Columbia can be a very family friendly city, I grew up there my whole life and I remember doing lots of stuff as a kid. The city is fairly clean, but if you’re looking for the cleanest city in SC I’d go with Greenville. I went to school there for three years and I was pretty shocked with how much cleaner it seemed than Columbia. If you’re looking for suburb neighborhoods to live in I’d look into the Summit, Irmo, and Lexington. And I don’t enough about Charlotte to compare the two. Hope that helps.

I only lived there for about 6 or 7 weeks, but I am originally from Augusta, GA which is about an hour south of Columbia, so I have been there a whole lot and I love it. It’s not the biggest city in the south but it has great entertainment, shopping and resturants. It’s a military town with, Fort Jackson being right there, and that’s always interesting.

I love Columbia. It’s a much smaller city than Charlotte but it’s got a much more homey feel. At least to me. There are good parts and bad parts of town, just like anywhere. Downtown is nice and there are lots of parks and fun things to do here. Good luck with your move!

Kate, it depends on how old you are and how old your children are and what part of town you move to.

columbia has one of the biggest colleges in the united states (over 250,000 students), and because of that is mostly a drinking/college town. it is fun, but i would avoid buying a home in the dead center of town. there are nice parks all over the downtown area and some nice art galleries. i know many people who grew up in the area and loved it as children.

i don’t think it is particularly a clean city, especially when comparing it to charlotte.

charlotte is much safer bet, if you ask me. it is bigger and there is more variety as to what you can do. you can also live quite close to charlotte and be in either NC or SC, so you can really sort out which has better insurance/taxes to suit your needs.