Columbus, Ohio ranks as BEST city in the WORLD
Daniel White
Senior Director, Operations, Clinical Review at Prime Therapeutics | Board Member, Prime Together Foundation
Columbus, as you will read in the below list of awards, is by far the best city in the Country, and, in fact, the World. Unlike every other major city in the world, Columbus, Ohio, has not peaked.
Many cities have seen their heyday and fallen from grace and faltered in their recovery.
Columbus, however, has the best library in the country, the best zoo in the country, the best science center in America, and America’s largest University. This may have led it to being known as the one of the 7 Smartest Cities in the World and why we won the U.S. Department of Transportation $40 million Smart City Challenge. By an act of congress, Columbus became home to the only National Veteran's Memorial and Museum in America. We have so much potential. We may not be as pretty as Paris or Venice or even New York, but Columbus has personality.
Columbus has been named:
· #1 Best American City to Work in Tech (3rd year in a row)
· #1 Forbes Top Rising City for Startups.
· #3 Best City to Live in for New College Grads
· Top 10 Best Big City to live in right now.
· One of the Most Spectacular PRIDE Celebrations
· Perfect Place for Creatives and Makers
· One of Best Cities to be Young, Broke, and Single.
· A Mecca for Designers and Fashionistas
· The Most Underrated City in America for Gay Travelers
· One of Top 3 Best Cities for Black-Owned Small Businesses
· Best City in America for Single Women
· One of Top 6 “American Dream Cities”
· One of the top 6 “Arts & Culture” Cities – beating out San Fran and NYC!
· Number ONE Opportunity City according to Forbes
· Top 3 “Best City for Millennials”
· 2nd MANLIEST City in America
· 2nd Safest City for Young Families with Kids
· 3rd BEST Place to have Thanksgiving
· Top Ten State that produced the Most Craft Beer
· 7th Best City for Young Professionals
· 3rd Happiest City in the Country (according to Instagram)
· Best Italian Restaurant in the Midwest
· AND Only city in the history of the world to SAVE their team from moving. #SaveDTheCrew
With all these awards, it is no wonder that National Geographic did a feature story on Why All the Cool Kids Love Columbus, Ohio.
I can tell you, from someone who has grown up in Columbus, moved away twice, and moved back twice, Columbus is a magnet for re-invention and, recently, a hotbed of innovation. I talked about it on my podcast: Entreprenerds.
Home to one of the nation's largest US Small Business Administration intermediary micro-lender (ECDI), Columbus has become a proving ground for entrepreneurs. Another resource for small businesses, Rev1 Ventures, is the number one seed fund in the region supporting startups and entrepreneurs.
Even Silicon Valley has begun to take notice. Andy Jenks, partner at Drive Capital (venture capital firm founded by two Sequoia Capital veterans), wrote, “Here I am, at Drive Capital’s offices in sunny Columbus, Ohio, and I’m happy as hell about it” after moving his family from San Francisco. He went on to state why Kvamme and Olsen, founders of Drive Capital came to Columbus, “In the Midwest I see and meet entrepreneurs solving real-world problems that they are passionate about. That’s how great companies get built, and that mentality is why I am here ultimately.”
When Silicon Valley money - $300m in Drive Capital’s first fund – come to Columbus, it isn’t just fake news and internet memes anymore.
Jenks ended his article with this invitation, “No matter who you are, I would love to show you this incredible place and introduce you to some of the smartest, most passionate entrepreneurs in the whole world.”
I echo his invitation. Columbus, for all its accolades and recent attention, continues to be a place that you can walk down the street and say hello to neighbors you haven’t met and welcome new friends to town with a potluck and a tailgate.
When I say O H you say I O.
O H*
- Daniel White
*I O
also, did I mention we have the BEST Damn Band in the Land and the Best Team in College football right now?
Manager
3yI have lived near Washington D.C. (3 years) and in Anchorage, AK (4 years). I have spent considerable time in many other cities and have passed through many others. I have been to 42 states, spent 90 days in Europe, and even more time spent near Tokyo. From my experiences, and this is my opinion only, Columbus is the most dynamic of them all and still has a lot of potential. I won't dispute any other comments stated here because those are their respective experiences, except for traffic. Columbus has successfully accomplished quite a bit of work to ease traffic pains. On most days, it's not that bad. When someone breaks down or there is an accident, most people are more interested in slowing down, or even stopping, so they can get a good look at what's going on. This causes most of the traffic problems. Gary
Senior Professor and Chair of Business and Management DeVry University Columbus Campus and Online
4yI am biased being from Columbus but I think it is a great place to live, work, and raise a family. No doubt you have to get away for a little bit during the dull and gray winter. But Columbus has so much to offer. Cost of living and housing is reasonable compared to most big cities, a very good job market and economy. There is growth in almost every parts of Central Ohio. The best aspect of Columbus to me is we are a very accepting community of people as well as The Ohio State University Buckeyes, Columbus Blue Jackets and Crew to root for. Challenges in the future are to make sure there is reasonably priced housing available, public transportation needs to improve, and the infrastructure needs to be expanded to accommodate the growth of the area.
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4ySteve Reese
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4yNot if you are a child!! Missing children by county in Ohio...
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4yLinzay Young, MBA,BS,RT(R)(MR)(ARRT)