"20 years behind"? (Cincinnati, Perry: appointed, transplants, school)

[westcoastcountryboy]

Mark Twain (I think it was Mark Twain) once said that he "would like to be in Cininnati when the world ends because Cincinnati is about 20 years behind".

Is there still a feeling such as this about your city? Just curious.

[austiNati]

Read through some of our forums and you be the one to decide

[Sarah Perry]

Boiled down to a few words: In Cincinnati an attitude of extreme conservatism pervades practically any aspect of life you can think of. Depending on specifics, this can be a good or bad thing.

[high mileage]

Uh oh! This thread has the potential to get ugly really quick. I'm going to keep my mouth shut!

[kjbrill]

If you don't like the conservatism which prevails in Cincy, then please go somewhere else. Most of born and raised here like it just fine.

[progmac]

technically most born and raised in cincy don't live in cincy...i think those that do are a little more progressive, so you would be welcome in cincy and no one will ask you to "go somewhere else"

[Spartan06]

Originally Posted by progmac

technically most born and raised in cincy don't live in cincy...i think those that do are a little more progressive, so you would be welcome in cincy and no one will ask you to "go somewhere else"

I've noticed this also, at least on the east side anyway. Most living within the city limits who are somewhat 'well to do' are from somewhere outside of the region. The transplants are also helping the city to progress and come up to par with other cities.

[shyspider]

Depending on which source you check, it's 10 years, not 20. But I digress. Regardless, it should be noted the quote is attributed to Mark Twain, but was never verifed as coming from him.

I was born and raised in Cincinnati, but no longer live there. I think there's a certain validity to the notion that things happen more slowly there. It does seem to lack a bit of "bold ambition", and in the past has been known to lack a bit of "progressive vision"...but I think it's more accurate to say it does things on a smaller scale.

[goyguy]

Between the Internet and an increasingly transient population this is getting to be far less true.
The innkeepers at the place I like to stay in Cincy, when I'm not hanging my hat under the parental roof, are ex-hippies (fairly "unreconstructed," lol) who grew up in the area. Before they met, the wife had left for California in the '60s because that's "where it was at." She loved the prevalent lifestyle of music, soft drugs, and "free love," but after a few years the scene out there started to change in a negative way. So she came back home, "...where I was delighted to see that that whole scene was just getting started! I got to do it all over again!"
When I was fresh off the boat on the East Coast in 1979, the Boston music scene was red-hot and tunes poured forth from the radio that had never graced the 'nati airwaves. There were new local accents and vocabulary to learn. In 2010, any musician or group can put their stuff on MySpace, YouTube, etc and gain a global fan base in a matter of days. The latest in fashion can originate anyplace and spawn wearers and imitators worldwide in the blink of an eye. And regional accents are taking a beating with all the in- and out-migrations and the demise of independent local media. (Practically no one, particularly younger than a certain age, in Cincinnati says "Please?" to have someone repeat something they said any more. OTOH the superlative adjective "wicked," once unique to Boston, has gone viral: "wicked good, wicked crazy," and so on.) Whenever I'm back in my hometown I'm shocked anew at hearing folks talk in the local drawl and realize "I used to sound like that, too!" But the homogenization of American English has been enough to make me no longer have to remember to adapt my speech. There's also no more curiosity about what the latest hot look or band in Massachusetts is - people already know.
The self-appointed political spokespeople for Cincinnati still toe the conservative/far-right line as always, with Jean Schmidt surpassing Simon Leis as a national embarrassment and the likes of Burress and Winburn doing their part. Same ol' story, same ol' song and dance. By the same token, plenty of Ohioans roll their eyes at the very mention of Massachusetts names like Barney Frank and Ted Kennedy. "National embarrassment" is definitely in the mind of the observer. Yeah - I didn't like the closed-mindedness of Cincy, and I fortunately had the resources to bail from the land of "A Child, Not A Choice" bumper stickers to one where they read, "Don't Like Abortions? Don't Have One." About the only way Cincinnati is "behind" these days is along the lines of social consciousness, but there are plenty of cities and entire regions throughout the country which are the same. Eventually it, and they, will catch up. Otherwise, though the area will never have the vibe of a Seattle or NYC there's no longer any lagging where popular trends are concerned.

[Joe 4520832257]

Originally Posted by Sarah Perry

Boiled down to a few words: In Cincinnati an attitude of extreme conservatism pervades practically any aspect of life you can think of. Depending on specifics, this can be a good or bad thing.

I think the above quotation is true - with the caveat that "conservative" and "progressive" have nothing to do with the political, Republican/Democrat sense of the terms.

There's an extreme cultural conservatism (perhaps better described as provincialism) in a lot of Cincinnatian's, regardless of their political persuasion. You can find it in everything from cornhole, to "what [high] school did you go to?", to "please?", to Cincinnati chili. Depending on your perspective, this is either a sign of unique local culture, or being behind the times.

Also, as said above, this provincialism is ironically not very strong within the actual city limits of Cincinnati. It's much more associated with people from certain suburbs.