StowCbusCleveland

With more information, it seems likely that this is just bad communication of a legit (if confusing) process. I plan on contacting OCC, PUCO, and the AG so that they are aware how this process is playing out when it actually happens. I like to think I'm a fairly smart person who is well informed about living in Ohio, and it took me several phone calls just to find out what had happened, let alone what I should do about it. My initial takeaway was that I had been scammed without ever doing anything to allow it.

Well, after calling AEP again to get a more helpful CSR and then speaking with FirstEnergy and then speaking with the Township, I was able to find out what happened, or at least piece together a plausible scenario. Last November the Jackson Township trustees put an issue on the ballot to aggregate the Township's electricity purchasing, and the issue passed. They cut a deal with FirstEnergy to be the provider of choice for Jackson where FE would agree to always beat AEP's price to compare by 3%. Part of that deal was that everyone in the city with an electric bill would be automatically switched over to them unless they explicitly opted-out. This vote happened last November. Sometime between then and 2 months ago when I moved, letters went out to everyone informing them how this would all work. So I moved in the sweet spot: after the notification but prior to the switch. The woman I spoke to with FirstEnergy was very nice, but when she told me there would be a cancellation fee if I decided to leave and go back to AEP, I hit the roof. Thankfully, given how recently I found out, they allowed me to cancel and go back to AEP. I'm not opposed to saving money, and it's probably as simple as saving 3%, but given that they brought up fees in my first conversation...I started wondering whether this would be like switching from Southwest Airlines to American or United: cheaper initial price, get you on the fees later. I asked both AEP and FE to send me their relevant contracts and promo materials so I could actually compare them. I'm probably spending too much time on something that's ultimately only a $3 difference on a $100 bill, but the weirdness of the process left me with a lot of questions.

Hey all, Some of you are much better versed in the laws and rules regarding utility companies than I am, so I was wondering if someone could help me understand what's going on with my electric provider. I recently moved away from Columbus to Canton for work, and I signed up for electric service through AEP. I've had two months worth of bills so far, no big deal. After work today, I came home to a letter in the mail from AEP letting me know that they were aware of my requested switch to FirstEnergy as my electric provider, and they told me I had until 5pm yesterday to cancel the change. My deadline to cancel the change was the day before I got the letter acknowledging my request to switch, a request that I never made. I called AEP, and the lady on the phone was very nice but ultimately unable to do much more than give me some clues about what might have happened. Most of what she told me raised more questions than answers, and I got the distinct vibe from her that she either knew something she wasn't telling me, or at the very least she was under strict instructions not to stray from a particular set of scripted answers. 1) She told me the effective date of the change in her computer showed as August 16th. We signed the lease for our apartment on the 13th and established an AEP account on the 15th. Despite getting 2 months of bills without anyone mentioning this change, we supposedly "requested" a change to FirstEnergy the day after we signed up with AEP. 2) She said that FirstEnergy sent out a letter indicating that we would be automatically switched to FirstEnergy unless we responded to tell them that wasn't what we wanted. I pointed out that we definitely had not gotten that letter, and it very likely would have been sent prior to us renting the apartment, which sat vacant for a few months before we took control in August. She said the address was what was important, not the resident. This makes no sense to me. 3) She indicated that AEP's rate hike may have automatically triggered some sort of change, and that callers seemed to think they would be getting a 5% discount because of the switch. She had no information on FirstEnergy's rates. She really seemed interested in explaining how energy deregulation in Ohio works, but she didn't want to relate how competing energy providers had anything to do with my automatic switch from one to the other. I honestly have no idea what happened here. The lady from AEP was nice, but ultimately unable to tell me what really happened. She referred me to FirstEnergy or PUCO, both of whom have normal 8-5 hours so I couldn't call to ask any questions. So here's my question: What the hell is going on? There is information missing from this story, and AEP Lady either didn't have it or wouldn't give it to me. Surely it can't be legal to automatically switch someone's electricity provider on their behalf prior to them signing up to live there? Can anyone shed light on what this all means? I don't owe any allegiance to AEP so I don't really care who provides my electric, but this feels fishy.

It was cruel of me not to give my final update. Big thanks to Gram for a tour of Akron! You really showcased those neighborhoods and the city in a positive way. I hear they are looking for a mayor... With GF's school situation being somewhat fluid (She ended up switching things up so she can go to Kent Stark and take advantage of cheaper tuition), we decided to go with the one piece of information we knew was stable: my job. We now live in an apartment community that is about 2 miles from my office at Belden. Gramarye was right that the apartment communities here are nice, comfortable, and generic. I gave myself the gift of time and low fuel costs: my commute is 5 minutes, which is great. It allows me to go home for lunch, which is great for eating cheap. The easy commute is such a nice lifestyle perk that I don't mind not having some of the other things available, although I sometimes look at the SARTA station on Whipple and remember how nice it was to ride the COTA #2 up and down High St. in Columbus and be able to go anywhere without a car. The bank and grocery store are both within easy walking distance, but otherwise you need to hop in the car here. The amount of traffic and lack of courtesy from drivers here makes me wary of biking even a short distance on the roads near Belden. While living next to a mall isn't my ideal, I did accomplish one of my major goals of minimizing commutes, so I am pretty pleased with that. There is a certain convenience to having all of the shopping and restaurants so close as well. My next goal is to learn more about the amenities that Canton and the surrounding areas have to offer (beyond the Hall of Fame). Looking forward to checking out the parks with our dog, finding some good places for biking, checking out the historic stuff like McKinley and First Lady's Library here in town. Thanks again to everybody who offered tips and advice. As is typically the case, we found something that works but was completely different than what we were originally looking for.

I agree that the issue is difficult and complex. I'm not a huge fan of the idea of public housing in the first place, but accepting that there is a need for some amount of help to keep people afloat during a rough patch or to make a life working in public service jobs like teaching or firefighting...I'm not sure what the best solution is. I think there is definitely some merit to the idea that urban centers tend to have more services available, as well as making life without a car more feasible. I'm open to new ideas on the topic.

Gotcha. Anything worth checking out in Canton itself since I'll be working in the Belden Village tower?

A year or two ago I was driving a car that belonged to my dad, who lives in Summit county (an e-check county). I was in school at OSU in Columbus. I called to see if there was anything I could do to get out of the test since the car hadn't been in an e-check county in over a year, but the lady on the phone told me it was "my problem" that I lived an hour from the nearest location. I drove a fairly new car for 2 hours to show that it was environmentally friendly...the irony was not lost on me. I'm all for taking care of the environment and I don't have a problem with paying more for stuff if it reflects the true cost to society, but there's just no way that e-Check is worth it.

I'm putting together a list on Padmapper so I'll have something to look at next week. Anybody have any insight on North Canton or any place along 77 b/w Akron and Canton? Right now the list is primarily of Stow and Cuyahoga Falls stuff based on what's available. While I'd prefer to be closer to Akron/Kent, I figured I should check out what's near my place of employment just so I can know I've seen my options.

Interesting to hear. I'll have to check it out in person. My impression was that being a part of Akron proper, it was a bit more dense than what you describe but now that you mention it I do sort of remember that Akron has somewhat fuzzy boundaries where sometimes there's no clear difference between portions of Akron compared to the city next door. There's never a substitute for seeing a place in person! I sent you a PM to see about setting up a visit when we come up.

I don't think a particular housing type is necessarily superior. We're looking for a place that would be pet-friendly to accommodate her ~15lb dog, and we'd like a W/D hookup. If we had a yard, I suppose it would be nice for the dog and I know I'd probably start a small food garden, but I think that desire to spend some time outside is met if there's a decent park in striking distance. In my mind, $800/mo is the max, and I'd want a pretty great place for that. Some work with Craigslist/Padmapper leads me to think there are options at the $600-$700 range that would do the trick and let us start to build some savings. I think I learn more about what we want from typing it here than from just sitting and thinking about it. For example, it occurs to me that I know we're both athletic types who will spend time at the gym so proximity to a good gym or apartments with a good one on site would be nice. Also, trying to think of random things here, I'm a soccer referee in my spare time as a hobby/second job. In the fall and spring I'll be going to the different parks that regularly host competitive youth soccer games, so if any place gave me a "home base" for picking up games, that would be a nice bonus. Interesting stuff to consider. We're going to come up next weekend, so that will be a good chance to check out some places and let her get a better feel for NE Ohio.

I probably oversold how much I like biking. It would be cool, but isn't strictly necessary. Talking some with the gf, I get the sense we are more likely to end up in a place like Stow, Kent, Cuyahoga Falls, Tallmadge, etc...At some point in the next couple weeks we'll be headed up that way to check things out and see it for ourselves. Thanks again for all the insight everybody.

What would be the boundaries to consider when looking at Goodyear Heights? I can't say I'm very familiar with that neighborhood.

I'd like to apologize for making a post that asks for advice, then getting great advice, only to forget to check back up on it. It's now bookmarked properly so I won't make the mistake again. Thank you all for some excellent insight! This conversation sort of got put on the backburner for a couple months, and now that my girlfriend and I are truly beginning the search in earnest, I recalled that I had asked this already and I needed to follow-up. Apologies again about the gap in time, but I'd like to address what everybody asked about. In terms of neighborhood amenities, my overarching concern is that I don't want to end up in a cul-de-sac and 15 minutes from anything useful. Ideally, yes, I would prefer a more urban lifestyle or at the least an urbanized version of suburbia. My mother has gotten into biking over the last year, and she raves about the Towpath, so I think it would be neat to be near that. Here in Columbus, I have enjoyed living in the Clintonville neighborhood and right next to the path that runs next to the Olentangy River from downtown up through Worthington. That would be like bringing a slice of my Columbus life up with me. Now that I think of it, for those who are familiar with it, Clintonville is not a bad approximation of my ideal situation. It's a relatively quiet, safe neighborhood with good availability of parks, public transit, short travel times to downtown, access to retail and food options within a minute or two but also good highway access for getting around, not more than 15 minutes from a couple of the nicer malls, etc. etc. I've really enjoyed the quality of life in this neighborhood and wouldn't mind trying to find something similar. In terms of budget, I'll be in a "first good job after college" situation, so I'll probably be feeling rich for the first couple months but her school obligations will cancel some of that out. Honestly, I don't have a good sense of what the rental market is like and what $400, $600, $1000, etc. will get you. My current place in Columbus is a 2BR in a 1960's/70's era 4-unit building for $600/mo. I don't know if my place would be cheaper or more expensive or about the same if it were in Kent/Akron/Canton. In terms of location, it now sounds like Kent-Stark may offer some of the classes she would need to take initially, and given the cheaper tuition, she may end up taking courses in Canton before Akron, so at this point I'm less concerned about a specific commute for her since it is getting harder to predict. I'd rather find the best place to live that keeps us close to our various commitments and entertainment options. The next time I come up to Akron, I may take you up on that offer to check out Akron, Gramarye. I'm guessing it would hit our high range on rent budget, but it sounds like potential option and IMO I don't think you go wrong paying a premium if it puts you where you belong. I'll send you a PM.

Hi all! I haven't posted on these forums in quite some time, but I have enjoyed reading them off and on for a long time. I went back and looked at one of my posts where I was asking for advice about where to move in Cleveland. Re-reading that was good for a laugh as people talked about how much time I had before 2009 to decide where to go. It was a nice little time capsule of where my head was at back then. As life tends to do for you, my plans changed. Took a little longer to graduate, and stayed in Columbus. Now, I'll be starting a new job in the fall that will have me working in an office near Belden Village in Canton while my girlfriend who has graciously decided to follow me to the area will be finishing up an education degree at Kent State. As I'm balancing the competing interests of our respective commutes to Canton and Kent, the desire to be closer to activity than not, be safer than not, etc., I'm having a little bit of trouble picking where might be best to live. The "Route 8 corridor" is where I grew up and I figured I'd know right where to go, but apparently I never paid much attention to livability when I was terrorizing the greater Akron area. Since my job will have a decent chunk of traveling involved, and because I'd like to help her since she's the one leaving home and I'm more or less coming home, I think shortening her commute to <10 minutes is more important than shortening mine. Does anyone have any suggestions for good neighborhoods or apartment situations under those parameters?

Also, if you haven't already, join Facebook with your osu.edu email account and browse the "Marketplace" for sublets. The OSU OCSS website is worthwhile, but you should actively use Facebook and Craiglist as well. Your best bet in my opinion is to find a sublet that lasts through August, and when you get here start looking for a place to move into for September. You should be able to find all kinds of options for subletting from now through the end of the summer, and probably at great prices.

33 Frambes is a tan to white-ish colored apartment building whose front door is about 50 feet from High Street. The location is incredible in terms of living close to campus, and the outside of the building is in decent shape (I walked past this place roughly 1000 times last year when I lived on Frambes). I've never been inside, but it had better be nice for $520/month, although it is furnished which obviously is a part of the higher rent. An important consideration for this apartment is the proximity to fun/drunks. Directly across the street is a bar called Out-R-Inn, which has $1 mug nights on Sundays and Mondays that are highly attended. Lots of potential fun, lots of guaranteed noise. Additionally, this puts you next door to a food/takeout beer place called PJ's, whose tagline is appropriately "Home of the Drunks." It's a popular place to go and get food when you aren't quite in your right mind at 2:45am. You'll be steps away from a UDF which gives you a place to get snacks, food, beer, ice cream, etc...basically a 7/11. You've got a number of other bars and restaurant options withing stumbling distance given that you're basically living on High Street. As with most things, this comes down to what you want. Positives: You'll be right in the heart of it all, you'll have all the amenities you need very close by, you'll be about as close to campus as you can be, it's already furnished, covered parking is available. Negatives: You'll be right in the heart of it all, even at 2 in the morning on a Monday night. $520 a month is on the pricey end of Campus rents. It's an apartment building rather than a house or Duplex, or whatever which means if you have an unfortunate neighbor he might be harder to ignore. My Advice: Check the place out, and if it looks like a great apartment and $520/month is affordable for you, it's a strong contender. If it is an average apartment, keep looking since you can find plenty of good living options for $450 and under. Bonus points if you can check the scene out at midnight on a Sunday or Monday to see if the level of commotion is a plus or a minus to you. If this unit has a window that faces south to Woodruff instead of north to Frambes (the front-door side of the building), the noise is likely a non-issue. Feel free to send me a PM, I'd be more than happy to check this or any other place out with you to help give you some entrenched OSU perspective.

Anything west of high street (i.e. W 9th) is alright... The opinion is probably based off of living East of high street in the South Campus area... don't do it unless you actually want to smoke crack... Hahaha, this is true. To me, "South Campus" is by definition the area west of High and north of 8th Ave. The area you are referencing is outside my universe of possible choices, lol. Being both south of campus (Below 10th) and east of campus (East of High) is a bad idea. As you approach the Kroger (Or, Kroghetto as we call it), you notice a distinctly sketchy area. As Mugatu put it so eloquently, you may notice "a fashion, a way of life inspired by the very homeless, the vagrants, the crack whores that make this wonderful city so unique."

I'm currently a student at OSU, and I came to school here during a spring quarter when I was 21 also (23 now), so I think I know more or less what you're going through looking for a place to stay and getting up to speed with school. My suggestion would be to use some combination of OSU's Off-Campus Student Services website (which it sounds like you're using) and Craigslist to find a sublet that will take you through August. January is actually the true beginning of leasing season for the following academic year (Leases universally run from September-August), so once you've gotten settled in, it wouldn't be a bad idea to start looking for your next place and set of roommates unless you really like the place and people you found to start with and are able to renew at that location. In terms of where you should be living, you mentioned you want to be in the thick of students (which shouldn't be a problem)...The big decision for most people is whether they choose to live further north or south. Rents tend to be a little cheaper to the south, in large part *opinion alert* because on average the housing is not quite as picturesque, and the south campus used to be a little rough around the edges from what I've heard. That said, my favorite apartment since I've been here (3 in total) was South Campus on W. 9th. A big reason for that is the newly built South Campus Gateway, which is a very goodlooking setup of retail, food, and bars. There will be no shortage of college girls at the Ugly Tuna or McFadden's on a Thursday-Saturday night. North Campus has plenty of hotspots, too, and as I said the housing tends to be a little nicer looking from the curb. Ultimately, you really only need to look for a few things: 1) Decent roommates. Ask every question you need to about lifestyle, because my experience is that it will come up if you don't. 2) Rent below $425: A good number of kids pay more, and if you are so inclined then go for it, but every street can provide you with a good place for 400ish. That South Campus place I liked was actually 325, but 425 to me is the dividing line between cheap and expensive here. 3) Last but not least, proximity to High Street should be your first guide on location. High Street is the main road dividing on and off campus. It's got restaurants, stores, banks, and bars going basically the entire way north and south. West of High St. is the OSU campus, and east of High St. is the bulk of the off campus housing. Your goal should be to live within a couple blocks of High St, the closer the better since it gives you a shorter walk to class and puts you close to everything you need/want. As somebody who transferred to OSU without a clue and without a guide, I can empathize with your move. Columbus has been a great city to live in, and I'm pretty well convinced that OSU is one of the best college experiences out there to be had. If you have any questions or just want somebody to grab your first brew with as a Buckeye, feel free to send me a PM. Good luck!

If the goal is ultimately to keep workers in Cleveland, it seems like some kind of incentive would work better than compulsion. Rather than excluding potential hires, wouldn't it make more sense to try to attract employees to the city with special property tax cuts (Or some other benefit that doesn't exclude renters) for public workers who live within the city limits? Ultimately, you want these jobs to be desirable and you want people to choose Cleveland as home.

I'm sad to see Sen. Voinovich go. He was a thoughtful, pragmatic voice for the State of Ohio and was a politician with a lot of character. He was one of the faces of that dying breed: the moderate Republican senator. Especially in recent history, it was nice to see his thoughtful position-taking in the midst of an era of rhetorical bomb throwing and hyper-partisanship. His leadership will be missed, and I'm thankful he's represented Ohio for all these years.

I think Huckabee or someone with his level of support from the religious crowd will be Ohio's first choice. As someone who is very well church-ed up, I can tell you that the election results by many are being interpreted as: 1) The fault of the GOP for nominating McCain, who has no culture warrior credentials. 2) A real cause for fear that America is at risk of going the way of Sodom and Gomorrah without a very quick turn back to Christian principles. Now maybe Huck can't make it through until Ohio's primary date, but I think if Ohio gets the chance to vote on a full slate of candidates, a former Baptist minister is going to play well.

I have trouble understanding how Amtrak isn't more of a priority. We have something like a 4 trillion dollar budget. We spend billions in Iraq each week. We spend billions upon billions on everything else, and Amtrak has to fight for $2 billion a year just to maintain? We ought to give them $10 or $20 billion a year and charge them with expanding service. Create a new railway boom, increase manufacturing and construction jobs, give us lasting structural advantages, etc. It's insane that we would dump all of this money into roads and personal vehicles and not put a comparative dime into passenger rail when the demand is there and everyone claims our priorities are to use less oil and move people around more efficiently. I realize I'm mostly preaching to the choir, but it just blows my mind how easy the solution seems and how loathe the pols are to make it happen.

As a student at Ohio State, I've gotta say my best bum stories are always about "Help is on the Way" aka "The Rapping Bum". The guy is a living legend. During the 2007 Senior Crawl night, he was signing kids' shirts and posing for pictures for a dollar or two. I don't know how much he made that night, but he was RAKING. There was a crowd around him when we walked past that had to have been hovering around 20 or so.

I realized this after posting...I guess if you perceived us to be at a nationwide bottom in housing, than this info could be bad news. I just assumed most people have their eyes open and realize that prices have plenty of room more to fall in many markets.

X, I'm with you on the article's central point not making total sense. I understand the point the article is making (Cleveland bottomed out at price levels that the rest of the country hasn't dropped to yet; more room to fall), but I would think that it would still be a positive sign that ANYBODY is putting in a housing bottom. That would seem to indicate that now we can set our expectations for the rest of the country, and the horizon is in sight. It's no longer a bottomless pit. Right?