| Founded as a village over a hundred years ago, Bexley is an old, tree-lined suburb of Columbus. By 1928 Bexley achieved a population of 5,000 and thus officially became a city in Ohio. By 1950 the City’s population reached 12K and has been mostly flat ever since. Thanks to is older fabric, Bexley scores pretty well from an urban and walkability perspective. The historic suburb is also known for its large houses and estates and hosts the famous Jeffrey Mansion, the home of the president of The Ohio State University, and the Ohio Governor’s Mansion. This certainly adds a layer of exclusivity and explains why Bexley scores low in diversity and affordability. Other urban areas for improvement include more density and better urban in-fill along its commercial district on Main St. Both of these improvements would also improve Bexley’s vibrancy and make it more inclusive. |
| URBAN STRENGTHS * Solid ADA infrastructure and generally sidewalks exist. * Transit access is decent but only a 5-10 drive to Downtown. * Several dedicated bike stations especially around Main St., and a nice dedicated north-south bike lane along Alum Creek but not convenient connections to Dwtn. * Overall this is a very safe community, but not surprisingly pretty high number of burglaries. * Great generational diversity with 71% family households and a large amount of college students as well. * Several nice parks and recreational amenities including the Alum Creek Rec trail, Jeffrey Park, Nelson Park, and Walk Park. The Franklin Park Conservatory is also just across the river. These are also concentrated along the western edge of Bexley, so many portion of the neighborhood don’t have walking access to a park. * Cultural amenities include a good array of restaurants, bars, and cafes along Main St., The Schumacker Gallery & Bexley Historic Society, the historic Drexel Theater, and an array of cultural offerings from Capitol University. * Quality historic housing throughout, especially the mansions. Infill is a mixed bag depending on its urban orientation. City certainly has designs standards helping to avoid the worse modern architecture. * Great tree canopy. * Good retail amenities, although a mixed bag regarding orientation. 3 full service grocery stores, several pharmacies, bookstore, bike store, several boutiques, and plenty of banks. * Good array of high quality public schools and several private schools as well. Families of means certainly move here for the schools. |
URBAN WEAKNESSES:
| * Not great density. * Pretty limited racial and economic diversity. * Rentals are very limited and what product does exist is primarily SF homes. * For sale product is also expensive but some price diversity. South of Main St. is the most “affordable” portion of Bexley with plenty of modest SF homes selling in the 200Ks and low 300Ks. Area around Broad has a decent amount of product selling btwn 350K-500K. Plenty of larger homes selling between 500K-1.5 Million north of Main St. * Urban form of biz districts is a mixed bag. The western half of Main is good. The eastern half is pretty auto centric, although city appears to be requiring new construction to be oriented up to the street and there are sidewalks the entire length. The small stretch of urban comm along Broad is very auto centric. |
Evaluating our Urban Communities [with a focus on America] 