Columbus, OH

Yes.

No.

I'm watching Littler Fires Everywhere. Shaker Heights, OH seems OK for the mid west. Is it nice? You can get a big house for 500K and it's supposed to be a meticulous area according to the show.

It used to be where the Old Money in Cleveland used to flock. Now it's upper middle class since the area economy went into the toilet.

Columbus is all about Ohio State University. It's a giant school with about 60,000 students. It's also the state capitol.

Columbus is a city which is geared up exclusively for the young bar crowd. It is devoid of culture ( other than Ohio State football) and has little to offer the gay who appreciates the arts. There is little charm in Columbus, unless you like new housing developments. The food scene is okay, but geared to the hamburger and cheese fry crowd or the avocado toast lovers.

The swimming pool at Club Columbus is divine.

It seems like all the gays that move there work for Victoria’s Secret/Express corporate.

Shaker Heights is nothing like Columbus, and 100s of miles north.

The Mayor and the Minister of Culture.

The only cultural organization in Columbus. You have to admit that they're BIG.

^And those are the hot guys here.

shithole

WTF R11/R12 -- did they tell them "dress up like every gay stereotype imaginable"?

I can't listen to an Ohio accent...so nasal and twangy.

I grew- up in Shaker Heights in the 60s and it was idyllic...wonderful place to be a kid. But my eyes were opened when I left for college and you couldn’t pay me to move back there now. Columbus is a pit, except for OSU

Columbus is a hot real estate market. Huge gay presence and doing quite well economically. It’s a bright blue spot in the middle of purple.

It’s been heralded as the San Francisco the Midwest. I wouldn’t go that far, yet it’s a very livable city with a lot to offer.

R17 Sounds interesting… This is the type of article I keep seeing. I bet you could snap up an amazing home for nothing

I moved to the Columbus area about a year and a half ago. I really like it! There is quite a bit to do and see, several good parks around.

The worst part is having to listen to everyone talk about Ohio State football. I forgot how much I can’t stand this, currently enduring the “in-depth analysis.”

R16 where in shaker did you live? I was there in the 60’s too. Chagrin Lee/Moreland School area. You’re right, it WAS idyllic, but yeah, you couldn’t pay me to move back. Every that made Shaker special is gone.

OP, it's Ohio.

I repeat: Ohio.

Used to be more of a blue state, but has gone full red. Trump will likely win it this election.

Franklin county residents (a.k.a. gay friendly Columbus Ohio) voted big time for the ban

(which dealt with both same sex marriage & civil unions) to be added to the state constitution.

The only true blue part of the state is the northeast.

It has the third highest number of fashion designers, after New York and Los Angeles.

I lived in Columbus (C-bus) for seven years of graduate school. I visit often since then.

There are "gay" areas of Columbus, particularly German Village and the Short North (extending into Victorian Village and Italian Village) and, for lesbians, Clintonville. Gay area does not mean majority gay. It means that, as a gay man, you are less likely to be targeted for slurs or a bottle at your head if you walk on the sidewalks there. What is left of the gay bars are concentrated in the Short North.

Ohio State is on the same street as the Ohio capitol building, a short distance north. Ohio State (football) dominates the culture of the city although ice hockey has made some significant inroads in that regard. The Blue Jackets are Columbus's only professional franchise. MLS is hardly big time. There is an arts scene, dominated by elderly white, and largely Jewish, patrons – BalletMet, Opera Columbus, Columbus Symphony Orchestra. Most Broadway touring companies stop in Columbus. There are several public supported radio stations, including classical and jazz formats.

However, if you venture more than five miles in any direction from the Short North, you will find yourself in hyper-red political territory. Columbus is not an island of blue. Central Columbus, the urban part with high density housing, including the university, are blue. The rest of Columbus is as red as the rural areas just south, east, west, and north of the city.

Air service to and from Columbus used to be decent, but it has shrunk in recent years. During the pandemic, it is just terrible. But you are within a day's drive of over half the population in the US.

I LOVED my time in Columbus, but I was young (21-28) and optimistic. But as a professional, married gay man with children, I would not return there to live. Coastal living is so much better in every regard except the cost of living. But, everything is relative. If you live in a more conservative town, a move to Columbus might be right for you. If you live in a small town, Columbus is a large (>1M people) city. If cuisine in your current location is a tin of smoked oysters and saltines, Columbus will be eye opening. Otherwise, it's disappionting.

You will find many right fine Li'l Abner types at OSU. But Columbus is a dump of a town in a dump of a state. Some parts are not as bad as other parts, but nothing there amounts to much. And beware Southern Ohio. Dangerously backward and conservative. And they vote.

Gay-friendly but dull and boosterish---Atlanta-like but a little less annoying. The South begins on it's South Side.

It has a great park system, and is quite gay-friendly but OSU seems to exert an overwhelming presence, and I have no interest in college sports. I couldn't believe that people would pay to have OSU insignia added to their tombstones, until I visited an historic cemetery outside the city.

Columbus is full of sexy, corn-fed farm boys who are starved for the gay life.

R29 is amazingly stupid. There are no farm boys in Columbus. It's not Hooterville.

When you live in New York, every other city in the world is Hooterville.

No, Columbus is not Hooterville. Everyone on Green Acres was pleasant and harmless.

Columbus is more like the 700 Club or Sean Hannity.

Can somebody please clarify where the sex starved farm boys are? Is it Columbus or not?

Here we are, sweetie!

R33 They aren't in Franklin county (Columbus).

"Can somebody please clarify where the sex starved farm boys are?"

Here's one, but you'll have to fight off Gym Jordan first.

R36, that photo has been posted here for 20 years.

Good luck finding the guy in the image. He doesn't exist any more.

More like this now.

I visited a couple years ago and thought Columbus was really nice. I could live there

Even Indianapolis is nicer than Columbus. Really.

Jeezus, R39, that's setting the bar pretty low

Born in Columbus Ohio, and I only go back to visit family for a few days at a time. It's a boring city, not much to see or do there.

I went to school in Columbus.

I also had my first threesome, and unrelated to the 3some -first (and only) case of crabs in Columbus.

I went to a circuit party there about 20 years ago. Tammy Faye was greeting everyone at the door to get in.

Whatever. It's smack in the middle of a shit hole state.

The Wexner Center is pretty nice.

Prefer Cleveland - it’s got some soul and interest and feels like a real city with history. And the aforementioned beautiful suburbs including Shaker Heights. Columbus is housing developments, McMansions and Ohio State. Though the economy is probably better in Columbus, Cleveland is more interesting and seemingly more gay in my experience.