development is a very nice and well blended addition to the city.

[GoodDog2]

<<saying Kent is the largest city in all of Portage County is funny because there are only 2 or 3 cities in the county anyway!>>

Yeah, it may be funny, but it is true! I guess that says a lot about the county. I think the average per capita income here is about the same as some Appalachian counties. The taxes in Kent don't reflect that though. It seems that few of the lower income people vote, although they comprise the majority of residents, the higher income folks (academia) pass every tax increase that is proposed. The city recently built a library that looks like the Taj Mahal. It is huge and it costs me an additional $250/yr on my taxes. When you consider the college also has a huge library and the fact that library's usefulness has to some degree been replaced by the internet and newer technology, it just didn't make sense to spend that much and build that big. You have to see it to understand. Lots of smart people don't result in smart decisions for the community. Go figure?

[Gaylenwoof]

Originally Posted by GoodDog2

We really need to revive this Kent, Ohio thread. There is so much new from 2012 through 2014...............

Yes a lot has happened. Downtown Kent has undergone substantial development, Kent State University has also had numerous improvements.

A couple of other things:

Kent has an extremely active TimeBank. If you don't know what that is, you might want to take a look at this: Crooked River Alliance of TimeBanks
The Kent TimeBank is about 5 years old, and over the past couple of years it has become one of the biggest and most active in the entire nation. In addition to the link I gave to the Crooked River Alliance site, you can learn more about TimeBanking in general at Timebanks.org

The Portage Hike & Bike Trail was extended from Kent into Ravenna a couple of years ago, and in the election last November (2014), voters approved a tax levy to help the parks system, which should lead to further improvements in the trail, as well as the park system generally. Also, of course, the trail links into the larger Twopath trail system that runs all over NE Ohio.

[GoodDog2]

Originally Posted by Gaylenwoof

Yes a lot has happened. Downtown Kent has undergone substantial development, Kent State University has also had numerous improvements.

The Portage Hike & Bike Trail was extended from Kent into Ravenna a couple of years ago, and in the election last November (2014), voters approved a tax levy to help the parks system, which should lead to further improvements in the trail, as well as the park system generally. Also, of course, the trail links into the larger Twopath trail system that runs all over NE Ohio.

Portage County has a wonderfully dedicated Director of Parks that has been doing so much with so little. I am so happy to see some new resources and am confident it will result in great things for the county park system.

We have great parks in Kent and Portage County