Question about New Albany Subdivisions (Columbus, Upper Arlington: transplants, for sale, house)

[Emikej]

This is for anyone with good information about New Albany in particular.

My wife and I visited New Albany as a potential place for a relocation, and came away impressed. The layout was great, schools strong, and while not overwhelmingly diverse (we are AA), we saw great relationships between children of different ethnicities, which is very important to us.

One thing that we noticed is that each neighborhood seems to have its own look and feel. We visited New Albany Links and we really impressed by the family-feel of the community (our kids are 3 and 1 so this is important). Parents and kids were out and about, children playing outside together, etc. However, we visited other communities such as Pickett Place, Landsdowne, Tidewater, and Fenway, and the feel was different. The neighborhoods were quiet, and didn't upon first glance seem to have the same "family" feel. Fenway in particular seemed "stuffy" - lots of what appeared to be nannies with children in strollers, wives out working out, no group play that we saw among kids, etc.

I ask the question b/c some of the homes in those communities had amenities more aligned to our tastes than in New Albany Links. The Links homes are definitely nice, but the other communities seem to offer larger properties that from the outside appear to be slightly more upscale.

My first question - did we just incorrectly read the vibe of the other communities? Are they more family-oriented than we realize? If we are right, are there any subdivisions that have the family-friendly feel of New Albany Links, but offer properties similar to the other communities? The happiness/comfort for our children is priority number 1, but if we can get that plus some additional space and other amenities, that would be a win-win for us.

Thanks.

[Cbus76]

I think you had a fairly accurate read of the communities you visited. New Alabny Links is very family-oriented and is a nice area. It is a little bit removed from the central part of New Albany however, and does not have a lot of georgian brick homes that you'd find closer to the country club area. The one plus to the location of the Links is that it's close to Bevelhymer Park which is where soccer, baseball and lacrosse is played for the New Albany little leagues.

Pickett Place is definitely geared more toward empty nesters as the lots are small and I've not seen too many children in there (though there are some). Lansdowne is a new subdivision, but I couldn't tell you how many families are there. Tidewater is a smaller subdivision that like the Links is a bit removed from the central part of New Albany. Fenway does have some very high-end housing, so it wouldn't surprise me if you saw nannies, but I don't know that means it's necessarily not a family-friendly area. Some other areas you may want to consider in the country club area are Planter's Grove, Pembrooke and North of Woods - all seem to have lots of families, nice homes, and a solid community feel.

[behindenemylines]

Great assessments. From what I have heard from my friends in Landsdowne, Fenway and other country club communities is that people keep a bit more to themselves than neighborhoods like the Links, Hampsted Village and North of Woods. With that said, I go running through most of the neighborhoods in NA and there are plenty of pockets of friendly family activity going on in even the most prestigious neighborhoods so it mainly depends on the neighbors closest to you.

As Cbus76 said, the Links are close to Bevelhymer but otherwise are kind of out on an island as opposed to many other neighborhoods which are within walking distance to most of New Albany's amenities. That may not be important to you but it is to some. If you do like the neighborhood, there does seem to be some variance in the sizes of the homes depending on what phase of building it was built during.

I'll second Cbus76 again and suggest you take a look at North of Woods. You should be able to find a bit more in a house there than the Links, still have a family friendly community and you are within walking distance to most everything. There is also a new neighborhood called Ackerly Park that is an extension of Upper Fenway that is located very close to Market Street that I believe still has lots for sale if building is an option.

Most of the neighborhoods in New Albany are really wonderful places to live, its just a matter of finding the one that suits you best.

[Jammer0101]

The Links and hampstead definitely have plenty of kids!!! Some of the NACC neighborhoods do too. If you drive down Lambton Park or Olmstead you're not going to see kids darting across the road. Not sure if that's because none live there or they're just too busy. My guess is that the more expensive the home, the more likely there is to be older kids and teens. I know it's a gereralization but not many 29 year old couples with a baby can buy a $1,000,000 home. If you look at the little pockets in the nacc that have smaller homes, green space and dead end streets(or not heavily traveled) then you will find more kids than you know what to do with North of Woods, Brandon, Fenway and Planter's Grove all have sections like that. Let me know if you want specific street names. Picket place has kids but definitely geared towards singles and empty nesters. I've heard that Landsdowne has a lot of kids now which it didn't before. I used to live in Fenway and there weren't many kids on my street, but I could hear plenty from one street over(where the homes were smaller and had a lot of stay at home moms/dads).

[Emikej]

I can't thank the 3 of you enough for your responses. Seriously. The information that you provided is tremendously helpful.

While I don't think we are looking for million dollar homes (I'll leave that to the 29 year olds :-D) something along the lines of the 4-sided brick Georgians would be more aligned to our tastes.

Another question, and I hope this isn't inappropriate. Per my earlier comment, when we visited New Albany, we really enjoyed seeing racial/ethnic engagement and interaction. We are equally against raising our children in an all-black environment as we are against raising them someplace where they would feel excluded. We spent some time in the Starbucks, and the thing that made ours jaws hit the floor was how well integrated everything seemed. Three kids would walk in, 2 white, 1 Indian. Then 4 would walk in, 1 black, 1 asian, 2 white. Another group, 1 Indian, 1 black, 1 white. It happened over and over, and was very enlightening for us. As you can imagine, Atlanta, and Georgia in general, can be "interesting" in that way, and we do not want to make the investment to move to New Albany, only to find out that the comfort between people of different races and ethnicities is not as ideal as we believe. So my question - is what we observed really how it is? Are there any issues regarding race or ethnicity there? I have friends who don't live in New Albany but do live in Columbus, and they have suggested that New Albany really is nice in that way. Their perception is that ethnicity is a non-issue there vs their perceptions of Upper Arlington, Bexley, and Dublin to some extent.

Lastly - does New Albany have it's own website or forum by chance? I would love to be able to understand development plans, community concerns, key events taking place, etc.

Thanks again for your help.

[Jammer0101]

Well, I'm not going to lie. New Albany as a whole is a very "white". I hate to put it that way, but it is. It's actually one of the things that really bothered me about it. In some ways I felt as though it wasn't a good representation of the world for my kids to see. However, I never heard or witnessed any racial issues amongst children or adults in town. Never!!! Black, purple, brown...if you live there, you will have no issues with that sort of thing...but you might feel a little lost in the lack of diversity. The Midwest definitely does not share the same views as the south I hope I'm making sense!!

I don't believe there is any kind of new Albany forum. You could search "new Albany" on this forum to get a sense of how people are there and how people feel about it.

[behindenemylines]

What you have witnessed is common place in New Albany. I have lived in numerous cities in several states and have found New Albany to have the most pleasing amount of interaction among diverse groups of people by far. True, if you break down the percentages there are plenty of areas made up of more diverse populations but I have never lived in a place that is as harmonious as New Albany. In our (almost) three years here it has been a complete non-issue. New Albany is a fairly new area and most people - regardless of race, religion or ethnic background - have moved here from elsewhere because they want a good place to raise a family. That's a pretty good starting point when it comes to finding common ground.

Here are a few websites you might find helpful:

New Albany, Ohio

New Albany Chamber

New Albany Economic Development

[Cbus76]

I've never witnessed any sort of racial issues in New Albany. New Albany is a suburb that includes many transplants from outside the Columbus area, and as such, I think that leads to an environment where most anyone is accepted as lots of people are sort of new to the area. While New Albany itself is not overly diverse, many areas that surround New Albany are more diverse (like Gahanna and those areas closer to I-270), so you see a lot of diversity in the general vicinity.

Here is a link to the racial profile of the New Albany schools as of 2009-2010 - http://www.napls.us/wp-content/uploa...-2009-2010.pdf. As you can see, the district is 10% Asian, 6.4% Black, 4.4% Multiracial and 2% Hispanic. There is also a fairly large Jewish community in New Albany.

[Emikej]

Originally Posted by Jammer0101

Well, I'm not going to lie. New Albany as a whole is a very "white". I hate to put it that way, but it is. It's actually one of the things that really bothered me about it. In some ways I felt as though it wasn't a good representation of the world for my kids to see.

I wanted to refer to it like that, but didn't want anyone to think negatively. For me, I don't care if it is "white" per se, as inclusion matters most to my wife and me. I grew up in schools where I was 1 of 5 minorities with 30 classmates, but my experience was great b/c of how inclusive people were. I never felt different per se, and that is the key. I have also lived in areas that were "black" and can't say I had any more connectivity with people simply b/c we shared that physical trait. In fact, some of my experiences were worse, but don't want to generalize.

Sounds like New Albany has the right mix of culture and engagement, which is awesome. I was hoping I would get that type of feedback.

[Emikej]

By the way, just wanted to thank each of you for the information that you provided. Went a long way in helping us finalize our decision regarding a potential move to the area.