Or not, as the case may be. There exists the distinct posibility that I (i.e., the wife, kid and myself) will be relocating to Columbus in a year or so. There are a lot of technicalities to be worked out (read "the specifics of a job offer that I won't get into here") and, to be honest, those "technicalities" will decide whether or not we'll even consider relocating. But, jobs aside, what I'd like from all of you is the skinny on your fair city. Oh, sure, I've read a lot on-line. And we've spoken to people in Columbus regarding what it's like to live there. But those have been conversations with people at the place where we'd be working. And I always like to get a wide range of opinions, whenever possible. There is a soccer thread here, to be fair. If we move to Columbus, I'll surely buy Crew season tickets. Since '96, I've been an MLS fans without an MLS club to support. If we live in Columbus, I'd be happy to hitch my wagon to the Crew (I already own a jersey, after all) ... that is as long as Minnesota and/or Wisconsin are without franchises of their own. So, what I want to know from you is, in quality of life kinds of ways, what are the good, bad and ugly things about Columbus. Here are a few hints at the sorts of thing I'm interested in: - I've got a 5 year old son. How kid-friendly is Columbus? How are the rec sports leagues (esp. soccer)? How's the park system and the YMCA? Do you wake up Saturday morning (those of you with kids) and feel that there are a lot of options, or are you always doing the same things? What are the public schools like? - Essen und Trinken - Good food and drink in Columbus? I was pleased to hear that OH managed to scrap it's archaic low-alcohol beer laws recently (were hoping to do the same in NC). Putting it bluntly, I like beer, good beer: Doppelbocks, Imperial Stouts, Bitters, Altbiers, Rauchbiers, IPAs, Koelschbiers, Porters. You name it. How's the retail beer selection and brewpub scene in Columbus? I'm also planning on getting back into homebrewing. Here in Durham, we have a great homebrew club ... but no homebrew supply store. How's the homebrew climate in Columbus? Oh, and I did mention food, too. Bakeries, ethnic food, farmers markets, cafes. That kinda thing. I'm not into chains (whips on occasion). - Culture - When not drinking beer (a cultural experience all its own), I do enjoy the occasional cultural outing. I'm not a club scene kinda guy. Rather, I'm one of those elitist liberals who watches PBS and can even be found attending the symphony on occasion. I've even been known to (voluntarily) enter a museum. I value a variety of radio stations, jazz, classical, NPR, etc.. Like bookstores. You know, a real intellectual type. Oooh, I garden, too. Good local nurseries? - General Liveability Issues - Geez, you know, things like traffic, air quality, are their bike paths around town, good city parks, do people actually go downtown (they live, shop, walk, hang out there) or is it, well, Indianapolis after 5:00pm and on weekends? Is Columbus a "progressive" place? Is the population at all diverse? Do you have a lot of festivals (with beer, it should go without saying), or is the city just too boring (or cheap) for that sort of thing? How's the weather (I miss winter here in NC)? Real estate seems pretty fairly priced from what I can tell. I'm kinda sick of driving 4 hours to the mountains and 3 to the beach. What's access to nature like around Columbus if you want to go out and hike or camp? Okay, I guess that's enough. Really, though, any serious opinions you can shoot my way will be appreciated. PM me if you'd like. The prospect of moving strikes me as almost as much fun as chewing on tinfoil. BUT, we are transplanted Midwesterners here in NC, and Ohio's a lot closer to our Midwestern upbringing than where we're living now. Thanks in advance for your opinions.
The youth sports here are very good, at least when I played. My favorite saying about Columbus, Westerville in paticular, a great place to raise a family, a crappy place to be raised.
Columbus is more of a city than it has been. There is a lot more to do and plenty of choices as one would see in a lot of bigger cities. Of course, some digress during college football season (others year-round) about the Buckeyes, but some traditions are difficult to break.
What is wrong with Indy buddy? There is a lot to do in this city in the evenings. Maybe you haven't been here in 20 years, I don't know, but please consider there are also Crew faithful in Indianapolis that make it to many of the Crew games. Don't start stepping on toes. As for your questions, I lived in Columbus for a bit recently, so I'll give you some of my opinions. 1. Downtown seems more like a business place in the day and less so at night than Indy, for example. However, things have been improved lately with the whole Arena district. There also are a couple of streets with a good number of bars downtown. 2. If you're a real yuppy, you'll flock to New Albany/Easton area in the north east sector of the city. Plenty of over-priced shopping up there. Lots of good places to eat, and a reasonable amount of night life, but not much. 3. Location, location, location... what more can I say. There are a lot of little areas to Columbus, and all of your needs can be found somewhere... they just might not all be in the same place. 4. German Village. You want Essen und Trinken, dann geh mal dahin. This is on the southern side of downtown. Nice old buildings, a couple of nice German eateries, and then the Oktoberfest party.
If you're looking for public schools, i'd live in the suburbs. Dublin, Hilliard, Worthington (maybe), New Albany beat Columbus Public. I believe Thomas Worthington HS (one of 3 worthington high schools) has a very good soccer team. If you decide on staying, there are (like KK said), several indiana crew fans that make the trip in. Pretty much everyone (especially between the ages of 13 and 19) goes to Easton. It's the place to see and be seen. It's all shopping, something much bigger than a mall, but not quite a suburb. Easton link
So true. Depending on where you want to live and how much you want to spend, you may have to travel a bit to get all you want, but it is all there somewhere. There are tons of good ethnic eateries sprinkled all over Columbus, but it seems most of them are in the Campus area, north of downtown. There is some great Chinese and Indian food, and an Ethiopian place that's held in high regard (I've never eaten there). Columbus Public Schools aren't the best - but some of the suburbs are quite good. German Village has Ocktoberfest, Dublin has a spring Irish Festival. Given that those are the two dominant ethnicities in central Ohio, they might be the only ethnic festivals around. I know Dayton has a good Greek festival. The Short North (just north of downtown, south of campus) is a cultural haven. Lots of art galleries, small shops, and neighborhood pubs. 1st Saturday (I believe) of every month is the "Gallery Hop". The streets are packed with people, and all the art galleries are open late. There are a couple of theaters downtown, plus Ohio State has it's student theater and the Wexner Center for the Arts. Then there is COSI (Center Of Science and Industry) downtown (good for the kids). Columbus is very progressive, for the most part. The 'burbs are more conservative (what do you expect?), but downdown things are a bit different. Drive an hour or so southeast and you are into state forest (and Appalacian foothills) territory. There is no real beach - it's about 2.5 hours to Lake Erie, and it's really not worth the trip. There are some parks and recreational lakes scattered around, but the real hiking territory is in southern Ohio. Traffic is only bad during rush hour, but it doesn't compare to, say, Chicago. It's worse than the smaller Dayton to the west, but it's rarely so bad that you are parked on the highway.
About fifteen years ago, they moved the Headquarters of American Electric Power from New York City to Columbus. They had to bribe, coax and cajole their key employees to make the move. Some quit, most resignedly came along. About five years ago, they decided to move it again, this time to Chicago. The employees, almost to a man, said no way. They retired, they quit, they found other work. Wouldn't leave. If nightlife, theatre, clubbing and such are your thing, don't come here. It's just not for you. But if you're looking for a very clean, family-freindly environment I know of no place better. The thing about Columbus as opposed to most of the Northeast 25% of the country is that it was never a manufacturing city. So there is no "urban blight", no large coterie of un- or under-employed laborers displaced from mills and assembly lines. They were never here. The city is centered around Ohio State (which, at 50,000 students is a huge industry) and state government and the insurance industry and banking. It's a very white collar place, for better or worse, with good schools and pretty safe streets. It undeniably lacks a lot of the stuff that big urban areas offer, but most people find the tradeoff doable, and both Cincinnati and Cleveland (even Pittsburgh) are well within reasonable travel distance for the big time stuff.
Oh yeah, the weather sucks, tho. It's hot and humid during the summer, and ass-cold during the winter. Nothing you shouldn't be used to, tho, being from Minnesota and living in North Carolina. For me, the best part of the year is the spring and fall when it's brisk, but not cold (the cold doesn't really bother me, but the heat does). One potential drawback is that Columbus is right on the northeast corner of Tornado Alley. It's nowhere near as bad as Oklahoma, but there are twisters from time-to-time, especially west of Columbus (Xenia & Union County seem to be the worst). My in-laws live in Sunbury (just northeast of Westerville, a large suburb northeast of Columbus) and a tornado tore down high-tension power lines 2 years ago about 350 yards from their house. Of course, millions of people live in Ohio and never have any experience with twisters (I've never seen one, nor had anything I have anything to do with damaged or destroyed by one), but if you or your wife (in my case) are jittery, be sure to get a house with a basement.
I moved to Columbus 2 and a half years ago, sight unseen. Got transfered to Chicago 5 months ago. I'd move back on 24 hours notice.
There's also Long Street Live for the club scene. Cheap cover fee, cheap valet parking (or nearby surface lots for comparable fees.) The good thing about Long Street Live is this one low cover fee lets you in to all clubs, and you're free to move from club to club as you wish. From their website: All clubs are 21 and over except for Thursday nights. Friday and Saturday, just $5 bucks gets you into all 6 clubs. DRESSCODE: No jerseys, no sportswear, no sweatsuites. COAT CHECK is available. Valet parking available for $5, ample parking is available around the district for $3. HOURS: Thursday 10pm -2:30 am Friday 9:30 pm - 2:30 am Saturday 9:30 pm - 2:30 am http://longstreetclubs.com/ I haven't been, but my neighbor has and he says it's not too bad.
Which is what was so ironic about MLS creating this "blue collar" persona for the team back in '95. The whole Crew concept was obviously concocted in Portland.
i was born and raised in columbus. it has definitely improved over the past ten years. i can see myself living here the rest of my life. very content. i second what most people have said. solid standard of living, a clean place, crime is not too high in most areas, lots of good restaurants, a decent number of cool bars, lots of good shopping if you're into that. i'm not, except for books, and there are some really good bookstores in town. a very good place for kids -- lots of soccer and other sports. the traffic's getting a lot worse because so many people have moved here, but it's still nothing like the bay area, los angeles, or D.C. you want clubs and urban edge? not here very much, try as they might in a few place. you want high culture? the paper reads more like a sentimental rural county rag than a city newspaper. lots of pictures of bake sales, kids eating watermelon, and retirees smiling at puppies on the front page. the museum is OK, although the wexner center is a good place for all kinds of things. you want haute cuisine? even the really, really nice places are down-to-earth compared to their counterparts in larger cities. in many ways columbus is the middle of the middle, but usually the good middle rather than the lame middle, if that makes any sense. again, as has been said before, you'll probably want to live in the suburbs, and each has a distinct identity. i know a good realtor if you need one. a great friend of mine, lived here 30+ years. the weather is extreme, but there's a reason fall is my favorite season. it's the best time of year down here. we are having a weird spring. anyway, it's a great place if you add everything up and i couldn't see myself anywhere else. hope this helps. good luck.
http://www.columbusjazzorchestra.com/ Best kept semi-secret in town. LOTS of concerts, Ballet, good Symphony, Opera, NHL hockey, AAA baseball, a pretty fair art gallery, and big time NCAA sports. Similar in size to Charlotte, but with Cleveland and Cincinnatti 90 and 120 miles on either side. Youth Soccer is a big deal here. Very good school and Club soccer for both sexes. Perhaps the best collection of Golf courses in the Country. At one time we had 4 of the top 100 courses in the country and probably could have had more.
The best description I have ever heard of Columbus is that it is a city of negative virtues: crime isn't too bad, the air isn't too bad, traffic isn't too bad, etc. etc. Our nationwide reputation is as a city that is a good place to live, but nobody would ever want to visit there. With a couple of notable exceptions (good and bad), that was VERY true 10 years ago, and is still quite true. Columbus is absolutely a white collar, paper and mouse-pushing town. The principal "industries" are banking, insurance, government, higher education and research. That, despite the fact that the U.S. Honda assembly plant is technically within the metropolitan area. Since you have a school-age child, I recommend against locating in the City of Columbus unless you're certain you want to send him to a private school. This is no reflection on the teachers or administrators of the Columbus City School system - I know some of them, and it's not their fault. Mostly, it's because of the state of the urban family, a situation which Columbus shares with the rest of the western world. A little bit of it is due to two nut cases who keep getting re-elected to the school board. I live in an inner-ring suburb named Bexley. We moved here when our daughter was 4 1/2 years old for a grand total of one reason - in our opinion, it's the finest public school system in central Ohio. You will pay for this - we have the highest taxes and, apart from German Village, you won't get less house for the money anywhere else. It's a remarkably neighborly place - some of my daughter's friends have grandparents who have lived in Bexley all their lives, almost like a small town surrounded by a big city. As an aside, Bexley is one of those rare places where being a starter on the soccer team has more status in the high school than being a starter on the football or basketball team, and it's a bad year if they get knocked out in the early stages of the state tournament. Not going to the playoffs just doesn't happen. Boys or girls. If you're a bicyclist, the bike trails in town are pretty good (not great, pretty good). Within 1 1/2 hours drive in several different directions are some fine rail trails, including the Little Miami, which for all practical purposes is a State park 60 feet wide and 60 miles long. There are some attractive plans for expansion of the present trail system, but I've had bad experiences with plans that weren't carried through, so I'll believe it when I see it. Also, there's a great organization called Columbus Outdoors Pursuits which you should join. If you enjoy bicycling and do relocate to Columbus, PM me. I've had season tickets to the symphony for 22 straight years. It isn't Cleveland, but it's better than you'd expect for a city of 1 1/2 million that doesn't have 3 generations of inherited wealth. Like orchestras everywhere, it faces a decline in it's financial position as the audiences age. Getting the geography of Columbus down is easier than most places - the highway system isn't constricted by any large bodies of water, so it's a wheel with spokes that converge on downtown. The expensive suburbs generally run in a half ring from northwest to east. Columbus continues to grow outwards in those directions, and the north half of the "outerbelt" highway ring gets very congested during rush hour. Because of several things that smell bad, the area south of downtown isn't as fashionable. The newspaper is weak for a state capital of 1 1/2 million. It's editorial policy has changed quite remarkably in recent years. For generations, it was rock-ribbed country club Republican, but the last couple of years it has moved into the center-right to moderate range. Maybe that's a reaction to the General Assembly, which is increasingly dominated by very conservative rural Republicans. I have lived in Columbus for 29 years, and I know very few natives. Columbus is overwhelmingly a place people move to, not a place people live all their lives. If you're concerned that it will be difficult to fit in if you're not a native, you needn't be. I have said several times on this board that too many of my fellow Columbusites wish the town they lived in was more like Ada and less like Atlanta. Not everyone has liked those comments, but I'll stick by them - there is a strong undercurrent of rejecting urbanism, including urban amenities, in a very vocal part of the population of this town.
i pretty much second what everyone has said... when i went to college 8 years ago i told myself i would never move back to columbus <i grew up here> and that i was gone for good...but i have to say that after coming back here following graduation, i cannot honestly imagine leaving and living somewhere else. especially true if i had children or was planning on raising a family here real soon. it is the ideal city for such things. somebody mentioned worthington, and specifically thomas worthington as having a great soccer team, very true. worthington is having major money issues with their schools right now but so are most districts...i grew up in worthington so i am a bit biased but i still think it is a great place to raise a kid. if i were to move to columbus right now i would look in a few select 'burbs and go from there. dublin in the northwest and new albany in the northeast. you can find reasonable housing prices in amongst the rediculously large houses and those school districts are fabulous. the taxes are a bit high but you get what you pay for, and you can find no better city park systems than those in dublin and new albany. i will probably be here for the rest of my life, and 8 years ago i never thought i would say that or mean it...but today, i do. it is a great place, cannot imagine living elsewhere.
My brother who is now 2 and a half years removed from college, is one of those who vowed to never return to Columbus following graduation, but soon after, he was back here, and has laid down some roots, so to speak, and doesn't plan on picking up and moving anywhere soon. I think stories like that are a testament to the town. It's a place people want to move back to when they're "on their own" or a place people want to stay after school. Personally, like fidlerre said, I can't imagine living in a different place. I grew up in Worthington, and still live here when I'm not at school. The school system, for my money, is the best in area. On last year's "State Report Card" Worthington received the highest score possible on all but 1 of the sections, I believe, the largest such district in the state to do so. But like all other school districts, is facing some cuts, due to the loss of a substantial amount of state funding. But the cuts are substantially less than other districts. Thomas Worthington (brother's alma mater) does indeed have a super soccer program, both men's and women's. Although, the other school, Worthington Kilbourne (my alma mater) is no slouch either, having won a state title in 2000. But I have found, as have my friends, that a Worthington education is qutie a valuable thing when you head off to college. But if the price is too steep, Dublin and Hilliard are probably the next best places. Both have a relatively young, growing populations, with good schools as well. Westerville is another good place, but they're facing some really serious budget problems. With Ohio State being in town, there's a plehtora of stuff for a younger crowd, but places like Polaris, Easton, Arena District, Brewery District, German Village, etc. have some great night spots to visit. I also like the location of the city. Want to get to Cleveland or Cincinnati for a football or baseball game, 2 hours in the car and you're there. Pittsburgh, Indianapolis and Detroit are all 3 hours. And my personal favorite, if you're up for a long weekend in Chicago, 6 hours, and you're there, or you can usually find some cheap airfare there too. There are a ton of great colleges/universities in Ohio too, public and private.
I moved here in 1993 from Kentucky, and I like it here pretty well. A lot more to do here. I swear we have more retail strip malls than anyone else though You'll have to deal with BuckeyeOverhype™ and we do have 5 months of winter every year, but overall Columbus is ok.
Born here, raised in a suburb here, continue to live my gleefully miserable existence here... Highly recommended if you want to get into a comfortable rut, drink beer in front of a big-screen television, and so forth - yada yada. Definitely talk to a home broker, there are some school districts that you probably want to avoid. Lots of soccer, though. Just about every suburb has a place to play.