Ghetto, High Crime, Football Culture
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2/17/2021
My husband and I moved here from the west coast in 2014 and both took jobs at a local corporate headquarters. At that time, it was doing much better. Crime was not what it is now and growth was happening. Covid-19 has devastated many local businesses here (or should I say the states response to it), inviting crime in once affluent areas. It feels like the entre city is being overrun with violent serious crime. No neighborhood is safe. Every morning on the news you will hear of another body found (sometimes laying in a street) a shootout, a home invasion. In 2014, our neighborhood rarely had homes for sale, and if one came available it sold within a few days. There are now many homes for sale, some have been abandoned. Recently, a number of vehicles in our neighborhood were vandalized along with other property. I could write a entire review on crime alone. Culture here is laser focused on the swill drinking overweight football watching male. Life here revolves around the Buckeye football season, OSU, and sports in general. Its almost a cult, to the point where if you are not a Buckeye fan you will be shunned in work groups (yes this happened to me at my job) and judged on your knowledge of football stats. Weather here adds to the misery. You'll get about 6 solid months of weather where outside activity is possible. November-April are indoor only. Don't move here if you have seasonal affective disorder. Low clouds are around the entire winter. Springs are cold and wet, summer is partly sunny every day and 85 with humidity. There are a few local metro parks in Columbus. Good luck getting to them, with a few million people in the metro area, they are impossibly crowded, polluted and hotspots for violent crime. If a metro park isn't your thing, there are a few trails along the Olentangy river where you can bike or rollerblade. You can watch diapers, condoms, trash and other objects float down the river. Unless you have a good reason to move here (high paying job, family) I would strongly advise at looking into other cities that are much safer, cleaner and not dominated by football brain.
Kristine | Worthington, OH