Is it safe to visit the Catholic Churches of Cincinnati? (Madison: neighborhoods, schools) - City-Data Forum

cath4ever · 03-10-2011, 10:13 AM

Hello,

I am from a small town in northern Michigan and I would like to possibly sometime visit Cincinnati. I have a hobby of taking pictures of historic and beautiful Catholic churches and I would like to do this sometime in your city. However, big cities being what they are I would like to know if I would be safe doing this.

My exact itinerary involves ONLY visiting churches. I would stop at no place else in the city nor in the neighborhoods surrounding the churches. I will probably call some of the prettier churches in advance to be sure they are open when I visit them. I would go only be in the city during the day since it makes no sense to be there at night for taking pictures anyway. I literally go to a church, take a picture of the outside, go in and take pictures of the inside and then leave and drive to the next church. I know to keep my car locked, my windows rolled up, my GPS hidden, and my eyes alert. Would I be safe doing this in Cincinnati?

At the end of this post I am listing all of the churches I would like to visit. If any of you have any first-hand experience with these areas and feel they would be unsafe for me to go to, please let me know. In regards to “safe” or “unsafe”, I define “unsafe” as any area where there would be a good possibility of physical harm to myself, my property, or my car. It does not bother me to drive through rundown neighborhoods as long as I will not be in physical danger while simply driving through them.

I recently made 2 trips to Detroit by myself taking pictures of its many beautiful Catholic Churches, so I am familiar with the situation there. Detroit is considered by many to be one of the most dangerous cities in America, but I handled myself just fine and would have no problem going back again. I travelled down side streets and everything there and never felt in danger, but I always kept aware of my surroundings as any prudent person would and I would do the same in Cincinnati. So, if you believe your city to be less dangerous than Detroit then I don’t foresee any problems.

If you could take a look at this list and let me know of any locations that would fit my definition of “unsafe”, I would sincerely appreciate it if you would let me know. Also, if you know of any other Catholic Churches I missed, or any other sites I should see, you could tell me that too if you want. Thank you in advance for your kind attention!

Sincerely,

Cath4ever

Cathedral of Saint Peter in Chains
325 W. 8th St.

Saint Francis Xavier
607 Sycamore St.

Saint Louis
29 E. Eighth St.

Old Saint Mary's
123 E. 13th St.

Holy Family
814 Hawthorne Ave.

Saint Lawrence
3680 Warsaw Ave.

Saint William
4108 W. 8th St.

Saint Mary
2853 Erie Ave.

Saint Cecilia
3105 Madison Rd.

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga
4366 Bridgetown Rd.

Saint Catherine of Siena
2848 Fischer Pl.

Saint Clement
4536 Vine St.

Annunciation
3547 Clifton Ave.

Saint Boniface
1750 Chase Ave.

Saint Jerome
131 Rohde St.

Guardian Angels
6531 Beechmont Ave.

progmac · 03-10-2011, 10:48 AM

you won't have any problems at any of those locations. maybe parking problems, but otherwise you'll be fine.

mike1003 · 03-10-2011, 10:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by progmac

you won't have any problems at any of those locations. maybe parking problems, but otherwise you'll be fine.

Agreed

insightofitall · 03-10-2011, 12:21 PM

You must really have a hobby doing this. You've posted this same exact subject in several other city forums. What have your other experiences been like in those cities? Are you posting your photos online somewhere? If so, post a link and let us take a look at them.

skippercollector · 03-10-2011, 12:31 PM

What day will you be doing this?
A number of these churches have schools with them so there are plenty of people around on weekdays.

insightofitall · 03-10-2011, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skippercollector

What day will you be doing this?
A number of these churches have schools with them so there are plenty of people around on weekdays.

That's a valid point to take into consideration. It may look suspicious for someone to go around snapping photos of a church when children are around. In fact, it seems a bit suspicious anyway. Who knows why someone would want to be taking photos of churches....?

I can only hope the OP's intentions are honorable.

cath4ever · 03-10-2011, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by insightofitall

You must really have a hobby doing this. You've posted this same exact subject in several other city forums. What have your other experiences been like in those cities? Are you posting your photos online somewhere? If so, post a link and let us take a look at them.

I have only been to Detroit and Grand Rapids and I am working on getting my over 1000 pictures from them posted. I would like to take a nice big trip this summer and visit some of these cities, though I'll probably have to choose which ones I want to visit since I don't have the resources nor the vacation time to visit all of them in one trip. I have also been to Saint Paul, MN just to take pictures of the Cathedral of Saint Paul, but no other churches.

My experiences in both cities were good. I was terribly paranoid of Detroit before I first went to it because of all the bad things I had heard about it. When I finally got down there it didn't seem so bad though. Detroit definitely has its problems, but I didn't think it was as dangerous to me as what I had thought.

Grand Rapids wasn't bad either. Truth be told, just in my small experience of both cities the bad part of Grand Rapids actually LOOKED worse (and by worse I mean crime-ridden) than most parts of Detroit. The Cathedral of Saint Andrew in Grand Rapids is in the bad part of town, and it definitely looked it. But the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit is also in Detroit's bad part of town, and that didn't look as bad.

I'll be sure to post my pictures when I get them edited the rest of the way.

cath4ever · 03-10-2011, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by insightofitall

That's a valid point to take into consideration. It may look suspicious for someone to go around snapping photos of a church when children are around. In fact, it seems a bit suspicious anyway. Who knows why someone would want to be taking photos of churches....?

I can only hope the OP's intentions are honorable.

I take pictures of churches as a hobby. I am a Catholic and I like visiting Catholic churches because of their beauty and thinking of all the hardwork Catholics a century ago put into those sacred edifices. Some of these churches are being closed as well, so by taking pictures they can remain in our memory forever.

I'll post my pictures of the churches of Grand Rapids and Detroit when I get them done completely. That way you can see what it is that I do.

Ohiogirl81 · 03-10-2011, 02:34 PM

Add St. Rose to your list. It's on Eastern Avenue, and has the high water level of just about every Ohio River flood marked on the back wall.

St. Rose Church (Cincinnati, Ohio) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chemistry_Guy · 03-10-2011, 03:21 PM

I would add St. Monica's to your list on McMillan. Absolutely beautiful church that was actually used as the cathedral for some time.