What is the appeal of living in Ohio vs. other states? (Columbus: how much, houses)

[Icy Tea]

I'm a Pa'er but have visited northeast and north central Ohio a few times winter and summer. I'll comment mostly about what I noticed. One, you guys have good roads, better than Pa. I liked the snow plows which seemed more up to date than what we have. I guess you do get more snow and more frequent snows than we do in SE Pa so you need them. The roads are flat and well laid out so that helps. You have multiple big highways crisscrossing and paralleling to move traffic through. Pa is way more mountainous and hilly so maybe that's a reason.
I like the Ohio topography of the wetlands and fields and open space and rural areas. I noticed that your field crops are way behind Pa. We have corn that's knee high already from SE Pa( Lancaster) to central Pa( State College). You get a lot of overcast days and rain and temps are a little cooler. I like rolling hills and low mountains, you seem to start getting that further south. I'd like to learn more about agriculture in northeast Ohio, what crops are planted, what livestock is raised.
We have run down dog eared towns and so does Ohio. Youngstown, Warren, Mansfield and Cleveland. Sharon, Reading, Allentown, Philly, they all remind me of each other. The rust belt effect.
The cost of living seems to be about the same although land prices and home prices are much cheaper in Ohio. I don't know about jobs and wages.
It seems to be a slower paced, somewhat boring lifestyle which isn't a bad thing.

[ram2]

Originally Posted by Icy Tea

It seems to be a slower paced, somewhat boring lifestyle which isn't a bad thing.

What do people in Pa do that is more exciting than what the average Ohian does?

[sheena12]

Originally Posted by Natural510

People are more humble and friendly here than on the coasts, there's a healthy mix of urban & rural (including 'tweener college towns), a lot of things considered premium in the major metros (parks, libraries, schools, etc) are taken for granted here, and you can get pretty much whatever you need compared to everywhere else (the exception, of course, being real beaches).
I'm also a liberal atheist, and have no problems at all, though you'd probably feel more comfortable in some areas more than others. I do think you'd fit best in Cleveland or Columbus, probably Columbus.

I like all of this about Ohio. I am also a liberal, but not an atheist. However I am not a Fundamentalist Christian.

Love the healthy mix here in Ohio. People are more humble and friendly.

People in PA were just angry in my experience. They do not like newcomers, and they make that fact well known.

[PerryMason614]

Ohio is a great state! Lots of old money in Cleveland and with it are all the cultural amenities one would expect, not to mention world class health care. Lots of new money in Columbus and also the amenities of a city far larger. Lush greenery, mild winters, a coastline and large body of water. Great educational institutions .. great business climate. Cleveland has great MetroParks and Columbus will have one of the best bike trail systems in the nation once its complete. Cincinnati, Toledo and the rest aren't too shabby either.

Some of the cities need cleaning up but as far as the suburbs go, they stack up with some of the best in the nation.

The only thing really to complain about is that there aren't enough sunny days.

I like Ohio and am proud of this great state.

[Mplsite]

Why do you have to convince yourself? The 3 Cs are above average American cities, while the rest are well below. How Toledo is bigger than St Paul population-wise but offers nowhere near a decent urban neighborhood is beyond me: good thing they know how to make a mean chili dog.

As a liberal nonbeliever, why not consider the Pacific Northwest or Minnesota? I live in the latter and we get lots of people from the former who feel like its a home away from home. We were the first and only (?) state that voted for same-sex marriages when it was on the ballot. Historically, socialism was apparently popular in parts of the state, and Minneapolis pioneered a neighborhood revitalization program which guaranteed all neighborhoods received a good chunk of money to fix them all up, not just a select few or one corner. As a result all sides of the city are full of safer neighborhoods and exceptions are few. We embrace bikes as transportation and were ranked among the top 20 bike friendly cities internationally and the Twin Cities bests the mass transit in all Ohio cities; we're going to break ground on our third LRT line by the time Cincinnati finishes its streetcar which is the only Ohio city building a new rail transit line.

And this all comes at a cost which is just a fraction of what the coasts charge. Oh, and did I mention the lakes in the cities surrounded by bike trails and in warmer months, beaches and lakeside restaurant-bars? Not to mention a bit of an obsession for rooftop bars. And record stores and bookstores and co-ops and do I need to go on?

[PerryMason614]

Originally Posted by Mplsite

Why do you have to convince yourself? The 3 Cs are above average American cities, while the rest are well below.

I wouldn't go that far. Toledo, Akron-Canton, Dayton and Youngstown aren't bad when you take the suburbs into account.

[bluecarebear]

Originally Posted by PerryMason614

I wouldn't go that far. Toledo, Akron-Canton, Dayton and Youngstown aren't bad when you take the suburbs into account.

Toledo, Youngstown, and Warren have outstanding suburbs. It is odd to hear residents mention "war zones" when referring to their downtowns because the burbs are so nice.

[bluecarebear]

Originally Posted by ram2

What do people in Pa do that is more exciting than what the average Ohian does?

The only area in which PA is better is with the outdoors. If Ohio had more forested public land, then it would win in every category. Lake access in Ohio can be a little squirrelly too.

[Townes Van Zandt]

Originally Posted by ram2

What do people in Pa do that is more exciting than what the average Ohian does?

say "yinz" and make up words like "jagoff"

[greenvillebuckeye]

Personally having grown up in NW Ohio (left at age 23 for south carolina) I enjoyed the fact that you could never get lost. NW Ohio and well much of the state is outlined with grids and the state roads reflect that. US History teacher junior year use to always talk about how he'd pay one of us to try and get lost in NW Ohio. Said it was impossible haha.

I enjoyed the fact that no matter where you lived you were pretty much within an hour of a mid or major city (the Big 3, Dayton, Toledo, Akron, to a smaller extent Canton, Youngstown).

Some have already mentioned the support of higher education. Multiple large state universities, multiple smaller private liberal arts schools, multiple local 2 year community colleges / tech colleges.

Noticeably crisp fall weather that slowly oozed into winter. Not a big fan of winter up there. Big fan of late fall, early spring in Ohio. Some of the best days as a kid were in March when after weeks of sub freezing temps you'd get that one day or weekend in March where all of a sudden it was 40 degrees and it felt like summer. Now don't get me wrong it'd go back to sub-freezing the following day but that one glorious day was magical haha.