I was in C-bus for a couple of days in 2008 to watch the Buckeyes. Granted, back then I wasn’t into exploring neighbourhoods and what not, but I did pass through Downtown, walk along the river and go to the art gallery, etc. I was impressed. There’s good energy from OSU that pervades across the whole region so it will never feel dead, though at some points it reaches obnoxious levels.
I said back then and I say now, if I had to live in the MW, I’d probably choose Columbus, even ahead of CHI. Got OSU, The Crew and CBJ to entertain for football, basketball, soccer and hockey. Can get further pro sports (and more college) in CLE and CIN. Of course, I’m a huge sports guy so its central location to so many pro and college hotspots is a huge plus for me. And it’s not far from the Appalaichans, which I prefer hanging out in from a cultural standpoint than the Rockies. I can
feel the culture and history there. Of course, the Rockies have better scenery but Appalachia is underrated.
In terms of CGY vs COL, if I were an American from NJ (closer) and a millionaire pro athlete (giant house in the best neighbourhood), based on my personal lifestyle, I'd take CBJ over CGY. I did see the Flames as contenders and the 'Jackets for some reason just can't take the next step...ever, so from a competitive standpoint, CGY was in a better position. Maybe he's like me. As he gets older he's just not as competitive of a person and is more mellow. Not to mention with so many teams, in this salary cap era, it's harder and harder to pick a serious contender and get paid at the same time so that part of the decision might be lower than back in the day.
For the US/Canada thing, I prefer the Canadian way of living than the US. I mean, when I was in Columbus, fresh off seeing Harold and Kumar (the movie and seeing Kal Penn and John Cho in person getting shawarma after the club in DT Toronto) I had to try White Castle for the first time. While waiting there was a lady loudly talking on the phone about her parole and drug problems and other stuff that was TMI. Like when I was in Indy for the US GP in 2003, we went to a gun store for the novelty of it and some lady casually takes a gun out of her purse and puts it on the counter and says "Something is wrong with, can you please fix it?" like as if we were bringing our cell phone for repair. When we told the guy running the store that we called a dozen hotels and there no vacancy and we were trying to figure out where to sleep, he said DO NOT sleep in a parking lot, everyone has a gun. We found a campground in the end and slept in the van.
On a related note, we stopped at Wendy's when in Columbus. No, not because it was founded in Ohio, it just happened to be convenient. But it turns out it was meant to be because one of my five nuggets was shaped like Ohio. Okay, I'm sure there have been others shaped like that since, but it felt special at the time lol.