Southern Californian wants to know about Columbus..... (Cleveland, Upper Arlington: low income, appointed)

[kpexpress]

Hi there, I live in sunny San Diego and enjoy it here, but this summer I will be spending a few months for work in Columbus. I was wondering if someone could shed some light on the following questions:

1) How is the overall economy in Columbus? I have heard that since the Ohio State University is the largest in the US, it does make up a significant bulk of industry in the city, and many people are employed by the university. Does this help sustain employment in the region or is it area of concern for many residents of the city?

2) Which neighborhoods in the greater Columbus area have the worst crime? Which areas house the largest lower income residents? Here in San Diego we have the suburbs, inner-city gentrification areas, HOOD, and the barrio; most of these areas are made up of a majority of ethnicities (white, black, hispanic, etc.) Can anyone break down the area of Columbus? Are there significant ethnicity majority areas too?

3) Which areas, according to statistics or hearsay, have the best credit? Are there a lot of people renting or owning homes.

4) What's the weather like in the summer months?

5) Any areas I should avoid?

[sftong]

Ethnicities -- 1) Around OSU mainly in Upper Arlington. A very good place to live due its proximity to Downtown. 2) Dublib, Powell, and Lewis Center. All these areas have more asians than other parts of Columbus. You may want to check out Hilliard too, but I doubt it has that much of diversity.

About the pros-cons of where to live, you have to dig the past topics as there had been soo much discussion of it in the past. Be more specific about your requirements with priority (rent vs own, proximity to work location, price, schools etc), and you should get some responses.

[streetcreed]

2) Which neighborhoods in the greater Columbus area have the worst crime? Which areas house the largest lower income residents? Here in San Diego we have the suburbs, inner-city gentrification areas, HOOD, and the barrio; most of these areas are made up of a majority of ethnicities (white, black, hispanic, etc.) Can anyone break down the area of Columbus? Are there significant ethnicity majority areas too?

The city of Columbus has many varying neighborhoods, just like San Diego.

Here we have our inner city gentrification neighborhoods, many of them (mostly north of downtown or Ohio State.)

We have our transitional innercity neighborhoods, many of them.

We have our post World War II neighborhoods that are very family friendly and have good schools

And our post WWII neighborhoods that have mostly middle class home ownership but have turned into immigrant/low income havens in the massive apartment complexes and rental housing.

This means a neighborhood may be a few miles from downtown and look very suburbia but have moderate poverty and a large immigrant population. On the other hand a neighborhood could be right next to downtown, look older, but be decently high income and have higher housing costs.

Since you are coming from San Diego you may actually be use to these different, complex neighborhood makeups. Those coming from a city with only two varying types of neighborhoods, like Detroit with mostly poor and declining city neighborhoods and wealthy suburbs or Cleveland where the city neighborhoods are often avoided but the inner ring suburbs are highly sought after, diverse, and wealthy.

Now Columbus does have a fifth neighborhood type, that I have not covered yet.

Those are the high property value, good school, family friendly, post WWII suburban neighborhoods that have seen massive Asian immigration. These are in the NW side of Columbus. Some attend the good Columbus Schools, where some elementary schools are now 35 percent Asian. Other NW side neighborhoods attend the highly sought after Dublin or Worthington schools, thought Asian concentration seems larger in parts of Dublin.

The NW side of Columbus is bordered by Olentangy River, with walking trails, Henderson Rd., to the south, Bethel Rd. down the middle of the neighborhoods, and all the way up to 270 to the north.

To the south of "NW Columbus" is the suburb of Upper Arlington, which is very nice, but I am not sure a haven of immigration.

[Columbusneon]

To answer the weather question: The weather in Columbus in summer will actually be warmer than you probably expect, and warmer than you are used to if you live right on the coast. Mostly in the mid-upper 80s by day and mid-upper 60s at night. Long stretches of days in the 90s and even close to 100 on occasion. Occasional nights in the 50s usually follow heatwaves and severe storms. Very pleasant days are more prevalent in early and late summer and by the time summer is over, you will miss probably our nicest season when fall starts. But 2 months later you will be glad to be back in San Diego!

[mrb69]

Originally Posted by kpexpress

Hi there, I live in sunny San Diego and enjoy it here, but this summer I will be spending a few months for work in Columbus. I was wondering if someone could shed some light on the following questions:

1) How is the overall economy in Columbus? I have heard that since the Ohio State University is the largest in the US, it does make up a significant bulk of industry in the city, and many people are employed by the university. Does this help sustain employment in the region or is it area of concern for many residents of the city?

2) Which neighborhoods in the greater Columbus area have the worst crime? Which areas house the largest lower income residents? Here in San Diego we have the suburbs, inner-city gentrification areas, HOOD, and the barrio; most of these areas are made up of a majority of ethnicities (white, black, hispanic, etc.) Can anyone break down the area of Columbus? Are there significant ethnicity majority areas too?

3) Which areas, according to statistics or hearsay, have the best credit? Are there a lot of people renting or owning homes.

4) What's the weather like in the summer months?

5) Any areas I should avoid?

2) Your in the midwest......can't compare SD's ghettos to our(midwest) ghettos. Compton looks wonderful to the city of Columbus. If anyone has seen what "the hub" looks like its not a stupid comment.

North side is mostly black
East side is pretty famous for being black lol its true
South side is half white and half black
West side is a big white ghetto....thanks to flooding

3) NW side?

4) Freakin' Great!

5) I'm not going to mention which areas are best to avoid.....Since so many members of this group consider me to only think of the bad areas. If the NW side is the only place that doesn't have a ghetto area maybe im just not focused on just the ghetto.....Perhaps im just into the city.

[streetcreed]

North side is mostly black
East side is pretty famous for being black lol its true
South side is half white and half black
West side is a big white ghetto....thanks to flooding

3) NW side?

This is generally full of misconceptions. MrB69, I know that you a great view on the east part of Columbus, or NE, I do not want to hurt your feelings. However, I have a grasp on this entire city. That can be hard to do, but I am a economic/sociologist and study urban cities, thus it is my passion.


Generally, the North side of Columbus has the highest property values. The north side, west of 171, has continuous nice and interesting neighborhood one after the next from downtown to Worthington. Parts of the NE side near downtown have high poverty and are majority black, once you get further out from downtown the areas are majority white with immigrant/black minorities.

Essentially, what I am saying is that you are describing the north side as you see it from your east side community. Basically that means portions of the inner NE side only, not the central part of the north side, with the well to do neighborhoods of the Short North and Clintonville, or the NW side (bethel rd. grandview area.)

5) I'm not going to mention which areas are best to avoid.....Since so many members of this group consider me to only think of the bad areas. If the NW side is the only place that doesn't have a ghetto area maybe im just not focused on just the ghetto.....Perhaps im just into the city.

I too live in the city. Columbus is difficult to categorize into "sides." The city should be thought of as older central city and the new city.

Think of the old central city in the middle, roughly 60 sq miles, surrounded by the new city going out to over 200 sq. mile radius.

Living in the central city I can assure you, as it is commonly recognized, that the central city has many well to do neighborhoods, mixed income neighborhoods, and some straight up poor neighborhoods.

Your perception of the city is based upon your neighborhood. If you live near a majority of poverty you will see the city in this view.

In order to truly understand a large city like Columbus you have to leave your world, neighborhood, and view the city in the aggregate whole of the entire city, all 222 sq miles.

Because columbus has the central city core and then the "new" city, it helps to realize that the near east side of downtown may be mixed income, with higher poverty. One neighborhood is nice another run down and crime is moderate. Then the "far, new east side" could be traditional middle class with poverty in the minority only.

Columbus is too large to put into sides, it is better to list neighborhood names and say if the neighborhood is in the central city or new city or suburb.

[1watertiger]

streetcreed, i dont consider columbus to be as big of a city as you make it seem. when you can drive west from brice rd thru downtown out to 270/70 and cover less than 15 miles thats small. 6 miles south from downtown and your in gc. downtown north to polaris 12 miles? we like columbus but come on. honestly 3-4 miles outside of the downtown/campus areas become very suburban, car dependent areas. columbus has not even matured enough to have a complete inner-ring of suburbs , let alone a 2nd or 3rd ring around the city. and most cities have gentrified nieghborhoods going on, which again columbus has only about 5 with names. people in columbus tend to identify the area they live in by streets/intersections, (except the bottoms,gv,sn,arena dist.) .i think thats another reason columbus has such a bland/boring feel ..not old enough to have distinctive nieghborhoods throughout the city yet...plus as mentioned above the city missed the large waves of immigrants that gave other cities in the region more identity,old-world charm and diversity..

[streetcreed]

. columbus has not even matured enough to have a complete inner-ring of suburbs , let alone a 2nd or 3rd ring around the city.

A lot of what would be an inner ring suburb in another city is in the city of Columbus corp. limits.

Examples: Clintonville on the north side, the hilltop/Westgate on the west side, and Berwick/Eastmore on the east side. All of these neighborhoods are from the inner ring suburb era yet they are in the city of columbus city limits and have very developed sense of community.

[quote]
streetcreed, i dont consider columbus to be as big of a city as you make it seem. when you can drive west from brice rd thru downtown out to 270/70 and cover less than 15 miles thats small. 6 miles south from downtown and your in gc. downtown north to polaris 12 miles? we like columbus but come on. honestly 3-4 miles outside of the downtown/campus areas become very suburban, car dependent areas. columbus has not even matured enough to have a complete inner-ring of suburbs , let alone a 2nd or 3rd ring around the city. and most cities have gentrified nieghborhoods going on, which again columbus has only about 5 with names. people in columbus tend to identify the area they live in by streets/intersections, (except the bottoms,gv,sn,arena dist.) .i think thats another reason columbus has such a bland/boring feel ..not old enough to have distinctive nieghborhoods throughout the city yet...plus as mentioned above the city missed the large waves of immigrants that gave other cities in the region more identity,old-world charm and diversity..

.i think thats another reason columbus has such a bland/boring feel ..not old enough to have distinctive nieghborhoods throughout the city yet...plus as mentioned above the city missed the large waves of immigrants that gave other cities in the region more identity,old-world charm and diversity..

It is true that Columbus never had the "the polish hill or china town"but did have some immigrant neighborhoods like Italian, German, and Greek Villages (now the Short North.)

people in columbus tend to identify the area they live in by streets/intersections, (except the bottoms,gv,sn,arena dist.)

I do totally disagree that people do not identify by neighborhoods in Columbus or that Columbus doesn't have distinctive neighborhoods.

Once again this is a center city vs outer city/suburb matter. As you stated above "except the bottoms, german village, short north, arena district." In the central city Columbus is known for its very distinctive and self sustaining neighborhoods. The NY Times wrote that "columbus is like a collection of many small towns like pearls along a necklace called high street"

I live in the central city and when you ask someone in the city where they live they respond w/ the neighborhood. "clintonville, grandview, west gate, short north, italian village, wienland park, german village, merion village, old oaks, old town east, kind lincoln district, south linden, oakland park, sharon woods, northland" Many real columbusites actually believe Columbus has an obsession with defining too many neighborhood distinctions. Even though I think it is good because these neighborhoods give people a sense of community in a larger city and often have their own unique housing style and retail districts.

Columbus' neighborhoods is its true identity. IF you come to Columbus and just visit downtown you will be disappointed or miss the real Columbus. The central city is actually a neighborhood city, but not one defined by ethnic groups.

Columbus is almost the total opposite of the intersection city you describe. However, in the case of the non-discript suburban sprawl Columbus, yes people may use an intersection or big box store to identify with because there is a lack of neighborhood feels to these homogeneous developments.

[1watertiger]

Columbus is too large to put into sides.alot of bigger cities use "sides" , and columbus folks that i know do the same.. like i said, we do like columbus but if you are honest with yourself streetcreed, we all know we are limited in things to do compared to most cities in the region. we look at columbus more of a "county-city", similar to a louisville,indianapolis,jacksonville,etc... lack of developed identifiable nieghborhoods does hamper columbus. and the gentrified areas (clintonville,bottoms,sn,etc.) do help give columbus character. but like i said earlier it is just a small part of columbus.. suburbs , which are few in c-bus can also give cities variety (religion,race,ethnic,etc), and commonly become areas of the metro with identity also. in our opinion the way columbus ate up the county of franklin, it hurt its chances of ever having unique, identifiable nieghborhoods other than the central city ones always mentioned. on the other hand its not fair to try and compare c-bus to older towns like philly,cleveland,cinci,pittsburgh,etc. because a person expecting those type of cities will be dissapointed. but compare c-bus to the newer cities / current growth and it stands up well. people need/expect differant things from cities/metros and i think every city has opportunity to improve apon something.

[1watertiger]

Columbus is too large to put into sides

.alot of bigger cities use "sides" , and columbus folks that i know do the same.. like i said, we do like columbus but if you are honest with yourself streetcreed, we all know we are limited in things to do compared to most cities in the region. we look at columbus more of a "county-city", similar to a louisville,indianapolis,jacksonville,etc... lack of developed identifiable nieghborhoods does hamper columbus. and the gentrified areas (clintonville,bottoms,sn,etc.) do help give columbus character. but like i said earlier it is just a small part of columbus.. suburbs , which are few in c-bus can also give cities variety (religion,race,ethnic,etc), and commonly become areas of the metro with identity also. in our opinion the way columbus ate up the county of franklin, it hurt its chances of ever having unique, identifiable nieghborhoods other than the central city ones always mentioned. on the other hand its not fair to try and compare c-bus to older towns like philly,cleveland,cinci,pittsburgh,etc. because a person expecting those type of cities will be dissapointed. but compare c-bus to the newer cities / current growth and it stands up well. people need/expect differant things from cities/metros and i think every city has opportunity to improve apon something.[/quote]