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Local News Facts And History : Ohio : Columbus

A great place to live!

Posted March 24, 2008 by Realty.com Editor

I’ve lived in Columbus, OH for the past 3 years and I think it’s the best place ever. The city’s website is www.cityofcolumbus.org.

Downtown is big enough to have theaters, events, great restaurants, and the feel that you are in the city, but it isn’t so big that traffic is horrible or parking is difficult to find. The Red, White, and Boom festival downtown on the 4th of July includes a parade, tons of street vendors, and a top-notch fireworks show. The Columbus Art Museum downtown is fun and affordable to visit, as well. A really neat area just off of the downtown area is German Village, a historic area of town with cobblestone streets, quaint little houses, and a beautiful park in the center of the neighborhood that puts on completely free performances of Shakespeare plays every weekend in the summer.

The Ohio State University is in Upper Arlington so there is a lot of entertainment and arts events on campus, plus a lot of nightlife along High Street. I mostly love Columbus because it is a great family and kid-friendly place to live or visit. There are so many attractions in Columbus for children. There is a science museum called COSI with a huge children’s area downtown, several malls with great indoor play places, an indoor arboretum on Broad Street called the Franklin Conservatory, and a few places with indoor play lands and ball pits. The library system in Columbus is fantastic. The library has branches all over town, but the main branch of the library downtown is the biggest and has a great children’s area. They hold story times that my kids just love, and they have so many resources for learning and reading.

The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium is big and has not only lots of animals, but also has several playgrounds, a petting zoo, and rides for the kids as well. They are also in the process of building a neighboring water park next to the zoo. The park and rec system in Columbus is also quite impressive. There are so many parks and walking trails nearby that I often take my kids to in the spring and summer. Several city rec centers in Columbus even offer classes for pre-K through teen for free. Aside from the beautiful and historic German Village area, other popular or upper class areas around Columbus to live are the Upper Arlington area or the southwestern suburb of Grove City.

Grove City’s downtown is very nice, clean, and classy-looking—but be careful, their police are sticklers for tickets and moving violations! Dublin, in northwestern Columbus, is a particularly rich area to live. Stringtown Road in Grove City is a favorite place for my husband and I to visit on date night. It has virtually every restaurant you can think of, and offers plentiful shopping. If you are looking to move to Columbus, I would suggest living in Grove City.

The Columbus school district is pretty scary and dangerous in some places, but Grove City is part of the Southwestern City Schools District and is supposed to be quite good. For tourists, a good time to visit would be the summertime. Winters are relatively mild, but they are usually rainy and cloudy as is the spring.

Realty.com Editor
Realty.com