Moving to Columbus, Ohio. Suggestions?

February 6, 2009 6:44 AM

I may be moving to Columbus, Ohio, from New York. I'm wondering about intellectual/cultural life there. Please tell me what you know about Columbus to help me decide.

I'm also interested in knowing more about mass transport, whether it is absolutely necessary to have a car, the possibility of bicycling, and which neighborhoods are good to live in (and which ones to avoid). Are there any good coffee houses I should know about?

posted by dskinner to society & culture (29 comments total)

I don't know much about Columbus, but if all you've ever known is NYC or the NYC metro area, you're going to have some serious culture shock. Yes, you're probably going to need a car. Even in a city in the Midwest, things are often very far apart...you'll need a car just to get groceries, or to go see a movie, and probably to get to work.

General advice: find a local discussion board about Columbus where all the locals hang out. Many local newspapers have online forums or websites where locals comment or complain about local issues. This can help you to discover which parts of town have problems and which parts are gated communities, and so forth. Study the published crime maps and read the police blotter. Use Craigslist to scout out apartments--this may also give you an idea for which neighborhoods are tonier than others.

Read the local newspaper for a few weeks to find out more about local issues. I've found that the letters to the editor are often both the most amusing and most telling part of local newspapers.
posted by mrbarrett.com at 7:04 AM on February 6

Some good info under the Columbus tag.

I live here, so the intellectual life is, of course, top-notch.
posted by lohmannn at 7:10 AM on February 6 [1 favorite has favorites]

I lived in Columbus for several years in the 90s. It's a great city....if you were raised on a farm in Ohio. Coming from NYC, you might see it a little differently.

It's generally a well-heeled place with a vibrant art scene and a colossal university and all of its attendant culture. Very flat. Lousy public transportation. Easily bikeable with potential for some beautiful rides, brutally cold in the winter. Good 'hoods to check out are the Short North, Clintonville, Granville and Downtown. I would avoid the student ghetto east of OSU -- poorly maintained and inexpensive housing has made this neighborhood pretty ugly and scary.

Coffee shops come and go, but there are always plenty of them.
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 7:12 AM on February 6

The German Village district is another place you might want to check out, although it's been a while since I've been there.
posted by aheckler at 7:19 AM on February 6

Good 'hoods to check out are the Short North, Clintonville, Granville and Downtown

Granville is actually a little town about 35 minutes to the east of Columbus. It's a very charming little place, home to Denison University, but I doubt a recent NYC transplant would like to live there. I'm guessing you meant to write Grandview instead of Granville? Grandview is a little neighborhood right next to downtown Columbus that has some nice little restaurants and shops. I'd think Grandview or the Short North are probably where you want to live. Also German Village is nice and if you have the money, you could buy a nice charming little house there.
posted by billysumday at 7:29 AM on February 6

No one has said this yet? If you are going to live there... become a buckeyes fan and everyone will love you. From late summer to early winter yell out O H and everyone will say I O. College football is huge in Columbus.

As for the city, I have a friend that lives there. Beautiful city! Coming from NYC there will be a little shock. It is smaller for one thing and more than likely the people when compared to NYC citizens will be more laid back. It has a decent mixture of people too. With OSU and Columbus being the state capital you could say it has the best of everything. Great jobs, great bars/clubs, awesome big game atmosphere (again become a buckeyes fan). Plenty of things to do as well. As for the weather, you are from NYC so there is nothing you can't handle. If you are looking for housing, you could check out the suburbs. Lot of nice places just 15-20 minutes out of the city.

Also if you find yourself super, stupidly hungry try a place called thurmans (i think?) and get their thurman burger. You'll be stuffed for days.
posted by Mastercheddaar at 7:31 AM on February 6

I also live in Columbus: basically everything M.C. Lo-carb said is right on.

Terrible public transit, pretty good art/music/bar scene and some great neighborhoods that people mentioned above. (Short North, Victorian Village, Clintonville, German Village, Grandview)

Unless you live in the same neighborhood where you work, a car is necessary. There are a few nice bike trails, but they are more for recreation than "getting anyplace". (They just run along a few rivers.) Not a lot of bike lanes, and people aren't used to sharing the roads with bikes.

If there's any other specific questions, don't hesitate to email me!
posted by fracturing at 7:34 AM on February 6

Yep, live in Grandview, Short North, German Village, Victorian Village or Clintonville.

For coffee I prefer Stauf's in Grandview or any of the Cup O Joe locations.

You will want a car. You can ride your bicycle, but people aren't good at sharing the roads, and our public transit is nowhere near adequate. Unfortunately, I find that many people here feel like the bus is only for poor people, and that mindset results in less and less funding for public transit each year.

I'm sure there will be some culture shock for you. Columbus is small and the mindset is very different. Over the years I've often thought about moving to a larger city, but I find that, while we have our fair share of assholes, there are some really good people here, and a lot of things I wouldn't want to leave behind. It's comfortable. It's got great bars and shops. The cost of living is insanely low. It's definitely more laid back that NYC. We have some great local restaurants.

If you like football, get in to the buckeyes. If not, don't worry. I'm not into football at all, and outside of some eye rolling at the crazy buckeye fans, I do just fine.

And as rumposinc found, there are some crazy nice and helpful people here. I know there were several of us actively helping her find a place to live.

Definitely send me an email if you have more questions or need anything! And if nothing else we'll all have to meet up if and when you move here!
posted by thejanna at 7:44 AM on February 6

I also live in Columbus (Clintonville). I moved here from north of Detroit and expected to hate it (since we Michiganders consider everything south of our border to be "the south") but I actually really enjoy it here. If you love to eat there are tons of great restaurants in just about any cuisine you can think of. All the neighborhoods listed above are decent places to check out for living.

As far as intellectual life, I didn't go to school here so I can't really vouch for it but considering we have the largest university (population wise) in the world (so I've heard) I'm sure there is plenty to explore here.

As others have said, public transit sucks, biking on roads is ill advised (I'm pretty sure you can't bike on sidewalks here and there are no bike lanes... in my experience cars get nervous and bunch up around bikers so its not safe for them or other drivers). You will need a car unless you do everything in one tiny part of the city. Its a very horizontal place.

The library system here is also amazing (best libraries in the country for a couple of years running).

if you are into it there are lots of great farmers markets and a good amount of CSAs who deliver in the area. Columbus is also within easy driving distance of some incredible parks (Hocking Hills, Yellow Springs) and has some decent ones nearer to the city as well.

I prefer Cleveland for museums and such and its ~2.5 hours north of us so it isn't too terrible to get up there for an afternoon. Cincinnati is a similar distance away.

If you have specific questions I can attempt to answer them.
posted by zennoshinjou at 8:03 AM on February 6

I'm a graduate student at OSU, recent transplant from the Boston metro area. Culture shock is definitely to be expected. Mass transit is near-useless. It's not nothing, but compared to the NYC subway? Forget it. You will have to have a car if you don't want your life to be a huge hassle. Bicycling is possible but without knowing what you're coming here for (job? school?) it's hard to pinpoint where you might live and whether biking would be feasible for you or not. For instance, I'd consider biking to campus but there's pretty much no way for me to get there without passing through some major intersection, and I'd feel very uncomfortable making the commute on a bike.

I live in Grandview, which is very nice if you have a car. Manages to capture the small-town feel while still being within the city limits (I think it's technically its own municipality, but it's an enclave entirlely inside Columbus either way.) Lots of families/grad students/professionals here, so it's quiet. German Village has some cool stuff in it (I just went to a neat bookstore the other day), and parts of the Short North are nice too. 2nding avoiding the student ghetto--the stuff within 2-3 blocks of the OSU campus in any direction, plus stuff east of High St in general (the main drag) tends to be kind of crappy.

Nthing what everyone else said about Columbus being small relative to what you're used to. It's the largest city in Ohio (and a large city in its own right, relative to the rest of the nation), but it's not in the same league as the coastal metropolises are. It makes you realize that major, heavily-developed (when a city in the Midwest wants to expand, it expands outward into the surrounding farmland rather than building on top of itself like a coastal city does... since coastal cities have no choice but to build on top of themselves) cities with metro systems are anomalies in the US. I read recently that Columbus is the largest city in the US without passenger rail service of any kind.

I don't want this to sound overly disparaging--I've become pretty comfortable here, and the cost of living is great--but as someone who's also from a well-developed East Coast city, it took me a long time to reach that point. Your experience may be different from mine, but either way, just want you to be prepared for it to be different from what you're accustomed to. :)
posted by Kosh at 8:11 AM on February 6

yes, Grandview.
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 8:15 AM on February 6

Grew up in Columbus, now live in Boston. C-bus was a great place to grow up, but I don't think I could move back there. It's pretty conservative (I mean, it's good for the midwest, but relatively speaking, still pretty conservative). There is a lot of ethnic diversity overall, but it's very segregated in terms of where ethnic groups tend to live. Cars are a must (I knew exactly one adult who did not have a car, and she was considered to be a weird, somewhat irresponsible hippie who was always mooching rides). Cup O Joe is the greatest coffee chain in the world and I miss it dearly. Double up on it with The Book Loft in German Village, and you'll have the makings of a great afternoon.

The Museum of Art is actually quite nice, as the Wexner Center for wacky modern stuff, and the Symphony is excellent (check out Picnic with the Pops and all the summer concerts -- they're great). Some pretty good concerts come to venues for reasonable prices... I really liked PromoWest Pavilion (may be called something different now) in the Arena District, and I saw lots of good bands for like $30/ea. When I left to go to college I couldn't have told you where any ethnic restaurants were outside of Chinese takeout, but now I know there's a decent spread of Indian, Asian fusion, Thai, etc. I love Ohio State football, but you may not, and that's okay (just be okay with everyone else loving it).

As for living, check out the Brewery District and some of the other recently redone downtown neighborhoods. It'll probably most familiar to you as a New Yorker, and there's some really neat stuff going up down there.

If you're interested in the rest of the state: Cleveland thinks they're the big city, but really they're not all that different from Columbus. Cincinnati is basically Kentucky (even their airport is across the state line). Southeast Ohio gets into Appalachia and, seriously, hillbilly country. That said, if you ever want good ice cream, drive 45 minutes east on I-70 and go to Tom's in Zanesville. It's totally worth it.
posted by olinerd at 8:46 AM on February 6

If you like the arts, Cleveland's only 2 hours north, and it's got one of the best orchestras in the world, along with a variety of museums that are probably the best in the region. (The art museum, for example, has a really broad, balanced collection, and in several areas - including Asian art, medieval stuff, and pre-Columbian art - it's among the best in the nation.) There's also a great punk and metal scene, if you're into those musical genres. If you like sailing or ice fishing, there's also a damn big lake... I mention stuff available in Cleveland because yes, public transportation is inadequate and bicycle commuting's not easy to do. You will need a car to get around, and when you're already spending 45min driving across town, Cleveland and Cincinnati really won't seem that far away. (When I was a kid, my family sometimes made the reverse commute to visit Columbus stuff like COSI.) Oh, along similar lines: if you like roller coasters, you MUST drive up to Sandusky and go to Cedar Point. Best roller coasters in the world.

Just to be nitpicky, the Cleveland metro area's actually the biggest in the state, followed by Cincinnati - random flukes of local history have resulted in more of the Columbus metro area being counted as "Columbus" proper. Yes, yes, only someone from Cleveland could possibly care.
posted by ubersturm at 8:58 AM on February 6

I have a sneaking suspicion that all the people saying you need to own as car own cars. COTA can't compare to the NYC subway system, Chicago's elevated train, or the Bay's BART, but I grew up around Los Angeles where you really do need a car and it's not that bad.

I do not own a car and I get by peachy. If you live in good neighborhood, you will have all your essentials (coffee, restaurants, groceries, beer, cigarettes) within walking distance, and then on that occassion where you need something a little weirder or more uncommon, you take the bus or bum a ride off a friend or bike.

It's difficult to bike during the winter, but I have plenty of friends who bike everywhere spring, summer, and fall. We're lucky enough to have the Third Hand Bike Co-Op, which will help you fix, buy, select, or cobble together a bike. Whatever you need. Really nice people, good prices.

We're not NYC, but we're not as podunk as some people are going to try to make you think, I promise. Columbus is the 15th largest city by population in the USA. It's a liberal oasis in a conservative state (I still see cars with Kerry bumper stickers, and the crazy lawn monuments and handpainted signs people had in their lawns during the Obama campaign were utterly adorable). It's a really, really gay friendly community; we have the third-highest per-capita gay population in the USA (we're ahead of NYC, believe it or not).

NEIGHBORHOODS:

Short North: This is a semi-touristy strip of vintage shops, bars, boutiques, coffee shop, galleries, with a little bit of everything else. The first Saturday of every month is Gallery Hop; make sure to hit up Rivet, the vinyl toy gallery, for free Pabst Blue Ribbon (everyone else tries to foist off that ubiquitous shitty art gallery opening wine). You can kill a day just wandering around and window shopping. You can get an apartment here above one of the shops, but I'd personally rather live in Victorian Village.

Victorian Village: Really quaint, sweet, lovely neighborhood within walking distance of the Short North. Close enough to OSU to get there if you needed to, far enough that it's not overrun with students. Friendly, lots of gay people, good neighborhood for kids but there's not a ton of them. There's blurred lines between residential and business; within a block of my house I can get a cup of coffee, a six pack of beer, or some breakfast. There's some apartment buildings, but mostly it's little Victorian houses and duplexes that rent for a bit under $1,000 a month. I know this hood the best, because I love it so dearly I'd never live anywhere else, so let me know if you have any questions.

DOWNTOWN: Your typical downtown. "This is where the really tall buildings live." Most people work there and don't live there, so most businesses just sell overpriced lunches and close around 5. There's some CRAZY expensive, gorgeous apartments down there. My sugar pays $220 for his (shithole of an) apartment, however, so cheaper housing is possible. You have to go up to the Short North or down to the Brewery District to buy groceries, and god forbid you run out of cigarettes on a Sunday. There's a good chance you might find a job there, which might make living there worth it

CLINTONVILLE: It's pretty far north. It's got lots of it's own businesses, so you'd be fine if you didn't have a car, but if you worked or had friends in the center of the city it might be kind of a pain. It's quite nice, though.

CAMPUS: Personally, as a classy lady, I would never live here, but if you can stand drunk people playing cornhole on their front lawns, then I'd check it out. Since the housing caters to students, prices tend to be a bit cheaper. Lots of bars, the Wexner, and some music venues.

GRANDVIEW/ARLINGTON: Similar to Victorian Village in that it's a really nice, safe neighborhood, and you won't have any trouble buying groceries or anything. The demographic seems to be a bit older, more conservative, more money. Families and the like. They have THE BEST coffeeshop (Stauf's), though, so that works in their favor.

BREWERY DISTRICT or GERMAN VILLAGE: I honestly don't go down here that often, I just figured I should mention they exist.

VARIOUS THINGS THAT ARE INCREDIBLE AWESOME:

The Wexner Center: I am INCREDIBLY THANKFUL that I have the Wexner Center. It's the kind of bastion of arts and culture that people living in suburbia long for. They show obscure movies, host interesting concerts, have art exhibitions, even throw parties. I've met the director of Helvetica and the upcoming Objectified there, seen Matmos and RJD2, seen pieces of art that made me literally cry, watched a cheesy 50s sci-fi movie outside on a blanket while eating artisinal ice cream (all free), and attended an Andy Warhol themed party while dressed as a banana. Next week we're going to go see Luis Buñuel’s Simon of the Desert, a surreal black and white religious satire from the 1960s, and Beautiful Losers, a visually stunning documentary about the low-brow and street art scene.

The North Market: It's kind of like a permanent version of a Farmer's Market, with less produce and more delicious prepared food. It's a huge, homey building and businesses rent out little stalls. Everyone sells something different. You can buy Le Crueset cookware, bánh mì, cheese curds, rabbit, champagne vinegar, organic kale, dark chocolate, Japanese import beer, samosas, locally raised hormone free meat, flowers, pancetta, freshly baked bread...the list never ends. It's the best place to meet someone for lunch; they really do have something for everyone.

Stauf's/Cup o Joe/MoJoe Lounge: Stauf's, in Gradnview, is my absolute favorite coffeeshop in town. Cute hipster barista boys (sigh), smells deliciously like the beans they roast right there in the store, amazing drinks. They've got a frozen coffee drink that has espresso beans ground into it, which is the most amazing idea ever. They sell their beans, which are the best in town, and since fresh local beans are always the best, simply the best. They started a chain, Cup o Joe, which is also pretty sweet. I think it's really cool that they left the original Stauf's exactly like it was instead of changing the name to fit in with the chain. Some of the Cup o Joe's have a bar, as well, Mo Joe Lounge, which is a nice place to meet a date; classy but not stuffy.

The LC/The Basement/Newport Music Hall/House of Crave: These venues have most of the big shows.

Skylab: Despite being on the fifth floor, this shit is so far underground you're halfway to China. Columbus has a surprisingly sick local music scene; if you're interested in the avant garde, in the weird, in flashing lights and screeching noise and thunderous drums and circuit bending and people rolling around on the floor, you're in the right place. Skylab is an "art space" in the top floor of an apartment building; you have to bring your own booze, and they only ask for donations to help out the bands that travel to get there. There's assorted other art spaces that do similar things in private residences; 15th House, Last House on the Left, Monster House, The Crackhouse. When you get to town, keep an eye out for Columbus Sucks Because You Suck (C.S.B.Y.S.); it's a flyer/calender that comes out every month with sick artwork and dates for all the underground shows. This totally might not be your scene, but if you're into noise, hardcore, punk, ambient, drone, tribal, grind...you're moving to a good city.

Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream: Remember that artisinal ice cream the Wexner gave me for free? It was Jeni's. Jeni's is Columbus. Every time I eat there, I picture people in other cities watching her feature on Food Network and being incredibly jealous. They should be. Familiar flavors are elevated to the sublime, and unusual flavors intrigue the tastebuds. Every ingredient as component is the abcolute highest quality possible, and the love put into making the ice cream shows. Just as an example, her rocky road has homemade marshmallows, and smoked almonds. Check out the flavor list, and drool.
posted by Juliet Banana at 9:48 AM on February 6 [5 favorites has favorites]

It's the Midwest. I grew up near Columbus, and have family there, whom I visit often. People are friendlier & more hospitable. The pace is different, and it's more family oriented. Real estate is really affordable. It's so flat that cycling is easy. In summer, you can watch huge thunderstorms roll in. You can find fields so full of fireflies, I swear you could read a book by the light. There's still a large agricultural economy; the Ohio State Fair is huge and fun. OSU is a big university, full of smart, interesting people from all over the world. OSU colors are scarlet and gray, not red and gray. Yes, you need to know that.

If you compare it to NYC, it will be miserable, but on its own merits, you could have a nice life there.
posted by theora55 at 9:57 AM on February 6

I'm a small town person who's now pretty Manhattanized. I can still climb trees and skip rocks and shoot things with rifles, I imagine.

I don't hate the midwest, but as many above say it's a very, very different life experience. You might hate it or love it, but you should give it a chance before trying to decide that in your imagination. It's definitely good if you are introverted and like quiet. Also great if you like that American Experience of desolate beauty and rugged individualism and such.

If you move, you will almost certainly need a car. (New York is really the only city in the country I have yet found where a car is a bigger hassle than a requirement, though if you can choose your home/work/life neighborhoods carefully in some of the more bicycle-friendly parts of the West you can get away without too.)

But, please, do not take a job somewhere and move until you have visited for a week or so. Just go yourself and walk around the city. It's a big change and it might not be for you.
posted by rokusan at 10:14 AM on February 6

King's Island!!!

Sorry, my Columbus experience is limited to the 4-12 age group. Eastland Mall! Blacklick Woods! State Fairs!
posted by orme at 10:33 AM on February 6

I'm originally from Dayton, OH and now live in New York, but a lot of my close friends from high school moved to Columbus after college.

I've lived in NYC a mere 2 years, but it's been long enough to see the vastly different mindsets that separate the East Coast urbanites from their Midwestern counterparts. Everyone will tell you that the self-importance that comes off as NYC kitsch doesn't fly in Ohio. If you're late for work in Columbus because this grandma in front of you was driving 20 mph in the snow and then some jerk cut you off and seriously what is up with the shitty ramp on I-70... people in Columbus will think you're a drama queen. My friend moved from the Upper West Side to Minneapolis recently and complained about the resolute bluntness of Minnesotans. His hypersensitive personality, that was prone to depression and periods of anti-social behavior, was received with blank stares from the polite and derision from the rude.

There are plenty of very smart people in Columbus, but they don't draw attention to it in the same gleeful fashion that New Yorkers do. Most of my Ohioan brethren don't suffer know-it-alls fondly, and will generally shut you down if they think you're tooting your own horn unnecessarily. One advantage, however, is that intellectuals are more active in their academic/cultural pursuits. New Yorkers get lazy because because they're surrounded by Broadway and the Met and the ballet and huge festivals, and for lots of us it's just enough to live near culture rather than participate in it. When a big name author or band comes to Columbus, people are way more excited. Smart people have to define themselves against OSU jocks and suburban parochialism, so if you find someone who's willing to see plays or indie movies with you, you've probably tapped into a whole group of bright people.

Like everyone else said, mass transit is abysmal. There's a large, hipsterish biking contingent in Columbus, but drivers aren't nearly as accustomed to two-wheeled travelers. Echoing JulietBanana, it's a super-flat city, but biking in the Ohio winter must get dicey.
posted by zoomorphic at 10:37 AM on February 6 [1 favorite has favorites]

I grew up in Ann Arbor, so I may be biased, but I have a lot of friends in Columbus, and I spent a lot of time there, so here's my observation: by and large, no one who is is smart, ambitious, intellectual, etc. actually stays there*. Yes, it's comfortable, and can be charming and fun, but it gets small very, very quickly.

* The one caveat is family/kids. The only people I know who don't move away for at least some amount of time are those who are already in long term relationships and were thinking of kids. For them, the insanely low cost of living outweighs the lack of vibrancy relative to larger cities.

So yes, there's culture, and very cool people, but I've found that as we got older, they all left for Chicago or New York or whatever big city beckoned them, or they got married, had kids, and became family-focused. I think that if you are at all ambitious, you will hit a ceiling and want to move so you can seek new challenges and opportunities. If, however, comfortable is what you crave, Columbus is an excellent choice.
posted by snickerdoodle at 11:14 AM on February 6

I was born and raised in Columbus. You'll need a car. The public transport here is awful, but that's about the worst thing about the city. Bicycling is a reasonable option depending on where you'll be living and where you might want to go. I'd have to know more about what your plans would be before I could give you any better idea. There's plenty of great neighborhoods and great little local coffeeshops, but you can find those on your own.

There's plenty to do around town. Lots of sporting events, a couple of museums, several theaters, an art gallery, etc. The Short North or German Village areas are best stocked with young intellectual types, but you'll find educated young people everywhere. Columbus is a more recent city, meaning it is founded on the finance, government and insurance industries more than manufacturing, like most other major Ohio cities.

Columbus rocks. All the perks of big cities with very few drawbacks. Most East Coast people I know think of Ohio as a backwards redneck sort of place, but it's totally not. Sure, drive 50 miles and you can find it from here, but Columbus is a modern urban area like anywhere else in the world.

O-H!
posted by JuiceBoxHero at 11:45 AM on February 6

You don't need a ton of money to get by here in Columbus. There is some degree of "brain drain" with people moving out to the coasts but as the economy changes, I'd expect some portion of those folks to move back here, where it's extremely affordable to live on your own, and reasonably cheap to raise a family in a good school district.

Bicycling is a bear in the winter months but plenty of people bicycle here, especially in the hipper neighborhoods. (Short North, clintonville, campus, grandview, GV.) The city is adding bike paths and trails and is supposed to continue doing so over the next couple of years. Whether or not you need a car wholly depends on where you live and work.

If you work at home (just guessing from the coffeeshop question) almost every coffeeshop/cafe in town has free wifi.
posted by rubadub at 12:21 PM on February 6

I was born there but moved away to D.C. when I was 9. I remember this much - it was flat, the winters were really cold (from 1976-1978 they had a mini ice-age), I remember liking COSI, the science museum, a whole lot. Oh yeah, tornadoes - they have big tornadoes there.
posted by smoothvirus at 12:57 PM on February 6

smoothvirus: Tornadoes?! I lived near Columbus for the first 20 years of my life and we never had a tornado come through.
posted by aheckler at 3:03 PM on February 6

Oh, tornado warnings are definitely a spring tradition. I grew up in Gahanna (east side) and a over the years a couple did touch down within a couple of miles of my house -- not much damage, though. While driving on the west side once I saw a funnel cloud, and I was one exit away from one driving on 71 at one point (closer to Mansfield, though). That's the one thing I'm most thankful for, having moved away: I can finally enjoy spring and summer thunderstorms without freaking out.

In the city, though, you'll get the sirens, but most Ohio State students I know generally sat out on their porches and watched the storms without any fear of something actually coming through town.
posted by olinerd at 3:22 PM on February 6

Oh yeah, tornadoes! I remember one touched down near us in Whitehall. I thought it was so cool that a chunk of plastic the size of a record album from a nearby drugstore's sign made it over a quarter mile to our backyard!
posted by orme at 3:56 PM on February 6

Just as one data point, I live in NY and had the chance to move out to Columbus recently for my job, and on top of that my then-boyfriend was moving there. Even with those compelling reasons, I ended up choosing to stay in NY.

I went out there with him to move him in (he's an OH native) and by then end of the weekend I found that I had done almost everything the town had to offer and that I really couldn't see myself there.

The short north was pretty cool, but it's like a total of 4 blocks on one street. It's nothing compared to say, the lower east side, which is also a very small hip neighborhood. And that's pretty much all they've got in terms of where the young people are going out. Like I said, I didn't spend a long time there and I could be totally wrong in my impression, but Columbus seemed incredibly small and not at all enough for me.

There was one really good antique store in the short north where we bought a bunch of furniture and the walmart in clintonville where my guy ended up living blew me away in size and breadth of offerings, but oh sorry nightlife. There were like 3 hipster bars, 5 upscale-ish lounges, and a bunch of fratty sports bars, and many UES-type places that I prefer to avoid.

You'll definitely need a car, but navigation was pretty easy. By the end of my 3rd day I pretty much could drive to all the restaurants and museums by myself. (Speaking of museums, skip the science museum unless you have kids. They're usually my favorites but the one in Columbus was super young.)

The obvious perk is that you can afford tons of real estate and have a car and park it, but for me the apartment envy didn't outweigh the lifestyle switch.

So, just one data point, but I'd advise staying put if you like the culture and vivacity of NY. Even the short north on the gallery opening night couldn't come close to what you see everyday on a corner in the Village.

not trying to offend residents of Columbus, sorry if this came off that way
posted by rmless at 4:49 PM on February 6

One thing I'll also add about Columbus- its a place that reveals itself to you over time. If you never leave high street and the neighborhoods directly adjacent to it you are missing a lot of what Columbus has to offer. The thing that has really endeared this city to me is how I constantly find myself saying "wow I never knew this was here!"
posted by zennoshinjou at 4:25 AM on February 7

My mister had this to say:

"I grew up in Columbus and moved away to college. It's not a bad place, but I felt stifled there.

First off, the people are pretty homogenous. This might be an inaccurate and skewed opinion, but it's mine - I didn't see much liberal thought, not much in the way of arts and culture. There is SOME, granted - but those things will be few and far between and centered around downtown and Ohio State.

You'd better like the Buckeyes, or at least the colors scarlet and grey. The folks here are fanatics, and I don't mean like one of ten, I mean EVERYONE. There's a good major league soccer thing going here, and NHL team, and of course OSU - but no NBA, MLB, or NFL.

As far as a place to live, others in the post have pretty much hit the nail on the head. I'd look in Victorian Village, German Village, the Short North or somewhere in those parts. They're all pretty close to the center of downtown and have a small town feel, surrounded by a lot of mom and pop joints. The problem with straying too far out is that the neighborhoods will all shed their character to be replaced by a million suburbs with the same chain restaurants.

Forget public transportation. There's virtually no chance it will be helpful to you. Also consider that the city is surrounded by I-270, the outerbelt. It's about 90 minutes to drive around and about 40-45 from side to side. Roads are pretty good here but don't even think about using your bike unless you live really close to where you're going to work. A car is a MUST and you will need it to do literally ANYTHING.

There are some redeeming qualities, but they take a great deal of time to discover. I'd recommend you stay in NY, the culture shock will be intense!"
posted by illenion at 12:31 PM on February 7

If you happen to be in town the 20th, we're having a Metafilter Meetup. I hope you can make it!
posted by lohmannn at 2:22 PM on February 7