looking for small town in OH to make home (Columbus: sales, theater)

[htlong]

why dont you take a look at louisville ohio it has a small town feel and is close to the canton, akron area

[paintballer1708]

^Canfield is home to the Canfield Fair which is huge. I believe its the beggining of September. It attracts a huge crowd though. I remember living in Pittsburgh when i was younger and heading to Canfield to go to it.

[FinanceMom]

I grew up in Athens, Ohio, and I have to say that it qualifies as a great option. Because Athens is a university town (home of Ohio University), there are lots of cultural activities and the school system is fantastic. A lot of kids in my graduating class went on to Ivy League schools, including one of my sisters. Some of the teachers in the high school there have Ph.D's! Athens is in the southern part of the state and the climate is great. It doesn't get too cold in the winter, but just enough to enjoy a little snow here and there. It is in the foothills of the appalachain mountains and the scenery is gorgeous, especially in the fall. Many folks who live in Athens are affiliated with the University, so the education level is very high. Housing is relatively inexpensive, however, and there are lots of nice places to live. I loved growing up there because I could walk everywhere I needed to go and there was no fear of crime. There is a state park only a couple miles out of town and we used to swim there almost every day in the summer. The only downside of Athens is that it is not near any large cities and it is a difficult place to find a job. Good luck on your search! By the way, another great small college town in Ohio is Oxford (Miami University).

[FinanceMom]

Originally Posted by CirclevilleRealtor

If you're going to take a look at a town............ Take a look at Circleville. We're a fairly small town (12k) About 30-40min from columbus(south). Its a very good area to live in. City-data has alot of good , factual information about it. As you can tell by the name , i'm a real estate agent , but we won't go there , BUT the neat thing is , the city does grant money to buy houses in our area.

The nice thing about circleville, and central-southern ohio is the fact that we have a fairly low cost of living. Housing costs are very moderate ,and various goods and services are moderately low as well. Trade this off with a drive time factor to columbus ,and living isn't too bad in our area. Our town is known for the Pumpkin Show , maybe you've heard of it , but its one of the largest festivals in america ( and yes , i said america.) Last year , i believe we had a total of 600,000 people come to it. Its a very amazing thing for such a small town to have. If you want to see what Ohio is like , i'd sugguest you stop by our area in october when its going on and see what its like.

As people have mentioned before , Ohio isn't perfect , but what state is? I feel the positives outweigh the negatives ,and that's a good thing.

I have positive memories of attending the Circleville Pumpkin Festival as a kid! It wasn't nearly that large back then! But - I just have to ask - I also remember the city having a distinct smell that was rather disturbing, from some sort of mill nearby. Is this still the case?

Also - I should remark that Ohio has the distinct feature of having a very different flavor depending on where you live in the state. I have been fortunate enough to live in Athens, Columbus, and Cleveland. I am also quite familiar with Cincinnati and Dayton. There could not be a greater difference between SE Ohio and NE Ohio! The southeastern region is very temperate, laid back and there are beautiful state parks and rolling hills. Cleveland is very COLD, cosmopolitan and has almost an East Coast feel to it. Columbus is a growing, modern, typical midwest town. Of all the areas I've lived in, I think I would pick Columbus if I had to go back. I love the suburbs - Dublin, Worthington, & Hilliard in particular. My sister lived in Granville, which is also a beautiful area. I really liked Athens, but the jobs are hard to find there. However, you can't beat the scenery! It's one of the best kept secrets in the state.

[paintballer1708]

That was a great way of putting it, FinanceMom. Ohio has a lot of different regions that sort of have their own weather patterns. I find SW Ohio to be quite warmer than NE Ohio in the fall and winter time. SE Ohio is one of my favorite spots in the country. Athens is a great town with great scenery. The scenery in SE Ohio is awesome. I really like driving through the area in fall. Columbus and Cincinnati are two nice growing cities with so much diversity. Cincinnati and Cleveland have a lot of history, while Columbus is a new city. NE Ohio you have the lakes, Lake Erie, Cuyahoga Nat'l Park, the ski resorts, the more eastern feel to it all. Cleveland, Akron, and Canton all were very fast paced like the NE, and the people of Cleveland remind me a lot of the people of Philly, New York, and Boston. Cincinnati is more like Nashville, Memphis, or St. Louis. Columbus reminds me a lot of Charlotte, Atlanta, and Raleigh. I see you are from Northwest Indiana. Do you live near South Bend? My take on Gary, Indiana is that it is just as bad as East St. Louis and Camden. Indianapolis is a nice city though. Columbus and Indianapolis could be sister cites IMO.

[FinanceMom]

I spent most of my life in Ohio, but I have lived the last eight years in Indiana. We just moved up here from Indianapolis, where we spent almost seven years. Indianapolis is almost a twin city to Columbus, Ohio. They are even designed similarly! NW Indiana is a little tricky, but we settled in a very quaint university town up here called Valparaiso. It's 15 minutes from Lake Michigan, one hour from Chicago, has great schools, lots of parks and a quaint downtown. You really can't beat it for a small town atmosphere. I do miss Athens a lot, though. One thing: Indiana lacks is the beautiful rolling hills!

I go back to Athens and Columbus several times per year. And we're celebrating thanksgiving in Bethesda, Ohio, a little farm town only a few miles from Wheeling, W. Va. Speaking of different flavors! This is yet another zone in Ohio that has a complete character all it's own. Very charming and down to earth - lots of farmers and hospitality. Almost southern! Got your share of pickups, too. But it's peaceful and a fun place for family gatherings.

[paintballer1708]

Well FinanceMom, i wish you a happy Thanksgiving and wish you have travels.

[leeeoooooo]

Wonderful read, guys! Much as I said I was done with the midwest, we are considering a move back to Ohio, to be closer to my aging folks. This forum is reminding what I do like about Ohio (I just Hated it for the first five years when we moved to Columbus when I was twelve, but eventually I got used to the whole "Ohio is the Greatest Place in The World" attitude and learned to put up with endless football).

I have always loved Athens, used to go down there almost every weekend when my sister was going to school there (they had a Great public television station -- we used to look *forward* to the membership pledge drives, they made it all such a party! I wish other PBS stations would do likewise and not just hit you over the head for money).

Circleville is also great (we used to go through there on our (roundabout) way to Athens, for better scenery), as is Chillocothe (DON'T miss the outdoor drama "Tecumseh!"; it was one of the (if not THE) first outdoor dramas, and by far the best of many I have seen).

Having spent more than twenty years in Columbus, while it has much to recommend it, I'm tired of it and it is just not the city I remember in the seventies.

We are currently considering North-Central Ohio, possibly Mansfield. I don't remember hearing a lot of good about Mansfield when I lived in Columbus, it seemed to be a place to be *from*, but don't talk bad about it to someone from there.

The main thing I am thinking of is regional location. Mansfield is on I-71, so there's equally easy access to either Columbus or Cleveland. It is also close to amish country. We prefer a smaller town (we are currently in a fast-growing town of 180,000 or more in Missouri -- this is too big and we have had our fill of "south" - sorry, southern Ohio would be just too much like what we're trying get away from).

I like the fact that Mansfield has always had weather more like Cleveland than Columbus (Cleveland: winter snow and lake-mediated temperatures; Columbus: winter freezing rain and warmer summers/colder winters -- the differences are subtle, but significant for us). Mansfield also, for a city its size, seems to have everything we would expect from a much larger city -- certainly more than we have here in a city four times its size.

My wife is researching online, but is having trouble hearing nothing but bad from people who don't like Mansfield. People warn her that there are some rough neighborhoods and traffic is bad, but we came here from Del Paso Heights in Sacramento and I don't thing anything in Ohio can compare to that except maybe some parts of Cleveland. I think we're not as timid as many midwesterners when it comes to that.

I drove through Bucyrus on the way back from Cedar Point many years ago and got caught up in a classic saturday night 'cruise', right out of "American Grafitti." Once I realized we weren't going to get anywhere fast, we just sat back and enjoyed the show! It was so much fun! I see now where Mansfield has an annual "cruisin'" event. It looks like the city is really working to revitalize this old town, and I like to think this could be a great place to live, but we can't find anyone online to recommend it.

After reading here, we might also consider somewhere a little closer to Akron/Canton, but we don't know that part of the state as well.

We don't want to be too far off the beaten track, access to other destinations only a day or so away is also a big attraction to us. If we're going to stay in the midwest, this area looks like what we want.

Does anybody have anything good to say about Mansfield, so can you recommend anyplace else that offers some of the same kind of locational advantages?

Thanks!

[paintballer1708]

Mansfield is doing much better today than it was back in the 70s. It is located near one of the fastest growing regions in the country. Delaware County just south is the 11th fastest growing county in the nation right now. Just wondering how your opinion on Columbus has changed? Is it because they city has grown so much in the past few years? Columbus really is booming. But Mansfield has a lot to offer for a city it's size, and is not too far from Toledo, Cleveland or Columbus. Akron/Canton would not be a bad choice because the job market is really starting to move along there, and there are some really nice small towns not far from the cities themselves so if you needed the big cities for anything, its not a far drive.

[flinty]

Hey, Warner...I've been in 85 out of Ohio's 88 counties. Allow me to name a few of the nicer small towns: Mount Vernon, Granville, Yellow Springs, Lebanon, Milan, Sandusky, Ashland, Medina. Between Cleveland and the Pennsylvania border there are some pretty towns but be warned...this area is in the SNOW BELT. Here they are downwind of lake-effect snow.. If they get say, 16" dumped on them, there is an old saying "If you're in you can't get out, if you're out you can't get in".