Full disclosure: We are conservative, Western US (read large lots and vast suburbs), stay-home-with-the-kids every weekend, boring people.
So, keep that in mind if I say anything that puts your heckles up about the areas we drove around...we're just really REALLY not urban people. Aside from that, dh has this obsession with not living in anything built before 1978 because of lead paint.
Good intentioned, but makes my job of finding an affordable place with a short commute nearly impossible in Cincinnati. Older housing is the absolute name of the game everywhere we looked.
A couple weeks ago we made the long (and with traffic, I mean LONG) drive over the West Virginia passes to visit Cincinnati ahead of a probable move in June. If all goes according to plan, my dh will be working in Pleasant Ridge. We have 3 kids, who we homeschool, so square footage matters more than it might if we weren't going to have 4 people home all day most days. We ended up staying in a hotel off Fields Ertel nearish Loveland. I'm just going to kind of download our impressions of the areas that we visited as we experienced them. Keep in mind, this was a gee-whiz trip, we weren't actually house-hunting (we'll be renting), that'll wait until end of April when we finally have orders in hand guaranteeing Ohio is the place.
Friday afternoon:
1. Northern Kentucky.
Sorry to lump all of that together, which I know does a great disservice, but we really just passed through on the freeway (471/71 stuff) in a bit of a rush to get the kids lunched. It's a bit far for our commute preferences, but at least from the freeway, it all looked nice. We came in on Hwy 27, actually, so the one real suburb to Cincy area we saw off the freeway was Cold Spring. It was nice as far as one can tell when it's not really being evaluated for residence.
2. Norwood.
Got off at Dana Ave and jogged over to Montgomery Rd. Truth button? Yikes. Way too urban, too trafficky (we stopped at the Jimmy John's by that big Kroger between Monroe and Sherman. Got hit up by beggars and just didn't really feel like it was a family area. If there are good looking rentals several blocks or more off the main drags, we might at least give them a drive-by, but by and large, we didn't feel comfortable with the idea of having me doing after-dark shopping runs on weeknights, or being alone with the kids for weeks at a time, which is probable at least for the first 2 years. I'll be the first to admit we didn't give a reasonable shot at redemption, but I'm not losing sleep over it. Further out is gonna be better for our family.
3. Blue Ash.
Wild goose chase after a paper map of the city (what happened to every gas station having a map or two. We're so not techy and our GPS lies more when we update it than when we don't, lol). Eventually found one at Staples in Kenwood. But I digress. At some point (that part of the day is kind of blurry), we had the GPS set to the Hamilton County Chamber of Commerce and it instead took us to a neighborhood off Cooper Rd. Yeah. It lies. So, we continued on in to Blue Ash and dropped in at the library branch. I had a fabulous conversation with a librarian who'd just bought in Loveland and seemed pretty enamored with it. She kinda went neighborhood by neighborhood around a google map and summed up most of what my research has been saying as far as where we might afford vs where we might feel safe, etc. Drove around a few streets in there. Really liked Delray and the area by Syracuse Junior High. Also, that intersection of Cooper and Montgomery is charming, though I know that's Montgomery, not Blue Ash.
Crashed and burned at the hotel, thankfully we found a 2 bedroom suite, so the kids actually slept and we could stay up with March Madness and the map.
Saturday
Plan for the day was a marathon circuit of neighborhood trolling roughly clockwise (south on the west side of 71 until Madisonville, then swing north through Reading, Sharonville, and back to the hotel. We kept to neighborhood streets and took lots of "that street looks cute" detours.
4. Montgomery.
If we can afford it, which we probably can't, and can get a second car, which we probably can't, we would LOVE to settle in Montgomery. Deerfield/Pioneer Park area was lovely, quiet, comfortable sized lots for our taste. Still the issue of dh's pre-1978 embargo, but I'm working on his conversion and praying for some miraculous landlord carrying a lead-free certification for a cute ranch. Sigh.
We missed the boat on the small Kenwood area this side of 71 between Montgomery and Madeira, but even that stretch of Montgomery north of the mall's retail insanity was clean, tree-lined, and somewhere I could feel very comfortable. Traffic at school times around the Catholic schools must be annoying.
5. Madeira.
I can't even say enough good things about Madeira. We loved it. Acceptable sized lots, a little smaller than we'd want long term, but flat and pretty. I personally love that era of housing as it's what my grandparents were in and represents the sole bit of stability in a move-every-year childhood. Those houses just screamed small family happiness to me. We jogged west from Miami on Shewango Way (great street names throughout the city) to check out the Olde Town at Kenwood townhome/apartment complex on Lynnfield Court. Backs onto the freeway, but it wasn't horrifically loud and it's certainly a convenient area as far as being able to quickly get to any store you could need, but still live in a quiet neighborhood. The manager was out to an early lunch, I guess, and they only require 30 days notice, so we didn't tour a unit and won't know until possibly too late if there's even one available there, but it's definitely on our list, and the right price range for our meagerish budget.
We wound through a bunch of small streets north of Euclid before heading down Kenwood Rd toward Madisonville. We did check out a couple nice streets south of the country club, though the houses are big enough there, it's not likely an option for us. But that area around Hosbrook and Euclid is just about the perfect thing...if we can get lucky on timing and price...and the darn lead issue.
How about those squeezed-in-there condoish townhomes on Windridge? Great view, too cramped, but if you didn't want a yard, I could see them being a nice newer option for the right people...much wealthier than we.
6. Madisonville.
Wow, how about that contrast as you come down Whetsel? It was like going from the green-pastured paradise to...well...a dump. Sorry. At least that first little part, Whetsel, Chandler, Madison Rds...yikes. It so obviously would have been a lovely historic area in its time. Too bad. Redemption for Madisonville, though, on the west side of Plainville near Good Shepherd Catholic Montessori (Angel something church? Can't remember). I think the houses are likely too small for our family, but those that have been kept up were really cute. Now, here's the thing, though. When we were driving through there, we still had our heckles up from descending the hill, so I don't think we gave some of those streets and houses their due. And if there's one that's had a second bathroom added, I'm keeping it on the list, but dh says no way. Too tightly packed on tiny lots. And holy cow, the roads! Some were so badly beat up that it's like they basically were down to dirt. We saw this again in one eastern Deer Park area...I feel like we'd be looking at rebuilding the front end of the van after a few years of those streets. Maybe that's more a testament to my impatient driving, but it reminded me of the freeze-thaw potholes in Massachusetts. Drove me nuts and, sure enough, my Massachusetts born Subaru had a full front end rebuild before I bought it.
But I digress. Long story short, east of 71 confirms our Western US suburbia up-bringing. We were optimistic about that until I reviewed the prices of Madeira rentals while we grabbed lunch. *Sigh*
7. Pleasant Ridge.
A term used broadly to mean all that area walking distance to NIOSH.
Sorry, PR purists. I never did get a feel for what the actual community would be defined as.
We toured the Hilltop Apartments off Kennedy Ave after lunch. We'd be taking a 30% downgrade in square footage and the school district (PR Montessori) is on the EdChoice Voucher list, which isn't encouraging. The 3-bdr unit we saw was nice and we could make it work. I shudder when I get pushed into a furnished model unit, though--the vast difference between that and the unit you end up with never puts you on the winning side. But with 4 of us home all day, even if the rent is $925 and dh can walk to work, I'd rather not. Hilltop remains on our list, in part because student loan repayment may necessitate it, but it's not gonna be my first choice. The exteriors were clean, but we saw several people smoking, and that's another beef with tight apartment living--hate the thought of the kids walking through a haze or having the patio unusable due to smokers below. Consequence of apartment living, though. Anyway...
We did like the little Norwood Heights bit in the point of land between Ridge and Montgomery. Auten Ave, Verulam, Mapleleaf. Actually, a gorgeous old house on Mapleleaf was for rent last fall and I would have loved it. Lead.
Growl. And a 5 minute walk to work. Ultimately, though, this is still really too busy for our preferences. I like the idea of walking from there to the PR branch of the library, but when we were actually out on those streets, and took a potty break at the Burger King on Montgomery, it was right up there with Norwood on our definitely not list. Sad. I so want to have the nice walkable little community. But at least until north of Kenwood Mall, I felt like Montgomery Rd was a blight on everything it touched. Sorry.
North of Losantville Country Club, in that kinda Golf Manor, kinda still PR(is it?), definitely not yet Amberley, was one of those stark contrast points like going down Whetsel...not quite so extreme. Along Losantville Ave, we though no, but Losantridge and Cedarbrook were totally yes. You could tangibly feel that it was far enough off the Montgomery and Ridge intersection in the direction of Amberley, but without the pricetag of it's wealthy neighbor. Real possibilities, kind of on a street-by-street basis in that little pocket of the world. And anything we can get that's straight up Ridge from work is getting major bonus points for me.
8. Amberley.
We did a largish loop and then doubled back in to PR and out closer to 71, the consequence being that we circled around Amberley more than we drove through it, but, then again, it's not like we're going to find something in there that we can afford. Awesome big lots, and very nice houses. When we're buying, we'll definitely give this area a big look.
9. Reading.
Dropped down the hill to the west on Section Rd and then turned right on Reading until E Benson where we turned back up hill. Poor down-hill part of Reading!
Especially after grazing on the sentimental memory-lane thread about Reading Rd, it was so sad to see this little area full of closed shops and general beyond down hill, can it get any lower. But I could see its potential. We didn't go any further west, but we're open to that in the future. The Blue Ash librarian was almost laughably adamant that "there's just NOTHING west of 75" and given our time constraints, and 3 very road weary kiddos (oldest is 5) who we were dragging around, I don't mind.
For all its forlorn Reading Rd, as we went back up the hill on Benson, about the point of Bunny Lane, the housing became well-kept again, and we really liked the area around Reading Community High and Fuhrman Rd. I think this area is near the top of my list, to be honest, but we were only up there a few minutes, so I'm looking forward to driving around Observatory Park and such. And, again, this is straight up Ridge, which would be ideal.
10. Deer Park West and Silverton.
So, this was hop skip and a jump along main drags--Galbraith, Sagamore, Lansdowne, Plainfield--before the aforementioned Burger King potty break. We really liked what we saw on Sagamore and Lansdowne. I want to go back there and will definitely watch the listings.
11. Silverton/Deer Park East (east side of Blue Ash all the way up to 126).
I know, I know, this is NOT all one community. But here's the thing. This was the part where I drove, which means I don't remember it as well...nor does my dh. Oops. General impression, though, was quite good, except for some pretty broken up roads. Nice little Cape Cods. Smaller lots than we'd like, but we'd certainly be happy with these over an apartment. Now to find a 1990s rebuild.
Writing this makes me want to slap the lead-obsessed dh.
We snaked around near Orchard, Erwin, and the Rossmoyne subdivision (?). Really liked all of that. Nice, sleepy neighborhoods just right for our boring family.
The morth southern parts of Kennedy Ave, Woodford, Diehl were no's. Stoll, or Elwynne...can't remember...looked great until we saw a flag in someone's yard that said "This House Protected by the Crypts"...ok, or was it the Bloods?...Point is, out of the blue, there's a flag about Gangs?! What?! Please tell me this means something different than it meant when I lived in San Diego!
12. Blue Ash West.
Once we got back to Cooper Rd and the library, we headed west through a bunch of very nice housing that we don't really remember much about. Added to our positive impression of Blue Ash.
At this point, we weren't far off of dinner time and the kids really were about to mutiny. Puzzles and counting cars only last so long. We're blessed to have very good car kids who patiently endure hours on end in their carseats. Anyway, we shot up Reed Hartman and went west on Creek before starting to snake around again.
13. Sharonville.
Our last major area of exploration. Further commute than I'd like, but we liked it. Some of the rental listings I've seen up here are a LOT more square footage and yard for similar prices to Madeira, Deer Park, etc. Not sure if we could make it work since I'm guessing there wouldn't be direct transportation and it's on that cusp of being far enough out I wouldn't love to drop him off at work on days we need the van. But probably can't afford the area if we also need a second car.
Thornview and all the parts along it were lovely. Also really liked Malaer and it's side streets, just sound of Cornell. Eventually, though, we cut back out to Cornell and headed east to Snider and up for dinner and some play time at the hotel.
Wrap-up. Ok, I can hear the groans of "What about Oakley? Hyde Park? Mariemont? How could you just bypass them completely?" Sorry. I meant to get there, but it was late lunch time in Madisonville with far more ground to cover and ultimately, we knew we were more likely to enjoy the areas further out than those further in. But tell me honestly, do Oakley and Ault Park really manage to avoid the close-to-downtown blah we saw in Norwood and most of Madisonville? I'm watching the listings, it's not off the list, but despite the fact that those areas get mentioned a lot when families ask about Cincy, I just doubt it'll be a good fit for us.
Final thoughts:
One frustration I have is that while the city and Norwood do full reporting on crimereports, the county does not and many of the small cities like Blue Ash don't either. Makes it hard to compare--and contributes, I'll admit, to my hesitation about Norwood since it looks scary next to pristine little pockets of county adjacent.
And finally, my book draws to a close. Please take this review in the spirit it was intended--to answer a request to provide the objective outsider opinion of your lovely Cincinnati. We came away feeling confident that there are many areas we would enjoy and are more excited about our probable move than we were before the visit. I photocopied the parts of the map we covered and highlighted our route (green means yes, pink means no) and I promise there is far more green than pink. But, yes, the pink is concentrated in areas with solidly Cincinnati zip codes where the green hits the inner-beltway suburbs, if I dare call them that. We left via 71 north through Lebanon, Mason, etc. Gorgeous! Even more like our familiar kind of America, but also far too long a commute. We like Daddy to come home within 15 minutes, if at all possible!
My next step is to dig into the world of public transportation more than the cursory glance I've given it. This may give us the solution to the 1-car dilemma, and in the past we've lived as much as a mile off the bus line and still used it faithfully, so I hope that will give us quite a few options on buses that pass more-or-less directly past his work.
I'm looking forward to your comments. I hope I haven't been too critical, or too rose-glasses, of your "pet" neighborhoods! G'night all!
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