Loveland....??

[Sunnydee]

Loveland is a nice, safe, friendly small town to raise a family in. It's mostly middle class people who value education (the schools have had an excellent rating from the state of Ohio for years now), want to raise their children where they can ride their bikes and play outside safely, and have good values. The houses in Loveland are a bargain when compared to neighboring Indian Hill, Montgomery, and Symmes.

What I like best about Loveland is the small town feel and the bike path. It reminds me of a simpler time with hometown parades, people waving flags, neighbors looking out for each other, etc.

I dislike the weather in Ohio. The winters are too long, cold, and gray.

The northern suburbs of Cincinnati are a great place to live, raise a family, get an education, and live your life. I'd imagine that coming from California it might seem like you're going back in time when you come here. Prices are very affordable on most things - except gas - $3.97 today. Best wishes and if you need any help just ask.

[Hanne]

Goyguy wrote: "Take I-71, exit at Highway 48, and follow the signs, follow the cars, to South Llllebbanunn Ohio, where you save cash with Kash!" RIP Kash Amburgy"

Yep, that is so branded into my brain....can't shut it off. LOL "With my MaryLou" (Remember Kash's wife at the organ?) In the local obit, it was stated that Cash or Kash (forgot how it was spelled) WAS his real name. With a brother named Cotton....real name, too.
Hanne, who works in Loveland

[PG77]

I was born in Loveland. Has to be a good place.

[Frazzledmomofboys]

If you are moving here from out of state, and looking at Loveland, you should look at Terrace Park too. When we moved back to Cinti from Seattle, we looked at both, and Terrace Park won hands down. We are probably going to have to move again for work and honestly, this is the first time where I will be truly heartbroken to go. Many real estate agents forget about TP, so you need to ask. A couple of reasons I love it so much...I could go on and on.

Elementary school walkable and rated a 10 out of 10 in great schools in the US. No comparison of Loveland schools and TP. It feeds into the Mariemont School District, which is all fantastic.

Community pool and tennis.

Almost all the sports are actually done right here in TP. I have two boys, and my 10 year old can get to any practice on his bike. It just adds so much time into your life not having to commute so much.

There is a facility someone donated dedicated to boy scouts.

Kids don't lock their bikes or scooters in front of school... it is so safe.

Kids can walk home for lunch if they or you prefer.

New moms usually get 3 months of meals (M,W,Fr) supplied by ladies in the community who have been there.

Lots of newcomers events (dinner clubs, book clubs, bunco, Kindervelt) to meet people. Also, lots of fun school events.

I could go on and on.

[coach02116]

Originally Posted by Hanne

Goyguy wrote: "Take I-71, exit at Highway 48, and follow the signs, follow the cars, to South Llllebbanunn Ohio, where you save cash with Kash!" RIP Kash Amburgy"

Yep, that is so branded into my brain....can't shut it off. LOL "With my MaryLou" (Remember Kash's wife at the organ?) In the local obit, it was stated that Cash or Kash (forgot how it was spelled) WAS his real name. With a brother named Cotton....real name, too.
Hanne, who works in Loveland

Gawd, that is hysterical; I'm laughing hard enough to cry right now. I remember those commercials; my dad -a transplanted cynical italian Rhode Islander- used to love Kash's commercials. He'd walk around the house trying to do imitations, etc. ('HELLO NEIGHbors!)

[peacelovestars]

Oh, Loveland.
I spent a lot of time there during my junior/senior year in high school. It does have a very family-friendly, small-town feel to it.
It's a very safe place to live. Wouldn't be my #1 choice, but it has decent, small schools as well as decent real estate value.
The schools are pretty good. My friends that attended Loveland schools said they were all right, but didn't love them. If you choose to move to Loveland and can afford it, I would totally reccomend sending your kids to Ursuline (girls) or Moeller (boys). St. Xavier and St. Ursula are good schools as well. If you want high quality public education, I'd reccomend the neighboring Indian Hill (though the mentality of the people there sometimes makes me want to vomit).
I would also highly, highly reccomend grabbing coffee from the BuzzThru espresso bar. Delicious coffee, friendly people, fantastic service.

[dramamama6685]

Originally Posted by goyguy

My sister and BIL settled in Loveland 15 years ago when they secured employment in Cincinnati and relocated (back, in my sis's case) from the East. Their house was then brand-new, and their family was just getting started. At present, they have four sons, aged 8 to 17. What I have to add to this post should be taken with a grain of salt, since I've remained on the East Coast myself. I make return visits several times a year and am in pretty much constant communication with my folks, less so with the sis and BIL. (Anybody raising four kids knows how not easy it is to stay in regular contact with people!)

The scenario outlined in the previous post is only part of the Loveland picture. Yes, the "Little Miami National Scenic River" winds through the city. Yes, the crunchy-granola folk do flock to its banks to rent canoes or kayaks - or put in their own - as well as wheel along the parallel bike trail. That's like saying Mt Lookout is full of antique-car owners and Ultimate Frisbee players by virtue of Ault Park's being there. Some of the cyclists and paddlers walk home at the end of the day, indeed there are those among them who chose Loveland to live in for this. But most of them load up their roof racks and drive elsewhere at nightfall.

I'd characterize Loveland as "a good place to raise kids," a locale where neighbors know each other and look out for each other. Children can play in their yards and on the street without fear of traffic (with obvious exceptions, like along Lebanon Rd.) Low housing turnover means little "stranger danger" concern. Symmes Park is an excellent rec facility to complement the aforementioned river. Lebanon's Countryside YMCA is state-of-the-art, not something always immediately associated with "the Y," and is minutes away.

As a confessed educational elitist, I perceive the public schools of Loveland as better than average but with room for improvement. Over 90 percent of the high school's graduates continue their formal academic careers, the sports teams do well, and a big-bucks overhaul of the middle school was completed last year. Fiscal improprieties on the part of a former system employee, well documented in the media at the time, were a blip on the financial screen. But with all the physical-plant improvements, and competitive desire where educational quality is concerned, the school board put a tax levy on the ballot - which passed. On the topic of educational quality: drawing comparison to the classic car-rental ad campaign, Loveland is Avis (#2) to the adjoining Sycamore and Indian Hill districts' Hertz (#1.) And they're trying harder. My sis and I and our other sibling were schooled in Wyoming's public system, which is second to none, so have some pretty exacting standards. What she and the BIL decided was that while they were more than satisfied with the community itself, the very best academics weren't within its borders. Consequently, their older two sons took the entrance exams for Cincinnati's parochial high schools and now attend one of those schools. Dissatisfied with how the elementary school of the youngest child handled clear-cut development recommendations, they enrolled him in a Montessori program. So only one of the four boys is still being educated in the Loveland system. But, as I've emphasized, we're educational snobs and make no bones about it. Few would term Loveland's schools as significantly lacking in any areas. By the same token, few would rank them on par with Indian Hill (for those with the earned or inherited wealth) or Sycamore (comparable housing affordability.)

One never has to venture far from Loveland, or even leave that city, for any of life's essentials or most of its non-essentials. There's a huge Meijer supermarket on Montgomery Rd. Kenwood's and Deerfield Township's mall sprawls are a hop skip and jump away; Tri-County and Eastgate are not much farther distant. Downtown Cincinnati is as little as 20 minutes down I-71, at least late at night and on weekends lol.

Outside of the original village center, Loveland is a standard-issue hodgepodge of subdivisions dating as far back as the 1960's and as recently as now. The city's income level is overwhelmingly middle- to upper-middle-class, its demographic makeup overwhelmingly White.

There's nothing to recommend against Loveland and much to recommend for it, but the "for" recommendations also apply to other places which are close by and at least slightly superior. Keep it on your list of communities to consider but broaden the scope of your search.

You completely left out that they have a very active arts community including a theater company.

[Curlygurl]

I have spent a lot of time in Loveland as tutor in the local schools. The schools are very good, but growing. The early childhood and elementary grades are better and seem to receive more individualized attention that the upper grades. If you decide you really like the Loveland area, which is very nice and friendly with several great parks, you can feel confident that the school system will meet your child's needs.

Loveland is quite close (5-10 mins) to one of the fastest growing shopping areas around, the Mason area. In fact, the road that the Loveland High School is on intersects with one of the busiest "shopping" roads in the area, Fields-Ertel, although you wouldn't know it, because it has been maintained as a residential area. There is also a variety of housing available in Loveland, from apartments, to older homes, to 50's ranch style, to new construction. The city of Loveland has a cute downtown centralized around the Little Miami River and Bike Trail. It's really pretty in the spring and summer, when the flowers on the bridge are in bloom. Loveland gives the impression of being quite a small town, but it really spreads out and blends into some of the other areas.

It has another central part of town, too, that has all the fast food restaurants, banks, gas stations, etc. There is a great Mexican restaurant in Loveland, El Picante. Try the fajitas.

The schools in Loveland are broken down into: Early childhood center(Pre& K), Primary(1-2), Elementary(3-4), Intermediate (5-6), Junior High (7-8), and Senior High School (9-12).

Loveland is a nice community with a lot to offer. Some similar communities in the area are Mason (a LOT of growth here), Lebanon, and you might also take a look at Blue Ash.