Hi, I am relocating for work to the Middleburg Heights area.  I am trying to figure out where to live.  I was wondering if anyone had any comments about living in Parma, Berea, Brooklyn or any of the surrounding towns/cities.  I would like a safe family friendly area with good schools.  Culturally diverse area is not a problem.  Any tips or advice?  I am moving within the next month. Thanks

Berea actually has very good schools. Middleburg is the Berea school district. Berea itself can be heavily populated with Baldwin Wallace students depending on where you live. The whole area is very safe. I am not a big fan of brooklyn, visually and in terms of what it has to offer to residents.

 

Are you looking to rent a house or apartment or buy a home or what? I live in the Islander apartments, which include free heat which is VERY valuable living in Cleveland. The complex is mostly families and mostly (Asian) Indians, but there are other folks mixed in, some elderly, some African-Americans, a few Arabic families and some plain old Caucasians like me and my family. It's very low crime.

Hi, I am relocating for work to the Middleburg Heights area.  I am trying to figure out where to live.  I was wondering if anyone had any comments about living in Parma, Berea, Brooklyn or any of the surrounding towns/cities.  I would like a safe family friendly area with good schools.  Culturally diverse area is not a problem.  Any tips or advice?  I am moving within the next month. Thanks

 

Welcome.  :wave:

 

I always suggest giving us the location of where you currently live so we can have a better understanding of what type of housing, neighborhood, activities you want or want to be near.

 

Do you wish to own or rent?  I suggest renting until you get to know Cleveland better.

 

The more information you give us, the better we can help you.  :)

At first I would like to rent, either a house or a two-family.  I have kids and also have 2 dogs, which I have to consider.  I am coming from Myrtle Beach, lived there for 8 years, but am glad to get back to civilization (no offense to any SCarolinians).  Originally from CT.  Thanks for the help!

My best friend lives in Parma with her family and loves it.  The schools are good, taxes are pretty low and houses are cheap, and there are a lot of families (all secondhand information of course).

Thanks JJ

I currently live in Parma and have no complaints.  The street I live on is wonderful with great neighbors.  That can't be said for all streets so if you decide to rent or buy in Parma, check out the neighbor situation.  Some can definitely be less desirable.  Not sure about the quality of the schools however.

Berea schools are better than Parmas FWIW.

Parma is a community that many locals refer to as being stuck in the 70s/80s culturally.  In my experience it has moved on to the 90s.  Regardless, I've had a lot of fun there over the years. 

 

Everything I've heard about Berea is positive.

Parma is a community that many locals refer to as being stuck in the 70s/80s culturally.  In my experience it has moved on to the 90s.  Regardless, I've had a lot of fun there over the years. 

 

Everything I've heard about Berea is positive.

 

Really?  Parma has changed?  Who knew??

 

At first I would like to rent, either a house or a two-family.  I have kids and also have 2 dogs, which I have to consider.  I am coming from Myrtle Beach, lived there for 8 years, but am glad to get back to civilization (no offense to any SCarolinians).  Originally from CT.  Thanks for the help!

 

Hi jenni9955, welcome to the area. I lived in Berea for three years in the 90s, my mother lives in Middleburg Heights, and my sister lives in Parma today. I really liked living in Berea. It is a 19th century farming town that got swallowed up by the city. It grew up pretty early on owing to the railroads, the quarries and the college. The railroads are still there, and put more than 150 trains a day through the city. They're not as noisy as they were when I lived there, as two major road-rail crossings (along with the train horns) were replaced with bridges. Because there are so many trains, the place is famous among train watchers nationwide. They come from all over the country to watch the parade of trains and bring their kids.

 

The quarries -- Berea Sandstone is famous among builders beyond Northeast Ohio. Many buildings, bridges and other structures were made from the sandstone. It also attracted lots of immigrants -- especially Germans and  Poles -- to Berea more than 100 years ago. Many of those immigrants' families are still here, concentrated in area west of Front Street, south of the tracks and north of Bagley. Much of the sandstone was used to build.....

 

The college -- that's Baldwin-Wallace College, er, University. I keep forgetting they changed it from BWC to BWU! The presence of so many sandstone buildings, especially in the older, western part of the campus gives it a more aged, New England feel to it. B-W isn't a big school, about 4,000 students. But it's a relatively old school for the Midwest as it was founded in 1845. I love its campus.....

 

 

But there are two things I like most about Berea:

 

1. it has a New England-style town square, OK triangle, something that a Connecticut native might appreciate. BTW did you know that Northeast Ohio was settled as the Connecticut Western Reserve for that state's Revolutionary War veterans and their families to settle? As you travel around Greater Cleveland, you will see many architectural nods to Connecticut, especially the western reserve building styles and town squares. There's also more liberal folks here, and probably more Presbyterians than anywhere else in Ohio! This is Berea's town square, a mix of new and old, that has a bank, shops, pubs, grocers, library and housing around it.....

 

 

2. it is next to the Cleveland Metroparks, surrounds the metropolitan area with some 22,000 acres of parkland and 60 miles of trails. There are several large lakes in the part of the park closest to Berea -- Baldwin, Coe and Wallace lakes. Winding through the park and Berea proper is the East Branch of the Rocky River. After it flows north under the railroad tracks, it crashes into a rocky gorge. There are many residential areas, both new and old, that are near the park's lakes, trails, ballfields, etc. In fact, the town square (triangle!) is next to the park.

 

Coe Lake:

 

 

 

Rocky River:

 

 

 

Search the area on Google Maps (aerial) or Google Earth and see what it has to offer. You might like it! You'll note it's close to the airport to visit friends and family in South Carolina or New England. The Cleveland Browns headquarters and training camp are in Berea, so if you like football you're in luck. The Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds are on Bagley Road in the no-man's land between Berea and Middleburg. North of Berea is the International Exposition Center, a former B-17 bomber plant from World War II that was converted into a gigantic exhibition hall with an indoor ferris wheel! There's lots of shopping (and endless housing subdivisions) in nearby Strongsville at South Park Mall. If you want something more eclectic, try The Shoppe in Berea -- a 1970s head shop that kept growing. There's a decent-sized and growing Southwest Hospital just east of the fairgrounds. And if you want to go downtown, drive up Route 237 to the Brookpark Road Rapid transit station (free parking) to take the train into the city for $2.25 each way per person (http://www.riderta.com/pdf/66.pdf).

 

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! Welcome to Greater Cleveland.

Thanks KJP and everyone else who responded.  I hope to get out there this week and explore.

Thanks!  :-D