Apartment Advice: Is the "Commons Apartments" located 10645 Springfield Pike, Cincinnati, OH 45215 nice? (Hamilton: middle-class, apartment complex)

[strider2]

Job is starting soon and I'm desperate to find a nice place. Is the Commons a decent place to live? I'm a young professional about to make 60K, so I don't really want to live in a run down neighborhood.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[goyguy]

I don't think The Commons gets the attention it deserves - which is probably a good thing in terms of waiting lists. The main reason for this is that it's sort of "off by itself" along with two adjoining apartment developments. You wouldn't be in the midst of a beehive of street life, nor would you be in the midst of mall sprawl.
But people have "discovered" it and enjoy living there. If your job is in Forest Park, around the Tri-County Mall, or in Fairfield you're less than a ten-minute drive away. Ditto for GE, to the east in Evendale. Should you have to drive farther afield it's the same distance from I-75 and 275. And you can even catch the 78 bus of the much maligned (and for good reason) Queen City Metro out front, for car-free excursions to Tri-County or anywhere along Springfield Pike/Vine St all the way downtown.

The Commons could well agree with your lifestyle if you're an outdoorsy type on the quiet side. It sits right up the road from the "Great Parks of Hamilton County" properties known as Glenwood Gardens and Trillium Trails, which contain run/walk/bike trails through fields and wooded areas. In the opposite direction on "the Pike" just to the north is the Glenview golf club, which for many years was a popular spot for XC meets (the kind that are run on foot - Cincinnati is not a Nordic skiing hotbed.) Regardless, it's a large expanse of tranquil open space.

On the practical side of things, you'd be an easy walk from a Kroger's for grocery shopping. It's in a strip mall along with a dry cleaner and a Chinese take-out joint. Additional fast food places (McDonald's, Popeye's) are also close at hand. Not only that, the regional headquarters of Goodwill Industries - its big store a magnet for seekers of cheap decent clothing and hipster gear - is on the east side of the Pike.

Night life? Here's where it would help to be somebody "on the quiet side" if you move there. There is ONE watering hole in the immediate neighborhood, that being the Century Inn which has sat at the fork in the road "forever." A short ride/bike up Congress Ave, from the fork in the road, through the leafy expanses of old-money Glendale, would bring you to another pair of evening hangouts: the Friendly Stop Café for beer and pub grub, and the Grand Finalé "creperie and steakerie" (decidedly older crowd) across the way. You would not for a minute ever mistakenly believe you're in Clifton or OTR in this vicinity. But armchair sociologists looking to study the behavior of upper-middle-class Cincinnati WASPs would have a field day at The Commons and in Glendale equal to visiting Mt Lookout and Hyde Park.

This thumbnail sketch should help you give The Commons a yea or nay. If it doesn't sound like your cup of tea, just let us know.

[strider2]

Oh my god, thanks for such a put together response of the neighborhood. It seems like a quiet suburban lifestyle.
So I guess I can expect residents of the commons to be more of the older family crowd? I have no problems with the area, as I'd be very busy with my new job and have no time to take advantage of Hyde Park or Clifton.

Living in those younger areas such as Clifton or Hyde Park would be ideal, but I am in desperate need to find an apartment complex that would be flexible (whether it allows you to break a lease easily or have short term options) since I'm new to the area and the instability of having a new job. My work would be in Springdale, so the Commons is about an 8 minute drive to work.

I don't know if there area any options that will fit the bill for me at this point. I'm looking for an apartment complex of young professionals, not full of family with kids. My price range is probably up to 900 dollars a month, but the most important thing would be the flexibility of the lease.

[goyguy]

The Commons isn't much of a "family" complex - your neighbors more likely would be empty-nesters or childless younger couples. It's the kind of place where you see a lot of kettle grills on the balconies, along with small groups of adults enjoying whatever's being cooked on a summer evening. Due to its not being in a trendy or nightlife-filled neighborhood you won't see many singles in roommate situations the way you would around UC or in some east-side city areas.
You'd have to connect with the complex's management, easily enough done online or by phone, to learn about leasing options. I think that it's a large - and popular - enough place that they could probably be flexible or even allow tenancy at will.
Most likely you've noticed another apartment cluster right in Springdale, called The Colony. It's a collection of two-story buildings constructed 40-45 years ago and showing it by the architectural style. This I wouldn't recommend nearly as highly as The Commons. Maintenance is said to not be the best - and like in many complexes of its vintage the tenants are more likely to be sketchy than in one where the rents are considerably higher and the buildings in better shape. Along Kemper Rd on the far side of Forest Park there are some small groupings of structures very similar to The Commons and its neighboring Fieldstone community. Those I believe were marketed as condos mostly, but chances are good you could snag a rental there all the same. Forest Park is a significantly higher-density area (no forest and little in the way of parks.) It can boast of the same amenities that you can find in Woodlawn: supermarket, take-out places, dry cleaners, and so on - but you wouldn't have the same easy walk to them. The only real advantage is being that much closer to 275, but to work in Springdale you'd probably just drive down Kemper anyway.
Fairfield would be an outside possibility, just up Route 4 from Springdale and with some Colony-aged complexes strung along the main road. But there, as with The Colony, you'd be faced with aging buildings in varying degrees of upkeep. And the "walkability index" is just about zero. Fairfield is a once-rural community that's absorbed a lot of spillover from Hamilton and the Cincinnati suburbs, with Route 4 seemingly a mile wide and heavy with cars flying along. Its main attractions are the gigantic cineplex near 275 and the renowned Jungle Jim's grocery store with its aisle after aisle of international foods. And like your typical sprawl suburb it's clogged with strip malls, big-box stores, and chain restaurants that each have separate and mostly un-signaled driveways. Clearly Fairfield would not be my first choice, but "any port in a storm."
Suburban yuppie types in Cincinnati gravitate more toward the northeast side of the county - Blue Ash and Montgomery. Around there you wouldn't have the "next door" proximity to work, lack of traffic congestion, or quiet environment of The Commons. But a single ready to mingle would probably fare better there than in Springdale, Fairfield, Woodlawn, or Forest Park.

[mrstop]

Our first place in Cincinnati was The Commons when we moved here in 1996. We moved out in 1998 after buying our first home. It was a nice quiet complex and still seems to be that way. My wife and enjoyed the location. You can take nice walks through Glenway Gardens (it was just a cow pasture when we were there) or through Glendale and Wyoming. Most major stores are within a 10-15 minute drive. In fact, after we left and then moved back to Cincinnati, we ended up just down the road in Wyoming.

[strider2]

So would anyone recommend Blue Ash as a nice place to live?

[Sarah Perry]

Originally Posted by strider2

So would anyone recommend Blue Ash as a nice place to live?

Yes.

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by strider2

So would anyone recommend Blue Ash as a nice place to live?

Yes it is nice, but definitely Not Cheap. Intended more for family environment with kids and people with an established job who can afford the tarriff. I frankly think you are tending to bite off more than you can chew.

[GGWWGB]

Originally Posted by goyguy

I don't think The Commons gets the attention it deserves - which is probably a good thing in terms of waiting lists. The main reason for this is that it's sort of "off by itself" along with two adjoining apartment developments. You wouldn't be in the midst of a beehive of street life, nor would you be in the midst of mall sprawl.
But people have "discovered" it and enjoy living there. If your job is in Forest Park, around the Tri-County Mall, or in Fairfield you're less than a ten-minute drive away. Ditto for GE, to the east in Evendale. Should you have to drive farther afield it's the same distance from I-75 and 275. And you can even catch the 78 bus of the much maligned (and for good reason) Queen City Metro out front, for car-free excursions to Tri-County or anywhere along Springfield Pike/Vine St all the way downtown.

The Commons could well agree with your lifestyle if you're an outdoorsy type on the quiet side. It sits right up the road from the "Great Parks of Hamilton County" properties known as Glenwood Gardens and Trillium Trails, which contain run/walk/bike trails through fields and wooded areas. In the opposite direction on "the Pike" just to the north is the Glenview golf club, which for many years was a popular spot for XC meets (the kind that are run on foot - Cincinnati is not a Nordic skiing hotbed.) Regardless, it's a large expanse of tranquil open space.

On the practical side of things, you'd be an easy walk from a Kroger's for grocery shopping. It's in a strip mall along with a dry cleaner and a Chinese take-out joint. Additional fast food places (McDonald's, Popeye's) are also close at hand. Not only that, the regional headquarters of Goodwill Industries - its big store a magnet for seekers of cheap decent clothing and hipster gear - is on the east side of the Pike.

Night life? Here's where it would help to be somebody "on the quiet side" if you move there. There is ONE watering hole in the immediate neighborhood, that being the Century Inn which has sat at the fork in the road "forever." A short ride/bike up Congress Ave, from the fork in the road, through the leafy expanses of old-money Glendale, would bring you to another pair of evening hangouts: the Friendly Stop Café for beer and pub grub, and the Grand Finalé "creperie and steakerie" (decidedly older crowd) across the way. You would not for a minute ever mistakenly believe you're in Clifton or OTR in this vicinity. But armchair sociologists looking to study the behavior of upper-middle-class Cincinnati WASPs would have a field day at The Commons and in Glendale equal to visiting Mt Lookout and Hyde Park.

This thumbnail sketch should help you give The Commons a yea or nay. If it doesn't sound like your cup of tea, just let us know.

This place sounds awesome. Why wasn't it mentioned when I asked about the places?

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by GGWWGB

This place sounds awesome. Why wasn't it mentioned when I asked about the places?

Very simple, so many YP want a recommendation for a YP enclave. Don't dare to recommend to me some environment which is not totally YP hip or somewhere where a good percentage of residents may possibly be over 35. If you are comfortable with this, check in and I believe you will find a manageable environment.