Columbus, Ohio area - where to live?

[NewJeffCT]

I was just contacted about two jobs in Columbus, Ohio... I'm in Connecticut now. I just wanted to find out a bit about the area - where would a young family live if they wanted good schools & all that stuff if we were to relocate for a job in the Columbus area?

I just want to do some cost of living comparisons and all that, too (not every home in Connecticut is worth a $1 million or more after all)


Thanks

[Tesla]

1. Dublin, Hilliard or Westerville in the Greater Columbus area...

Granville is a cool sleepy town East of there about 10 minutes.

[femrap]

4. Granville is not 10 minutes away....

Granville is about 30 miles east of Columbus....used to be farming community and a college town (Denison U.)...now newbies have moved in....it's an exurb now unfortunately. The commute is a commute to Columbus...no 10 minutes unless you have a helicopter...

If you want to be closer to downtown and more fun....Grandview Hts. is nice. Upper Arlington....pricey but nice.....same w/ Bexley.

I am moving to Columbus as well....It all depends how far away from the city you want to live....the county north of Franklin is Delaware....a very red county...that's where all the pugs are moving....

[petepillow]

6. Those are the ones I would say too...

I lived in Ohio for 22 years, and Hilliard is extremely family friendly. Plus it's nice and convenient to Ohio State football ;-)

OHIO!!!

[NewJeffCT]

8. thanks

while i know it's not always accurate, homefair.com does say that hilliard cost of living is about 85% of where i live in CT.

[NewJeffCT]

12. ok, one more question - how far a drive to Dayton?

my wife was also recently contacted about a job in Dayton... how far from Dayton to Columbus? And, what about the areas in between as places to live?

thanks

[Tesla]

13. From downtown Columbus it takes 1 hour to Dayton.

My friend lives in Hilliard, and comes to Dayton to work.
London is between Dayton and Columbus.
Springfield is in between, but not the best schools.
If she wants to drive to Dayton, living on the West side would be easier drive, none of that downtown mess every morning.

[NewJeffCT]

14. thanks

I had also cross-posted in the Lounge & the person there had mentioned Bexley & Upper Arlington as places with good schools... where are they in relation to Columbus?

[Andrea]

15. Both are "enclave cities"...

Which is to say they are suburbs completely surrounded by the city. Upper Arlington is a bit northwest of downtown, Bexley is a bit east. Both are nice.

In another post someone said there are no shopping malls close to Clintonville. That's a matter of perspective. There is nowhere in Columbus that isn't fairly close to a lot of shopping (this is a retail mecca). In the case of Clintonville, Easton is about 10-15 minutes away and it's a huge mall and shopping complex.

If I had kids, I would live in Clintonville. It's a good family friendly area (more so than the inner city neighborhoods that I prefer), without being completely white-bread and red like the suburbs. (Clintonville is a neighborhood in north Columbus - not a suburb, it is part of Columbus proper.)

FYI, Columbus itself is very blue, but the suburbs are very red.

PM me if you would like to ask any questions. Good luck with your decision.

[Shadder]

2. Ann Arbor

....

[seriousstan]

7. He wants to know where to live in Columbus, not where we ship our trash.

[Shadder]

11. Your Trash?

I thought all that ended up on the OSU campus?

[Botany]

3. Clintonville rocks

public schools suck though ......

Worthington good schools .... nice town feel.
beautiful Episcopal Church there on town Green .... dates from 1803
settled by people from Connecticut.

Westerville ...... republicans on a platter
Grandview ..... nice sections good schools
Arlington .... very nice in some sections great schools (repug but had
a big Arlington for Kerry movement last fall .... even some repugs
were in that movement)
Dublin ..... White Bread suburb ...... some really expensive homes

PM me if you have any ?s.

[MadMichDem]

5. I lived in Granville from 3rd grade to 2nd year of college

VERY cool town. Home to Denison University, Great public schools. Population was 2,000, I think it's more now. Progressive because lots of liberal professionals. (I graduated in 1974, but I don't think things have changed that much.

[rasberry]

9. Clintonville

If you like a progressive, family-friendly area with old houses Clintonville is thhe place. My kids attended parochial schools; however, one is now a teacher at an alternative school for Columbus Public.

If you want shopping malls nearby you're out of luck.

[NewJeffCT]

10. my wife might like that

places to shop, that is.

[lizziegrace]

16. Then head to Dublin

or New Albany for shopping. (I can't stand malls.) I live west of OSU and like being 15 minutes from the airport 5 miles from downtown. We walk to the library, local coffee shops and the store.

Clintonville is a terrific place. Ward 21 Democrats are very visible and vocal.

[semillama]

25. I live and work in Clintonville.

I like it. I rent, but know that housing prices are (for me) pretty ridiculous in terms of square feet per dollar amount. Lots of small bungalows that go for a lot of money.

As far as shopping goes, they say (and it's mostly true) that you are no more than 20 minutes drive away from anywhere else in Columbus. The shopping in Clintonville is being revitalized, with an old shopping center getting a huge facelift (Graceland), with a new Kroger Marketplace and a new Target as anchor stores.

We also have good "art" theatres too, the Drexels, so you won't lack for culture.

The commute to Dayton can take an hour, but what with construction on I-70, count on more like an hour and a half. as far as living between Cols. and Dayton, I don't know, but it doesn't seem like there's much that's attractive. I drive out to Dayton often, because air fare is way cheaper out of Dayton than it is in columbus.

[Algorem]

17. Bush's great-grandfather chose Bexley.

[Earl from Ohio]

18. Sheesh with all of the 'burbs already

My wife grew up in Dublin and we used to go down there a lot until recently. It has because an absolutely BORING overdeveloped, gridlocked McBurb. Who wants to spend their life on the Freeway?

It seems like there are some pretty hip neighborhoods in Columbus without giving into souless suburbia (or GOPer exurbia!)

Uncontrolled sprawl is destroying the once lovely rural areas- why be a part of it?

[NewJeffCT]

19. well

if my choices are between a suburb with excellent public schools & the city with mediocre ones, I'd likely choose the suburb, as I'd rather not send my daughter to private school.

[mtnester]

20. If you want School District info, you should look here

http://www.psk12.com/rating/USindexphp/STATE_OH.html

If you want to look by specific county, try here http://ilrc.ode.state.oh.us/districts/colist.asp

Look under Fairfield, Licking, Franklin, Madison, Union, Delaware..or you could look at a county map of Ohio here http://www.dot.state.oh.us/map1/cntymap.HTM

Map of school district boundaries is here http://www.puc.state.oh.us/pucogis/STATEMAP/sdist_b.pdf
(large PDF file....takes a little while to open)

Hope this helps

[NewJeffCT]

22. thanks

I think, at best, I'll get one interview out there. The headhunter had contacted me about 3 different companies in the area. I had updated to resume on monster.com to say that I would relocate - I honestly did not put Ohio, I had put Boston, NYC, Virginia, West Coast & Shanghai or Hong Kong (honest!)... but, the guy told me about some companies in the Columbus area, asked me to do a bit of research and get back to him.

I had 3 phone interviews with 3 companies, but I think only one went well. I was a bit surprised to find out one job was managing 10 people when I've never managed more than 3, so it was a bit too much of a jump for them.

[BillORightsMan]

21. Polaris north of COL OH

I work in the "Polaris" area, north of the I-270 "ring". I can't speak to the schools thing, but I do know farms are selling out big time for these "outer ring" (think:GOP) suburbs full of brand new McMansions. There are many nice older homes in Delaware County. I would hold off buying, if you can for now, as I see a huge housing bubble about to burst.

You can always go to Craig's List for rentals and some real estate listings, too.

http://columbus.craigslist.org/

I hope this helps. We certainly could use more active Dems in Ohio! We have to push back Ken Blackwell and the Patriot Pastors!

From the Cincy Enquirer:

'Patriot pastors' recruited

:patriot:

[BQueen]

23. I always heard "Columbus taxes; Worthington Schools"

as being the best possible combo if you don't want to pay parochial tuition. Worthington is beautiful and historical and taxes probably aren't as high as CT, but who knows? Clintonville is just north of the Campus area and is much more down-to-earth. (Worthington is a mile or two north) Revival of High Street area with little shops, and not that big a drive to huge stadium seat theatre and mall in Grandview (also beautiful, just NW of downtown, and easy to get out to 70 west to Dayton -- Also a great public pool)

Many little towns in between Columbus and Dayton, but schools are unknowns.

[NewJeffCT]

24. the headhunter sent me a real estate booklet on Columbus

I noticed a lot of "Worthington schools" labels in there.

Unfortunately, the book is very locally/regionally oriented. Many realtors there list homes by the name of the subdivision and not the actual town. So, if you're not from the area, you have no idea what town they are talking about 75% of the time.

[Schmajo]

26. School districts

You might want to try and research the Districts on the state Dept of Ed. site

For reasons I won't go into, it is common in Central Ohio to live within the borders of Columbus, but be in a suburban school district. (This freaks out people from Cleveland.)

Clintonville is very nice, and full of progressive pinkos (my kind of people), but it is Columbus Public Schools.

The Districts mentioned in other posts are good -- Dublin, Hilliard, Bexley, Worthington. I would stay away from Westerville -- the right wingers (John Kasich is from Westerville) have defeated several levies in recent years (though the last small stop-gap one passed)and the District is strapped for $$$. Also Grandview (not Granville, which is in Licking County and has Dennison University) is hurting for $$$ because of business closings.

The "area north of Polaris," (southern Delaware County) is the Olentangy Local Schools. It is the fastest growing District in the state, adding 1,000 new students each year. It has a very good reputation, but the taxes will be going up for years to pay for the new schools. Olentangy has never defeated a tax levy, despite the fact that it is full of Republicans. The city of Powell is the largest community in the District, though a big chunk of Columbus (Polaris) is within the District.