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Old 12-08-2009, 11:58 PM
 
Location: Denver, Colorado
8 posts, read 21,083 times
Reputation: 13

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Hello,

I'm currently contemplating a move from Denver, CO, to the Columbus, OH, area to take a consulting job. I'd be traveling a good bit throughout a church district comprising the western edge of Pennsylvania, all of West Virginia, and the northern and eastern two-thirds of Ohio. Because I will be setting up my office at home, I have a choice of where "home" might be. My two first considerations are Pittsburgh, PA, and Columbus, OH.

While I suppose I'll be spending a good amount of time on the road (like Jack Kerouac!), I'd like the place I call "home" to be ethnically, racially, economically, culturally, and religiously diverse. Creativity and the arts are also big draws for me, so what time I spend "at home" would be occupied with theatre (especially non-Broadway stuff--more "black-box" and experimental), music (classical, jazz, ethnic/folk), and visual arts...I have advanced degrees (and yes, still some interest) in art and architectural history and "divinity" (theological training).

Since I'd be away frequently, I'd be looking for a secure rental--an apartment/townhouse or high-rise place that's managed, in an urban environment. I don't do very well in the suburbs!

I'd appreciate any insight, opinions, knowledge, experience, or even biases anyone might share regarding Columbus and/or Pittsburgh!

I've also posted this on the Columbus forum....
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Old 12-09-2009, 12:37 AM
 
43,011 posts, read 108,004,288 times
Reputation: 30721
Pittsburgh has more culture arts than Columbus, but not the diversity you want.

Columbus is a beautiful city. I don't have anything bad to say about it. (That's rare for me on here!)

You'll just have to decide what you want more----cultural arts or diversity.
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Old 12-09-2009, 06:35 AM
 
20,273 posts, read 33,003,811 times
Reputation: 2911
So Hopes is going to give me a hard time for my local boosterism, but I think the East End section of Pittsburgh could be a good fit for you. The East End is where a lot of the major hospitals and universities (including Pitt and CMU) are located, plus it is convenient for Downtown, and overall it contains a pretty diverse population, including clusters of arts-oriented people (particularly in some specific areas, which I can elaborate on a bit if you would like).

I'm only somewhat familiar with Columbus so I don't want to compare too much, so I'll just say that while Columbus is certainly nice, Pittsburgh feels to me like a significantly larger, older, more architecturally and culturally dense city, which I think is inevitable since although Columbus has been growing recently while Pittsburgh has not, for a long time Pittsburgh (in the sense of the urbanized area and not just the city itself) was much larger, and it has a legacy from that time that is still quite apparent.
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Old 12-09-2009, 06:47 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh area
9,912 posts, read 24,645,588 times
Reputation: 5163
Certain areas and aspects of Columbus are appealing. Two particular neighborhoods stand out to me there: the Short North and German Village. The former is probably a more useful urban environment, walkable to some businesses, etc. and I would think somewhat multicultural. Not sure about many rental buildings, etc. because....

...Columbus is a spread-out midwestern city. The urban area is small, and the desirable urban area is, from what I know, even smaller. Those areas encompass some of the older parts of the city and as I recall are filled often with single-family houses, although I think there are the occasional small apartment buildings. Columbus definitely has its high points and some amenities, but I would agree with Hopes, more cultural and arts stuff going on here.

Diversity, hm. To me neither place is particularly ethnically, racially or religiously diverse. They have their pockets. Columbus has a really gigantic university; Pittsburgh has several that probably together don't add up to the faculty and student draw of OSU. Columbus may have had a little more actual immigration in recent times. (I'm flying a bit by the seat of my pants here, so correct me if I'm wrong. I've been a regular visitor to and our company still does business in Columbus, but I haven't lived there.) But overall? Not much. But if you park yourself in certain areas, around the university, in the Short North, etc. you will see some diversity in those regards. Same for Pittsburgh, though. The east city neighborhoods including Oakland, Shadyside, Squirrel Hill have some. But the overall regions, I would think would not be particularly diverse. In fact your entire district overall probably isn't that diverse in those ways if you take it as a whole. But some diversity is there if you seek it out.

Columbus has a larger city population, but this is spread out over a larger city area. The metro area of Pittsburgh remains larger than the metro area of Columbus. (I didn't look it up; if that has changed correct me! I'd be very surprised though.) The smaller are within the City of Pittsburgh and also it being older and having the challenging topography with all the hills and rivers means that we have denser urban neighborhoods.

Columbus may be a beautiful city in some ways, but in the center is the ugliest state capitol building. Hehe. Anyway, I would think your interests plus not doing well in a more suburban environment points you more towards Pittsburgh. But, perhaps because I don't live in Columbus I am missing things. (Might be curious enough to go to the Columbus forum and see what they say.) Note, getting to the far tips of WV is somewhat difficult from both places but quite possibly easier from Pittsburgh. Drive from here to Columbus is about 3 hours. To Cleveland is about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Charleston WV is maybe 3.5 hours? Maybe not quite that much. Of course there are smaller and more remote areas of all the states (well, probably more Ohio and WV since I-79 goes right up the western edge of PA) that will be difficult to get to from anywhere.

Please ask if more questions and please let us know what you decide.
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Old 12-09-2009, 08:16 AM
 
249 posts, read 609,282 times
Reputation: 136
Columbus is growing and continues to grow as many fortune 500 companies call it home. The university presence draws a lot of young people here who eventually make columbus home after graduating, something that isn't happening in Pittsburgh. As far as racial diversity there are alot of Africans Indians and Latinos here in columbus. The asian population is growing rapidly as well.
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Old 12-09-2009, 08:17 AM
 
43,011 posts, read 108,004,288 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cooks50 View Post
Columbus is growing and continues to grow as many fortune 500 companies call it home.
Pittsburgh has that too.
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Old 12-09-2009, 08:33 AM
 
20,273 posts, read 33,003,811 times
Reputation: 2911
Quote:
Originally Posted by cooks50 View Post
The university presence draws a lot of young people here who eventually make columbus home after graduating, something that isn't happening in Pittsburgh.
I don't know how many of them are specifically former local university students, but recently it appears that at least the central parts of the Pittsburgh urban area has been adding college-educated young people.
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Old 12-09-2009, 09:19 AM
 
249 posts, read 609,282 times
Reputation: 136
Pittsburgh has a declining population and when I went to school there last year many of the students would leave after graduating because the lack of jobs. I am now in COlumbus and about 90% of the people I met here are transplants from other areas of the country due to jobs through the government, or privately owned companies
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Old 12-09-2009, 09:26 AM
 
331 posts, read 672,785 times
Reputation: 97
Quote:
Originally Posted by uurevmpc View Post
Hello,

I'm currently contemplating a move from Denver, CO, to the Columbus, OH, area to take a consulting job. I'd be traveling a good bit throughout a church district comprising the western edge of Pennsylvania, all of West Virginia, and the northern and eastern two-thirds of Ohio. Because I will be setting up my office at home, I have a choice of where "home" might be. My two first considerations are Pittsburgh, PA, and Columbus, OH.

While I suppose I'll be spending a good amount of time on the road (like Jack Kerouac!), I'd like the place I call "home" to be ethnically, racially, economically, culturally, and religiously diverse. Creativity and the arts are also big draws for me, so what time I spend "at home" would be occupied with theatre (especially non-Broadway stuff--more "black-box" and experimental), music (classical, jazz, ethnic/folk), and visual arts...I have advanced degrees (and yes, still some interest) in art and architectural history and "divinity" (theological training).

Since I'd be away frequently, I'd be looking for a secure rental--an apartment/townhouse or high-rise place that's managed, in an urban environment. I don't do very well in the suburbs!

I'd appreciate any insight, opinions, knowledge, experience, or even biases anyone might share regarding Columbus and/or Pittsburgh!

I've also posted this on the Columbus forum....
Some people consider Pittsburgh a "town" rather than a "city". If that's the case, Columbus is really a "town" then. Cause it definitely doesn't feel like a major metro city to me. Pittsburgh is defintely more "urban" than Columbus.

I'd personally take Pittsburgh over Columbus if I were you.....
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Old 12-09-2009, 09:27 AM
 
Location: Brooklyn, NY
567 posts, read 1,161,279 times
Reputation: 319
Quote:
Originally Posted by cooks50 View Post
Pittsburgh has a declining population and when I went to school there last year many of the students would leave after graduating because the lack of jobs. I am now in COlumbus and about 90% of the people I met here are transplants from other areas of the country due to jobs through the government, or privately owned companies
NINETY percent!? Really!? What happened to all the natives?
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