Hey everyone, I'm moving to Columbus in the fall to start grad school at Ohio State and was wondering if anyone could give me some advice.

I'm traveling down there in about two weeks to find a place to live. Anyone have any tips? I think my first choice would be in the Victorian Village/Short North area but I guess I'm still open to suggestions.

Also, after living in either East Lansing, MI or Madison, WI my whole life and with parents who both graduated from the University of Michigan, I haven't really gotten the best view of Ohio State or Columbus. Any comments about the city and school (the atmosphere, events, concert venues, restaurants, etc.) to help get me excited for the big move would be great!

short north/vic village is EXPENSIVE to live in. plus, it's getting yuppified by the minute. they're opening a three dog bakery down there. yeah, a bakery for fucking DOGS. the short north is no longer the hip entertainment district it once was, especially since little brother's (aka the new stache's) closed its doors a year ago.

i'd recommend living in clintonville - i lived there for the first 3+ years that i lived in the columbus area. rent's cheap, low crime, the atmosphere is nice, and there's lots of unique restaurants, thrift stores, etc. plus, it's not very far from campus.

or you could live in north campus, aka "washington beach." the rent's lower, the crime's higher, but it's the lo-fi mecca of america (times new viking calls the beach home).

i live in grandview, which is closer to downtown and basically a clintonville for people with kids. i have no kids. not really sure why i live here, other than my best friend lives right next door.

those are probably your 3 best bets if you're going to OSU. i'd avoid living anywhere really close to campus, as the neighborhoods get kinda dodgy from lane avenue southward.

i can't speak for OSU, but the city life in columbus is pretty rad. lots of good restaurants (tip-top in downtown is amazing). live music venues are a little lacking right now, but there are some interesting ones (andyman's treehouse in grandview is the most unique place you'll ever see a show). and i hope you like ice cream, because we have several gourmet ice cream makers that are all worth your time and dollars.

hope this helps...

thanks! very helpful!

I had heard that Victorian Village is expensive but some people in my department have found really great deals just by walking around the neighborhood and calling the more independent landlords. Their places were pretty big for what they were paying so that was kind of my motivation for not crossing the area out. Their advice was that if you put in some effort you can find a great place.

So Clintonville...that's north of campus if I remember correctly? Did you have a car when you lived there? I'm not going to so I'm also worried about that in terms of where I live. One thing I did notice while touring the area was the amount of grocery stores! They are everywhere!

You've successfully made me excited about trying out all of those ice cream places.

Paging lemur to the thread...

Make sure to visit the grade school where my Aunt Cathy left my dad in a hole for an hour as a small boy!

Mary needs to know...do people like The Smiths in Ohio?

Is that Whetstone High School or whatever it's called still around? If so, what is its reputation? Just curious.

First full day in Columbus, with parents in tow:

Get up early, grab some breakfast at Jack & Benny's on High St., or if you want something a little lighter, go to La Chatelaine.

Mix in a drive down Riverside Drive, walk around the river. If you have time before lunch, go to a Half-Price Books. Any location is fine, I guess.

Lunchtime, head downtown to El Arepazo for a patacon with that delicious green sauce. Get the hot.

Head to the North Market and get some ice cream at Jeni's. Be sure to include a scoop of the Queen City Cayenne. Roam around the market for awhile.

Dinnertime: Eh, I don't know. You can't throw a rock in any direction without hitting an Indian restaurant. (do not throw rocks at the Indian restaurants!) If the 'rents are paying for everything, you can go to Columbus Fish Market.

I'd finish the night off with three beers, any three beers, at Barley's, and do not forget the sauerkraut balls! That last part is very important.

That itinerary steers fairly clear of OSU fanatics and should give everybody a good first impression of the city.

public transit in columbus isn't terrible, but it leaves a lot to be desired. buses stop running between midnight-5am. there's cab service and it's not too pricey, but not having 24/7 mass transit is kind of a bummer in a town this big. 70% of everything worth doing in columbus is within a half-mile of high street, so not having a car isn't an absolute killer.

thedishonestdon wrote:short north/vic village is EXPENSIVE to live in. plus, it's getting yuppified by the minute. they're opening a three dog bakery down there. yeah, a bakery for fucking DOGS. the short north is no longer the hip entertainment district it once was, especially since little brother's (aka the new stache's) closed its doors a year ago.

There's still a lot worth doing in the Short North. Honestly, I always thought Little Brother's was overrated. Skully's is still there, and there are plenty of good bars. Zen Cha is great if you like tea. The monthly Gallery Hop is worth checking out. And there's a Jeni's ice cream there now too.

i'd recommend living in clintonville - i lived there for the first 3+ years that i lived in the columbus area. rent's cheap, low crime, the atmosphere is nice, and there's lots of unique restaurants, thrift stores, etc. plus, it's not very far from campus.

or you could live in north campus, aka "washington beach."

Washington Beach? That's a new one to me. A friend of mine used to call it "SoHu" (SOuth of HUdson). But I agree, as this has been my hood for going on seven years now.

Basically, stay north of Lane Ave. and west of Summit and you should be fine.

Tree wrote:Get up early, grab some breakfast at Jack & Benny's on High St., or if you want something a little lighter, go to La Chatelaine.

Jack & Benny's is my go-to breakfast joint. I also like First Watch, which is a chain, but it's a small chain, and they whip up a mean Belgian waffle. Denny's left town some years ago, but we've got Awffle Houses all over the goddamn place. No IHOPs either.

Head to the North Market and get some ice cream at Jeni's. Be sure to include a scoop of the Queen City Cayenne. Roam around the market for awhile.

http://jenisicecreams.com/index.html

Dinnertime: Eh, I don't know. You can't throw a rock in any direction without hitting an Indian restaurant. (do not throw rocks at the Indian restaurants!)

I recommend Sher-E-Punjab, up in the Kenny Centre strip mall, one of the area's best kept secrets as it is also home to a great Thai restaurant (Thai Taste), a Patel Brothers Indian grocery, and five Japanese businesses all owned by the same owners--two restaurants, a grocery, the wonderful Crescent Bakery, and a bookstore.

the dishonestdon wrote:public transit in columbus isn't terrible, but it leaves a lot to be desired. buses stop running between midnight-5am. there's cab service and it's not too pricey, but not having 24/7 mass transit is kind of a bummer in a town this big. 70% of everything worth doing in columbus is within a half-mile of high street, so not having a car isn't an absolute killer.

The buses are fine if you don't have to get to the suburbs in under two hours, or don't have to be anywhere after midnight, yes. The #2 running up and down High St. used to have a late-night drunk bus on weekends, but no longer. After visiting several cities with world-class transit systems like Portland, our bush-league bus system frustrates me. I absolutely need a car to get to my job on the West Side, so if I have car problems I'm out of luck; and there is no direct bus route from downtown to the airport like in most real cities, so if you need to fly somewhere you'll either need to bum a ride or pay to park your car there--not bad if you're away for a weekend, but you're talking real coin if you're away for a week or more.

But yes, most of what you would really want or need is close-in to the central part of the city, and if you're lucky enough to not have to take a job in the suburbs, you can get by with no car.

Other recommendations:

Diner food: The Blue Danube

Breakfast: I reiterate, Jack & Benny's

Pizza: Adriatico's, or Hound Dog's which is mediocre but it's open 24 hours if you ever want pizza at 4am

Burgers: It's no Kuma's, but the Thurman Cafe makes them as big as the plate.

Record store: Used Kids has their used shit organized by price, so it's easy to shop for bargains and very easy to walk out with a big stack of CDs for under $50

Video store: North Campus Video, open 24 hours and next door to the Blue Danube

Books: The Book Loft

Rock: Skully's, Bernie's, Cafe Bourbon Street, Ruby Tuesday (not to be confused with the chain restaurant), the Ravari Room (directly adjacent to Hound Dog's Pizza), Andyman's Treehouse; the Newport Music Hall and the Lifestyle Communities Pavilion (I did not make that name up) have bigger concerts.

Sports: The NHL's Blue Jackets, and minor league baseball's Clippers who will be playing in the brand new Huntington Park starting in the '09 season.
Everything else is Buckeyes Buckeyes Buckeyes, which gets REALLY old if you are not a fan. Avoid Lane Avenue and High St. on football Saturdays at all costs, especially during Michigan Week (you will learn what that is soon enough)*. Some nights there are riots. Be prepared to catch shit from co-workers, fellow students, and random strangers simply for being from another Big 10 town, regardless of how much you do or don't give a shit about college football.

*EDIT: I just saw where you said your parents are U of M alumni, so you probably already know about this, even though in Ann Arbor the rivalry's not half the big deal it is here. The Wolverines are held in only slightly higher regard than Al-Qaeda around these parts.

lemur68 wrote:TRUTH

He speaks a lot of it. It's no Chicago but there's plenty to do. I don't know if the chain expands beyond Columbus, but Half Price Books has good prices on a wide variety of stuff. The Loft is great also.

If you like playing board games, check out the Central Ohio Boardgaming Society http://www.buckeyeboardgamers.org/. Friendly group of people of all ages who get together and play games. Geeky as hell but a cheap and fun way to spend a couple or ten hours.

The Blue Danube on high street is THE diner dump in Columbus.

lemur, we'll have to agree to disagree about little brother's.

i don't think the blue danube is really as amazing as everyone says it is, even for diner food. i think it's still coasting on reputation from when smoking was legal and they had a good jukebox.

also great in columbus:
-coffee from yeah me too
-frosttop rootbeer
-bowling at the sequoia
-bullying the jukebox at the st. james tavern
-beer and a movie at studio 35
-the dip sampler at the happy greek
-the olentangy river bike trail, from downtown to worthington (north suburb)
-columbus brewing company apricot ale and 90 shilling ale.
-the holy trinity of german village tourist food: katzinger's deli, schmidt's sausage haus, and the thurman cafe.
-the trifecta of oft-overlooked german village food: the olde mohawk, the banana-bean cafe, plank's.

thedishonestdon wrote:lemur, we'll have to agree to disagree about little brother's.

I'm not saying it was a bad place, I've seen some damn great shows there. It was great when it was full, but if it was sparsely attended, it felt like a cavernous husk of a room. And the sound wasn't always good. Though I dunno, it would have been impossible to live up to Stache's anyway (a club I only went to once, which was coincidentally also the only time I saw Brainiac). I am sad it's gone. It's too bad Dan Dougan opted to retire rather than re-open in a new locale, but I also don't begrudge him for wanting to get out of the game.

i don't think the blue danube is really as amazing as everyone says it is, even for diner food. i think it's still coasting on reputation from when smoking was legal and they had a good jukebox.

I mean the food has always been average, but they do have a few unique dishes (deep-fried mac & cheese bites! teriyaki string beans!), and they have my favorite just-plain-old-coffee in town. I just enjoy sitting in there and having a meal and hipster-watching. I don't smoke, so I don't miss smoking in there.

You may be pleased to know the old jukebox is back! I'm guessing that internet jukebox proved very unpopular. Though when I was there the other night, someone had selected a string of top-40 crap anyway.

They don't have a pinball machine anymore, though, which makes me grumpy.