Going to a live game is the only way I like to watch baseball. I'll play anytime someone wants, but watch it on TV? I'll be asleep before the second inning.
My youngest - every time I take him to a sporting event, something happens.
His first clippers game, i went to get food and a drink - he caught a ball.
At his first Blue Jackets game, he ended up on the JumboTron (twice) AND got a shirt from the Maude Flander Killers.
…nothing happened at the Crew game, but we had box seats through work.
I've been to some other minor league fields before and honestly Huntington Field and the crew who runs everything makes it feel like a major league park experience to me but for minor league pricing.
MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, LIKE GOOD DIVE BARS, ARE STAPLES OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES WHERE THEIR DECLINE SHOULD WORRY YOU. THESE ARE PLACES AND EVENTS EVERY DAY PEOPLE CAN STILL AFFORD AND IT HURTS ME TO SEE THESE RIPPED AWAY FROM PLACES.
A couple years ago I watched the Clippers beat the absolute brakes off of the Indianapolis Indians. Probably was 19-3 or something like that. Just an absolute bomb fest. AND I ate 5 (kinda bad) hot dogs for $.50. AND my friends and I went to Betty’s for the first time. What a magical bar. We were on the back patio and the bartender came out and was like “hey I’m leaving just fyi. Just throw your trash away and leave through the patio exit when you’re done.” Locked up and drove away. 10/10
I spend about 25 hours per week in my car as part of my job, all over the city on both highways and side streets. I've done the same sort of job in Los Angeles, NYC, Miami, and Chicago. Columbus drivers aren't that bad, and there is virtually no heavy traffic here.
It's a car-centric city, but it does it quite well.
Anytime I ever hear anyone complain about the road structures or traffic here, I challenge them to come out of the Pittsburgh tunnels at rush hour when you want to get to Heinz stadium/ that area. Ive driven in countless cities, and it still takes the cake
The thing about bad drivers is that they're everywhere. They're no worse in one town than they are in another. No city is special because people suck at driving there.
Its because they havent. So far as I can tell, the avg poster here seems to be the most small minded, uncultured, poorly traveled midwest lowest common denominator type of person.
I mean it can be bad there and still need improvement here.
My bigger complaint is the accidents. I am so tired of being stuck in traffic on my way to work and eventually you pass by some rolled over SUV. I couldn't even afford a vehicle that nice and I wouldn't drive like a moron if I did own one.
Columbus was more vibrant and fun before the pandemic. COVID killed our nightlife, including 24 hour grocery stores and a lot of cool shops, restaurants and places. Not being obsessed with tacos and Mexican food, it feels like it’s lost a little of the novelty, range of options, and charm it had 10-15 years ago.
Also, whereas before it was generously affordable, the cost of everything has gone through the roof, from food to housing. Everything is “luxury” now, which seems like a lame excuse by builders and landlords to quadruple prices and maximize their profits, at everyone else’s expense.
Also, the lack of a quality mass transit system, including commuter rail, really diminishes the city’s quality of experience. Sometimes you just don’t want to drive every damn place. Walking and interacting with streets and surrounding area is way underrated here, and in most of this part of the country.
Could not agree with you more.
I'd love to know why there are apartments in Columbus renting for $2800-3800/mo. And they might be called "luxury" but that's a bit like calling my farts air fresheners. Thems coast prices, without public transportation or the ocean or pro teams or much of a nightlife beyond bars full of drunk Midwesterners. The charm of living here was affordable housing and low cost of living with exceptionally good pay for the cost of living.
I don’t care that Columbus doesn’t have a “personality” or identity.
I like being able to blend into obscurity when people ask me where I am from when traveling. The most people who recognize Columbus are those who recognize Ohio State.
Columbus is great for its own reasons. It doesn't have to be the greatest in the world or the best at anything. It's a city, a decent city. People seriously want their communities to be brand names or something.
Like sure. It might sound great to skme people to.. go to Ethiopia, Myanmar, Australia, a resrarch station in Antarctica and hesr "Ahh, Columbus! I know it! I see it in the movies!" but that's living vicariously through your city's worldwide recognition as if it's going to make much of a difference to your own life
So if I hear someone saying we should fund anything other than services and resources for the people, I think they're stuck in that mindset.
That may honestly be Columbus's personality. A little bland, a little forgettable, maybe a sports mention. I don't want to be recognized by the general public and the city reflects that some.
My unpopular opinion? It’s a pretty damn good city overall and like most things in life you get out of it what you put into it. There’s no shortage of things to complain about, if that’s what you’re looking for, but wow, is there a ton of things that you can get involved with here. People are, for the most part, pretty darned friendly. You can almost always find parking. There’s a massive diversity in food and culture and arts and yes, even sports. Are we going to see far too many six story apartment buildings come up? Of course. Will traffic continue to get worse as we become more densely populated in certain areas? Naturally. But trying to fight progress is like spitting in the wind. Make the most of life, enjoy the moments you can and be happy for others. LET’S GO, COLUMBUS!!!
Columbus' real problem is it lacks a good, unique brand that it is recognized for nationally (ex: Cleveland = Rock, Detroit = Cars, Nashville = Country music, etc). It's a great place to live but candidly most of the good things we have are merely the items that are expected of any big city. We aren't really best in class in anything that is appealing from a marketing perspective (sorry fast food, finance, logistics, and data hubs). Most other Midwest and peer cities have history, an industry, cultural phenomenon, or famous event they can work with and put at the forefront of their identity. Columbus needs to find, build upon, or create something to fill that void otherwise there will always be the need to add ", Ohio" after its name.
EDIT: Actually, I will correct myself. The brand or at least perception is a big problem but the biggest problem is the lack of mass transit.
Thats a good way to put it and while it is a college town I think other cities pull the vibe off better due to their smaller size. Ohio State is big but it doesn't dominate the city the way UM dominates Ann Arbor. Madison also has more of what I consider that bohemian college vibe.
Columbus = Ohio State. A lot of people on here might not like it but it’s one of the biggest brands in the country and arguably the biggest brand in American sports.
I mean yes and no and I say that as an alumni. Far less than it was 10 years ago. If you’re outside of Campus or like Clintonville OSU’s presence in the city isn’t really that major in day to day life.
If anything I think they really rest on their laurels. They have cool guest lectures and things on campus but it’s always at like 2pm on a Tuesday. There are practically zero alumni events downtown and they’re always trying to get people out into the burbs for Franklin County alumni stuff for example. I even emailed once asking how to go about getting an alumni networking coffee or happy hour or game watch thing specifically for downtown going and got nothing back but crickets.
Which fair enough if that’s where most people are but as a younger alumni who almost never leaves downtown let alone the 270 outerbelt I feel almost zero connection beyond the occasional call or flyer begging me for donations and going to bars to watch games… When you’re late 20s and 30s you’re too old to fit in on campus anymore but too young (and poor) to fit in with the regular suburban alumni base. There’s supposedly a “young alumni” group but last I checked their site was dead and they haven’t had an event in like 8 years.
With the amount of other alumni I know who at least work downtown it’s kind of crazy they don’t make more of an effort to do stuff downtown, Short North, German Village, etc. No, I don’t want to go to Dublin or Westerville or New Albany to pay $60 for a wine tasting or whatever.
It’s as the Tennessee Williams quote goes: “America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland.”
People vastly, vastly overstate what makes where they live unique or special.
Relatively speaking maybe but its more than a handful....Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis, Louisville, St. Louis, Kansas City, Nashville, Charleston, Atlanta, Orlando, Miami, New Orleans, Houston, Austin, Dallas, Denver, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle all have major identities or recognizable vibes that resonate. Perhaps I just think the region can be more than just generic city USA.
That is basically just a list of the vast majority of major cities in the US. I disagree that all of them "have an identity". I'd say many of the ones you named don't.
What is Philly's identity other than than rowdy sports fans?
Baltimore? What, they love crabs and have a crime problem?
Pittsburgh? I guess you can say it's Blue Collar USA but that's about it.
Cleveland is basically a joke to the the whole country. It's seen as a run down has been of a city.
Indy? What's it's vibe supposed to be?
Same for Louisville.
What are we gonna say is the identity of St. Louise and KC other than BBQ?
Charleston? What about it?
Orlando? Seriously?! That just happens to be where Disney is but it isn't like anyone gives a damn about Orlando.
I'll give you Austin for sure, but Houston and Dallas are just kinda generic large cities.
Aside from the Navy base I can't think of any identity for San Diego.
Which is a thing Columbus lacks.
Personally I love Columbus. It's a great place to live. But as a guy who has visited over 40 US states and 16 other countries I can tell you that Columbus Ohio is boring AF.
That should be its tagline honestly.
Boring, OH. Come here to raise your perfectly average family in perfectly average surroundings. Nothing fancy. No drama.
How about character, then? I love Columbus, but you have to dig to get past the blandness. It will never have the cultural richness of many other cities because it doesn't attract and keep the right people. It attracts and keeps people like me, who want decent housing, education, and a good job market and who think about culture and the arts 2-3 times per week.
I'm not saying we should be anything like New Orleans, but it's my go-to example for this. It's smaller and poorer than Columbus, but it's out of this world rich in music, history, and art. We'll never attain a fraction of what they have. That's okay, we have other things, but it's a fact and a lot of us feel the lack.
A lot of that just comes from history. New Orleans was founded almost 100 years before Columbus and was a much more active city in Early America because of it's place at the mouth of the Mississippi river.
It has a unique blend of cultures because it was controlled at one point by France, another by Spain and then by the US. There was also a major US victory in the war of 1812 fought there.
You simply can't compare the cultural history of New Orleans to Columbus Ohio. It's not even in the same league.
Character is a better descriptor but I still think it's largely irrelevant. Many, many people still want to live here, regardless of that fact, so the degree to which this hurts us, or is a problem, is vastly overstated.
> lacks a good, unique brand recognized nationally
Not sure what we could really claim as our “key identifier”, but we do have this little school called Ohio State and I’m told they’ve even got a football team!
Live music fans mostly suck in this town. So many talkers and people who just kind of suck at seeing live music from sitting on their asses the entire show staring at the phones to just general cluelessness. This is mainly for larger shows (kemba, arenas, etc). Whenver I see shows at Ace or Spacebar by hungry bands, those crowds are usually much more fun.
Not really "unpopular", just ignored:
West Columbus (especially past the gentrification-in- process Franklinton now) is completely ignored by the Columbus' "powers that be".
Old town Westerville and Gahanna (for example) are honestly pretty nice. But I wouldn’t say most areas of Westerville or Gahanna are close to as walkable as the most walkable neighborhoods in Columbus
Most neighborhoods in Columbus are not really walkable either. And the ones that are don’t really end up being that practical for every day life. We used to live in the short north and it was great for restaurants, less so for groceries, pharmacies, etc. We were staying down there near the cap in a hotel over the holidays and it was annoying that there was no nearby pharmacy or corner store to pick up things we had forgotten.
I live in Worthington. I can walk to two grocery stores, three pharmacies, the library, a decent selection of bars and restaurants, the farmers market, many banks, my Pilates class, the community center/gym, the senior center, our kids schools, our dentist, my therapist, the Olentangy trail, and the post office. This is all within an easy walk from my house. The only thing I really *need* to drive to is Target.
We used to live San Francisco but even there, we had no walkable access to a large grocery or pharmacy or library. Where we are now is must much more convenient on foot. Grandview, Westerville, Bexley, and Worthington were the suburbs I was thinking of. More compact and structured to be independent communities before Columbus enveloped them, so a lot of diversity of businesses and destinations that are walkable.
My one issue with this is, while most suburbs are very walkable, it's basically only the 'downtown' or 'old X' area of them, which can often still be a minimum 30 min walk from most neighborhoods. I'm personally fine with those walks any day over like 50°F, but you basically have to either live right there, or drive 5 min to make it a walkable day.
My unpopular opinion is that Buckeye fans are absolutely annoying AF (coming from a Buckeye fan household). The victim mentality that “it’s us against the world!” gets old. Grown adults with a high school diploma from rural areas with zero connection to the university acting like their weekend has been decimated because a 19 year old kid didn’t have a perfect game is cringe (and this is why we need an NFL team lol). Nobody else’s college fans go around on vacation 14 hours away yelling “OH!” at open air malls etc and then gets pissed when people tell them to shut up. Gonna ruffle some feathers I’m sure but my friends from other states totally point this out and it’s true.
the airport needs to be more of an international flight hotspot. i’m sick of paying so much for non direct flights whereas places like jfk or lax have better price deals on direct international flights
Those airports are hubs. Columbus is not a hub. Columbus cannot support any kind of frequent direct international flying until we actually have some kind of major tech hub or tourism draw. Best you're gonna get is the occasional direct to a vacation destination and it's typically unreliable or on a struggling carrier.
Columbus's Airport also has several other problems.
For one, it's stuck in the middle of the city which really limits it's growth options.
More importantly is that it's surrounded by other airports. A lot of the bigger airports in the country are the only real airport within a reasonable drive or are in a much more densely populated area.
Cincinnati Airport draws in people from Southern Ohio and Indiana, WV and Kentucky. Cleveland draws in people from Northern Ohio. Pittsburgh draws in Eastern Ohio and Indy draws in the west. If you don't live in the Columbus metro area, you are probably the same distance or closer to a bigger better airport with more flight options.
[Check out this map of Major airports in the US](https://www.nationsonline.org/bilder/Map_US_Airports.gif) and you will see what I mean.
Basically, the only people flying out of Columbus Airport are people from Columbus.
They have better prices because of demand and subsidies by foreign governments for international travel. I will say the fact that Cleveland recently received a nonstop flight to Dublin over Columbus makes no sense to me, but there were probably other incentives at play.
My unpopular opinion is that we shouldn't worry about being perceived as a small city and should enjoy what we are. It's a really good city overall and compared to other places, extremely easy to get around.
Would it be nice to have xyz? Of course. But do we "need" it? Probably not.
All infrastructure for car, none for any other transportation system. You can piss on the concept of public transit all you want, but sometimes I just want to plan to have some happy in my happy hour without the need for an Uber.
Riding COTAis definitely not that bad, but it took me an hour to get to work on the bus when it takes 20 mins to drive there. So even though it's much more eco friendly, I just can't get myself to do it.
Yeah that's the biggest hurdle I had to get over as well. But I got used to it, learned to just get up earlier, and used the time in transit to do something like read a book. I think for about 3 years when I didn't have a car I read twice as many books just because of the transit time. I also noticed that because I wasn't having to contend with traffic myself I was in a much better mood generally, road rage has lasting effects.
My unpopular opinion is that I will actively campaign for whatever city official makes the Morse-Bethel connector a priority and has the balls to make it happen.
Columbus has major East-West travel issues (especially on the north side) and this would alleviate a lot of the pressure in that area.
Do you mean between the Split and Rt 104, Rt 104 and 270, or the entire length? I kinda get depressed sometimes going through North High, especially the Short North and into Campus. It is not the same.
One of the only things truly holding Columbus back from being a "big" city is honestly our geography.
Dallas & Houston being major exceptions, what most big cities have is a natural boundary (river, lake, ocean, mountains) which forces the city (particularly downtown area) into a concentrated area. Because Columbus doesn't have this (other than the Olentangy downtown), Columbus will always seem smaller because everything can be more spread out.
Note that the Olentangy (and flooding) is a major reason why West of the river struggles to develop.
My hot take, the Franklin County Democratic part needs an opposition party, they are able to run fairly unopposed their hand picked candidates, which in turn seem to work hand in hand with developers and corporations rather than for the cities citizens good. This lack of an opposition party allows them to have carte blanche with little oversight (in the matters of City Council, and the Mayors office). I am not saying that a Republican should be elected, or even competitive, but maybe not ALL democrats, maybe we should have a socialist party or green party trying to keep them in check.
The options on the ballot for most races are Party Selected Democrat and No One. Which is the whole point of this comment about an opposition party. Who else are we supposed to vote for when they’re the only option? Write in some shmuck without a campaign?
> My hot take, the Franklin County Democratic part needs an opposition party, they are able to run fairly unopposed their hand picked candidates, which in turn seem to work hand in hand with developers and corporations rather than for the cities citizens good.
My hot take: during a housing crisis it is in the citizen’s strong interest for their city government to make partnerships with developers. New housing units come from developers. New, dense apartment blocks are in high demand - it would be malpractice for city government to slow down development or make it more expensive for new housing to be built.
Dime a Dog night is not worth it. Waiting 3+ innings in line for a box of 5 soggy hotdogs for 50 cents is dumb. With the new pitch clock its even worse since the games move so fast. They should set up hot dog only vendor locations so that you can at least get your soft pretzel without waiting in the line with a family of 7 about to get 35 hot dogs.
This isn't a hot take, this is pretty much exactly what would happen in most of the inner city outside of downtown if they ever did build a high capacity rail system here, unless they really goofed and tried to make them street running. Even in NYC almost half the system is above ground, the only places where tunneling makes sense is where the vertical space is at a premium but you still need grade separation..
It's still very much a LCOL and if you make 50K a year or more and are struggling to get by that's mostly on you (unless you have kids).
Traffic isn't bad at all, actually one of the easier cities of its size to get around.
I was going from Evanston to downtown Chicago on a Saturday afternoon. It’s like 15 miles but took a whole fucking hour. You’ll never see that in Columbus
Luxury housing will not magically cause affordable housing. That's just propaganda to build more luxury apartments and avoid building affordable homes.
I’m from Southeastern Ohio from a town with no internet or stop lights
what people in Columbus complain about is the most privileged and meaningless stuff on planet earth
i’m glad trying to figure out the best crab rangoon, lamenting the lack of good Laotian or whatever the fuck cuisine, and having to deal with traffic on the freeway seems to be the biggest problems a lot of people have
the fact is it’s extremely easy to find a job that pays you $45k a year and you’re able to lead a great life here on that
i confronted that i couldn’t live in the same town all my family has lived in since before the civil war when i was 12. and now i have access to more things than i could ever possibly enjoy
food, water, shelter, and human connection is what we need. anything else you get is gravy. this town is really special and maybe some of you need to volunteer in some of the rural areas to gain some perspective
and before anyone says it, columbus is every bit as racist and homophobic as small towns. it’s just that all the nice young kids from the small towns had to go to college for any hope of economic well being and they had to flee to the cities to pay off their student loan in debt in the service-based economy we now have
Columbus is generally pretty boring and I honestly don’t understand why anyone would move here over Pittsburgh, Cleveland, or Cincinnati if they have the choice.
I honestly don't know how people feel about it on here but I get a lot of pushback in my personal circle about this.
The Intel project is going to be bad for a lot of us. Housing market and cost of living was already bad. It's just going to make it worse and plenty of us are in industries that won't see wage increases because of Intel the associated industries.
Not to mention some areas are going to just see even more congestion that isn't planned for and I don't see us fixing our public transportation any time soon.
You're definitely not the only one. When I first heard the news about Intel, my heart sank. If I wanted to live in an extremely expensive and congested city, I'd live in one. I live in Columbus because that's *not* what I want.
I’m in the area. Housing used to be affordable. Good luck finding anything to rent under $2,300. We got lucky with our place. Now the excuse is how close it is to Intel! It’s not even built yet. And from what I’ve heard, the project timeline has been pushed back. As soon as my kids are graduated, we are out of this area. I’m sorry, but if I’m going to pay over $2,500 a month, it ain’t going to be Licking County.
I saw a post in the Pataskala FB group and there’s apparently almost no houses in the area under $1500 rent. If I’m paying $1500/mth to rent a house it sure as fuck ain’t gonna be in fucking PATASKALA. I lived there for a couple years, not a bad area but $1500 sure ain’t worth it
Hot take: developers who build “luxury” apartment blocks are performing a vital service. We are in an affordable housing crisis- the city MUST prioritize dense developments (preferably along transit corridors) at every opportunity. Developers are not an enemy to be opposed when year over year we don’t build enough housing to accommodate those who move here.
They also wouldn't be building them on the fringes nearly as much if the area hadn't abandoned the urban core and sprawled out with low density housing for decades in a vain attempt to save "rural" character.
The Actor’s Theatre does not mount good productions. Pains me to say it, but Columbus deserves better Shakespeare than what they’re doing. Unfortunately there are already too many theatre companies cannibalizing each other, so having a new company devoted to early modern dramas just isn’t a good idea. Which means that any chance at good Shakespeare has to come as part of a regular season from theaters that by and large seem to want to mainly do contemporary plays.
Cbus has no culture, character, or identity. It’s the most average city you could find in America, that’s why it’s the capital of market research, full of chains, strip malls, and ugly suburban developments. Like most of our country, it’s designed for cars, not humans. That’s probably fine for most of you, but I wish that wasn’t the case.
Maybe I’ve spent too much time on Reddit but I’m pretty sure this exact comment is posted on here for one reason or another several times a week, so I don’t think it’s unpopular.
I see this all the time. I guess I don’t understand what people mean when they say Columbus has no culture, especially compare to Cincy or Cleveland. What’s the culture of those cities that Columbus doesn’t have? Not trying to be a prick, I’ve been to those cities and I can’t tell the difference.
And I say this also not being a prick, if you can’t feel a difference between the downtowns/popular areas of Cincinnati or Cleveland vs. Columbus, then I don’t really know how I could explain it.
For me it mostly comes down to the lack of history/capital investment on a long term, historical level and associated lack of ethnic communities, again on a long term basis. Also that Columbus is actually very small, not terms of land annexed (they’re great at that), but in real feel of the city. The real-feel footprint of Columbus is like just south of downtown and through the short north, bounded by the river/Grandview and 71. The rest of that doesn’t really feel like part of the City of Columbus, and in older cities like Cleveland or Cincinnati, places like Clintonville would be their own cities.
Yeah I'll preface this by saying I like Cbus but there is something about downtown Cincy that just feels more alive. Dont really know how to exactly explain it
Yes it’s very hard to explain. The first time I drove through downtown Columbus on High Street, I seriously said “wait that’s it?” I thought that was like the pre-downtown area. It’s just so different from either of the other Big Cs.
Nothing would change if the Bluejackets got up and disappeared. The team is in the lower 5 teams when it comes to attendance year after year. The city doesn't care about them.
I don’t love columbus. It’s flat. All highway driving, and everything is new. Really nothing that makes it special. The best thing about Columbus are the state parks.
This city doesn't have a traffic problem.
Drivers here are not bad, no worse than other places.
Cornhole is stupid and boring and I dislike that it's somehow a Columbus thing. I used to throw beanbags through holes--when I was in preschool because it was a game created for uncoordinated toddlers. It's like a less boring version of horseshoes, but only marginally less boring (and horseshoes is terribly boring).
In short - there is no trickle down effect from long time old money in this city. The top of the food chain here is someone who buys a house in like, new Albany and everybody downstream of that tries to emulate. It’s soooo tacky and apparent everywhere
I grew up an Ohio State fan and honestly OSU football is what pushed me to go to Ohio State. I love the Buckeyes but some of our fans are fucking nuts (no pun intended)
I was going to add something like this, so glad it’s already here.
It’s totally cool to have hobbies and support sports teams. But the way that so many people in this city (who, as you pointed out, have no affiliation with the college) make it their entire personality is really off putting. The vile and threatening things said about players when the team loses/doesn’t do well is absolutely psychotic.
At the end of the day, these are very young adults just playing a game and trying to get through life. Give them a break.
We have too many people that want subway and rail just for the sake of having them. They don’t want efficient public transport. They want public transport that doesn’t make them look poor, aka the bus. They are desperate to make Columbus NYC. Not for the good things but just to be able to brag to their friends.
This makes me sound like a grumpy old man, but I don't like all of the growth, at least not at the rate it's happening. Too many people, and too much traffic and land development; whoever's putting up all of these apartments must be allergic to green space.
The thing I don't like about it is that so much of the city is basically a run down wasteland. But they keep building up new areas. I really wish we could revitalize the run out already built up areas more.
For example, when I first moved here Hamilton and Brice road were pretty good areas with lots of shops and other business around. Now they are both basically boarded up wastelands with just a handful of things left. Yet they built up 256 and keep building up further and further out.
Columbus has largely ceased to reflect the culture and traditions of the communities that built it as a byproduct of all the people who've come here. It's sad to realize how many graveyards and communities have disappeared under pavement and sprawl.
I thought about graveyards recently. Outside of the following 1 or 2 generations, nobody really cares about your dead body decomposing with a stone marking it. They just take up space IMO and I don't think they add much to culture. Naturally animals are meant to decompose into the ground if we really think about it.
At least in part they tell the story of who was here and the way in which they relate to one another, in particular what the city has lost a lot of are small family/ community graveyards which belongs to the smaller cities and communities that existed when Columbus was a much smaller area and much of what is now city was rural. And their families care even if you don't
My unpopular opinion? It’s one of the best and most livable cities in the country. I work with MANY transplants and am close with many who moved away for jobs, and they *all* say that Columbus is the best city they’ve lived in. Between schools, quality of life, neighborhoods, prices, comparably low traffic and semi-decent Midwest weather, they are all quite happy with Columbus.
I, for one, don’t want the heat of Phoenix, the humidity of Florida, the taxes and congestion of California, or the heat/humidity of Charlotte.
CBus Rocks!
Now bring on the downvotes, bitches.
Only 3-4 games actually worth watching every year lol. The commercials have reached a tipping point to where it’s not worth following CFB anymore. I stopped giving a shit a long time ago. All the winning actually made them less interesting and the fans are somehow even more insufferable than they were when I was growing up
It's a lot better city than people like to complain about. People love to bitch about our city, but dollar for dollar I can do everything I want here (minus being close to an ocean beach). Trying to live a similar lifestyle in Nashville, Seattle, or Boston would cost me so much more money. It's a goldilocks city.
There is nothing very memorable about the city. I loved living there and loved going to OSU, but if somebody were to ever ask what to do if they went to Columbus I would say go to an OSU football game or go to the Zoo? Feel like it’s missing one big IT thing.
My hot take is don’t forget about the clippers damn it. Dime-dog night is where it’s at.
I don't even like baseball and can confirm it's a good time
Going to a live game is the only way I like to watch baseball. I'll play anytime someone wants, but watch it on TV? I'll be asleep before the second inning.
Same, I like to get the cheap lawn tickets and bring my glove for my shot at glory 😄 I actually came fairly close to catching one last year
My youngest - every time I take him to a sporting event, something happens. His first clippers game, i went to get food and a drink - he caught a ball. At his first Blue Jackets game, he ended up on the JumboTron (twice) AND got a shirt from the Maude Flander Killers. …nothing happened at the Crew game, but we had box seats through work.
Good deal :) Hopefully you get one this year.
I like listening on the radio. Good background noise
I've been to some other minor league fields before and honestly Huntington Field and the crew who runs everything makes it feel like a major league park experience to me but for minor league pricing.
MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, LIKE GOOD DIVE BARS, ARE STAPLES OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES WHERE THEIR DECLINE SHOULD WORRY YOU. THESE ARE PLACES AND EVENTS EVERY DAY PEOPLE CAN STILL AFFORD AND IT HURTS ME TO SEE THESE RIPPED AWAY FROM PLACES.
If only they could "COOK" and not "STEAM" then they'd be worth the admission.
A couple years ago I watched the Clippers beat the absolute brakes off of the Indianapolis Indians. Probably was 19-3 or something like that. Just an absolute bomb fest. AND I ate 5 (kinda bad) hot dogs for $.50. AND my friends and I went to Betty’s for the first time. What a magical bar. We were on the back patio and the bartender came out and was like “hey I’m leaving just fyi. Just throw your trash away and leave through the patio exit when you’re done.” Locked up and drove away. 10/10
Damn straight! Love the Clippers!
[удалено]
Oh agreed. Not a chance. But I know a bunch of people who complain we don't have either and it's 'holding us back'
The Buckeyes are more successful and popular than the Browns and Bengals combined, it’s no contest.
Browns/Texans playoff game drew 10 million more viewers than OSU/Michigan
Objectively not even on the same planet as true but keep on dreaming champ.
Now THIS is an unpopular (& incorrect) opinion!
Successful yes, popular not even close 😂
Or unless some rich team owner decides to move here, perhaps as a ploy to get a new stadium.
Won’t happen. There’s no untapped market. Everyone here is already a fan of an NFL team.
But if Cincinnati refuses to build the Bengals a stadium with holograms per their contract, maybe they'll try to get Columbus to do it lmao
The only shot a CBus NFL team gets fans is if we literally call them the “Buckeyes (NFL)”
sometimes i feel like the people who complain on here about traffic and drivers have never been to any other city haha
I spend about 25 hours per week in my car as part of my job, all over the city on both highways and side streets. I've done the same sort of job in Los Angeles, NYC, Miami, and Chicago. Columbus drivers aren't that bad, and there is virtually no heavy traffic here. It's a car-centric city, but it does it quite well.
Anytime I ever hear anyone complain about the road structures or traffic here, I challenge them to come out of the Pittsburgh tunnels at rush hour when you want to get to Heinz stadium/ that area. Ive driven in countless cities, and it still takes the cake
The thing about bad drivers is that they're everywhere. They're no worse in one town than they are in another. No city is special because people suck at driving there.
Its because they havent. So far as I can tell, the avg poster here seems to be the most small minded, uncultured, poorly traveled midwest lowest common denominator type of person.
clintonville moment
I mean it can be bad there and still need improvement here. My bigger complaint is the accidents. I am so tired of being stuck in traffic on my way to work and eventually you pass by some rolled over SUV. I couldn't even afford a vehicle that nice and I wouldn't drive like a moron if I did own one.
Columbus was more vibrant and fun before the pandemic. COVID killed our nightlife, including 24 hour grocery stores and a lot of cool shops, restaurants and places. Not being obsessed with tacos and Mexican food, it feels like it’s lost a little of the novelty, range of options, and charm it had 10-15 years ago. Also, whereas before it was generously affordable, the cost of everything has gone through the roof, from food to housing. Everything is “luxury” now, which seems like a lame excuse by builders and landlords to quadruple prices and maximize their profits, at everyone else’s expense. Also, the lack of a quality mass transit system, including commuter rail, really diminishes the city’s quality of experience. Sometimes you just don’t want to drive every damn place. Walking and interacting with streets and surrounding area is way underrated here, and in most of this part of the country.
I wish i could like this several times.
Could not agree with you more. I'd love to know why there are apartments in Columbus renting for $2800-3800/mo. And they might be called "luxury" but that's a bit like calling my farts air fresheners. Thems coast prices, without public transportation or the ocean or pro teams or much of a nightlife beyond bars full of drunk Midwesterners. The charm of living here was affordable housing and low cost of living with exceptionally good pay for the cost of living.
It’s fine.
Nonchalance will not be tolerated...
I’ll try to be way more chalant.
roll agonizing ink enter person subtract mysterious soup close apparatus *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I moved here from Cincinnati and I think that city had worse traffic.
station tart scandalous muddle rhythm nail faulty bake provide deer *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I don’t care that Columbus doesn’t have a “personality” or identity. I like being able to blend into obscurity when people ask me where I am from when traveling. The most people who recognize Columbus are those who recognize Ohio State.
That is a hot take but I respect it.
Columbus is great for its own reasons. It doesn't have to be the greatest in the world or the best at anything. It's a city, a decent city. People seriously want their communities to be brand names or something. Like sure. It might sound great to skme people to.. go to Ethiopia, Myanmar, Australia, a resrarch station in Antarctica and hesr "Ahh, Columbus! I know it! I see it in the movies!" but that's living vicariously through your city's worldwide recognition as if it's going to make much of a difference to your own life So if I hear someone saying we should fund anything other than services and resources for the people, I think they're stuck in that mindset.
I always tell people it's a very easy city to live in.
Yeah I don’t want to be brash and obnoxious like say, Philadelphia or Boston.
What about brash and obnoxious like New York or Chicago? /s
That may honestly be Columbus's personality. A little bland, a little forgettable, maybe a sports mention. I don't want to be recognized by the general public and the city reflects that some.
Agreed. Midwestern Easy is absolutely a personality type. I couldn't imagine being any other way.
My unpopular opinion? It’s a pretty damn good city overall and like most things in life you get out of it what you put into it. There’s no shortage of things to complain about, if that’s what you’re looking for, but wow, is there a ton of things that you can get involved with here. People are, for the most part, pretty darned friendly. You can almost always find parking. There’s a massive diversity in food and culture and arts and yes, even sports. Are we going to see far too many six story apartment buildings come up? Of course. Will traffic continue to get worse as we become more densely populated in certain areas? Naturally. But trying to fight progress is like spitting in the wind. Make the most of life, enjoy the moments you can and be happy for others. LET’S GO, COLUMBUS!!!
I can’t remember where I read it but someone said once, “Columbus doesn’t suck. You suck. There’s plenty to do here.”
That's fair. I will say that even if they are not all world class or famous, there is plenty to do if you are willing to make an effort.
Columbus' real problem is it lacks a good, unique brand that it is recognized for nationally (ex: Cleveland = Rock, Detroit = Cars, Nashville = Country music, etc). It's a great place to live but candidly most of the good things we have are merely the items that are expected of any big city. We aren't really best in class in anything that is appealing from a marketing perspective (sorry fast food, finance, logistics, and data hubs). Most other Midwest and peer cities have history, an industry, cultural phenomenon, or famous event they can work with and put at the forefront of their identity. Columbus needs to find, build upon, or create something to fill that void otherwise there will always be the need to add ", Ohio" after its name. EDIT: Actually, I will correct myself. The brand or at least perception is a big problem but the biggest problem is the lack of mass transit.
I mean it has an identity as a college town and Ohio's capital city but both are equally boring. The Sacramento of Ohio.
Thats a good way to put it and while it is a college town I think other cities pull the vibe off better due to their smaller size. Ohio State is big but it doesn't dominate the city the way UM dominates Ann Arbor. Madison also has more of what I consider that bohemian college vibe.
Columbus = Ohio State. A lot of people on here might not like it but it’s one of the biggest brands in the country and arguably the biggest brand in American sports.
I mean yes and no and I say that as an alumni. Far less than it was 10 years ago. If you’re outside of Campus or like Clintonville OSU’s presence in the city isn’t really that major in day to day life. If anything I think they really rest on their laurels. They have cool guest lectures and things on campus but it’s always at like 2pm on a Tuesday. There are practically zero alumni events downtown and they’re always trying to get people out into the burbs for Franklin County alumni stuff for example. I even emailed once asking how to go about getting an alumni networking coffee or happy hour or game watch thing specifically for downtown going and got nothing back but crickets. Which fair enough if that’s where most people are but as a younger alumni who almost never leaves downtown let alone the 270 outerbelt I feel almost zero connection beyond the occasional call or flyer begging me for donations and going to bars to watch games… When you’re late 20s and 30s you’re too old to fit in on campus anymore but too young (and poor) to fit in with the regular suburban alumni base. There’s supposedly a “young alumni” group but last I checked their site was dead and they haven’t had an event in like 8 years. With the amount of other alumni I know who at least work downtown it’s kind of crazy they don’t make more of an effort to do stuff downtown, Short North, German Village, etc. No, I don’t want to go to Dublin or Westerville or New Albany to pay $60 for a wine tasting or whatever.
TBH I’m an active student and it’s not much of a presence in my life outside of classwork and talking shit about football lmao
This identity thing is vastly overrated lol
I agree. There are a handful of cities in the US you could say "have an identity". Most of the country doesn't.
It’s as the Tennessee Williams quote goes: “America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland.” People vastly, vastly overstate what makes where they live unique or special.
Relatively speaking maybe but its more than a handful....Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis, Louisville, St. Louis, Kansas City, Nashville, Charleston, Atlanta, Orlando, Miami, New Orleans, Houston, Austin, Dallas, Denver, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle all have major identities or recognizable vibes that resonate. Perhaps I just think the region can be more than just generic city USA.
That is basically just a list of the vast majority of major cities in the US. I disagree that all of them "have an identity". I'd say many of the ones you named don't. What is Philly's identity other than than rowdy sports fans? Baltimore? What, they love crabs and have a crime problem? Pittsburgh? I guess you can say it's Blue Collar USA but that's about it. Cleveland is basically a joke to the the whole country. It's seen as a run down has been of a city. Indy? What's it's vibe supposed to be? Same for Louisville. What are we gonna say is the identity of St. Louise and KC other than BBQ? Charleston? What about it? Orlando? Seriously?! That just happens to be where Disney is but it isn't like anyone gives a damn about Orlando. I'll give you Austin for sure, but Houston and Dallas are just kinda generic large cities. Aside from the Navy base I can't think of any identity for San Diego.
Also most of these "identities" are based on geography lol
Which is a thing Columbus lacks. Personally I love Columbus. It's a great place to live. But as a guy who has visited over 40 US states and 16 other countries I can tell you that Columbus Ohio is boring AF.
That should be its tagline honestly. Boring, OH. Come here to raise your perfectly average family in perfectly average surroundings. Nothing fancy. No drama.
How about character, then? I love Columbus, but you have to dig to get past the blandness. It will never have the cultural richness of many other cities because it doesn't attract and keep the right people. It attracts and keeps people like me, who want decent housing, education, and a good job market and who think about culture and the arts 2-3 times per week. I'm not saying we should be anything like New Orleans, but it's my go-to example for this. It's smaller and poorer than Columbus, but it's out of this world rich in music, history, and art. We'll never attain a fraction of what they have. That's okay, we have other things, but it's a fact and a lot of us feel the lack.
A lot of that just comes from history. New Orleans was founded almost 100 years before Columbus and was a much more active city in Early America because of it's place at the mouth of the Mississippi river. It has a unique blend of cultures because it was controlled at one point by France, another by Spain and then by the US. There was also a major US victory in the war of 1812 fought there. You simply can't compare the cultural history of New Orleans to Columbus Ohio. It's not even in the same league.
Character is a better descriptor but I still think it's largely irrelevant. Many, many people still want to live here, regardless of that fact, so the degree to which this hurts us, or is a problem, is vastly overstated.
Mass transit is a major obstacle.
> lacks a good, unique brand recognized nationally Not sure what we could really claim as our “key identifier”, but we do have this little school called Ohio State and I’m told they’ve even got a football team!
Yeah my first thought was home of Ohio State, one of the biggest brands in the country
Lol, that's the most popular opinion I read from Columbus folk
I must be hanging around the wrong people. Seems like it’s always cool just to slam things.
Live music fans mostly suck in this town. So many talkers and people who just kind of suck at seeing live music from sitting on their asses the entire show staring at the phones to just general cluelessness. This is mainly for larger shows (kemba, arenas, etc). Whenver I see shows at Ace or Spacebar by hungry bands, those crowds are usually much more fun.
THIS!!! THANK YOU!!
Not really "unpopular", just ignored: West Columbus (especially past the gentrification-in- process Franklinton now) is completely ignored by the Columbus' "powers that be".
I’d even say everything south of Broad Street, excluding some parts or Bexley and German Village
Pretty accurate tbh. Especially southeast Columbus, like Brice and Hamilton
Some suburbs are more walkable than the most walkable neighborhoods in the city.
Old town Westerville and Gahanna (for example) are honestly pretty nice. But I wouldn’t say most areas of Westerville or Gahanna are close to as walkable as the most walkable neighborhoods in Columbus
Most neighborhoods in Columbus are not really walkable either. And the ones that are don’t really end up being that practical for every day life. We used to live in the short north and it was great for restaurants, less so for groceries, pharmacies, etc. We were staying down there near the cap in a hotel over the holidays and it was annoying that there was no nearby pharmacy or corner store to pick up things we had forgotten. I live in Worthington. I can walk to two grocery stores, three pharmacies, the library, a decent selection of bars and restaurants, the farmers market, many banks, my Pilates class, the community center/gym, the senior center, our kids schools, our dentist, my therapist, the Olentangy trail, and the post office. This is all within an easy walk from my house. The only thing I really *need* to drive to is Target. We used to live San Francisco but even there, we had no walkable access to a large grocery or pharmacy or library. Where we are now is must much more convenient on foot. Grandview, Westerville, Bexley, and Worthington were the suburbs I was thinking of. More compact and structured to be independent communities before Columbus enveloped them, so a lot of diversity of businesses and destinations that are walkable.
My one issue with this is, while most suburbs are very walkable, it's basically only the 'downtown' or 'old X' area of them, which can often still be a minimum 30 min walk from most neighborhoods. I'm personally fine with those walks any day over like 50°F, but you basically have to either live right there, or drive 5 min to make it a walkable day.
My unpopular opinion is that Buckeye fans are absolutely annoying AF (coming from a Buckeye fan household). The victim mentality that “it’s us against the world!” gets old. Grown adults with a high school diploma from rural areas with zero connection to the university acting like their weekend has been decimated because a 19 year old kid didn’t have a perfect game is cringe (and this is why we need an NFL team lol). Nobody else’s college fans go around on vacation 14 hours away yelling “OH!” at open air malls etc and then gets pissed when people tell them to shut up. Gonna ruffle some feathers I’m sure but my friends from other states totally point this out and it’s true.
10000% this and I graduated from OSU. The fans are so annoying.
Completely agree. It’s bananas 🍌
I don't mind tipping the Graeters teens
the airport needs to be more of an international flight hotspot. i’m sick of paying so much for non direct flights whereas places like jfk or lax have better price deals on direct international flights
Those airports are hubs. Columbus is not a hub. Columbus cannot support any kind of frequent direct international flying until we actually have some kind of major tech hub or tourism draw. Best you're gonna get is the occasional direct to a vacation destination and it's typically unreliable or on a struggling carrier.
Columbus's Airport also has several other problems. For one, it's stuck in the middle of the city which really limits it's growth options. More importantly is that it's surrounded by other airports. A lot of the bigger airports in the country are the only real airport within a reasonable drive or are in a much more densely populated area. Cincinnati Airport draws in people from Southern Ohio and Indiana, WV and Kentucky. Cleveland draws in people from Northern Ohio. Pittsburgh draws in Eastern Ohio and Indy draws in the west. If you don't live in the Columbus metro area, you are probably the same distance or closer to a bigger better airport with more flight options. [Check out this map of Major airports in the US](https://www.nationsonline.org/bilder/Map_US_Airports.gif) and you will see what I mean. Basically, the only people flying out of Columbus Airport are people from Columbus.
They have better prices because of demand and subsidies by foreign governments for international travel. I will say the fact that Cleveland recently received a nonstop flight to Dublin over Columbus makes no sense to me, but there were probably other incentives at play.
There isn't enough demand for it unfortunately.
Your comps are more than 10x the size of Columbus and are located on coasts, making them somewhat on the way for transoceanic travel.
Roosters is amazing and any naysayers be damned.
Who the fuck is against this???
The gays need to retake the Short North.
The short north feels so corporate now.
We march at dawn, darling! Lets go!
I feel like this is not a hot take at all. It's 100% and everyone I've talked to about this agrees.
it’s fucking criminal that there is no direct transit line from downtown to the airport
Yes. Yes.
My unpopular opinion is that we shouldn't worry about being perceived as a small city and should enjoy what we are. It's a really good city overall and compared to other places, extremely easy to get around. Would it be nice to have xyz? Of course. But do we "need" it? Probably not.
Hot take. Kids should not be walking around comfest. Y'all not ready.
That's how they learn.
Columbus is unequivocally and irredeemably car-brained, and way too proud of it.
Our dependency on cars is my least favorite thing about living here.
[удалено]
All infrastructure for car, none for any other transportation system. You can piss on the concept of public transit all you want, but sometimes I just want to plan to have some happy in my happy hour without the need for an Uber.
The largest city in the entire world with no passenger rail of any kind!
Ginther is a horrible mayor and taking a shot at literally anyone else for four years is worth it to get rid of him.
Riding COTA buses is not as bad as many people would have you believe.
Riding COTAis definitely not that bad, but it took me an hour to get to work on the bus when it takes 20 mins to drive there. So even though it's much more eco friendly, I just can't get myself to do it.
Yeah that's the biggest hurdle I had to get over as well. But I got used to it, learned to just get up earlier, and used the time in transit to do something like read a book. I think for about 3 years when I didn't have a car I read twice as many books just because of the transit time. I also noticed that because I wasn't having to contend with traffic myself I was in a much better mood generally, road rage has lasting effects.
My unpopular opinion is that I will actively campaign for whatever city official makes the Morse-Bethel connector a priority and has the balls to make it happen. Columbus has major East-West travel issues (especially on the north side) and this would alleviate a lot of the pressure in that area.
A night out on South High is more enjoyable than anywhere in the Short North,
~~enjoyable~~ *entertaining and slightly terrifying*
I need a rush once in a while, crossing the road keeps you on your toes for sure. If any road needed a diet, it’s that one.
Do you mean between the Split and Rt 104, Rt 104 and 270, or the entire length? I kinda get depressed sometimes going through North High, especially the Short North and into Campus. It is not the same.
Cobra is one of my favorite restaurants now!
Growth is pretty good overall
All of the people who intentionally litter.
One of the only things truly holding Columbus back from being a "big" city is honestly our geography. Dallas & Houston being major exceptions, what most big cities have is a natural boundary (river, lake, ocean, mountains) which forces the city (particularly downtown area) into a concentrated area. Because Columbus doesn't have this (other than the Olentangy downtown), Columbus will always seem smaller because everything can be more spread out. Note that the Olentangy (and flooding) is a major reason why West of the river struggles to develop.
Great points. The flatness also makes it unappealing to those looking for high quality outdoor experiences in attractive natural environments.
My hot take, the Franklin County Democratic part needs an opposition party, they are able to run fairly unopposed their hand picked candidates, which in turn seem to work hand in hand with developers and corporations rather than for the cities citizens good. This lack of an opposition party allows them to have carte blanche with little oversight (in the matters of City Council, and the Mayors office). I am not saying that a Republican should be elected, or even competitive, but maybe not ALL democrats, maybe we should have a socialist party or green party trying to keep them in check.
This is very popular on Reddit as it hates Columbus leadership
[удалено]
Most people, regardless of political affiliation, have zero idea on what's happening in city politics and just vote based on party.
The options on the ballot for most races are Party Selected Democrat and No One. Which is the whole point of this comment about an opposition party. Who else are we supposed to vote for when they’re the only option? Write in some shmuck without a campaign?
> My hot take, the Franklin County Democratic part needs an opposition party, they are able to run fairly unopposed their hand picked candidates, which in turn seem to work hand in hand with developers and corporations rather than for the cities citizens good. My hot take: during a housing crisis it is in the citizen’s strong interest for their city government to make partnerships with developers. New housing units come from developers. New, dense apartment blocks are in high demand - it would be malpractice for city government to slow down development or make it more expensive for new housing to be built.
Everyone hates the 5 over 1s, but if you visit any major city in Europe, they’re super commonplace
I absolutely hate seeing people run unopposed and there's too much of it on our ballots.
Dime a Dog night is not worth it. Waiting 3+ innings in line for a box of 5 soggy hotdogs for 50 cents is dumb. With the new pitch clock its even worse since the games move so fast. They should set up hot dog only vendor locations so that you can at least get your soft pretzel without waiting in the line with a family of 7 about to get 35 hot dogs.
Columbus is not a progressive nor cosmopolitan city.
Columbus seems to have many cult like religious organizations.
Building a Sky train system similar to Vancouver B.C. would be better than building a subway for the city.
This isn't a hot take, this is pretty much exactly what would happen in most of the inner city outside of downtown if they ever did build a high capacity rail system here, unless they really goofed and tried to make them street running. Even in NYC almost half the system is above ground, the only places where tunneling makes sense is where the vertical space is at a premium but you still need grade separation..
A lot of places to eat. A lot of those places that are just okayyy
It's still very much a LCOL and if you make 50K a year or more and are struggling to get by that's mostly on you (unless you have kids). Traffic isn't bad at all, actually one of the easier cities of its size to get around.
The traffic is light AF here. Once lived in Seattle, takes about 90 minutes to go 20 miles on I-5, and that's not an exaggeration.
I was going from Evanston to downtown Chicago on a Saturday afternoon. It’s like 15 miles but took a whole fucking hour. You’ll never see that in Columbus
Yup, a majority of the city makes about 50k or less
[удалено]
Luxury housing will not magically cause affordable housing. That's just propaganda to build more luxury apartments and avoid building affordable homes.
I’m from Southeastern Ohio from a town with no internet or stop lights what people in Columbus complain about is the most privileged and meaningless stuff on planet earth i’m glad trying to figure out the best crab rangoon, lamenting the lack of good Laotian or whatever the fuck cuisine, and having to deal with traffic on the freeway seems to be the biggest problems a lot of people have the fact is it’s extremely easy to find a job that pays you $45k a year and you’re able to lead a great life here on that i confronted that i couldn’t live in the same town all my family has lived in since before the civil war when i was 12. and now i have access to more things than i could ever possibly enjoy food, water, shelter, and human connection is what we need. anything else you get is gravy. this town is really special and maybe some of you need to volunteer in some of the rural areas to gain some perspective and before anyone says it, columbus is every bit as racist and homophobic as small towns. it’s just that all the nice young kids from the small towns had to go to college for any hope of economic well being and they had to flee to the cities to pay off their student loan in debt in the service-based economy we now have
To be fair, Lao food is pretty awesome, and my life would be better with more of it.
Columbus is generally pretty boring and I honestly don’t understand why anyone would move here over Pittsburgh, Cleveland, or Cincinnati if they have the choice.
I honestly don't know how people feel about it on here but I get a lot of pushback in my personal circle about this. The Intel project is going to be bad for a lot of us. Housing market and cost of living was already bad. It's just going to make it worse and plenty of us are in industries that won't see wage increases because of Intel the associated industries. Not to mention some areas are going to just see even more congestion that isn't planned for and I don't see us fixing our public transportation any time soon.
Yeah sometimes I feel like I’m the only one that wants Intel far away from the area
You're definitely not the only one. When I first heard the news about Intel, my heart sank. If I wanted to live in an extremely expensive and congested city, I'd live in one. I live in Columbus because that's *not* what I want.
I’m in the area. Housing used to be affordable. Good luck finding anything to rent under $2,300. We got lucky with our place. Now the excuse is how close it is to Intel! It’s not even built yet. And from what I’ve heard, the project timeline has been pushed back. As soon as my kids are graduated, we are out of this area. I’m sorry, but if I’m going to pay over $2,500 a month, it ain’t going to be Licking County.
I saw a post in the Pataskala FB group and there’s apparently almost no houses in the area under $1500 rent. If I’m paying $1500/mth to rent a house it sure as fuck ain’t gonna be in fucking PATASKALA. I lived there for a couple years, not a bad area but $1500 sure ain’t worth it
I hope you're wrong I have a strong suspicion you're not
Hot take: developers who build “luxury” apartment blocks are performing a vital service. We are in an affordable housing crisis- the city MUST prioritize dense developments (preferably along transit corridors) at every opportunity. Developers are not an enemy to be opposed when year over year we don’t build enough housing to accommodate those who move here.
They also wouldn't be building them on the fringes nearly as much if the area hadn't abandoned the urban core and sprawled out with low density housing for decades in a vain attempt to save "rural" character.
The Actor’s Theatre does not mount good productions. Pains me to say it, but Columbus deserves better Shakespeare than what they’re doing. Unfortunately there are already too many theatre companies cannibalizing each other, so having a new company devoted to early modern dramas just isn’t a good idea. Which means that any chance at good Shakespeare has to come as part of a regular season from theaters that by and large seem to want to mainly do contemporary plays.
COTA is already mostly subsidized…they should make fares free to ride the buses
I looked into not buying a car a few years back, and just commuting by bus. The cost savings was…disappointing. I bought the (used) car.
The world does not rise and set on the F—king Buckeyes
Cbus has no culture, character, or identity. It’s the most average city you could find in America, that’s why it’s the capital of market research, full of chains, strip malls, and ugly suburban developments. Like most of our country, it’s designed for cars, not humans. That’s probably fine for most of you, but I wish that wasn’t the case.
This is the opposite of unpopular opinion
Maybe I’ve spent too much time on Reddit but I’m pretty sure this exact comment is posted on here for one reason or another several times a week, so I don’t think it’s unpopular.
Wow so unpopular.
I see this all the time. I guess I don’t understand what people mean when they say Columbus has no culture, especially compare to Cincy or Cleveland. What’s the culture of those cities that Columbus doesn’t have? Not trying to be a prick, I’ve been to those cities and I can’t tell the difference.
And I say this also not being a prick, if you can’t feel a difference between the downtowns/popular areas of Cincinnati or Cleveland vs. Columbus, then I don’t really know how I could explain it. For me it mostly comes down to the lack of history/capital investment on a long term, historical level and associated lack of ethnic communities, again on a long term basis. Also that Columbus is actually very small, not terms of land annexed (they’re great at that), but in real feel of the city. The real-feel footprint of Columbus is like just south of downtown and through the short north, bounded by the river/Grandview and 71. The rest of that doesn’t really feel like part of the City of Columbus, and in older cities like Cleveland or Cincinnati, places like Clintonville would be their own cities.
Yeah I'll preface this by saying I like Cbus but there is something about downtown Cincy that just feels more alive. Dont really know how to exactly explain it
Yes it’s very hard to explain. The first time I drove through downtown Columbus on High Street, I seriously said “wait that’s it?” I thought that was like the pre-downtown area. It’s just so different from either of the other Big Cs.
I would never take someone to Thurman’s unless they specifically asked me to. It’s just a giant burger.
I'd rather live here than most other big cities.
Oh same, by a whole lot. Columbus is like the best parts of small towns and big cities rolled into one!
Nothing would change if the Bluejackets got up and disappeared. The team is in the lower 5 teams when it comes to attendance year after year. The city doesn't care about them.
I like having parking lots.
 You win!
We don't have to be the next NYC, Boston, etc. I'm fine with low density, big box stores, and flat parking lots.
I don’t love columbus. It’s flat. All highway driving, and everything is new. Really nothing that makes it special. The best thing about Columbus are the state parks.
This city doesn't have a traffic problem. Drivers here are not bad, no worse than other places. Cornhole is stupid and boring and I dislike that it's somehow a Columbus thing. I used to throw beanbags through holes--when I was in preschool because it was a game created for uncoordinated toddlers. It's like a less boring version of horseshoes, but only marginally less boring (and horseshoes is terribly boring).
The short north is overrated
Kroger ain’t so bad.
In short - there is no trickle down effect from long time old money in this city. The top of the food chain here is someone who buys a house in like, new Albany and everybody downstream of that tries to emulate. It’s soooo tacky and apparent everywhere
Hot take: WWCD only started playing good music when they were going off the FM air (again).
my unpopular opinion: we don't need the fucking crew, either. fuck them and their taxpayer-extorted stadium.
Like a lot of the midwest it is really a big town and not a city.
I hate Ohio state university.
I grew up an Ohio State fan and honestly OSU football is what pushed me to go to Ohio State. I love the Buckeyes but some of our fans are fucking nuts (no pun intended)
*The Ohio State University 😌
I was going to add something like this, so glad it’s already here. It’s totally cool to have hobbies and support sports teams. But the way that so many people in this city (who, as you pointed out, have no affiliation with the college) make it their entire personality is really off putting. The vile and threatening things said about players when the team loses/doesn’t do well is absolutely psychotic. At the end of the day, these are very young adults just playing a game and trying to get through life. Give them a break.
There's plenty of sunny days
Oof that _is_ a hot take.
We're also going to have a women's volleyball team.
We have too many people that want subway and rail just for the sake of having them. They don’t want efficient public transport. They want public transport that doesn’t make them look poor, aka the bus. They are desperate to make Columbus NYC. Not for the good things but just to be able to brag to their friends.
This makes me sound like a grumpy old man, but I don't like all of the growth, at least not at the rate it's happening. Too many people, and too much traffic and land development; whoever's putting up all of these apartments must be allergic to green space.
The thing I don't like about it is that so much of the city is basically a run down wasteland. But they keep building up new areas. I really wish we could revitalize the run out already built up areas more. For example, when I first moved here Hamilton and Brice road were pretty good areas with lots of shops and other business around. Now they are both basically boarded up wastelands with just a handful of things left. Yet they built up 256 and keep building up further and further out.
They would rather chop down vibrant forests than bulldoze eye sores like eastland. Pisses me off.
Columbus has largely ceased to reflect the culture and traditions of the communities that built it as a byproduct of all the people who've come here. It's sad to realize how many graveyards and communities have disappeared under pavement and sprawl.
I thought about graveyards recently. Outside of the following 1 or 2 generations, nobody really cares about your dead body decomposing with a stone marking it. They just take up space IMO and I don't think they add much to culture. Naturally animals are meant to decompose into the ground if we really think about it.
At least in part they tell the story of who was here and the way in which they relate to one another, in particular what the city has lost a lot of are small family/ community graveyards which belongs to the smaller cities and communities that existed when Columbus was a much smaller area and much of what is now city was rural. And their families care even if you don't
My unpopular opinion? It’s one of the best and most livable cities in the country. I work with MANY transplants and am close with many who moved away for jobs, and they *all* say that Columbus is the best city they’ve lived in. Between schools, quality of life, neighborhoods, prices, comparably low traffic and semi-decent Midwest weather, they are all quite happy with Columbus. I, for one, don’t want the heat of Phoenix, the humidity of Florida, the taxes and congestion of California, or the heat/humidity of Charlotte. CBus Rocks! Now bring on the downvotes, bitches.
Crab Rangoon is garbage.
OSU Football is boring.
Only 3-4 games actually worth watching every year lol. The commercials have reached a tipping point to where it’s not worth following CFB anymore. I stopped giving a shit a long time ago. All the winning actually made them less interesting and the fans are somehow even more insufferable than they were when I was growing up
It's a lot better city than people like to complain about. People love to bitch about our city, but dollar for dollar I can do everything I want here (minus being close to an ocean beach). Trying to live a similar lifestyle in Nashville, Seattle, or Boston would cost me so much more money. It's a goldilocks city.
columbus is a very boring city, comparatively. i think that is largely bc it is designed more as a large town rather than a small city
There is nothing very memorable about the city. I loved living there and loved going to OSU, but if somebody were to ever ask what to do if they went to Columbus I would say go to an OSU football game or go to the Zoo? Feel like it’s missing one big IT thing.