nadsat » Columbus

Busy Weekend in the C-Bus

Zachary — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 21:07:39 +0000

It has been about three weeks since I made the move from Dublin to the Short North and ~1100 sq ft to ~650 sq ft. There have been some set backs in the unpacking as some things fit and others didn’t. Some furniture choices were good and others were not so good. Overall though the move has been very positive. I’ll write more about the ongoing trials and tribulations of moving later. For now I wanted to provide a few highlights on the transition:

my commute is definitely longer, but traffic isn’t bad as I’m going against the grain
my monthly expenses have increased mostly due to parking fees but also because of my ever expanding appetite for new restaurants (I used to think I really enjoyed cooking and I still do, but I’ve since discovered I enjoy eating way more)
the noise can be bothersome especially when trying to sleep on a weekend night
Goodale Park is fantastic
Gallery Hop is so much more fun when you don’t have to worry about finding a parking spot
random things like the Zombie Walk can be enjoyed without much effort (I didn’t participate but did enjoy watching).

So is a longer commute, higher monthly expenses, and the added noise worth it? At this point my life, those are indescribably minor compared with everything else downtown living offers. I see myself being down here for some time to come especially if the rest of the summer continues like this.

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Young Professionals – still opportunists

Zachary — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:46:08 +0000

Interesting post over at Indie Columbus regarding what attracts people. I think it’s an interesting, realistic look at the reason people move. Economic opportunity is definitely important. It is certainly what brought me to Columbus. However, I think it’s the culture, charm, etc that makes someone stay. You can’t replace those intangibles about a city. Those factors may not work on everyone, but I think they are certainly vital for the ” young professional, urbanite crowd” that downtown Columbus desires.

When I was living in London, my friend and then-flatmate Manic, who works in IT, once complained that Bristol had far better opportunities than London did for someone in his field. We asked him why he didn’t just move there. He talked about all the arts, culture and entertainment available in London that he wouldn’t be able to find in Bristol. In response, we pointed out to him that most of his leisure time comprised the same few pubs and Indian curry houses and playing Xbox, not London’s great museums or nightclubs. Upon further thought, he corrected himself: “all my family and friends are in London.”

Read the rest.

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Giving Columbus a shot

Zachary — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 01:22:27 +0000

When Sandy and I first moved to Columbus last May we chose to live in Dublin due to its convience to our respective places of work, nice setting, affordable living, and general “niceness.” We toyed with the idea of living downtown. It appealed to both us but we did not think it made sense at the time.

Dublin is textbook suburbia but it was the logical choice and it was “nice.” Sometimes there is more to it than just logic though and so, against the advice of many, we’ll make the leap inside 270 this spring and truly experience life in Columbus…

It’s not that Dublin is bad. It’s actually a really nice place to live. But that’s just it, it’s nice… and that’s about it. My first taste of urban life came while in college in Atlanta and since then I’ve gravitated towards more urban style living (I even tried to do it in Augusta). The more we thought about it and the more we talked about our options for the future, the more it seemed like we should actually experience life in the heart of Columbus and not just nag about it from the sidelines.

Downtown living is not without its sacrifices. The two biggest ones will be a significant increase in my commute to work and a significant decrease in our living space unless we want to increase out budget for rent (we don’t). For us though, the benefits outweigh the negatives. Besides, why not take the risk? We’re both young, in a new city, this might be the best time in our lives to take that risk.

Downtown Columbus is a little bit of a misnomer. When I say downtown, I’m actually refering to downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods/districts. Think Urban has a great section about all the various downtown areas. Our search consisted primarily of the Shorth North, GermanVillage/Brewery District, and Downtown.

We liked all these areas with German Village offering a little more residential feeling, Downtown offering the truist urban experience, and the Shorth North being an art/cultural center with a vibrant nightlife. We looked at a lot of places over a relatively short period of time and found places in each neighborhood that we liked.

This past weekend we agreed to a place in the Short North. It is actually the smallest of all the places we’ve looked at but the location is fantastic and it met the rest of our criteria. I’ll be focusing a lot on our living situation over the next few months as we plan, move, and adjust to our new location. It will certainly be a challenge, but I think it will be a fun challenge.

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