If I describe my perfect town, can you tell me where it is? (Columbus: best cities, transplants)

[katiecabot]

Hi everyone,

My family wants to relocate from Massachusetts to Ohio. We are looking for a nice, unpretentious Mid-Western lifestyle. I have list of particulars describing my "perfect town". Could you please look it over and let me know which areas I should be considering? So far I am thinking Shaker, Medina, and Lakewood, but I know that the locals will be able to look and my list and let me know if I'm on the mark or way off, and if there are other areas I should be considering.

Thanks so much!

Katie

My small town is a thriving “Main Street USA” kind of town. It’s not a tiny little small town, but rather a completely self sufficient large-small town or very small city.

There is a downtown business district, (larger than one block) with a combination of restaurants and NON TOURISTY shops. Some restaurants are casual, while others are upscale. A few of the shops can be touristy, but the majority are actual stores that residents of the town can shop at (five and dime, hardware, jewelry, barber shop, ice cream, blue plate café, pharmacy, dry cleaner, etc). The people of the community are friendly, regular everyday people, not pretentious. The schools are exceptional. The town is not depressed.

My town has:

A local movie theatre and a small historic hotel

A town square, with fountain and/or gazebo, surrounded by a business district

A community pool or beach

An active recreation department

Pond or lake where my son can fish

Tree lined streets of stately older homes

Friendly, regular everyday people, not pretentious

Community festivals, parades and outings

Block Parties

Live community theatre

“Walk to” activities and hangout for my older children

Access to a city

Climate: Four distinct seasons. Cold (not bitter) winters with average snowfall, not constant blizzards. Hot summers. Spring that lasts continually (not intermittent days here and there) from March through May. Falls with beautiful foliage and pumpkin /apple festivals.

[LancasterNative]

Delaware, Mt. Vernon, Granville, and my hometown of Lancaster all fit your description pretty nicely!

Worthington, Westerville and Pickerington maybe did at one time, but they're now all gobbled up into Columbus' ever-sprawling suburban mass.

The first set of towns I mentioned are all separate, independent cities apart from Columbus, but still within an hour's drive of the city.

BTW, a hearty welcome to Ohio!

[GoingMobile]

You've just described Bloomington, Indiana. Not Ohio, but only a few more hours away.

As far as mid-Ohio goes, I'm all ears as well!

[yet_another_cmh_guy]

I agree with Granville, good small college (Denison U) town. Oxford, in SW Ohio, is another like that, hosting Miami U. I listed it since you didn't say where in Ohio you wanted to move. Having a school in town attracts more goods and services to town, and as such makes economic ups and downs a little less noticeable. Pretentious? Nobody gets really pretentious in Ohio except in a few rich urban neighborhoods and burbs.

Weather: if you were looking at northern Ohio (Shaker Hts, Lakewood), take into account a long snowy winter and less spring; in fact, west of the Appalachians, there really isn't such a thing as a 'continuous spring' (except maybe in weird years like this one); on average, warm days and cool days will compete equally here. But yes, we definitely have 4 seasons.

Community festivals: the small town festivals are all about food, and if there's a state that has more food festivals than us, well... then it must be California. Maybe. And they don't have The Ohio State Fair, either, which is a big event of course.

Good luck in your search.

[DonnaTate]

Some of the cities you mentioned are near the lake - be prepared for lousy winters there!
If you're looking for somehting in central Ohio near Columbus, I like Westerville, it's got a small town feel with lots of shops and restaurants. The houses have character and it's just a nice place to live. You could try Mt. Vernon for some cheaper living, very scenic, but also far (about an hour) from the 'city'.

[UNT_Eagle]

If you don't mind travelling further south, I recommend Nashville, Tn area. There are some great cities/communities outside the Metro area and there are several transplants moving from all over the place. We would love to have you here. Any more questions, let me know.

[Diana4359]

Try Best Places to Live: Compare the Best Cities & Small Towns for You! it is helpful and cute.

[NewToCA]

I think Delaware, Lancaster and Newark are optimal choices in the central Ohio area.

https://www.city-data.com/city/Delaware-Ohio.html

https://www.city-data.com/city/Lancaster-Ohio.html

https://www.city-data.com/city/Newark-Ohio.html

[ogre]

I went to college in Delaware back in the '70's, and loved its genuine hometown feel. I've never been back, but am still in touch with some who have been, and I understand that Delaware still has a lot of the same quality, while now being a bit more upscale. It also has that self-sufficient, very-small-city collection of businesses, and viable, active downtown, that katiecabot described, another reason I really fell for Delaware. My only concern about recommending Delaware now is all the rapid growth in central Ohio, and the possibility that the town may soon be swallowed up by suburban sprawl.

Another nice feature the town had back when was that it was near a city (Columbus) but still just far enough away to avoid being blandly suburban. Some of Delaware's population did commute, but not enough people for this group to define the town's character. Plenty of people lived and worked right in town, enough so that it was not unusual to be strolling along a downtown street, or standing in line at the bank, and happen to encounter one of your friends, or a waitress from a restaurant you frequented, or a clerk from the supermarket where you bought your groceries, and to stop and chat briefly.

The presence of the college was a plus as well. Not only did this bring some culture to town, but it also added something to the atmosphere. Just the right size college as well--a small liberal arts school (Ohio Wesleyan)--large enough to add to the town's character, but small enough not to dominate the town, so Delaware avoided the overwhelming presence of freaky characters, and mobs of drunken students downtown every night, found in pure college towns.

Some nice tree-shaded neighborhoods, ranging in age from fairly new but established, to older and with an eclectic variety of big old houses with front porches. Back when, there was one small '50's-suburban-looking subdivision--probably a lot more of those now, most likely out on the edges of town, I'd guess, except now they're probably filled with McMansions rather than ranch houses. Don't know about now, but there did used to be a couple of sections that were older and kind of worn-looking, but no real slums, and to me, the variety of socioeconomic levels was part of that real-town feel that gave Delaware its charm.

But again, my one concern would be the possibility that Delaware will soon become just another suburb (well, that, and the lack of a town square complete with gazebo, the one item on katiecabot's list I'm sure Delaware does not have). I hope people in the area can give a better idea of where the sprawl factor stands now. If that doesn't seem to be an imminent threat, Delaware should definitely be on your short (or at least medium) list, katiecabot.

[ogre]

I'm thinking about your desire for a continuous spring. You mention that you'll be moving from Massachusetts. Having lived a long time in MA myself, I know about the kind of spring you say you DON'T want, given the number of years in MA when spring seems more like an extended winter mild spell than true spring.

I also know how New Englanders play up the idea that fickle weather is a special feature of New England. Well, they're a little off on that. That changeable kind of weather, especially in springtime, seems to be common to all places with four-seasons climates. This means that in Ohio you'll find some of that same unsettled springtime weather, when the world can't seem to make up its mind whether to keep winter going or settle once and for all into warm weather.

If you're flexible in where you can live, I'd say you'll find something closer to the kind of spring season you want in central Ohio than farther north, where it's likely to be more similar to what you're used to. I'm less familiar with southern Ohio, but would guess you'd find something similar to the central part of the state, if not maybe even something just a little bit more like what you're looking for.

I can tell you that in central Ohio most years you'll find that each stage of spring comes about two weeks earlier than it does in MA (unless you live on Cape Cod, where the climate is distinctly milder than in the rest of MA). This makes central OH's weather a little closer to the ideal climate you describe (though not perfect) since you get that extended-winter-mild-spell effect more in March and early April only. By early to mid April you settle into more of a variation between pleasantly cool and pleasantly warm (most of the time, anyway), and most years you'll start getting warm weather fairly consistently by the end of April. And, my experience was that once you got very far into May, it was just about unheard of to get those raw days that can happen in MA sometimes even in mid-June.

Another plus about that two-week head start on each stage of spring: For some reason, in central OH that quintessential springtime weather, with flowers blooming everywhere, started a couple of weeks earlier than it does in MA, but didn't end until about the same time it does in MA, so you get a few weeks of a real season when spring is in its full glory, less of the MA sort of spring where one thing blooms, then another, then something else, but only that VERY brief (blink and you'll miss it) moment when EVERYTHING is blooming with fresh life all at once.

Well, okay, I've gone on a while here about the one subject of weather (and focusing on only one season), but hey, I hope it's useful.