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Greetings all, can anyone tell me anything about this location. I know that Fairport Harbor is right on Lake Erie and that Painesville is a couple of miles from there, and that Fairport Harbor has a rather small population of about 3500 and Painesville is about 18-20,000. Other than that I know nothing whatever about these two cities - or about Ohio. I came across a "historic" home in FH recently and am intrigued. Can anyone tell me about he "personality" of these two towns? Are there actual waves on Lake Erie like there are in an oceanside community? )I thought I saw someone advertising surfing lessons and was surprised as I did not think that inland lakes, even very big ones!, had actual waves). I am interested in data on weather (espec. in winter), the economy, arts, racial diversity, etc.
Thanks all. Look forward to reading any and all comments you may have.
My hometown is Painesville, Ohio so I can share some insight. Fairport Harbor is a very small bedroom community on the shores of Lake Erie. FH does have a lot of tourism in the Summer due to the MetroPark beachfront park and the Lighthouse, it is a very nice park and beach. Painesville is the County seat of Lake County and is a typical suburban community. Downtown Painesville is quite nice and historic. Lake Erie College, a small liberal arts college is in Painesville. Painesville is a middle class community and is close to Mentor, which is a bigger city with a lot more retail and amenities. The Mentor, Painesville area is only about 30 minutes to downtown Cleveland, which is a plus. It does get very cold and snows a lot in Lake County and especially Geauga and Ashtabula Counties to the South and East. Overall I liked growing up and living in Painesville but never liked the Northern style of living. Lake County and other areas of Northeast Ohio resemble New England in architecture, geography and culture due to being settled by the Western Reserve of Connecticut. Northeast Ohio is a bit different than most areas of Ohio.
Lake Erie does have some "waves", but usually during the Autumn and Winter. I have seen some brave people out there surfing, but it is obviously nothing like surfing on the oceans and I would imagine it is also quite dangerous.
Thanks guys, this is very helpful. The area does look quite charming. I am a little concerned about the size of FH, however, because with only 3100 population, there probably aren't a lot of economic opportunities or chain stores of any kind (like a major grocery chain or a Home Depot, for example), hence my interest in Painesville as well. It seems like there are plenty of these things within driving a short distance however. Is there public transportation?
Waves are knocked down in Fairport Harbor by a large breakwall. It has a short dock walk out into the lake and a famous lighthouse. The last couple years FH has hosted a tall ship festival, but I suspect that will move back into downtown Cleveland. Mentor Headlands Beach State Park does have surfers in stormy weather, even into winter using wet suits. Do a search for "Cleveland surfers." Lake Erie is relatively shallow and so has surprisingly big waves.
Even more cool, if Lake Erie freezes sufficiently (say in February around President's Day in a cold winter), you can hike a mile or more out onto Lake Erie at Mentor Headlands and explore shore ice, which sometimes can rise many feet.
There are no chain restaurants in Fairport, but at least one good family restaurant. Grand River Village on the other side of the Grand River has a couple very good fish houses. There are chain restaurants such as McDonald's on Richmond Road in Painesville, 5- to 10-minutes from FH. Check out the Wikipedia articles and C-D for demographics in Painesville and FH. I would label both cities lower middle class, but with pockets of poverty. Painesville is racially diverse and generally tolerant (but search cleveland.com and news-herald.com for articles about immigrant policies in Painesville).
The Route 20 strip just west of Painesville (beginning with a large Giant Eagle supermarket) offers several groceries into Mentor (Sav-a-Lot, Marc's, Aldi, Target, Wal-Mart, Heinen's, and, soon, a Meier's). The Giant Eagle is a 10- to 15-minute drive from Fairport Harbor, depending upon FH location.
Mentor is the sixth largest commercial center in Ohio, with about every big box store except a Costco, several strip malls and a large enclosed mall.
Lake County has great parks (check out the Lake Metroparks) and Holden Arboretum, one of the best in the U.S.
Painesville offers many historic, large homes (it used to be a major retail and commercial center and is the county seat), especially on Bank St., South State St. and Mentor Ave., often relatively cheap especially if willing to buy a fixer-up property. Perhaps check out the impressive brick house just south of Joughin's Hardware (the last of old Painesville and a must visit in the area) on South State St.; it's a relocated former funeral home that has been on the market for years.
Facebook has a significant Painesville page inclusive of Fairport Harbor.
Fairport Harbor has a small school system, which is the pride of the village but also a financial burden. Painesville Local School District rebuilt all of its schools within the last decade and offers a good AP program (I talked to a parent recently whose son had passed four AP tests and was applying to Ivy League schools) but low state ratings because of a large Mexican immigrant population (Painesville has a Mexican grocery store and good Mexican restaurants, and a surfeit of talented tradesmen often willing to work off the books). Painesville has relatively high real property tax rates to pay off the new school buildings.
There also are historic homes on the old pioneer/stagecoach roads, such as North and South Ridge Roads and Johnnycake Ridge Road, in Painesville and Concord Townships. Get a Lake County map at the AAA office in Mentor. The back roads in places like Kirtland Hills, in the Holden Arboretum area, are gorgeous.
Check out Mentor and Kirtland in this thread. See Lake Erie beaches.
If you're not familiar with Cleveland, Lake County is about half an hour from University Circle, one of the nation's best cultural districts. See post 3 here:
Painesville has arts and crafts show in its Public Square, there are cultural events at Lake Erie College and occasionally at some of the churches, such as the Painesville United Methodist Church. Check out events at the Lake Metroparks. Also check out the Willloughby Fine Arts Center. Many persons in Lake County go to Cleveland PlayhouseSquare for theater and other performances.
Laketran is a fairly robust mass transit system serving Lake County with a very popular point-to-point shuttle service as well as fixed routes, which serve both Fairport Harbor and Painesville (check Google transit).
My hometown is Painesville, Ohio so I can share some insight. Fairport Harbor is a very small bedroom community on the shores of Lake Erie. FH does have a lot of tourism in the Summer due to the MetroPark beachfront park and the Lighthouse, it is a very nice park and beach. Painesville is the County seat of Lake County and is a typical suburban community. Downtown Painesville is quite nice and historic. Lake Erie College, a small liberal arts college is in Painesville.
I don't agree that Fairport Harbor is a bedroom community nor that Painesville is a typical suburban community. Most residents of both communities are retired or employed locally in Lake County. Both cities were significant communities long before Lake County was suburbanized by the building of the Route 2 and I-90 freeways. E.g., check out the relative historical census numbers of Fairport Harbor, Painesville and Mentor here:
In 1950, the population of Fairport Harbor was greater than that of Mentor, and Painesville's population was six times greater than that of Mentor. Certainly, both communities have subsequently been engulfed by the Greater Cleveland urban sprawl. Mentor and surrounding townships, once the home of nurseries, farms, and orchards, now have been greatly or even completely developed. In recent decades, even some remaining areas of vacant land have been developed in Painesville and multi-story apartments have been built, increasing the city's population by a few thousand persons.
Fairport's beach assets and harbor certainly are not typical community assets in Ohio, even in northeastern Ohio. Fairport Harbor has one of the better beaches in northeastern Ohio, where many beaches are either private or left in their wild states. It has a distinct village downtown area which is both charming and perhaps larger than expected of a similar sized community.
Many of the settlers in Fairport Harbor were Finnish or Hungarian. Both cultures are actively celebrated in the village, although almost all residents are thoroughly Americanized. Fairport Harbor celebrates its ethnic heritage much more than most Ohio communities, including Painesville, perhaps equaled only by Cleveland, with its famed Cultural Gardens.
Painesville with a vibrant liberal arts college, historic downtown architecture, Grand River recreational assets, and large Mexican immigrant (whose members initially worked in the large Perry Township nurseries east of Painesville) population, also is not a typical American suburban community. As a county seat, and one-time significant retail center, it has never had the mindset of a suburban community. Until 1830, it compared with Cleveland in population.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KY_Transplant
It does get very cold and snows a lot in Lake County and especially Geauga and Ashtabula Counties to the South and East.
Due to global warming, winters are much more mild in Lake County than in decades past.
See this thread for a good description of life during a current contemporary winter in a Cleveland suburb. Beginning with post 6, there is a robust discussion of the impact of climate change on the area's weather.
Painesville has good snow removal services, especially following the completion of a storm. All side streets typically will be cleared during most storms, and within a few hours of the completion of the most severe storm. This is typical of most northeastern Ohio communities and of major road arteries, which also are often pre-treated with salt or other chemical melting agents.
The City of Painesville utilizes sidewalk plows as well, not typical of all northeastern Ohio communities. I've not been to Fairport Harbor during the winter so I don't know about sidewalk plows there. Perhaps ask at village hall if that is a concern. For all but a few week of contemporary winters, sidewalks likely could be walked easily even if sidewalk plows aren't used, but they would be more icy. Sidewalk plows allow the sun to melt ice and remaining snow more easily.
Of course, many bedroom suburbs, including in Greater Cleveland, don't have sidewalks. I doubt that few, if any, neighborhoods in Fairport Harbor and Painesville lack sidewalks.
Painesville has a very good public library. Perhaps uniquely in Ohio, any Ohio resident can join any public library without charge. E.g., Fairport Harbor residents can use Morley Library in Painesville, and residents of both cities can join the very excellent Cleveland Public Library.
Thanks WRNative. Each day, I'm more impressed with these postings. They are really helpful. I grew up in the upper midwest with LOTS of snow and cold and do not relish doing that again. (I try to forget about global warming as it's impacts are so distressing.) I could do a month or so of cold weather but not heaps of snow that you can't walk or drive through for 6 months, so it's helpful to know that the plows are out in full force to make it navigable and that the temps are reasonable.
I found your population statistics for the two areas very interesting. I think I truly prefer a smaller town rather than a huge metropolis - people are often friendlier, costs are often lower, and neighborhoods are often better kept, but realistically if one wants or needs a job, you almost have to go to the bigger towns. I'm intrigued with Fairport Harbor for the reason that it is small - and very close to the water - and celebrates it's ethnic heritage. I love that! But I also appreciate what a bigger city has to offer (cultural amenities and recreational opportunities as well as job opportunities). It's a tough decision. I'm trying to avoid the "typical American suburbs" - i.e., cookie cutter neighborhoods, which I think are so boring. I have lived for the past couple of decades in an area where ethnicities are diverse and cultural venues are everywhere, and to me, that's interesting and what makes life worthwhile - interacting and learning from people from all over the globe.
The two towns sound like good possibilities to keep at the top of my relocation list. And I have to give you all kudos for your great postings. In my search for the best relocation spot, I have looked at a lot of postings from areas all over the U.S. and was not that happy to find, in many of them, disgruntled, unhappy, negative comments from people. I was about to give up thinking that Nobody Is Happy Anywhere and wondering what the heck I'm going to do, when I came across FH/P. You all seem to be positive people who enjoy your communities and that says a lot. I tried NeighborhoodScout.com for awhile, which was free and gave me a lot of good information, but they are now charging $40 a month to just log in. No thanks.
I think I'm going to have to personally visit a few places before I make up my mind. Many thanks all of you for your great information.
I grew up in Painesville in the 1960's when the downtown was still somewhat vibrant. Due to rampant suburbanization coming from Cleveland during that period, the retail scene declined to almost nothing as a result of a major regional mall being built a few miles away in Mentor. Painesville has been trying to reinvent itself ever since. At least people are moving back. I believe the population is now the highest it's ever been, and one of the most diverse in Ohio (a large Mexican population--best tacos in Ohio!), even more so than among a lot of the state's bigger cities, and a lot of cosmetic improvements are taking place downtown, but with only a few businesses moving in. But it still maintains a lot of its historic character. Here's an aerial video that was recently posted and a least you can get an idea of what the town looks like. Just be prepared: a lot of the parking lots you see scattered around used to contain many historic buildings that were demolished as a result of an ill-conceived "urban renewal" plan going back 50 years. But I guess that's another thread unto itself! lol
edit: if you look to the middle of top of the video as the camera is panning over the town near the park you'll see roughly where Fairport Harbor is, and just beyond it, Lake Erie. And speaking of Fairport, it seems to be getting rather trendy. One of the hottest new restaurants in the Cleveland area is apparently there now, in what used to be an enclave of working class Finns and Hungarians with, say more pedestrian tastes (I should know, being a member of the former group--ha ha)...https://www.facebook.com/ThePompadourBar/
It's interesting that tripadvisor has it ranked second to Fairport Family Restaurant, which has good perch on some days. It's apparently much cheaper, an important factor for many in FH/Painesville area.
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Pompadour
