Why do some many residents of ohio move down south (Cincinnati: transplants, teaching jobs)

[rellort]

I have been doing a study on transplants of one living area to another. Why do so many residents of Ohio move down south?

[costello_musicman]

"Grass is greener?"

Most people will probably say weather who have moved.

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by rellort

I have been doing a study on transplants of one living area to another. Why do so many residents of Ohio move down south?

Job opportunities. Then weather, maybe.

Many (although not all) Ohioans who do move down south find that it isn't all they expected to be, however, and they end up missing "home".

[CortlandGirl79]

My brother moved to NC for a teaching job and there are probably at least 10 other teacher in his country from northeast Ohio alone. Ohio has a ton of colleges and many college grads are teachers. Our state is saturated with people that have teaching degrees coupled w/old teachers that cant' retire because their pension took a hit in the stock market, plus they make pretty good money.

[ryeager9]

Originally Posted by andrew61

Job opportunities. Then weather, maybe.

Many (although not all) Ohioans who do move down south find that it isn't all they expected to be, however, and they end up missing "home".

Ditto this. I moved south during the recession of the early 90s when I was laid off from my job in Akron. I was in my 20s and decided to use that opportunity to experience life outside of Ohio. I always knew that I would move back one day and I still plan to.

[mshultz]

Because Lake Erie keeps them from moving north?

Seriously though, It is jobs and weather. The times of high-paying blue collar jobs that attracted people from the South ended decades ago. Ohio had 24 electoral votes at two different periods in the past. Now we have 16, and I do not see this trend stopping, let alone reversing. Ohio is not losing population, just growing at a slower pace than average for the nation.

I suspect that more retirees move south than working people. A good retirement income without the need for a job really opens up opportunities as far as living in a better climate. The places with a mild climate (Pacific coast, southern Appalachians) have high housing costs, though. Most of us would have to put up with hotter summers in order to have milder winters.

Since Ohio winters have unrelenting bitter cold and snow, few people have any desire to move further north. And since northeast Ohio summers are mild, moving north does not gain much in summer, either. So moving north does not result in better summer weather, just more biting insects.

Here are a couple of quotes I have come upon while web surfing:
"Nobody retires and moves north."
"God must really hate northeast Ohio for the weather to be this bad."

[Ohioan58]

In the Dayton and Cincinnati area, a lot of this comes from vestigial Appalachian roots and the desire for a "real country" cultural environment. Appalachians I grew up around in Dayton view Ohio as sort of an outpost of New Jersey (in many real ways it actually is, starting with the founder of Dayton himself), hate the cultural values of the northern US in general, and want to be in the south for its own sake. That southern/appy bias used to be very, very strong in SW Ohio - if you didn't drawl around here it was regarded as though you were putting on airs and you would be treated like kind of a fop in some quarters.

Anyway, it's sort of a regional "mind meld" / hive mind experience - the south is considered by some in Ohio to be self evidently superior and God's country.

[OhioJB]

#1 - Jobs. People had to move where the jobs moved to, at least the ones that moved south rather than out of the country.

#2 - Weather. Ohio doesn't normally get as cold as places like North Dakota and northern Minnesota, but it does get cold enough to bother people as they age. Plus, people get tired of having to deal with icy, snowy roads during winter. You see alot of snowbirds in Florida because people here want to avoid the winters, but like coming back for Spring through Fall.

#3 - Taxes. Some retirees move to states that are tax friendlier for them.

#4 - Scenery. There are people who want to live by the ocean, by the Rocky Mountains, or somewhere like the Pacific NW.

I'm sure there are other reasons, but those are the ones that jump out at me.

[RememberMee]

I only hope they stay South through all the heat waves and water shortages. Return of the "refugees" itching for Phoenix or Atlanta like "development" would be truly disastrous for this land. I do like the land mass currently occupied by the state of Ohio "on the cellular level", even NW Ohio violated by excessive acreages of corn and soy beans resonates with me. It's weird thing, as soon as I cross Indiana or PA or MI border (visually and "culturally" identical to adjacent areas of Ohio) that "cellular" feeling of well being is usually gone pretty fast. I wonder if there is scientific basis for this interaction of body/brain? with a particular geographical location. I used to live in a hip with tourists, retirees and career minded scientists part of East Tennessee, not only I didn't experience any sense of "cellular well being", in some areas I felt anxiety with my skin, so to speak.

I don't think that people populating state of Ohio represent some sort of unique "culture", everywhere culture is approximately same. Culture of status, survival, poverty, old age etc. anxiety guided by mass cult that give us ideas about what's high status and hip. I know for sure I don't like Ohio for its "culture" and people. Status driven culture explains why many (not spiritually broken) folks leave Ohio for higher status areas (as seen on TV, literally). Unfortunately, spiritually broken folks remain in Ohio to drown their perceived low status in self-destructive behavior. Rural areas are especially sad in this regard.

Perception is reality, and mass cult guided people just don't perceive Ohio as a high status destination. Selfishly, I prefer this sort of perception

[5Lakes]

Mostly due to jobs, weather, and a "grass is greener" mentality.

From what I have seen a lot of teachers moved down south for jobs due to a shortage down there combined with a lack of teaching jobs in Ohio. I also noticed that a lot of blue-collar workers have moved down south as Ohio has lost it's blue-collar industries.

For some reason many people from Ohio are particularly obsessed with the Carolinas. Not sure why that is really; and I have had conversations with many people in rural Ohio who complain about lack of work in their area and want to move to Charlotte, while never considering major cities in their own state. Herd mentality I suppose. Ironically Ohio is currently doing better economically than most of the south right now, as many of those blue collar jobs were related to the bogus housing boom that we had.

Originally Posted by mshultz

Here are a couple of quotes I have come upon while web surfing:
"Nobody retires and moves north."
"God must really hate northeast Ohio for the weather to be this bad."

Well God must hate a lot of the civilized world then, because there are a lot of places that have weather similar to NE Ohio. Honestly, people in Ohio just like to complain a lot.