Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have read many threads on this very helpful message board, so I am basically just looking for some selfish reassurance right now. Here's the story.
I grew up outside of Pittsburgh and my husband grew up in Columbus. He went to OSU and is a Buckeye FREAK (so I am used to dealing with that). Spending my teen years hanging in the Burgh, "Columbus" was usually uttered with a chuckle when referencing real "cities". After college, I moved to northern VA (outside DC), where my husband had also moved for a job. After we met, we lived there for 2 years until we got married and moved out to Denver for his job. We LOVED being close to DC and that whole area, especially seeing the SUN! I realized how much my mood had been affected by living in grey Pittsburgh year-round growing up. And we love Denver. LOVE it. NO humidity, very mild winters that most people don't know about (we often have 70 degree days after a snowstorm), beautiful mountains, and being outside all the time. We wake up to blue skies every morning and swore we'd never move back east.
And here we are, 2 kids later, and my husband wants to move back to Columbus! We are both pretty well-travelled, at home and abroad, and he has also lived in L.A., N. Dakota, and Wisconsin. Most of his friends are still in Columbus and I think he misses that. It is very expensive in Denver (though not as bad as VA), and we could afford an AMAZING house in Columbus with what we pay for a very small house here. Schools here are cutting budgets and teachers in a big way, and I am not real happy with the rising class size (my older son is in kindergarten and has 30 kids in his class)...I do know this is happening everywhere to some extent - what can we expect for class sizes in Ohio? And of course, my family is in Pittsburgh which would mean we could see them a LOT More often (my sister doesn't fly). Growing up we always drove down to the Outer Banks for vacations but we can't do that very often from Denver (buying FOUR plane tickets costs a lot more than a 12-hr. drive!), and we really miss that. On paper, moving makes perfect sense - but then I look outside at the blue sky and Rocky Mountains and wonder what the HECK we are doing!
Has anyone else moved to Columbus from Denver? Are we completely insane? My only real concerns are the GREY weather and the feel of a real city close by - although it does look like Columbus has some fun areas. I have been there a few times with my husband to visit his friends. Please tell me Columbus isn't QUITE as grey as Pittsburgh?
Columbus has evolved much over the years. I have been here for about 2 years and even in that time frame much has changed as far as new developments. Columbus just isnt Ohio State there is so much more to the city. I went to school in Pittsburgh and CO and Pitt are night and day. Pittsburgh is a very old city with a declining population. When I moved to Columbus I could instantly see the difference as everything looked brand new. The city is also much cleaner than Pittsburgh. One of the things Pitt does have over Columbus is the Professional sports other than that Columbus is so much better. The weather here is more milder in the winter than Pittsburgh a lot less snow however there will be grey skys in the winter. Over all CO is a great move the city is growing at a steady pace and is growning more and more diverse.
I suspect that, as far as winters go, Pittsburgh is worse just because they get a lot more lake effect snow than Columbus does. I believe their average snowfall is quite a bit higher. Other than that, though, both cities are at about the same latitude and you're going to have generally cold, overcast winter periods. However, I would think winters here are more tolerable than Pittsburgh simply because it has a more vibrant urban core with great neighborhoods, a growing, diverse population, etc. And while we don't have the Rockies, there are very nice natural areas about a 30 minute drive south as well as numerous Metro Park areas.
I've never lived in Colorado but I can compare our life in NoVA to Columbus. We moved to Columbus from Vienna, VA just over 4 years ago looking for a lower cost of living and a family friendly city and that is exactly what we found here. We barely knew our neighbors although we lived in the same town house for all 4 years we lived in VA. Here three sets of our neighbors were helping us shovel our driveway in February so the moving company could safely deliver our furnishings. In VA we were paying a mortgage though the nose for a crummy 70s build townhouse with linoleum floors, vinyl siding and a tiny backyard. Here we pay less than half our mortgage there for a gorgeous 4bdrm brick Victorian in a fantastic school district and live 10 minutes from downtown. My son's public school kindergarten class has 19 students in it and we are so in love with his teacher it is embarrassing.
Yes, I miss the sun during winter. I grew up in Northern CA and the gray skies are probably my biggest "con" about living in Columbus. But I look at how happy my children are and how relaxed our lifestyle is compared to our previous residences and I know I can always get on a plane or hop in a car for a road trip south if I feel too blah. I know a number of neighborhood families that make an annual trek to FL or NC by car for family vacations. Plus the gray isn't constant. My shoulders are bright pink as I type this because last Sunday was mid 80s and bright blue!
Although Columbus is smaller than DC and Denver it still has all the amenities we needed to feel sufficiently urban. There is an airport that is accessed by the major airlines (CMH), At least two of the downtown theaters show broadway productions when they go on tour, there is a huge children's science museum that gets national press on a regular basis and a decent art museum, there are some wonderful restaurants, a phenomenal zoo and waterpark, a variety of grocery stores and a very high end shopping mall called Easton Town Center.
All in all I would say it is certainly worth considering.
cooks50: You don't have to tell me about the declining population and age of Pittsburgh! NONE of my friends from high school stayed in the area; it's depressing. That is one of the reasons I WON'T move back there, but will actually consider Columbus. I grew up just outside the city, but even most of western PA is very old. I know that Columbus is much newer (and hopefully a younger population).
SKandM: what school district or county are you in? 19 kids in a class sounds much, much, better than what we have here. I used to be a teacher so I know how important class size is. My husband grew up in Dublin, so we would be looking at similar suburban areas as that - Westerville, Worthington, New Albany (although that looks a little pricier???).
My husband seems to think the weather isn't quite as bad as Pittsburgh too. I actually don't mind the snow (I like having 4 seasons, including winter) - it's the GREY. You know, lack of sunlight. Pittsburgh is one of the worst cities in the nation for that - it is grey year-round. Even on a hot, humid summer day, most of the time the sky is grey. Gosh, I'm getting depressed just remembering it. So if Ohio's greyness is mostly during the winter, even that will be improved from where I grew up. Of course, where we are now (Denver) - we get tons of sun and very little grey; so that will be a real shock going back to that. It does have its own consequences, though - the sun is pretty intense and bakes anything made of wood. We have a deck that costs a fortune to stain every other year because it is just toast at the end of the summer. And the dry air causes its own issues (my kids and I have developed eczema AND dry eye syndrome, which are common problems here - we constantly have to run humidifiers, drink tons of water, etc.), too - as wonderful as it feels.
See? I'm trying to tell myself that Denver isn't necessarily the best place in the world. Ha!
Oh, and what about green living? One of the things we love about Denver is the healthy mind-set. It's very easy to get local produce, organic food, and vitamin-shops. Lots of progressive healthcare, too (accupuncture, chiropractors, holistic doctors, etc.). On the other hand, it is very HARD to GROW your own produce (which I would really like to do someday) - due to the very dry climate.
My dr.'s here have given me very helpful natural alternatives and new tests that my sister's dr. in PA has admittedly never even HEARD of. Hoping Columbus is a little more progressive?
cooks50: You don't have to tell me about the declining population and age of Pittsburgh! NONE of my friends from high school stayed in the area; it's depressing. That is one of the reasons I WON'T move back there, but will actually consider Columbus. I grew up just outside the city, but even most of western PA is very old. I know that Columbus is much newer (and hopefully a younger population).
SKandM: what school district or county are you in? 19 kids in a class sounds much, much, better than what we have here. I used to be a teacher so I know how important class size is. My husband grew up in Dublin, so we would be looking at similar suburban areas as that - Westerville, Worthington, New Albany (although that looks a little pricier???).
My husband seems to think the weather isn't quite as bad as Pittsburgh too. I actually don't mind the snow (I like having 4 seasons, including winter) - it's the GREY. You know, lack of sunlight. Pittsburgh is one of the worst cities in the nation for that - it is grey year-round. Even on a hot, humid summer day, most of the time the sky is grey. Gosh, I'm getting depressed just remembering it. So if Ohio's greyness is mostly during the winter, even that will be improved from where I grew up. Of course, where we are now (Denver) - we get tons of sun and very little grey; so that will be a real shock going back to that. It does have its own consequences, though - the sun is pretty intense and bakes anything made of wood. We have a deck that costs a fortune to stain every other year because it is just toast at the end of the summer. And the dry air causes its own issues (my kids and I have developed eczema AND dry eye syndrome, which are common problems here - we constantly have to run humidifiers, drink tons of water, etc.), too - as wonderful as it feels.
See? I'm trying to tell myself that Denver isn't necessarily the best place in the world. Ha!
CO defitnitely has much younger population. I believe the median age is 31.
We live in Bexley. Dublin and Worthington were school districts we had considered as well but ultimately we wanted to be a little closer to downtown. Also we like neighborhoods with older homes and Dublin is primarily builds of 80s and newer. Just a side note I think Dublin schools are some of the last in the area not to have all day kindergarten. New Albany is probably the newest of all the neighborhoods and it does have excellent schools. It is a very planned community that centers around their country club. Upper Arlington and Grandview Heights were the other areas we strongly considered (again closer to the center of Columbus and very established neighborhoods) but we fell in love with the house we now live in and that made the decision for us. Bexley is actually an enclave surrounded by Columbus so it has its own school district, police force and mayor. It has some amazing houses and is home to the state governor's mansion. It is about 10 minutes from Downtown.
As for green living it is here if you look for it. There are a number of farmers markets all over the city during summer. Both Clintonville and Worthington have large ones while many of the other communities have smaller but still regularly scheduled markets. The North Market downtown is a building housing many local vendors and they hold farmer's markets through the summer as well. Welcome! | The North Market
Pearl Market operates year round I believe:
pearlalleygrowers.com Welcome to the Pearl Market · Pearl Market · Downtown Columbus
There is an amazing local milk vendor call Snowville Creamery that sells organic minimally processed milk that is just out of this world.
There are two trader joes and two whole foods along with smaller co-ops all selling organic produce and meats in Columbus. It is also pretty easy to find a CSA to join and there are a number of vendors willing to do buying clubs for people who want meat, poultry, milk or egg deliveries. I could keep going on but you get the point.
I don't know what the average age is here but there are tons of young families and the city caters to them. The art museum has a free family day once a month and many of the city's restaurants have deals for kids for example.
Smiths on Winchester Pike is a good one. We used to go there every summer to get food.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
