re: Greensboro(NC) vs Akron(OH) vs Columbus(OH)

Best city: Columbus
Best area: Greensboro

Depends on you value at the end of the day.

I bought my car in Greensboro, but I really don't know much about the city. I am partial to NC as it was where I lived before moving to Boise.

Given that you live in Boise now, I'm not sure how important being close to the mountains is to you. At this stage of my life, I wouldn't want to live far away from them (I know Boise doesn't have real mountains but the foothills are nice). Greensboro is only about 2 hours from the mountains whereas Ohio is pretty flat. That said, I've heard great things about Columbus.

I can't say much for the sites. However, we have employees in each location and based on personality of those employees, Greensboro and it isn't even close.

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Columbus.

The winters aren't great, but the other three seasons are awesome. It's an underrated city with a ton to do, and a good place to raise a family.

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It's a fun town for sure. Plenty to do there.

I don't know anything about Greensboro, but Akron is a crime ridden cesspool within an hour of all the worst cities in Ohio. Columbus can be good, but it is already bad on traffic and continues to grow. It's all about what area you move to. It's got a lot to offer, but in a bland, Ohio sort of way.

Greensboro

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Ohio is pretty flat

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This is an understatement. Birmingham, AL isn't exactly in the mountains, but after a week of driving around Columbus, OH, Birmingham seems like it's in the Swiss Alps.

Greensboro

Forget price: choose the one with your preferred demographics

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I wish I could respond to everyone. My wife and I have been reading this thread. I know at the end of the day it comes down to visiting the place and what you value, but to get a feel based on responses here also helps.

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In 2019, my wife applied for an interviewed for residency positions in Akron and Columbus. We visited both, and the cities/communities around those areas influenced how she ranked those slots on the match list.

I would agree that you need to visit them both. We used to live in Pittsburgh, so we were semi-familiar with both areas. We had visited Columbus a lot and we knew we liked it.

Akron/Canton wasn't too bad though. It wasn't right for us at the time. But I could live there if I had a few acres and some privacy. They have the Giant Eagle Marketplace stores (which are very nice versions of the Giant Eagle grocery stores), housing costs are very affordable, and there are enough nice neighborhoods between those two towns (Canton and Akron) where you'd have a lot of good options for housing.

I don't like Cleveland, but the Akron/Canton area doesn't really feel like Cleveland to me. People are a little friendlier and more traditional Ohioans than Cleveland. But you are close enough to Cleveland so you can use the bigger airport up there or go to the nicer shopping areas on the east side of town towards Eaton. The real selling point to me would be that you can get a lot of house in the Canton/Akron area for the money. And everything from day care to pool services will be cheaper there than in Columbus. It's probably a very good option if you are not really prioritizing night life or the restaurant scene and just want to have a nice home on a larger "estate" sized lot. So I wouldn't eliminate it from consideration.

Columbus is one of the few cities in the midwest that has consistently grown and has avoided "rustbelt" issues. It's a younger town. Akron/Canton has Kent state, but Ohio state is just a massive university and it definitely makes the demographic in Columbus feel younger and more dynamic if you are into night life. The shopping there is very good. We went to Easton Town Center a lot when my wife wanted to get away from the crappy shopping in Pittsburgh. Restaurants are pretty good. The north side neighborhoods are generally very good too, but I imagine they are pretty expensive. Columbus has a lot of nice parks, and I think that real estate now will rocket in value over the next few years as Intel starts building out their factories. Columbus is already the largest city in Ohio - it may eventually become the largest metro area in Ohio within our lifetimes too.

Both of those areas get some legitimate winter, but if you are from Idaho, you can handle it. Cleveland gets it much worse than both of those towns though since its right on the lake.