Ridgeville ranked among Money magazine’s best places
Steve Fogarty | The Chronicle-Telegram
NORTH RIDGEVILLE — It probably won’t get the city mentioned in the same breath with San Francisco, Palm Beach or other icons of cosmopolitan living, but North Ridgeville has made it onto Money magazine’s list of “25 Best Places” for small- to medium-sized communities boasting affordable homes.
The city — population 27,100 — ranked 17th on the list, which was published in the magazine’s August edition.
“It’s nice to be wanted, but I don’t really see it as all that significant,” Mayor David Gillock said. “We think we’re a great place to live whether we’re on their list or not.”
The mayor and other city officials were made aware of the listing by Ray Arnold, a 12-year resident of North Ridgeville who e-mailed them a link to the article.
“With all that is going on across the country, it makes me feel pretty good to be a part of small town USA,” Arnold wrote.
The magazine wrote that “residents who buy real estate in these towns see their incomes go the furthest.” Other Ohio cities on the list include Westerville (5th), Wadsworth (6th), Brunswick (14th) and Stow (11th). Fort Smith, Ark., with a median home price of $87,000 and median family income of $51,939, topped the list.
Compiled annually, the magazine’s 2008 “Best Places” list was selected from towns with populations between 7,500 and 50,000, using statistics about household income, tax rates, home prices, leisure and culture, weather and health gathered from a number of online sources such as Onboard Informatics and BestPlaces.net.
A color photo of a car show at this year’s Corn Festival accompanied the North Ridgeville item, which was described as an event in which those “with hearty appetites enter the corn-eating contest” while others compete in a cornhole tourney, deemed “a regional favorite similar to horseshoes.”
Readers took note of the fact that two-bedroom homes in North Ridgeville go for $140,000. And, according to the magazine, the median housing price in North Ridgeville was $168,000, compared with the $293,712 for the rest of the cities in the Top 25.
Also noted was that the city is within 10 miles of four hospitals, and close to from fishing, scuba diving and other recreation on Lake Erie.
“We’re selling homes, and nobody else is selling homes now,” said Gillock, noting the city is close to 300 new home starts in 2008. “A lot of people still find North Ridgeville a terrific place to live. People get a lot of services and amenities for their money here.”
Councilman Dennis Boose, D-2nd Ward, said he hoped the listing could benefit the city economically by attracting businesses looking to relocate or set up shop where there’s affordable housing and skilled workers.
“Any time the city can earn any kind of national kudos is tremendous,” he said.
Acknowledging the city did better in some categories than others, Boose said such exposure remains “an excellent marketing opportunity.”
“We’re in some really good company,” said Gillock, who is familiar with of the other honorees including South Windsor, Conn., where he once worked for Aetna Insurance.
Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com.
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Filed by Steve Fogarty | The Chronicle-Telegram September 17th, 2008 in Top Stories. Popularity: 10% |
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Comments
Comment from
THHiggie
September 17, 2008, 6:18 am
North Ridgeville was a great, and relatively inexpensive place to buy a home and live when the Navy moved us to Cleveland from Italy 20 years ago. It is also true that housing here still is relatively inexpensive, but the traffic, due to all the new houses that Mayor Gillock is so proud of, has deteriorated to the point that it is almost impossible to move around the city now. This is because various mayors and city councilpeople have failed to adequately address the issue of infrastructure expansion and improvement - even when the mayor has promised some specific improvements, like the still missing traffic signal at Center Ridge and Stoney Ridge. Prospective buyers in North Ridgeville need to check out rush hour traffic and congestion before deciding to buy their little piece of cheap paradise.
Comment from
shootingblanks
September 17, 2008, 6:39 am
That’s funny, the Navy also moved me here. Traffic can be a little rough at times but it isn’t that bad. I have lived and visited places that are much worse. There are some roads that could afford to be increased to four lanes but people would complain about the delays due to construction. More public transportation would help alleviate some traffic woes along with Americans loosing the mentality that public transportation is for poor people. I would much rather ride the bus or the train to work.
Comment from
whatsgoingon
September 17, 2008, 8:36 am
Did money magazine mean best places to sit in traffic?
Comment from
Sarcasm101
September 17, 2008, 10:18 am
I think the point that THHiggie is tring to make is this:
North Ridgeville, once a piece of small town Americana, now a metaphor for suburban overcrowding.
Avon and North Ridgeville are quickly turning into the personification of that overcrowding and typical American attitude, build now plan later, spend now pay later.
Oh you’ll ALL be paying A LOT later, North Ridgeville needs new schools, roads, power lines and sewer lines, ditches cleaned etc. Avon is in the same boat, they have new schools and already need to build or add-on to existing structures.
Where does all the tax money go from the businesses located in those communities??? I would NEVER move to N.R. or Avon soley due to the tax burden that WILL go up.
(Sorry to bring Avon into the fold but they’re just a wannabe Westlake, same as N.R. is an aspiring Avon)
Comment from
dwitt769
September 17, 2008, 12:08 pm
Town is grower bigger collecting more tax revenue and then they want to raise taxes even more. Johnny Malloys is the place to go…tits, beer, pizza, and poker
Comment from
nrdude
September 17, 2008, 4:04 pm
Some of you people are unbelievable. We get a bit of well deserved national attention and you find fault with it. It takes a special kind of idiot to belittle their own home town AND continue living here! Don’t like it? Move! There are 24 other communities on that Best list that may be in need of residents to find faults, we have all we need.
Traffic? Sure, it’s bad but I’ve seen much worse and there are thing being done to address it. Taxes? That was addressed in the “Best” ranking and a reason we made the list.
I guess you just have to accept reality. We live in a good community and it’s been recognized nationally. I know it hurts those that just love to flog themselves and their neighbors but you’ll just have to find a way to deal with it - or move and let someone that WANTS to live in a great community take over your spot.
Comment from
dwitt769
September 17, 2008, 4:51 pm
nrdude - Have you ever lived anywhere besides NR. Our specialty is building plazas and then closing all the shops in them. Agree, NR is a good place to live because of the taxes but every ballot they ask for crazy levies to build all of these schools. Once one passes we won’t be on the list anymore. City has no vision to bring real economic change to the city by attracting large businesses that haven’t been around forever
Comment from
luckylady
September 17, 2008, 9:58 pm
right on nrdude and congratulations to the fine city of North Ridgeville! You have a lot going for you.
Comment from
MT110
September 18, 2008, 8:11 am
I have to stick up for the police in N. Ridgeville. I was the victim of road rage. I had my small children in my car with me and a man followed me down the side roads around the high school area. He would not stop following me so I called the police and started driving to the police station. They were on the phone with me the whole time and I told them when I pulled into the police driveway. Right when I pulled in four policemen walked out of the building to greet me and the road rage jerk continued driving. One of the policemen got into his cruiser to follow him and at that point the road rage jerk knew he was in trouble so he pulled into the other driveway off of 83 and they looked at both of our licenses and said I could go, but they kept talking to the road rage guy. Not sure what happened. I left.
Anyway, seeing those four policemen greet me in the driveway when was being followed was a great relief. They were there when I needed them.
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