Columbus, Ohio- thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know you want feedback about schools and I don't have that to offer, but I'll chime in as a DC-raised academic who's lived in various major cities and who was very happy during a visiting prof year in Columbus. I found it a very livible city, with a number of pretty close-in neighborhoods—think Chevy Chase, but cheaper—as well as beautiful in-town neighborhoods for fans of Victorian architecture. I found the academic community very welcoming. A dozen or so friends who are tenured there seem thoroughly happy with life in Columbus and are well integrated into their town life. In sum, if the school situation works for you I'd vote a strong yes to the experience of living there and working at OSU.

Though I don't have direct experience of having kids in the schools, I can say that the adminstrative pattern of Ohio cities is that for the most part each suburb is its own school district (vs. county-level school districts around here), so you can search for the optimal combination of town/suburb, proximity to campus, school quality, and so on. That setup can lead to very high real estate taxes that somewhat tamp down the savings in prices, but it can also have advantages in local school quality.

But many MAGAs live in Ohio.

[Anonymous]

You are kidding right?

You read the news right?

If Trump wins Ohio will be unlivable

[Anonymous]

Really look into the retirement plans for OSU...State of Ohio employees don't pay into Social Security and thus, that affects their ability to get SS in the future...they have a pension plan but how solid do you think it will be in the future?

https://hr.osu.edu/benefits/retirement/newly-eligible/full-time-faculty/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check out Upper Arlington, Grandview, Worthington or Bexley. Columbus is a very family friendly city. Dublin is also a nice suburb further out but leans more conservative, the Muirfield section is built around a Jack Nicklaus golf course. New Albany is an exurb, but I would steer clear of there unless you’d like interacting with Les Werner and his cronies.

Columbus Academy and Columbus School for Girls are both independent single sex schools. Wellington also has a good reputation.

The weather is meh. Kind of overcast much if the year, but otherwise similar to the DC area.

Columbus native here. This is all on point. It’s way better than when I left and I wish the Columbus of my childhood had been as diverse and worldly as things there are now.

I went to one of the Worthington high schools and have many friends from my HS sport who went to Upper Arlington. I think anywhere in Upper Arlington boundaries is where I would go if I moved back home again with neighborhoods zoned for Thomas Worthington HS (specifically the areas around Worthingway MS, Evening Street ES, and Old Worthington in general) a close second. It sounds like your kids are old enough that swim clubs aren’t going to be a dealbreaker, but Worthington and UA both have great city pools. Country clubs and swim clubs are more complicated but still easier to access than out here.

It is weirdly gloomy there. Winters are pretty mild and similar to DC, but ice storms are quite common and you won’t be escaping humidity or bugs. Depending on your lifestyle you may feel a little trapped being far from the water.

To be sure, the lake is 2 hours away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ohio has had the most serial killers

The most that have gotten caught.

If you have to live in Ohio, Columbus, is the place to be, which has been well explained in this thread. That said, you’d take me, my uterus, and my kids there over my dead body. Take a hard look at how your access (do you have a daughter?) to medical care will be restricted. Read about what’s happening to education in Florida. Ohio is deep red. Really consider what that could mean for your family. Columbus can’t protect you from most state policies.

Unfortunately for Columbus, enough educated people have left the rest of the state and now Ohio isn't even a swing state, it's deep red

Without extreme gerrymandering, it wouldn’t be that red.

Ohio voters passed an amendment to their constitution that protects the right to abortion up to the point of viability and allows abortion after viability if the patient’s treating physician’s professional judgment leads them to the conclusion that an abortion is necessary to protect the health or life of the mother. The same amendment protects the right to contraception, fertility treatment and miscarriage care. Don’t spread misinformation.

https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-constitution/section-1.22

[Anonymous]

I love that GenZ calls something. “Ohio” if it’s bad. Hilarious and completely correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love that GenZ calls something. “Ohio” if it’s bad. Hilarious and completely correct.

I think Floridians started that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New Albany has excellent schools, as does Powell, Dublin (especially Dublin Jerome), and Upper Arlington.

If you have girls, CSG is a wonderful private school. Columbus Academy is coed (since the 90s). Also excellent. On the other side of town is Wellington. Smaller, but also a very good private school.

Honestly, the public and private school situation is better there than the DC area.

For where to live:

New Albany is very nice. A little Truman Show-esque. But probably where I would pick.

Powell and Dublin are very nice. Mix of house styles and ages.

Upper Arlington is expensive for the area. Older and smaller houses. Fantastic schools. People are a little cultish about UA.

Any of those towns would be good for an OSU commute.

Just avoid Columbus city schools. And be careful, there can be places with a Dublin or New Albany address, but Columbus city schools.

Actually the reverse is more common, Columbus address with Dublin or Worthington schools. Your taxes are split- so you can’t utilize the Dublin & Worthington public services.

[Anonymous]

I was told by a friend of mine from Ohio (not Columbus) that Columbus has a lot of crime.

But he’s MAGA, so I’m inclined to think he believes all large cities have a lot of crime.

[Anonymous]

THE Ohio State University, OP. Learn it, know it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was told by a friend of mine from Ohio (not Columbus) that Columbus has a lot of crime.

But he’s MAGA, so I’m inclined to think he believes all large cities have a lot of crime.

It does have a lot of crime but it’s definitely not up there with places like New Orleans, STL, Memphis etc. Seems about average for a larger city overall. And the suburbs people are mentioning aren’t necessarily super close to Columbus proper. Upper Arlington is the closest and would be sort of like, a less urban/built up Arlington or Bethesda. But Powell, Dublin, New Albany are further out outside their equivalent of the beltway. It would be like saying don’t move to Reston or Rockville because of crime in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everytime I start thinking about Columbus positively as a potential city, I live through the grayness of this last week (and is forecasted to be sunless until Wednesday) and I just can't. I'm definitely worn down by ongoing clouds and overcast skies that last for weeks. Columbus is ranked one of the "gloomiest" cities based solely on this.

I grew up in Columbus, and the gloom (November-March, generally) had a real negative impact on my quality of life. I moved somewhere sunny for college and decided I could never go back.

[Anonymous]

Hi OP.
My best friend and her husband are both professors at OSU. They have a great school system where they live (in Dublin) —one kid has an IEP and the other is super gifted and is I. A gifted magnet school. They have an excellent quality of life, lots of academic friends, fairly LCOL.
Weather than ce kind of bleak and Columbus is a democratic oasis in a red state, but they are happy (and they are very cosmopolitan):