It's crazy talk to say that money isn't the end all, be all of happiness?  That having true family and friends (not just the one's who would have their hand out) is more important than having boatloads of cash?  If you say so....

 

No, it's not crazy. Provided you have enough money to pay the bills, then it isn't what defines happiness. In that instance, what you're talking about truly is what's important. To be clear, I'm not talking about being filthy rich. Most of the wealthy people I know b!tch and complain more than the working class friends I have. It's about 'rich people problems' to be sure... but they're miserable just the same.

 

But I don't have to tell you that the inability to make ends meet will put a strain on any family... in many instances to the point of breaking. Money isn't the 'be all end all' of happiness. But it's an important component. Telling yourself otherwise is being disingenuous.

 

I don't think we disagree.  What touched this off was when I responded to a comment that your job and your location is everything.  When I channeled Morgan Freedmon's role of God, I was simply trying to create the image of someone who has a job, perhaps a really crappy job, but he doesn't let that dictate whether or not he is content and happy.  There are more important things.... much more important things in life.  I wasn't trying to say that someone who is homeless should be as content as someone who is filthy rich.  All I was saying is that a steel worker or coal miner who modestly provides for his/her family can be just as happy, if not more, than a doctor or lawyer who has throw away money to burn depending on their non-employment life circumstances.

I have a hard time understanding being unhappy with your life, or feeling "stuck".  You control your emotions, at least in a long term sense like "overall happiness".  If you're not generally happy, I tend to think you are the problem, not everything or everyone else. 

 

It's kind of annoying to hear people say "they're stuck".  You're not stuck.  You're choosing to live where you do and just bitching - something along the lines of having your cake and eating it too.  That or you are afraid to take risks. 

 

Anyway, I'm very happy to be in NE Ohio.  Sure, there's things I would like to be better or different, but I will either work to make it better or just make the best of it.  I've lived in other places but eventually came back to Ohio...and don't want to be anywhere else.  My wife, a Ft Lauderdale native and UF grad, also loves it here and has no desire to move back south.  It's certainly nice to visit Florida a couple times a year (especially in the winter), but I will say I was very to be home after two weeks down south.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Maslow%27s_Hierarchy_of_Needs.svg

shs, I think the "stuck" feeling comes from people who feel they sort of HAVE to say here, because they want to be close to family or they have not been able to find a job similar to what they have here. Yes, you could move away, I could leave my Mom any time I wanted to and deprive her of seeing her grandchild grow up, and seeing me every week as well, but I would be very sad if I did that. Sometimes there is a signel something keeping you here even when you'd (mostly) rather leave. I wouldn't say that completely characterizes ME per se, just explaining what the stuck feeling comes from.

A person who has worked extensively with the dying put down their five most frequent life regrets:  http://www.inspirationandchai.com/Regrets-of-the-Dying.html

 

In my mind, "stuck" would have to equate to one big-ass regret, in the end...  But there is nothing in that list sounding like "I wish I had moved to Portland." 

 

In fact, it is hard to understand how an increase in "mobility" as defined by Florida, would reduce the severity of those regrets; in fact I think it's much more likely to be the other way around.

 

Because of the pop-science way that Florida does research, I'm sure he could put together the graduate students and the database searches to try and define our happiness and lack of regret, but I just hope he doesn't try.

I don't consider myself stuck. I have a good paying job, can enjoy what Cleveland and Columbus have to offer, but can also make it to other parts of the country to take a "break" from Ohio. I think as long as I have the freedom to occasionally get out of the state to places that may have more sunshine, or have more beaches, or whatever I'll be fine. I just wish people outside of the state thought of Ohio as more than just farmland and people from here had a more balanced perspective of Ohio vs anywhere else in the World. there's give and take with anywhere you'd ever want to move to. We have big companies, Grade A cultural institutions, Pro sports, Excellent research Universities, top Hospitals. We have just about everything you could find anywhere else.

The big triangle you posted makes the text scroll off the screen, Clevelander17

Maybe you could find a smaller image or just link to the triangle

thanks

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,26714.msg594839.html#msg594839

I have a hard time understanding being unhappy with your life, or feeling "stuck".  You control your emotions, at least in a long term sense like "overall happiness".  If you're not generally happy, I tend to think you are the problem, not everything or everyone else. 

 

It's kind of annoying to hear people say "they're stuck".  You're not stuck.  You're choosing to live where you do and just bitching - something along the lines of having your cake and eating it too.  That or you are afraid to take risks. 

 

Anyway, I'm very happy to be in NE Ohio.  Sure, there's things I would like to be better or different, but I will either work to make it better or just make the best of it.  I've lived in other places but eventually came back to Ohio...and don't want to be anywhere else.  My wife, a Ft Lauderdale native and UF grad, also loves it here and has no desire to move back south.  It's certainly nice to visit Florida a couple times a year (especially in the winter), but I will say I was very to be home after two weeks down south.

 

Awesome!

It's not about the streetcar, or the light rail, or the microbreweries, or Powell's bookstore. Being able to visit places like this are why I want to move back to Oregon:

 

The problem with "nature" is that you have to drive to it, which isn't all that natural for several reasons, most of which because it frames "nature" like a cuddly pet.  Then, people seem to like living near "nature", but tend to "experience" it little more than those who can't see mountains from their city's downtown.  So the potential to visit "nature" pretty much just becomes a yuppie status symbol, like a city having an Ikea.  You go there once when you move to a place, then you pretty much just go again when you're trying to impress visitors from out-of-town. 

^Don't take this the wrong way, but I disagree with everything you say here.

I agree with Jake, its like new yorkers only going to the statue of liberty when they have out of town guests!

 

This thread is funny, all these people wishing they were elsewhere, but they don't hesitate to tell us what Ohio is lacking! Go if you want!

" like a city having an Ikea"?

 

Isn't Oregon where the Decemberists are from?

The problem with "nature" is that you have to drive to it, which isn't all that natural for several reasons, most of which because it frames "nature" like a cuddly pet.  Then, people seem to like living near "nature", but tend to "experience" it little more than those who can't see mountains from their city's downtown.  So the potential to visit "nature" pretty much just becomes a yuppie status symbol, like a city having an Ikea.  You go there once when you move to a place, then you pretty much just go again when you're trying to impress visitors from out-of-town. 

 

Sorry Jake, but you couldn't be more wrong. Most of the valley in that photo isn't even accessible to cars, and getting to the heart of it involves a three-mile hike after driving several miles on gravel forest service roads that are frequently impassable due to snow or rockslides. And that's considered one of the more accessible destinations from Portland because of its relatively low elevation. When I lived in Oregon before, I spent pretty much every spare minute hiking around the Cascades and the Coast Range. If/when I move back I plan to go on even longer hikes, and get back into backpacking, kayaking, and maybe try skiing. A major part of Portland's appeal to me is having easy access to those activities again, and having a climate mild enough for me to enjoy them year-round. The streetcar, etc. is icing on the cake.

 

Either way, when I make a life-changing decision like that I certainly won't be seeking your approval, or anybody else's.

You suffer from GREENER GRASS syndrome. No one offered their approval of your life choices. They just gave opinions. There are plenty of inaccessible areas of Ohio to hike. May not have the mountains but still beautiful.

I was content for years, but decided I needed more of the amenities of big city living and the varying degrees of progress in different departments weren't adding up to what I'm looking for *now* as a not-so-young adult. If I was born over a decade ago I might still be living in Columbus with the patience to experience several new somewhat revitalized, non-gentrified (ideally) neighborhoods, where bikes are catered to, streetcars or light-rail are making a new debut, and COTA runs at least every half hour from 9PM to 1 or 2AM. Thing is, I'm not going to risk waiting til I'm 35 or 40 to find out if things do or don't pan out like I was hoping. As the end of my lease was coming up I had to seriously consider if I could live another year there and enjoy it and honestly the prospect of another year was not one I was happy with. I had to make a decision on a city where I could have the most of what I want out of a city and still watch progress being made without moving to Chicago, DC or the coasts, which is where quite a few friends, acquaintances, and, interestingly enough, formerly local bloggers ended up going.

 

I found the city, found a healthy working-class neighborhood, which I had previously thought was an oxymoron, and although still up-and-coming in parts I am already impressed with the new destinations that have opened or are pending to open in just the past few months. I was pleasantly surprised by a new bike boulevard that happened to get finished on the same street as my apartment: felt almost like it was put there for me (I've still haven't put the bike away for winter yet and am still surprised at the number of people on bikes). It doesn't hurt that I happen to live just a couple of blocks away from one of the city's best bars and that visiting family & friends will have the option to take light-rail from the airport is a nice bonus. The bus system could be better, but I'll take it over COTA anyday and do. It has satisfied my standards in the urban living department.

There he goes again. We get it man.

You suffer from GREENER GRASS syndrome. No one offered their approval of your life choices. They just gave opinions. There are plenty of inaccessible areas of Ohio to hike. May not have the mountains but still beautiful.

 

Thanks for the armchair diagnosis, doc. There's plenty of inaccessible areas of Kansas, too, but you don't see me itching to move to Wichita. If I want to specialize in transportation-related architecture, I'll almost certainly have to leave Cincinnati even if I wanted to stay. And in this economy, moving to Portland or staying here after I finish grad school might not even be realistic options for me anyway, regardless of where I'd rather be living.

 

There's a lot of things I love about Cincinnati and I remain generally optimistic about the city's direction, but the Pacific Northwest is looking like a better fit for me for a variety of personal and career-related reasons. That doesn't mean it's necessarily a better fit for anybody else. But it belies a pretty massive insecurity on some people's part when I mention that I'm merely considering a move to Oregon, and people react as though I spat at Johnny Bench and peed onto a plate of Skyline chili.

We were really content in Cleveland, me more so than my spouse. I really like being near the coast. Either one, but had suppressed that since we had a good thing going.  We were not from CLE so it was not as if we had any family keeping us there. When my spouse applied for a position in San Diego and got it, we decided to go. I had a lot more reservations. We would never sell our condo, I seriously loved my job, I can't function without the west side market, the cost of living on the W.coast ...

 

Anyway over  a year later I am so glad we did make the move. We have good jobs (but we admit less intellectually fulfilling than our Cle jobs), and neither of us runs into any famous S.Cal  traffic-my office is 4.5 miles/10 minutes and spouses  16 miles/25 minutes.  No SD is not on a major fault line either. I spend no less than 2 hours a day outside, rarely use AC or heat,  scoot over to the ocean to watch whales on my lunch break, and we only drive the car about once a month (scooters!). There are really nice urban neighborhoods to explore,  ethnic restaurants and the crime...low. 

 

I am sorry if it is shallow but the weather in Cleveland, except for the fall did not work for me. Say what you will but weather impacts mood whether it is ours or the majority of people around us.

 

San Diego is great-in fact its reputation can be somewhat overblown. On the downside, the cost of living is high (but not unlike most other coastal  cities),it is very transient and it can be conservative for my tastes (although most live and let live much better than other places I have lived)

 

I miss the cost of living in Cleveland, some friends we made, and the market :), Despite this, the over the top (and not entirely deserved) negativity in Cleveland is a poison I am glad to be  away from. I do, and always will have great affection for the area, wish good things for the future.

The problem with "nature" is that you have to drive to it, which isn't all that natural for several reasons, most of which because it frames "nature" like a cuddly pet.  Then, people seem to like living near "nature", but tend to "experience" it little more than those who can't see mountains from their city's downtown.  So the potential to visit "nature" pretty much just becomes a yuppie status symbol, like a city having an Ikea.  You go there once when you move to a place, then you pretty much just go again when you're trying to impress visitors from out-of-town. 

 

Sorry Jake, but you couldn't be more wrong. Most of the valley in that photo isn't even accessible to cars, and getting to the heart of it involves a three-mile hike after driving several miles on gravel forest service roads that are frequently impassable due to snow or rockslides. And that's considered one of the more accessible destinations from Portland because of its relatively low elevation. When I lived in Oregon before, I spent pretty much every spare minute hiking around the Cascades and the Coast Range. If/when I move back I plan to go on even longer hikes, and get back into backpacking, kayaking, and maybe try skiing. A major part of Portland's appeal to me is having easy access to those activities again, and having a climate mild enough for me to enjoy them year-round. The streetcar, etc. is icing on the cake.

 

Either way, when I make a life-changing decision like that I certainly won't be seeking your approval, or anybody else's.

 

I got the impression when I lived in Seattle that the great outdoors is much like the Cleveland Orchestra and Art Museum.  It's a wonderful opportunity that everyone trumpets when given the chance, but few actually use with any regularity.  Kudos to anyone in any place who actually takes advantage of of what it has to offer.

Then why were all the campgrounds within fifty miles of Seattle full every weekend in the summer?

Tourists, maybe.  The Art Museum is usually pretty busy on weekends, too.

When I lived in Urbana-Champaign, IL, I thought that place had the most lovely sunsets, washing over vast fields of grain (would have been better over vast fields of native prairie, but oh well...).  One benefit that comes from extreme flatness.  Sitting in a chair grilling chicken and drinking a bottle of beer, I was in heaven.

 

I still think that, and have tried to convince many people over the years of the value of sunsets, while they were talking to me about the value of mountains.  It never worked. 

 

I guess it goes without saying that, except for the crappy sunsets here, I am content in Cincinnati.

 

Oh, yeah, and I really like the people that I've had the pleasure to get to know here as well.  I guess I shouldn't just forget about that.  If I started to feel stuck here and wanted to move, I'd like to think it would be to find new people, or get rid of old people.  Not mountains or sunsets or beaches or, even, weather.

 

Isn't Oregon where the Decemberists are from?

 

Yes, but why do you ask?  The Decemberists are one of my favorite bands as of late!

 

FYI Oregon is also home to Portland, where the dream of the 90s is alive and well.

"A pretty little patter of a seaboard town"

Living in Gin said he was from Oregon.

I put "The King is Dead" into my CD player two weeks ago. 

I cue The Calamity Song first thing every morning.

Their guitar player is awesome.

I never said I was from Oregon. I'm from the Cincinnati area, but I briefly lived in Eugene, Oregon a few years ago.

Tourists, maybe.  The Art Museum is usually pretty busy on weekends, too.

 

Bingo.  I have relatives that moved to Denver.  I go to the Rockies more than most of them do.

 

It reminds me of the people that go on vacation to Florida and want to move there, only to find out that they don't actually have the time to go to the beach every day.

Not 100% of Coloradans or Washingtonians are avid outdoor-enthusiasts, but a significant proportion of them are. 

Outdoor companies from Seattle: Cascade Designs, Outdoor Research, REI, Eddie Bauer, MSR, K2, Northwest Kayaks, Montrail, Brooks...

 

Greater Seattle is one of the fittest cities in the country, a distinction based on activity

levels within the city. Residents of the region spend much less time than the national

average in front of the television and they lead the nation in participating in sailing and

kayaking. This is the tip of the iceberg for activities and outdoor pursuits. Washington’s

large population of outdoor enthusiasts eagerly snap up skis, mountain bikes, camping

gear, golf clubs, snowboards, kayaks, fishing rods and other outdoor recreational equipment. But locals are not the only ones to enjoy such goods- the industry ranked in the

top 20 of Washington state’s exports, totaling $195 million in 2001

http://media.seattletradealliance.com/Industry/outdoorrecequip.pdf

 

Sigh.  At least in Ohio, my father had a good factory job that financed my college education.

How many people ski often enough that they couldn't travel a couple hours for a weekend to do it?  It's not a daily activity.  I'd rather enjoy a place for the things I do on a day-to-day basis, and be a "one tank trip" from places I like to "get away" to, which I think Ohio is an excellent location for.

I don't understand your first sentence.

>It reminds me of the people that go on vacation to Florida and want to move there, only to find out that they don't actually have the time to go to the beach every day.

 

 

Yeah, I lived in Knoxville, TN for four years.  The whole place identifies with the Smokey Mountains, but the mountains are a full hour drive from downtown and can't even be seen until you drive 10-15 miles south of the city.  Then the park is so crowded that it's no fun.  People often get jammed in Cade's Cove for hours.  The traffic heading out of Gatlinburg on a Sunday is the worst traffic in North America -- an 8-lane divided highway averaging maybe 5 miles per hour. 

 

 

I don't understand your first sentence.

 

I'm saying that you don't need to live right next to things that aren't daily activities.  You don't see families crowding into developments around Disney World so they can visit more often.  I don't think most people ski enough to make it necessary to live right next to the mountains.  And everyone I know who has lived in either or Portland or Seattle rarely enjoyed the outdoor activities available, just as those who live around here don't often visit the Rock Hall, Art Museum, or CVNP.  Those are specialty destinations which can be enjoyed as part of a short trip or getaway, not daily necessities.

"A pretty little patter of a seaboard town"

Living in Gin said he was from Oregon.

I put "The King is Dead" into my CD player two weeks ago. 

I cue The Calamity Song first thing every morning.

Their guitar player is awesome.

 

Yeah, we were talking about Oregon, but I'm not sure why The Decemberists were the first band you thought of being from there.  I believe that there are a lot of good "indie" bands from that neck of the woods.

 

The King is Dead is a great record.

I enjoy the attributes (that I liked, not what others think I should) of every place I lived. In Cleveland it was the Westside Market, the Metroparks, city food scene, and sitting on the superior viaduct with my spouse sipping a wine and looking at the lake, the boats and skyline.

 

In San Diego, not more than a few days go by where I am not sniffing sea air, looking at a mountain, or watching the setting sun reflect on downtown.

 

I think its crazy to live somewhere where you can't smell the local roses. 

^ Local roses. I like it.

 

San Diego is probably my ideal climate and location. I always liked it out there and I am glad to hear that you like it too.

In San Diego, not more than a few days go by where I am not sniffing sea air, looking at a mountain, or watching the setting sun reflect on downtown.

 

My experience with coastal California is that almost everyone takes advantage of the outdoors, even if just in the city since there is so much to do right in town. When I lived in Athens, which I'd argue has proximity to Ohio's best natural areas, people hardly used them at all (other than the nasty lake at Strouds Run). When I'd bike outside town on the Adena-Hocking, I'd barely see a soul some days (which was kind of nice in its own way). People just partied all the time. Certain areas take advantage of the outdoors more than others. To quote my uncle who moved to Denver, "It was getting to the point where I had to ask myself, do I really want to put my kids through Toledo?"

 

He figured in Ohio, all they would do is drink beer, smoke pot, watch TV, and have sex. In Colorado, they could throw some skiing and hiking into the mix.

 

Despite Toledo's well-earned reputation for hard living, some of the parks actually do get crowded in the summer and fall. The metroparks are very nice considering how flat Northwest Ohio is. Toledo doesn't offer the best hiking or recreation, but there are places of unique beauty and excellent diversity of wildlife. The birds and butterflies are what really stand out in the Toledo area. If you're into that stuff (and fishing), Toledo is much better than people think. Nobody on earth would move to Toledo and expect a great park system, but areas like Oak Openings are downright impressive. It's just a very rare habitat you can't find near many big cities.

 

Overall, there are some great natural areas in Ohio, but it kind of feels like they aren't getting the attention and protection they deserve. I was really angry when they shut down the beach at Crane Creek, and to be honest, all the talks about drilling in state parks were pretty scary. There is a lot of work to be done in Ohio in regards to the environment. It's very important to enjoy the outdoor attributes of any place you live, and fight for them. I feel bad for people whose lives outside work revolve around partying and being addicted to technology. There is too much of that everywhere in America. It's a real fight to avoid falling into that trap no matter where you live. If I have kids, I'm giving them one piece of advice, "Get outside!"

You have the right to feel sorry for whomever you wish. Others might focus more on personal relationships than on relationships with nature. Neither is wrong.

A relationship with nature should not come at the expense of personal relationships. It's all about balance.

Yeah C-dawg I biked that trail many times (at least 50) when I hardly saw anyone (past Larry's Dawg House).  You'd bike the 28 mile round trip and maybe see five people.  I also biked the dirt trails at Stroud's a few times in the winter.  Again, nobody was there.  In fact many OU students never went to that park during the whole time there, despite it being like a mini Norris Lake, TN. 

In Cincinnati, I honestly believe that its amenities would be used 300% more if the community could actually get there without a car.

 

Ohio is a special color green, especially in the south.  Ohioans don't appreciate how wooded and beautiful the state is.  They take it for granted that the rest of the world looks the same.  A lot of the world is mountainous, a lot of it is arid, and a good chunk of it just isn't that pretty.  Ohio is gorgeous.

 

Ohio's large cities are more urban than their patriots give them credit for.  The 19th century brick streets in Columbus for example, look fantastic and could compete with most any city in the world both architecturally and conceptually.  The air in Ohio's cities isn't very good, but the fact that the streets aren't closed in (a la Cincinnati's OTR) allows for a greater exchange of particles.  The air in the core of an East Coast city or in International-style cities across the world can get stale and nasty pretty quickly, especially if it has moderate weather and doesn't rain much.

 

Porch living is a great advantage of Ohio architecture.

 

The colors and variety in architectural design in cities like Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati are very attractive when compared to East Coast rows that are often charming (Boston), but can become redundant.

 

Ohio could lead the world, instead it elects John Kasich, Bob Taft, etc etc etc and refuses to control what it can.  For ex., why doesn't Columbus have dedicated bus/cab lanes?  Both High and Broad Sts. are perfect for them, all they need are barriers and lane instructions.  Cleveland Ave. and the crowded #1 COTA route would benefit greatly from bus lanes.  Essentially every major corridor could be utilized this way, yet I don't hear a peep about these possibilities coming out of the capital.  If you're not going to do rail, do something.

 

 

...

Ohio is a special color green, especially in the south.  Ohioans don't appreciate how wooded and beautiful the state is.  They take it for granted that the rest of the world looks the same.  A lot of the world is mountainous, a lot of it is arid, and a good chunk of it just isn't that pretty.  Ohio is gorgeous.

Huzzah!  An activist I met from Oklahoma had traveled all over Ohio on a campaign and noted how well kept the small cities in Ohio looked.  His state was full of towns that boomed during oil development and then were left to decay.  What we can do with gardening and landscaping is amazing. 

Small town ghettos down south was definitely something I wasn't prepared for.  Here, our small towns are, for the most part, picture-esque white picket fence places to live.  Not so much down there.

I second the comments about Ohio being green, and I feel that Ohio is remarkably fortunate in terms of geography and resources.

 

It's green without being overrun quickly by things like kudzu. We don't suffer from plagues of pests, we have land for agriculture to feed the state and its neighbors several times over, we get lots of rain but rarely have severe flooding. Ohio's forests are rarely going to be as exotic or wild as those in the Pac NW (apologies to Wayne National Forest), but they're also more robust in terms of resisting human encroachment and taking over once we're gone. And we have one of the main river arteries of the country running along our southern border and the Great Lakes along our northern border.

 

Oh, and apparently we have oil now. Next, diamonds will be discovered in Steubenville.

 

We don't notice this much, because it's our own backyard, and because North America is general is remarkably fortunate in terms of natural resources and not being overpopulated. But Ohio is very fortunate even compared to the rest of the States.

SOunds like this guy is content with NEO.  With a 3.9 mil contract he can afford to live anywhere.  BOOM!

 

http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2012/01/cleveland_browns_draft_project_1.html

 

If Pioli acceded to Crennel's wishes, the other stumbling block is whether Mangini would feel comfortable working under Pioli. Mangini still has another year on his Browns contract (at a reported $3.9 million) and is in no rush to take just any job.

 

He and his family have grown to love northeast Ohio -- they have not relocated since his firing after 2010 -- and Mangini doesn't want to keep uprooting without some assurance of a longer run than a year or two.

 

In Cincinnati, I honestly believe that its amenities would be used 300% more if the community could actually get there without a car.

 

Ohio is a special color green, especially in the south.  Ohioans don't appreciate how wooded and beautiful the state is.  They take it for granted that the rest of the world looks the same.  A lot of the world is mountainous, a lot of it is arid, and a good chunk of it just isn't that pretty.  Ohio is gorgeous.

 

Ohio's large cities are more urban than their patriots give them credit for.  The 19th century brick streets in Columbus for example, look fantastic and could compete with most any city in the world both architecturally and conceptually.  The air in Ohio's cities isn't very good, but the fact that the streets aren't closed in (a la Cincinnati's OTR) allows for a greater exchange of particles.  The air in the core of an East Coast city or in International-style cities across the world can get stale and nasty pretty quickly, especially if it has moderate weather and doesn't rain much.

 

Porch living is a great advantage of Ohio architecture.

 

The colors and variety in architectural design in cities like Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati are very attractive when compared to East Coast rows that are often charming (Boston), but can become redundant.

 

Ohio could lead the world, instead it elects John Kasich, Bob Taft, etc etc etc and refuses to control what it can.  For ex., why doesn't Columbus have dedicated bus/cab lanes?  Both High and Broad Sts. are perfect for them, all they need are barriers and lane instructions.  Cleveland Ave. and the crowded #1 COTA route would benefit greatly from bus lanes.  Essentially every major corridor could be utilized this way, yet I don't hear a peep about these possibilities coming out of the capital.  If you're not going to do rail, do something.

 

Columbus is now looking at BRT, and the first route would go from Downtown up along Cleveland Avenue.  It was just in the Dispatch the last few days.

Lerner has to pay Mangini another $3.9 million.

That just made my day!

Ohio is a special color green, especially in the south.  Ohioans don't appreciate how wooded and beautiful the state is.  They take it for granted that the rest of the world looks the same.  A lot of the world is mountainous, a lot of it is arid, and a good chunk of it just isn't that pretty.  Ohio is gorgeous.

 

 

Read more: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,26714.120.html#ixzz1lXFFKXhr

 

I didn't really appreciate this about Ohio until I moved away.  N. Illinois besides the lake (and anything manmade of course ;) ) is ugly and boring in a natural sense.  Even the hilly areas around the Wisconsin border in the Northwest part of the state aren't as nice as what Ohio has.  While Ohio isn't like the west, it at least has a nice amount of hills and the occasional beautiful natural area, which is something I can't really say at all about where I'm at now.

Much of Wisconsin's landscape should be labeled as a driving hazard because it will put you to sleep.  Same can probably be said for the majority of I-71 here in Ohio (particularly between Cleveland and Columbus.  But the Ohio River area is beautiful, as well as the appalachian foothills.  Don't underestimate the northern coast either.  Cleveland is, after all, nicknamed 'the Forest City' for good reason.  Although the natural beauty of the Cuyahoga Valley north of 480 has been bastardized by industry, the segment south of there can't be beat.  The metroparks and places like Holden arboretum are fantastic.  And what more needs to be said about "God's Country" (i.e. Geauga County) and the Chagrin River valley.  I, personally, also have a fondness for the older wealthy neighborhood which have those oak lined streets and natural looking landscaping where overgrown ivy, massive perenial gardens, and the use of natural stone distinguish the nabe from your typical cookie-cutter development style. 

Same can probably be said for the majority of I-71 here in Ohio (particularly between Cleveland and Columbus. 

 

The section near Mansfield has some hills, so if I had to choose of a "half" of I-71 that's a Sominex Special, it would be the half between C-bus and Cincy. And as much as I love hills, when you drive the two-lane state or federal routes west of I-75 in NW Ohio, there is something beautiful about the incredible flatness of the landscape. I would not, could not live there. But if it's a hot steamy day and the music is right, it can be a great drive.

 

 

 

A couple of years ago on a hot summer morning, I drove US24 from Toledo to Fort Wayne and had the following music playing. It seemed perfect for the open land where you can see as far as the horizon....