Is Columbus for us? (Toledo, Alliance: insurance, homes, employment)

[jdoll88]

So my wife and I are in our mid-late 20s. She is hispanic so access to some good mexican restaurants and shops is important I am guessing based on the cities size this should not be a problem. More importantly I want to know realistically where the tech companies are located and if a healthy industry of this type exists we both work in call centers at the moment as we work on our technical degrees. Cost of living seems reasonable but which parts of town and are they nice places to live? We currently live in boise, idaho

[HPY1]

Not to discourage Columbus, cause it is a great city, you may want to look at the huge tech boom in Fargo, ND (not a joke) as well as Detroit also.

As for Columbus, the jobs are there, but it is a completely different place than Idaho.

As for Mexican food, ever since I lived in Texas... Mexican food hasn't been the same quality. But plenty of choices, and depending on the neighborhood, it can be very authentic.

[Clever nickname here]

As another Texas transplant Mexican food in Columbus is greatly lacking. There are two Tex-Mex chains now in Columbus; Cantina Laredo and Chuy's. There are a few Hispanic grocery stores.

[bjimmy24]

There is no Mexican food anywhere northeast of Texas, to be honest.

[Clever nickname here]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

There is no Mexican food anywhere northeast of Texas, to be honest.

Chicago has plenty.

[Buckeye614]

Columbus actually has a relatively small Latino population. I would definitely not move here if you're seeking a thriving Mexican community.

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by Clever nickname here

Chicago has plenty.

Compared to other cities east of Mississippi and benefits from size. Nothing compared to the southwest. Not close.

[kevinbelt]

Yeah, the Mexican food in Columbus isn't great. I like El Vaquero, which is another big chain, well enough, and there are a handful of small hole-in-the-wall places, but I wouldn't say it's anything special. Every city has Mexican restaurants, though; if you're not picky, there are plenty. And there are several Mexican groceries around the city (La Michoacana, off the top of my head; I know there are others too).

"Tech" is a pretty wide-ranging field. Are you looking at programming? Networking? Biotech? Mechanical engineering? Columbus has one of the biggest research universities in the world here, so there are tech opportunities, but I couldn't tell you where they are without narrowing it down a little.

[wrightflyer]

Just from driving down the highway and looking at signs on the large office buildings and complexes, you'll find your standard tech companies (Verizon, Century Link, IBM, Ashland, OCLC) around the NW part of the I-270 beltway (around Tuttle Crossing Blvd and US-33 exits).

The Polaris area of far northern Columbus will have offices for McGraw-Hill, Microsoft, and Mettler Toledo. Chase has a huge operations and technical center up there in the McCoy Building. I believe it is Chase's largest office and one of the largest single-site employment locations in the state.

The Easton area has Safe Auto, M/I Homes, McDonald's Regional Office, Alliance Data and L Brands offices.

Downtown has Nationwide's HQ, AEP's HQ, Huntington Bank's HQ, CoverMyMeds (now or soon to be a part of McKesson), Rouge, and other banking and insurance industries.

And these don't include OSU's campuses, Ohio State government jobs, Battelle Memorial, healthcare and all the small and medium businesses around the Columbus metro.

I agree with kevinbelt, as tech is a very broad term. I would add the question of, "What industry do you work in now?" Columbus is very heavy on banking, insurance, utilities, professional services IT, restaurant/retail (corporate and store-side), government, healthcare and education. So, the economy is fairly diverse and isn't totally dependent on a manufacturing or import/export industry. But with a professional services economy, specialization and proper industry training can be key. That doesn't necessarily mean you couldn't break into one of these fields. Or that you couldn't find something that isn't in your current field that wasn't listed.

[Weaubleau]

Columbus has so few Hispanic people that when the US soccer team plays Mexico as a home game, it is played in Columbus, to assure a large pro US crowd. They have found that having the game anywhere south and west of Ohio will result in a pro Mexico crowd. In addition, when I lived in Columbus there were briefly NO true Mexican restaurants. This was as recently as the late '90's. All that existed was the Green Chili Café which was New Mexican cuisine. If you are wanting any type of Hispanic culture, almost any larger US city, maybe with the exception of Buffalo NY or Pittsburgh PA, would have more than Columbus.