Relocating to the Cleveland area.. need help. (Parma, Lorain: cliquey, rentals)

[msnellen82]

My husband just got a really nice offer to relocated to the Cleveland area within the next couple months. They told him to find a place, and they would sign a year lease on the house to get us started. Right now we are living in NC, so I have no clue what areas are good or bad, so it's kind of hard for me to find a place without that imput. We have two children, one who is 4 and will be starting school next year, and one who is 1. I'd like to find an area which is in a good school district for both regular school, and daycares. I would greatly appreciate any input that is given. Thanks in advance!

[mike003]

Do you know where his job will be? This is a very large Metro area.

[msnellen82]

It is a home improvement company, so he would be driving all around anyway. So, it doesn't really matter where we live, as long as it is a good neighborhood.

[gtsurfer05]

There are many cities in the county with good schools and daycare centers so a bit more info on what you want would be helpful. I would suggest since you'll be driving all over the place and you have a one year lease on a place, to get a house in the southern/middle part of the county. That way it'll be a good base to see what you like in the other cities. I'd check out Broadview Heights, Brecksville, North Royalton, Seven Hills, Parma, Parma Heights, Independence, Valley View, Cuyahoga Heights, and Brooklyn Heights. All of the above are safe cities and have good to excellent schools. Schools wise the tri district of Parma-Parma Hts, and Seven Hills are the worst out of a the group-but by no means horrible. Valley View, Cuyahoga Hts, Brooklyn Hts is another tri district. Brecksville-Broadview are paired up. Independence and North Royalton have their own districts.

Safety wise they're all good. Northern Parma on the border with Cleveland is less "desirable". Cuyahoga Heights borders a ghetto area of Cleveland however there is a stretch of commercial/industrial area that splits the ghetto area from the residential area of CH, which is well patrolled by CH Police.

[costello_musicman]

First of all, Welcome to Cleveland!

"Good" can still be a very wide range of places.

Can you still be more specific?

1) Would you rather live closer to Downtown, or further away/quiter? If he's driving both east and west, maybe somewhere in the middle would be better?

2) Do you have a max amount on the housing lease you can sign?

3) Do you prefer areas that are brand new or older/with character/charming?

4) Do you like outdoors (aka the lake, metroparks) or do you prefer more walkability and denser areas?

Side note: Since it's short term and only early elementary school, good schools will be easy to find. It's when you hit the high school years good schools are trickier.

[jax2662]

My sincere advice to you is to stay in NC. Cleveland is dead and going nowhere. The winters are brutal, Autumn is short, spring does not exist and the summers rival Atlanta for heat and humidity. In addition, it is a cliquey city and it is hard to make friends.

That being said, if you still want to come up here, I would suggest the following suburbs considering you have children:

East side

Solon: Great schools, close to highways, mixed income levels. Bad side...it is becoming a little bit overcrowded.
Chagrin Falls: Great schools. VERY quaint. Feels like it is in the country but fairly close to real life.
Gates Mills: See above, but pricey. Also not alot of rentals.

West Side
Bay Village, Westlake, Rocky River: All good, near the lake (one of the few advantages of Cleveland...but keep in mind to look, don't swim in it)

South
Strongsville, North Royalton: Both have good schools and you can lease fairly easily.

Stay away from Parma, City of Cleveland, East Cleveland, Garfield Hts, Maple Hts, South Euclid, Euclid, Eastlake. Lyndhurst is nice, but get out before your kids go to school unless you are sending them to private (like Gilmour or NDCL). Don't go anywhere near Elyria, Lorain or Painesville.

They say the culture is on the east side and it is, However, if you have a car you can get almost anywhere fairly easily. Traffic is worse that some place, but not nearly as bad as places like LA or Atlanta. Better restaurants on the east side. Better shopping too. Downtown Cleveland is a joke unless you are going to a sports event and although there are some good restaurants, you won't want to take young kids to them.

I hate it here, so my opinions are biased, but I have lived all over the country and been all over the world, so I know of which I speak.

Good luck. Hope this helped.

Jacqui

[Buckeyes440]

Originally Posted by jax2662

My sincere advice to you is to stay in NC. Cleveland is dead and going nowhere. The winters are brutal, Autumn is short, spring does not exist and the summers rival Atlanta for heat and humidity. In addition, it is a cliquey city and it is hard to make friends.

That being said, if you still want to come up here, I would suggest the following suburbs considering you have children:

East side

Solon: Great schools, close to highways, mixed income levels. Bad side...it is becoming a little bit overcrowded.
Chagrin Falls: Great schools. VERY quaint. Feels like it is in the country but fairly close to real life.
Gates Mills: See above, but pricey. Also not alot of rentals.

West Side
Bay Village, Westlake, Rocky River: All good, near the lake (one of the few advantages of Cleveland...but keep in mind to look, don't swim in it)

South
Strongsville, North Royalton: Both have good schools and you can lease fairly easily.

Stay away from Parma, City of Cleveland, East Cleveland, Garfield Hts, Maple Hts, South Euclid, Euclid, Eastlake. Lyndhurst is nice, but get out before your kids go to school unless you are sending them to private (like Gilmour or NDCL). Don't go anywhere near Elyria, Lorain or Painesville.

They say the culture is on the east side and it is, However, if you have a car you can get almost anywhere fairly easily. Traffic is worse that some place, but not nearly as bad as places like LA or Atlanta. Better restaurants on the east side. Better shopping too. Downtown Cleveland is a joke unless you are going to a sports event and although there are some good restaurants, you won't want to take young kids to them.

I hate it here, so my opinions are biased, but I have lived all over the country and been all over the world, so I know of which I speak.

Good luck. Hope this helped.

Jacqui

1) Cleveland is dead and going nowhere? Stop burying your head in the sand and look at the development going on in University Circle, Tremont, Ohio City, Downtown, and even the Detroit-Shoreway area. Yes, lots of areas in the city proper are terrible but acting like it's all bad is flat out wrong.

2) What's wrong with Parma?

3) What about North Olmsted? Avon Lake? Avon? Independence? Olmsted Falls? Brecksville? Beachwood? You missed a ton of good suburbs.

[costello_musicman]

I lived in NC for 1.5 years and absolutely hated it. Everyone to themselves I suppose

I've also been all over the world (well 38 states and 12 countries), and I choose to live in Cleveland for many reasons-- mostly affordability, cultural attractions, 4 seasons, sports teams, spirit of the city....I don't venture out to the suburbs much other than Cleveland Hts and Shaker Hts, but I find many of them very pleasant.

[costello_musicman]

Originally Posted by jax2662

Cleveland is dead and going nowhere.

Jacqui,

I also want to point you to some of the construction occurring in the city:

https://www.city-data.com/forum/cleve...ssions-27.html

[tribecavsbrowns]

Originally Posted by jax2662

My sincere advice to you is to stay in NC. Cleveland is dead and going nowhere. The winters are brutal, Autumn is short, spring does not exist and the summers rival Atlanta for heat and humidity. In addition, it is a cliquey city and it is hard to make friends.

That being said, if you still want to come up here, I would suggest the following suburbs considering you have children:

East side

Solon: Great schools, close to highways, mixed income levels. Bad side...it is becoming a little bit overcrowded.
Chagrin Falls: Great schools. VERY quaint. Feels like it is in the country but fairly close to real life.
Gates Mills: See above, but pricey. Also not alot of rentals.

West Side
Bay Village, Westlake, Rocky River: All good, near the lake (one of the few advantages of Cleveland...but keep in mind to look, don't swim in it)

South
Strongsville, North Royalton: Both have good schools and you can lease fairly easily.

Stay away from Parma, City of Cleveland, East Cleveland, Garfield Hts, Maple Hts, South Euclid, Euclid, Eastlake. Lyndhurst is nice, but get out before your kids go to school unless you are sending them to private (like Gilmour or NDCL). Don't go anywhere near Elyria, Lorain or Painesville.

They say the culture is on the east side and it is, However, if you have a car you can get almost anywhere fairly easily. Traffic is worse that some place, but not nearly as bad as places like LA or Atlanta. Better restaurants on the east side. Better shopping too. Downtown Cleveland is a joke unless you are going to a sports event and although there are some good restaurants, you won't want to take young kids to them.

I hate it here, so my opinions are biased, but I have lived all over the country and been all over the world, so I know of which I speak.

Good luck. Hope this helped.

Jacqui

Christ almighty.

Cleveland is "going nowhere?" Where is North Carolina going? Where is anywhere in this country going? Enlighten us.

Been all over the world and still end up stuck in a place you hate. You must really suck.