What I love about Gahanna

It’s not hard to love Gahanna, Ohio. I’ve been here 14 years (Realtor® for the last 2 years), and I’m even more smitten with it now than I was in 2003. The reasons are wide-ranging, from practical to economical, to social. It’s very hard to boil it down to just a few paragraphs for a reasonable-length blog, but for those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of living in or visiting Gahanna, I’ll hit the highlights and then invite you to add your own.

Let’s start with the practical. From Gahanna, I can be to anywhere in Columbus in less than 25 minutes. I can be at my downtown Columbus church in 13 minutes, and my husband can be at his New Albany office in the same amount of time. Appointments in Hilliard or Dublin? No problem, barely 25 minutes away. When I worked at OSU, my commute from door-to-door including parking was 22 minutes.  When I traveled for OSU work, the airport was 5 minutes from me. There is not a single destination that I can’t easily arrive at in short order. Living so close to the freeway, life in the fast lane is easy.

But I’m not always driving. I can be at the grocery store, bank, restaurants, and pharmacy within a 10 minute bike ride. This morning I utilized two different bike trails to get to an appointment at the corner of Cherry Bottom and Morse Rds. You might recognize the picture above as the pond at Woodside Green, one of four different parks that I can walk or bike to from my very fortunate location.

Beyond being practical, Gahanna is economical. For the reasonable tax money I pay, I reap innumerable benefits, just one of which is the above-mentioned park & trail system.  We take good care of our city, and the pride is evident upon just driving in. It’s pretty, and we take care to make it seasonally decorated. A group of volunteers called Make Gahanna Yours has indeed put their own stamp on Gahanna, with street planters, art, flowers, and hosting events to enjoy the scenery. While volunteers are busy beautifying, the city of Gahanna under the leadership of multiple mayors in my time has been a good steward of my tax money, with noticeable improvements. It’s changed in 14 years, for the better.

But perhaps the one economical piece that I appreciate most is the quality of our school system. When I moved here in 2003, I knew that Gahanna schools were reputable, but I wouldn’t learn until years later that the elementary school that my son attends is private-school quality. I know this having taught in two private schools. I would send my son to Chapelfield Elementary before I would pay for him to go to either of those two private schools. I could be effusive for hours about how much I adore Chapelfield, but that is a subject for another lengthy blog.

Social reasons to love Gahanna aren’t hard to find, starting with the fact that people here are nice to each other. Always have been. I recently read a Facebook post about how folks stuck in a traffic jam got re-routed through a residential neighborhood, and one of the residents passed out cookies to the drivers. That’s Gahanna.

There are so many people, from so many walks of life. There’s a valuable diversity here that I feel is a better cross section of humanity than most suburbs. We have economic diversity: Gahanna is home to millionaires, families with moderate incomes, and good folks struggling to make ends meet. Every demographic is represented here, with a spectrum of colors, cultural backgrounds, religious traditions, and age brackets. This is an environment where I feel comfortable raising my child to appreciate variety in life and people.

Here is the bottom line: life here is enjoyable. It’s not pretentious. I’m not burdened with expectations of high-society, but I am held to expectations of appropriate care of (and pride in) my community, which I see reflected all around me. I love Gahanna. Tell me why you love it too in the comments below. If you’re looking for someone to help you find or sell a home here, please feel welcome to call me for help! 614-383-8379