what do you hate about columbus (Toledo, Dayton: school, living, designs)

[streetcreed]

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As someone who used to live in Columbus, moved to the East Coast, and now lives in Cincinnati...

* Downtown Columbus is UGLY. Bland govt looking buildings, dorky Lego-set architecture of the new and newer buildings... Most of the history was demolished and replaced with "One Nationwide Plaza" type garbage.
* The Sprawl in Columbus is ridiculous and I don't care how nice it looks now... ...it'll be like Morse Rd in 20 years (Dublin Beware!).
* Everything in Columbus is required to revolve around OSU Football so if you could care less about OSU football it gets annoying after the first 30 days. I would compare it to the casinos in Vegas not allowing any other entertainment venues to infiltrate the Las Vegas Basin unless it revolves around gambling. I'm actually surprised that Columbus has an NHL franchise by the way.
* A 20-30 something yuppie in Columbus isn't necessarily someone who's well educated... 90%+ of the time it's a guy who works for their family business.

* The Evangelical Problem: If you're not a born again Evangelical Christian and you have no intention of becoming one... WATCH OUT. Evangelical Christians are all over metro Columbus, and when you work in an office with even 2-3 of those freaks it can be really annoying. When you work FOR an Evangelical Christian, it can be even worse.

My point with this subject: Evangelicals can be really, REALLY evil (they learn it in their mega-churches), so do your best to conceal your real views on reality when the chick in the next cubicle wears those ankle-legnth skirts, has Laura Ingalls Wilder hair, and just so happens to set the King James Bible out on her desk during the course of the workday.

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That description of Columbus is very dated what you fail to ignore is that Columbus changed a lot in the 1990s to now. The city is very liberal and the metro moderate. Columbus is one of the least fantatically religious cities in Ohio. You sound to be speaking of Dayton or Cincinnati in your description. Columbus has become very open minded and much more diverse and grew a lot of white collar jobs that higher many young professionals that do not work for some family business.

You describe the Columbus of before not today. I advise anyone using the above post for information with only a grain of salt. Someone who use to live in Columbus is always a bad judge of how the city is in 2008. Columbus is a city that changes way too much to listen to old advice.

I for one truely love how open minded and relaxed Columbus is for a major city. The actual central city of Columbus is very interesting and full of some artsy, hip neighborhoods. Downtown is not the best aspect of central city columbus (other than some cool older buildings and newer skyscrapers) the cities innercity neighborhoods are interesting and full of character, thats where its at.

[YoMikey617]

I've been to Columbus numerous times during the past year, and a number of friends of mine who USED TO live in Columbus and who have since moved back... ...they all tell me the same thing... COLUMBUS NEVER CHANGES. They just build more strip centers and bad tract housing.

And I don't buy the bit about "Columbus being more white collar while Cincinnati and Cleveland are more blue collar." I've lived in Columbus and Cincinnati and Cincinnati might have a lot of old vacant factories... ...but the money in Cincinnati is by far more prevalent and authentic. Ditto for Cleveland. Those glossy newer office buildings all over Columbus are all giant call centers, and at best call centers are "white collar" in a JC Penney Outlet kinda way.

[LancasterNative]

Yo, Mikey! Got some kudos for ya as well as some beefs...

Originally Posted by YoMikey617

* Downtown Columbus is UGLY. Bland govt looking buildings, dorky Lego-set architecture of the new and newer buildings... Most of the history was demolished and replaced with "One Nationwide Plaza" type garbage.

This is SOOO true, it sad/funny/disgusting all at once! Union Station, an elegant old Court House, some classic hotels and fine old commercial buildings have all met the same fate: demolition and replacement with piece-of-crap structures like the Borden Building. Blechk...

Stunning as it is, a certain famous local billionaire (*cough* Limited! *cough*) once even proposed to tear down the Ohio Theatre and "put up a real concert hall"! That trash-pile he erected at OSU (15th & High) should give us some clue what he might've had in mind.

Originally Posted by YoMikey617

* The Sprawl in Columbus is ridiculous and I don't care how nice it looks now... ...it'll be like Morse Rd in 20 years (Dublin Beware!).

I couldn't have said it any better! The sprawl is insane, and out of control. And the traffic it brings is totally maddening. Polaris is the new Northland, Easton is the new Continent, etc. Newness is all the rage (see Downtown, above) and as things get old, well....

Originally Posted by YoMikey617

* Everything in Columbus is required to revolve around OSU Football so if you could care less about OSU football it gets annoying after the first 30 days.

Omg, you're not kidding! OSU is like a religious cult around here. I love football (real football, i.e. the NFL, or the SEC in college), but the OSU stuff here is just ridiculous. Some of the antics just beg to be parodied on Comedy Central.

Originally Posted by YoMikey617

* The Evangelical Problem: If you're not a born again Evangelical Christian and you have no intention of becoming one... WATCH OUT. Evangelical Christians are all over metro Columbus...

Hmm, well...on this one I'd have to disagree, as I find quite the opposite is true. Speaking as a Christian with a Bible-based worldview, I find our kind to be a small (and receding) minority here in Cbus anymore. If anything, this city is a bastion of über-tolerant, anything-goes social liberalism. We are told we must accept and praise things that are abhorrent to us—or else be considered "bigoted" and "intolerant" and "backward" etc.

It really is bizarro-world anymore...and to find neighbors who share our traditional values, our kind have pretty much retreated to the far reaches of the metro. The only place you'd ever be likely to feel surrounded by Christians is...in the surrounding counties!

[LancasterNative]

Originally Posted by YoMikey617

COLUMBUS NEVER CHANGES. They just build more strip centers and bad tract housing.

Yep! I hear ya...

[Paddington]

I don't think sprawl is particularly bothersome anywhere in Ohio. I think most of the new suburban developments are tasteful, with good landscaping, and nice roads. If you want to see ugly sprawl, go to Texas.

[sftong]

I hate Columbus during the Winter days -- terrible traffic jam.

Sooner or later I am getting out of here -- unless you travel far away, there is No mountains, No lakes, no oceans, no history, no interesting culture, and bad weather. Really nothing exciting, except OSU football.

Not sure what others think, but the land-mark of Columbus is probably Easton Town mall with interesting design. Sad huh?

[Traveler87]

Originally Posted by sftong

I hate Columbus during the Winter days -- terrible traffic jam.

Sooner or later I am getting out of here -- unless you travel far away, there is No mountains, No lakes, no oceans, no history, no interesting culture, and bad weather. Really nothing exciting, except OSU football.

Not sure what others think, but the land-mark of Columbus is probably Easton Town mall with interesting design. Sad huh?

Are you serious? No lakes, no history and no interesting culture? Surely you do not know Columbus history, Ohio history or geography very well lol.

[streetcreed]

Originally Posted by YoMikey617
COLUMBUS NEVER CHANGES. They just build more strip centers and bad tract housing.

Not true.
Go to Downtown Columbus
Columbus has been building its innercity and adding quality innercity housing for years now. Columbus has a beautiful genrified central city and since Coleman took office columbus downtown's population has grown by 110 percent. That is the first population gain in downtown since the 1950s.

Columbus is not only a city of "sprawl." Every large metro has sprawl, Columbus' city limits just happens to also include there newer sprawling areas. However, the city has stopped annexing large amounts of land and many large housing developers (tract housing developers) have left the city and metro because the area is no longer building large amounts of tract housing for numerous reasons.

A healthy metro has a growing central city and a growing suburb/metro region outerring. As long as there are jobs and money there will be growth in both sections of metro (central and outerring.) Columbus is just this kind of city there is growth in the central city/downtown and outside. During the 1980s and earlier this was not the case as much, but that can be said for almost the entire country.

Wake up people be proud to live in Columbus, maybe if you left your homes in the middle of all this sprawl and came into Clintonville, German Village, the short north, downtown, grandview you wouldn't feel so depressed?

[alliswell]

I have lived in various cities in the Columbus area my whole life. I have no clue what he means by the evil evangelicals. You only see "Laura Engles" hair if you drive out to the Der Dutchman for the insane (in a good way) Amish buffet.

We do have an affinity for all that is new and shiny. Guess it would be different if our old and ugly would have been interesting to begin with, but I don't think that was the case in most instances of tearing down the old and putting up the new. I am currently looking to relocate to New York. Plenty of culture and plenty of old to go with it, but make no mistake, there is plenty of ugly there too. They leave their "old & ugly" alone when they probably should not. Old does not = culture or better in some twisted sense. Not by a long shot. Long Island in particular could use that hurricane they keep takling about just to clean the place up some. {{{{shudder}}}

As far as suburban sprawl, at least they put in sewers, sidewalks and street lamps to illuminate all those bad tract homes around here. May be cookie-cutter, but it's functional and overall nice-looking. Perhaps not stellar stop in your tracks awe inspiring architecture, but it works well.

Traffic? Oh please. Columbus does not have a traffic problem and the people here have not one clue what real, big city traffic is. Which is a good thing because I do agree Columbus is not bursting at the seams with good drivers. I think Bobby Rahal might have been the only person in Ohio that knew how to drive - ever.

Does anyone know anybody who spends more than 30 minutes in their car getting to work - downtown or around town? I don't and I personally never have had to spend more than 20 minutes or so getting to work. Most people drive 15 - 20 minutes max. I think a commute over 30 minutes is quite rare.

One more thing, GO BUCKS! :-)

[NY-escapee]

[quote=alliswell;2905482]Traffic? Oh please. Columbus does not have a traffic problem and the people here have not one clue what real, big city traffic is.

Does anyone know anybody who spends more than 30 minutes in their car getting to work - downtown or around town? I don't and I personally never have had to spend more than 20 minutes or so getting to work. Most people drive 15 - 20 minutes max. I think a commute over 30 minutes is quite rare.[quote]

Excellent point, Alliswell. I lived in southern CT (Milford) for 5 yrs, and Rockland Co, NY for 3yrs...there are no "traffic problems" in Columbus. And I have to say that your point about less than 30 min commutes is dead-on. I persaonlly think the highway and traffic system in Columbus is excellent. From Dublin to Reynoldsburg, Westerville to Grove City, or anywhere around 270 to downtown...I've never been in the car more than 30-35 min.

I am partial to the SEC, too, though...LancasterNative. Go UK Wildcats!