zhenni

I would personally love the kind of commute that I could do on foot or bike. But, while I have a job in Wooster, it would be impossible for my husband to find a job there. Since I am an academic and have to commute only 8 months out of the year, whereas my husband would be commuting virtually every day, it makes sense to me to find somewhere reasonably close to Wooster (and remember, "reasonable" to me at this point is anything closer than Columbus) to live so that he has much less of a commute...

Right now my commute to Wooster is almost 2 hours one way, so anything closer than that would be great. As far as renting vs. owning goes, it all depends on how soon my husband finds a new job; he was just laid off due to the economic downturn. We currently live in a duplex (though in Columbus they are side-by-side, not up-and-down), so either a duplex or a single family home would work for us. There are only 3 of us, so we don't need that much space.

Could you tell me about these schools? Are they public or private? I have heard good things about Ohio City...

Will you be working in Cuyahoga county? Where exactly is your job located? How old are you folks? What do you like to do for fun entertainment? What do you like to do as a family? What type of home are you looking for? I know you say you're city folks, but for clarity are you saying you want to live in the city as oppose to the 'burbs? I will not be working in Cuyahoga county; my husband (hopefully) will be. My job is located in Wooster. I am 38; my husband is 41; our son is 5 (and currently in kindergarten). Fun for us primarily revolves around our son right now; so, lots of outdoors stuff (camping, hiking, biking, swimming, etc.) and hanging out with our neighbors while our kids play. Eventually we would like to do grown-up stuff as well (movies, theater, arts-related stuff). We would like an older house, preferably one built between about 1900 and 1920, definitely with a porch, and preferably in a neighborhood with a fairly high population density (in our current neighborhood, the houses are about 15-20' apart; in our previous neighborhood, we lived in a rowhouse.). When I say that we are city folks, I mean that I really hate modern suburbs where no houses have porches, where you have to drive 10 minutes to buy a gallon of milk, and where there is nothing but houses as far as the eye can see. We are looking for the kind of neighborhood where there is a mix of housing and retail (not necessarily on the same street) so that we could walk or bike to pick up groceries, go to the hardware store, and frequent local stores and restaurants. We would not necessarily have to be in Cleveland proper; an inner ring/older suburb would be ok.

We might need to move from Columbus to the Cleveland area to be closer to my job (not in Cleveland, but in Northeast Ohio), and are looking for a nice neighborhood with good schools, as we have a son in kindergarten. Since we are city people, we would prefer to live in the city if possible, but as we are totally unfamiliar with Cleveland, we have no idea what the various neighborhoods and local schools are like. Here is what we are looking for: - a walkable urban neighborhood, preferably not on the far east side (where I work is southwest of Cleveland). - a neighborhood with public schools which have good ratings from the elementary through the high school levels - a neighborhood with good community spirit & with many families with kids - bonus: a neighborhood that has a farmer's market, is walking/biking/public transit distance from an indoor market, or is served by (a) CSA farm(s) Basically what we are looking for is a neighborhood similar to Clintonville, the neighborhood in which we currently live in Columbus. Any suggestions? Thanks!