Travis, sorry about the slow reply, I just now noticed your pm. Unfortunately, I'm not terribly familiar with that section of Columbus (I'm pretty much only in that area when I need to go to the airport). As far as the two communities you asked me about specifically go, Gahanna and Whitehall are both generally blue collar communities. Gahanna is a bit nicer and quieter than Whitehall and is a bit more rural. Of the other communities near the airport, Bexley is by far the nicest (lots of rich Jewish doctors and lawyers), however I'm not sure what your price range is and the cheap parts of Bexley have some bleed over from the East Side (where the bodies turn up). If you're looking for something more white collar middle class suburban then Westerville and Worthington both have commutes to the airport that avoid passing through Columbus itself and are reasonably close by. I would strongly recommend avoiding living in Linden or the East Side as those two areas are generally not considered safe. The Short North and Campus can also be kind of sketchy at times, but I wouldn't describe either as being fundamentally unsafe. I'll ask some of my friends who have lived in that general area before what their opinions on good places to live are.
