Considering move back to Cincy from Boston (Cincinnati, Middletown: condo, crime)

[JOHNORGFROMCINCINNATI]

Hi, I grew up up in Cincinnati and moved to Boston 14 years ago. The reason we left was due to career and not necessarily to get out of Cincinnati. We love living in Boston, but seriously considering moving back to Cincy due to being close to our large family there. I am wondering if I am going crazy as Cincinnati is a nice city but Boston is so beautiful and so much to do here. I love my family and would like to see more of them. I guess I wondering if anyone has made the move from Boston to Cincinnati and how the adjustment went?

[lydunn]

Well I don't know anyone from Boston but Cinti hasn't change its the same as you left it 14 years ago No big surprises...(If you like it then you will like it now)

[Traveler87]

Originally Posted by lydunn

Well I don't know anyone from Boston but Cinti hasn't change its the same as you left it 14 years ago No big surprises...(If you like it then you will like it now)

What are you talking about? No changes? Don't listen to people like this, they have absolutely no idea what they are talking about.

[jlrosen]

Originally Posted by Traveler87

What are you talking about? No changes? Don't listen to people like this, they have absolutely no idea what they are talking about.

none at all. cincinnati turned the corner and the suburbs have no idea yet

[lydunn]

Traveler87 can you please list the changes for me instead of telling the OP that I don't know what I am talking about. Do you think it has changed for the good or bad.

[goyguy]

I made the big relo from Cincy to Beantown and am staying put. Here are "changes" I've observed in my hometown on my return trips (several times a year - parents, and one sis and her family, are in the area.) Chances are they're what passing reference has been made to.

1. Night Life. "Short Vine" in Corryville, home to Bogart's and The Cupboard and many more fun places, is now a ghost town after dark. Street crime went way up during the '90s and while there's been some progress in stemming that, the area's now-bad reputation is still hurting it. UC students forsake their "back yard" in favor of the Clifton gaslight district, Northside (the "cool alternative," or "alternative, cool" if you will, to Clifton since the early '90s), Mt Adams or downtown/Newport when seeking good times now. Cincinnatians as a whole drop their entertainment dollars on the "Levee" or downtown or in Mt Adams now too. And there's a burgeoning restaurant/nightclub scene in the...OMG...suburbs as well, Springdale/Fairfield and West Chester-Mason-Montgomery in particular. "Happening" neighborhoods in the city, i.e. O'Bryonville and Mt Lookout, also have expanded on their local offerings of evening diversions. It was startling, a couple of months ago, to see a new sushi place on Delta Ave that stays open until 4 AM on weekends, for instance. OTR takes one step forward, especially along Central Pkwy and Main and Sycamore, as a fun destination and then takes two steps back with another shooting death - this has gone on for years. But the tide is slowly turning.

2. Crime and neighborhood change. Sad to say, one often follows the other. Roselawn? Westwood? Hartwell? Price Hill? Carthage? The worst deterioration has happened in Carthage, followed by eastern Westwood and Price Hill and the northernmost corner of Roselawn. Business districts empty out, or see longtime merchants such as bakeries and hardware stores replaced by cellphone dealers and check cashers. Hartwell, the western portions of Price Hill and Westwood, and most of Roselawn look much the same as they have for decades: pleasant, quiet, shaded streets lined with desirable and well-kept homes. But the ethnic group once automatically associated with each of these neighborhoods has cut and run to some extent. There's now a noticeable Hispanic presence in Price Hill, Carthage, and Hartwell. Roselawn, once "97% Jewish and 3% assimilated," is now 15-20% White at most. Cincinnati's AA population is well represented in all five of these historically hostile (with the exception of Roselawn) communities. Therein lies the rub. A lot of Caucasian Cincinnati, much like too many White folks everywhere, puts "Black" and "crime" in the same sentence even when talking in code (saying one of the two words and communicating the other silently.) No one can deny that areas like Bracken Woods and McHenry in Westwood, or north of Summit Rd in Roselawn, are far worse off in terms of safety than was true as recently as the '80s. But this has more to do with the downward shift in economic class of the residents than with how dark someone's complexion is. Poverty spawns crime across the cultural spectrum; however, the prevailing attitude in the Queen City is to only see color. And so it comes to pass that a mainly "nice" neighborhood (another, older, example being Bond Hill) gets labeled by its racial makeup and then thought of as "not nice (any more)" across the board. This is by far the most radical change in the city of my birth, not the same ol' racist head-in-the-sand mindset but the diversification of a large swath of its territory.

3. Sprawl. See examples 1 and 2. White and "green" flight has led to the paving over of miles of farmland and woods in every direction. Monroe, Harrison, Amelia, Lebanon, Burlington KY, and many more former "outposts of civilization" are now part of one expanding suburb. Strip malls, subdivisions, and megachurches crowd along every Interstate and major highway. Greater Cincinnati ranks up there with southern California and Atlanta in terms of unchecked growth. As the city's population plummets, the ranks of suburban and exurban dwellers grow.

JOHNORG, I'd like to see more of my family too, but uprooting from where I voluntarily reside to the place I was raised isn't in the cards. Besides, living near the ocean grows on a person. A huge plus in Cincinnati's favor, though, is the kind of house you could score for the money once you unload your place in Beantown. I'd live like a king with what the profit off my 3-decker condo would buy! If you have kids of school age, consider that there's no MCAS or equivalent to agonize over in Ohio yet. The public systems in Wyoming, Montgomery/Blue Ash (Sycamore), and Indian Hill continue to be superb, with Walnut Hills still among the best of the best high schools. (Also, K-12 Montessori's now available in the Cincinnati schools.) The decision would be far less of a no-brainer for me if I had children aged 3-17, is what I'm saying. So good luck with whatever you end up doing.

[captaincatfish]

Hello all...I wanted to give goyguy major props for his long and quite spot-on post...it's been a LONG time since I have seen a resident of Cincy (former or otherwise LOL) give such a frank honest appraisal of 'how things are' in the city right now...

I'm a black man who currently resides in Middletown, about 30 miles north of the city, in Butler County. I lived in Cincinnati (in Roselawn, in fact) for about a year from April of '98 to May of '99...the city as I knew it then was a bit different than it is now...crime wasn't as big a problem then, and the city was kinda like a big playground for a single man without kids and disposable income...

Flash forward to now---I'm quite happily married, to the love of my life, and only occasionally make my way to the city proper...but goyguy absolutely nailed it with his assessment of current events...I liked Cincinnati 10 years ago, and even though I live further away from it, I still love it now...is it perfect? No...can it be provincial and somewhat conservative? Yes, indeed...but it does have a low cost of living, the people here (at least to these eyes) really aren't that hard to deal with, and the place holds treasure for those who have the time and patience to 'dig' for it...

JOHNORG, I said these things to say that goyguy has given you much food for thought...making a move at any stage of life requires careful planning, and good sound judgment...think it through and plan carefully...you will more than likely be bombarded with naysayers who will tell you that the city is somewhat akin to, say, 'the 7th belly of Hell'...I respect their right to express their opinions, but I also exercise vigorously my right not to live by what they say...I am a grown man of 50-plus years, and will make up my own mind...in fact, my wife and I are talking about moving closer to the city as retiremnet age nears for both of us...that's right I said moving TOWARD the city, instead of thumbing our noses at it and fleeing for some imagined Nirvana...I like the idea of having this area as a 'home base'---and when we tire of the weather, or other things, then that's what cruises and vacations and timeshares and such are for...leave the area to take some down time, but always return 'home' and hang our hats here, wanting to work in concert with those who would try to make Cincinnati a much better place for us all...I wish you the very best of luck as you plan your strategy, JOHNORG...take care...and once again, goyguy, thanks for such a well-spoken and informative post

[JOHNORGFROMCINCINNATI]

Thank you everyone who took time to reply. I have read them all and appreciate all the insights, suggestions and comments. I will take them all to heart as I try to decide on our direction and figure this all out!

[Bigbluelandrover]

Go-Guy...I almost shed a tear at the memories of UC and Clifton some years ago. : (
That was a great assessment.

[woxyroxme]

Originally Posted by goyguy

1. Night Life. "Short Vine" in Corryville, home to Bogart's and The Cupboard and many more fun places, is now a ghost town after dark. Street crime went way up during the '90s and while there's been some progress in stemming that, the area's now-bad reputation is still hurting it. UC students forsake their "back yard" in favor of the Clifton gaslight district, Northside (the "cool alternative," or "alternative, cool" if you will, to Clifton since the early '90s)

3. Sprawl. See examples 1 and 2. White and "green" flight has led to the paving over of miles of farmland and woods in every direction. Monroe, Harrison, Amelia, Lebanon, Burlington KY, and many more former "outposts of civilization" are now part of one expanding suburb. Strip malls, subdivisions, and megachurches crowd along every Interstate and major highway.

Northside is the cool part of town now, the "gangstas" ran everyone off from short vine when the police ran them out of Eden Park in the 90s.

When I give someone coming from the south directions to my house I always say "If you pass a 62 ft. Jesus statue, you missed the exit".