[Crawford]

They're quite similar. Both sprawly, cheap, average income, white collar, McMansion-filled state capitals with little prewar urban fabric, almost nonexistent transit and weak cores. Both also growing faster than almost anywhere in the Rust Belt, both have touches of Southern/Appalachian influence, both have smaller black populations than their geographic peers, and both fit more with the Nashvilles and Charlottes of the world moreso than Detroit and Cleveland. Both are archetypal average Middle American metro areas.

Of course there are differences. Columbus is more liberal, with much better core urban fabric and a giant university. Indy has a better downtown and is more centralized. Columbus would probably be a bit more appealing for the SSP crowd. Vintage housing stock in Columbus is vastly better. Columbus just has much better bones, but I'd rather spend a weekend in downtown Indy as opposed to downtown Columbus.