COLUMBIA, MO ..... please HELP! (Kansas City, St. Louis: top neighborhood, apartment complexes, rental)

[rcanne]

I am about to move to Columbia, and would like to know about SCHOOL DISTRICTS, GOOD AREAS, and the overall feel of the city......

PLEASE HELP, I'm clueless!!
Thank you!!

[razzy]

Columbia is a great place to live, if you can stand not living in a big city. The schools should be good. Rock Bridge High School and the schools on the south side are generally better than Hickman and the schools on the north side.

The main "bad" part of Columbia is just north and northwest of downtown (North of Broadway). In general, the south side is better than the north side, but there are nice areas on the north side. I'd say that 80% of the city would be a good area to live in. If you dont like college parties, try to pick a spot not near the colleges or some of the apartment complexes.

[kealoha]

Columbia is having a spurt of commercial growth with several new shopping areas just opened or in progress. There is a Macy's, Dillards, Kohl's, a Target, Best Buy, Circuit City.... It was recently in the news that there is actually an "overstock" of housing as more new houses have been built than there is current demand for. There are a lot of new subdivisions with (what seem to me) luxury type very large houses. To me, it is starting to feel overgrown and suburb-like, but I am comparing it to what it was like 40 years ago The downtown area has a number of nice specialty shops, and restaurants, some of which are pricey imo.

As far as good areas, I can't add to razzy's description, and I am not knowledgeable about school districts. The overall feel is that of a college town, due to the 3 colleges. MU sports are a very big deal, and MU is a, if not the, major employer. Also a lot of employment is based on the healthcare industry, with a number of doctor's offices and hospitals located there, and people come from all over the state for medical services. There is a mix of people from "starving students" to some pretty well-off folks, including a couple members of the Walton (walmart) family. There are a lot of groups such as children's theater, arts, etc. The Daniel Boone Regional library is I think excellent and is a great resource in the community. The library has a good website if you are interested, just google it.

Housing costs are somewhat higher in Columbia than in surrounding areas, and a lot of people live in nearby towns and commute to work. People also travel there to shop and for the restaurants etc.

The main newspaper is the Columbia Daily Tribune and it also has a good website.

I hope this info is helpful; if you have other questions, please post. (I live about an hour away from Columbia, have been going there all my life for shopping and medical care, and my job used to involve going there 2-3 times a week, so I don't know as much as someone who lives there, but am happy to share what I do know.)

[pidgenotmidge]

Hi Rcanne,

I moved from KC to Columbia 7 years ago and really enjoy it here.

We're large enough to have most of the conveniences and options a big city offers but small enough to not have huge traffic problems experienced in larger cities. Our population swells by around 26,000 people during the academic year, so sometimes getting around can be tricky, and lines at certain venues tend to be longer. During the summer, however, it's much better.

The public schools are great although some are more crowded than others. I have a middle-school aged child who has done well thus far. If you have children in elementary school I highly recommend entering them for a "lottery" to get into Ridgeway Elementary. It's a magnet school (the district's one and only) in the center of the city in a so-called "bad" neighborhood. (My child went there and there was never a problem of any sort except for a teacher having a purse stolen from inside her car.) Anyway, the school limits its class sizes and multi-ages (kindergarten and first grade together, second and third together...). They also offer an IGE (individually guided education) curriculum with 10 different learning levels per grade. There is a diverse student body of all sorts of socio-economic and racial backgrounds.

We have public transit that's decent but could be improved. There is a large variety of ethnic food, arts, and entertainment. There are miles and miles of walking and bike trails throughout the city. We have parks, parks, and more parks! By and large we tend to lean more towards liberal politics than conservative. There are lots of free things to do, and you'll see all walks of life around town from goths to preppies to yuppies to hippies and anything in between. We have a great local music scene, one "artsy" movie house, lots of artists, and on Thursdays in June and September, "Twilight Festivals" downtown. The University of Missouri is located just south of downtown, so that area remains vibrant. There are many specialty shops, galleries, restaurants, and bars in the downtown area (recently dubbed "The District," but I have issues with "The District" of Columbia, if you will, hehehe!).

Home and rental prices are indeed higher here but depending on where you come from might not be all that shocking. New suburbs and apartment complexes are cropping up everywhere, with most of the growth being to the south and the north. The northern part of town tends to be less pricey and doesn't have as many retail and restaurant options as the newer areas to the south, but that's likely to remedy itself soon. Columbia is about a 30-minute drive from Jefferson City (state capital), and two hours from either Kansas City of St. Louis. It's nice to have a choice of two airports for booking flights, and we have a good shuttle service that serves both.

I've listed some websites to get you started. I will comment that the Tribune publishes a yearly special section called "Our Town." It has great information about employers, schools, and surrounding towns. It might even be worth a phone call to see if you can get your hands on a copy of the latest edition. I will also say that if you are going to own a home here, the city offers great programs such as energy and landscape audits for free.


City of Columbia website - utilities, government, parks & rec, etc.
http://gocolumbiamo.com/

Local Newspapers
http://www.columbiatribune.com
http://www.digmo.com (Columbia Missourian)

Daniel Boone Public Library
http://dbrl.org

Public Schools
http://www.columbia.k12.mo.us/

Colleges and Universities
http://www.missouri.edu (University of Missouri - Columbia)
http://www.stephens.edu (Stephens College)
http://www.ccis.edu (Columbia College)


Good luck with your move - I think you'll like it here!

[Ozarks21]

I lived in Columbia from 1992-1999 as a college/grad student. I loved it as a student. It is a very student focused town. But I have become more conservative and my priorities have changed. I don't think Columbia would be a good fit anymore. It is VERY liberal politically - liberal in the academia sense.

Summertime in Columbia would be great. During the school year, not so good. I noticed in my last year there that I had grown tired of all the college students and their college student ways.

[pidgenotmidge]

I found the "Our Town" link, in case you're interested:

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2006/OurTown/ (broken link)


There really is a lot of helpful information about Columbia in it.

[teachcal]

The posters have good comments, EXCEPT that housing here is extremely inexpensive compared to the nation.

I live in SW Columbia in a top neighborhood (Woodrail). My house is 4000 sq. ft. on 1.5 acres. We paid $245,000 for a recently remodled home. Enough said.

Come and enjoy our beautiful Columbia.

Theresa
Columbia, MO

teachcal@tranquility.net

[SWest]

Without a doubt, SW is the best area in Columbia, regarding the quickest growing for resale value and school district (Mill Creek Elementary/Rock Bridge High). We moved here from St. Louis and took 1 year to find the "right" neighborhood. We chose Mill Creek Manor neighborhood, have lived here almost a year, and love it. Neighbors are friendly- healthy mixture of both families and professionals. Mill Creek Manor is a very active, friendly neighborhood that has a nice mixture of families with children and couples without children. Best value for your money.

[meads]

if your child is in middle school come to smithon it's got the hights test scores.

[daisymae19]

Originally Posted by razzy

Columbia is a great place to live, if you can stand not living in a big city. The schools should be good. Rock Bridge High School and the schools on the south side are generally better than Hickman and the schools on the north side.

The main "bad" part of Columbia is just north and northwest of downtown (North of Broadway). In general, the south side is better than the north side, but there are nice areas on the north side. I'd say that 80% of the city would be a good area to live in. If you dont like college parties, try to pick a spot not near the colleges or some of the apartment complexes.

We moved to Columbia Mo in 1989. I have 4 kids..they are now 26, 22, 18 and 13. The best elementary schools in town are Shepard and Lee. The middle schools and Jr. Highs are pretty equal. West has the rep of being the best Jr. High, but my kids went to Jeff and Oakland and I personally really like Oakland.

Again on a personal basis I would not send my kids to Rock Bridge because it has a much larger problem with drugs (not common knowledge unless you have kids in high school) then Hickman does and also scholastically Hickman is the better High School.

Housing wise again I recommend looking North of I-70. Lots of new construction and much cheaper then the equiv on the south side of town, or look for housing anyplace in the Shepard Elementary School district.. As long as you stay away from the central city west of Providence, north of Broadway and south of the Business Loop, there isn't much crime comparitively...Also most of the new apartment complexes and duplexes south of Broadway are aimed at College Students and young singles..not married with kids.
(eta: we bought our house north of the fairgrounds in 2000. Paid 124,000 (I think it is now worth 172,000) for 2400 square feet new construction with an unfinished attic and an oversized 2 car garage. The exact same house built by the exact same builders in a very comparable neighborhood listed for 40,000 more in south columbia)