Way OT: Your thoughts on the city of Columbus

I grew up and live about 45 minutes outside Cbus.  It really isn't a bad city, not that I've lived all over the US or anything.  My biggest complaint about it has always been that Ohio has way too much influence over the persona and policies of the city.  There are a lot of nice neighborhoods with a variety of high quality culinary and shopping districts.  They have a great zoo and public parks system.  Traffic is meh.  Overall, it's not a bad place if you can stomach obnoxious Bucknuts.

I'm also curious, what was Shelley like?  I've heard he is a very low key and friendly guy.  A friend of mine has a deer hunting "farm" I guess you'd call it in SE Ohio and Shelley has hunted there several times. 

Like most other big cities it has some nice areas (mostly suburban, there are some safer spots downtown), but also has its fair share of "don't go there alone at night" places. I've had my license plates ripped off while staying on campus, probably for my Michigan bumper stickers. I'd have to say that it is a shade better than Toledo in the "I hope I don't get mugged" category.

Well..... if I could pack up and move my friends anywhere, Columbus would still be in the top half of B1G cities to live in, easily trumping Lincoln, West Lafayette, Bloomington, Champaign, State College, Iowa City and East Lansing.  And I've never lived through a Minnesota winter, so can't really make a definitive statement there.

@bacon1431 - sounds like you were in a ritzy part of town; I generally think of Columbus as appealingly inexpensive for a 600,000+ city - housing is cheap enough, which is nice.  I also like the fact that you can get from anywhere in town to anywhere else within 20 minutes.

For other Columbus residents here, do you ever get the sense that there's a generally silent but sizeable minority of folks here who are either Michigan fans or who just flat-out loathe the Buckeyes because of well... you know?  I actually usually don't get a lot of crap when I wear a Michigan shirt around town (granted I avoid campus bars on game days) and am indeed more likely to get a knowing grin and a 'Go Blue'

The last time I was in Columbus was 9 years ago, interviewing for residency.

The area immediately around campus was awful; put the G in student ghetto.

Downtown, Short North, was great.  Definitely was a city I could have spent 4 years at.  My then girlfriend, now wife was shocked when calling her on the drive back.  She figured I would break out in hives once I crossed the Columbus city limits.

 

I travel to Springfield/Columbus for work fairly regularly. There are actually some very nice people there. If you could take away OSU, you'd have a great place to live and work. Sadly, you can't though. Therefore, it sucks the sweat off a dead man's balls.

...to what is supposed to be one of the most informed and literate college football blogs in the U.S.

So, as a reminder, quite unlike Ann Arbor, here are a few things the Columbus area has going for it:

• A state capitol;
• A thriving business community with numerous national headquarters, i.e., Nationwide Insurance and Cardinal Health;
• Some downtown neighborhoods that are rich in restaurants and social amenities;
• A golf club (Scioto) that has hosted major tournaments;
• Another golf club (Muifield Village) that annually hosts the closest regular-season tour event to a major;
• An NHL franchise, and;
• A fun minor league baseball franchise.

Now, Ann Arbor is a very nice place.  An exceptionally nice place, where I lived for several years as a student and where I continue to occasionally work, in courtrooms and law offices.  But until Ann Arbor can say things about itself that are clearly superior (not just the equal) to Columbus, I don't see where we got off in trashtalking.

If you are posting on this thread and are 16, and you have never been to Columbus, nor to a football game in Ohio Stadium, could you please identify yourself so that the rest of us can gauge accordingly?

 

My sister and brother-in law live in Columbus.  I was there a few weeks ago to visit them actually.  My sister works at the new children's Hospital and she gave me a tour.  I have to say it is very impressive.  My brother-in law works at University Hospital which is nice despite being with in sight of that awful looking stadium.  If I was not a Michigan fan, i would have no problem raising a family and living there.  Heck, even as a Michigan fan, I could see myself tolerating it for the right situation.  The city itself is pretty affluent and nice.

Look, I like Columbus too and have lived there for the past 9 years, but:

1) Golf sucks

2) Red Wings >>> Blue Jackets > the empty shell of an arena that we'll see in 5 years if the Jackets continue at their current pace

3) Zingermans >>>> Katzingers

4) The 2 (20?) % of jackhole Buckeye fans really are that bad.

I'll give you the Dispatch being better than the Free Press, but Ann Arbor is still the queen of my heart.

 

Columbus is a fine city. As far as cities in Ohio, it is one of the best. If I had to live in Ohio again, Columbus would be my first choice.

There is a lot going on in the city and a bunch of interesting neighborhoods.

I've even had a lot of fun partying on the OSU campus. The bar scene is much more diverse and extensive than in Ann Arbor.

If you view everything through a lense of college football and walk around with a big sign that says MICHIGAN MAN then you will doubtlessly find people to take the bait. However, there's no reason to do that and if you do then you get what you deserve. Most people in Columbus are just regular people. They aren't going to dislike you because of the college football team you root for.

From the time I was in high school and would go there a couple times a year, it struck me as insular and prejudiced towards "outsiders," which even included people from the northern part of Ohio.  For years in the 70s and 80s, the state government in Columbus spent heavily to build the city at the expense of the other cities in the state, who were footing the bill with their taxes. They have an army of people in Columbus environs who drive around sporting their Buckeye hats in their red pickup trucks who never set foot in a college classroom in their lives, but who act as if they played football there.  But it begins and ends with the school.  It will be a bush league town so long as the only thing that really matters down there is ohio state sports, and that remains the only thing that matters down there.  They wanted pro sports, got a hockey team, and cannot support that when there is no competition other than ohio state sports.  Do you hear about the Columbus Symphony?  The ballet?  Theater? The art museum?  Nope.  Second rate at all things except ohio state sports. 

It's clean and boring.  Columbus lacks the grit and character (history?) that places like Cleveland (aside from its urban rot) or Cinci have.  I could be dropped into Columbus and not really be able to discern it from any other cities that have grown in the last 30 years (e.g., Raliegh,NC or Columbia, SC).  

Do a lot of business in Columbus, therefore I am familiar with it. When you take away the ugly Scarlet and Gray and annoyance of Buckeyes, Columbus is a great town.

Aside from Chicago (which really isn't a comp), I would actually have to say that C Bus is the best city in the Midwest (AA is not a comp in my eyes)

Great city, lots to do, and excellent infrastructure and employment base. Interesting tidbit - C Bus became so large, and nice, due to the fact that they would force the growing suburbs to become part of the city in order for the burbs to tap into the water system.

I bet the City of Deteoit wishes the would've done the same.

As midwestern American cities go, Columbus is passable. Columbus seems to have more to offer than Flint, and Detroit, and Cleveland, and Buffalo. I actually lived in Columbus one summer while a student. It has bad areas and good areas. I guess it is on a par with Indianapolis and Cincinnati and Des Moines and Grand Rapids. But, like many other "nice" cities, it has its limitations. Even though LA & Miami & NY & New Orleans & San Francisco & Chicago & Seattle have slums and seedy areas, they are diverse and cosmopolitan and large and have museums and culture and restaurants and history on a very different scale than Columbus.

Aside from being home to hands down the worst fanbase in North America, Columbus is honestly and truly great for what it is. 

Compared to some place like Chicago or Montreal or Toronto, I can't really take it seriously as a city.  And Columbus definitely doesn't have the rough hewn je ne sais quoi of old-guard Rust Belt cities like Cleveland and Cincy that .  It will never have New Orleans' decadent charm, or Detroit's erstwhile magnificence in decay.  But... would still rather *live* in Columbus than any of the last 4 places I mentioned.

edit:  A major downside for Columbus is that the area east of campus where students live is generally pretty trashy, even by the admittedly lax standards of campus areas.  That's the one area where I wish OSU would hold its own with Ann Arbor, because there's been a pretty big crime problem there - including some arson cases and even an execution-style shooting over drugs - over the past decade.

edit-edit:  Another fun fact:  you know how our Buckeye friends get tetchy about how we call them Ohio?  In a similar vein, Columbus collectively has a complex about being called "Columbus, OHIO"  The thought is that Columbus is easily the biggest city that bears its name, so why add the "Ohio" qualifier?  Another way you can get under the skin of people in the 614.