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Old 08-20-2017, 10:34 AM
 
Location: Nashville, TN -
9,588 posts, read 5,816,424 times
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I've driven through Cincinnati several times when going up north to visit family and back to Nashville. It has always struck me as a very cool city with a unique vibe.

Unfortunately, I've never had an opportunity to explore it, but this piece in the NY Times has inspired me to hopefully visit in the near future. In fact, if I were to ever move back up north, hypothetically speaking, I think I would consider living there.

I'd love to hear more about Cincinnati from people who live there or have lived there and from those who've toured the city. What sites and/or activities would you recommend to a first-time visitor? In what ways is Cincinnati different from Cleveland or Columbus (another Ohio city I was impressed with when I drive through it recently)?

Please freely post ideas, opinions, suggestions, etc. Thanks!


https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...nati-ohio.html
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Old 08-20-2017, 04:09 PM
 
1,091 posts, read 1,131,188 times
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The high points of Cincinnati from the standpoint of curb appeal, at least from what I remember when I lived there: Hyde Park, Main Strasse, Mariemont, Mount Lookout, Eden Park, Mt. Echo, Mt. Adams, Victory Parkway, Clifton, Downtown and that street with all the bars near where they had the race riots.

Everything else is like what you would see in any other city, maybe a notch above.

What I dislike most about Cincinnati? It has probably among the ugliest commercial strips in the country. Take any big commercial strip in the Cincinnati area ... Tri-County, Glenway Ave., Colerain Ave., Harrison Ave., Beechmont, Florence/Mall Rd. and even the Kenwood Area. They are all an abomination. You just don't see this in the rest of the country, at least not to this degree.

Also, you'll find the slums are slummier in Cincinnati than in Columbus.

That's about all I can think of for now.
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Old 08-20-2017, 05:02 PM
 
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Like many cities, travelers pass through the worst, least attractive views of Cincinnati when on the highways. I am always amazed that anyone would want to visit Cincinnati after making the trek from Exit 13 south across the river. The northbound direction is not quite so bad, but, except for the skyline view coming down the cut-in-the -hill, still very ugly.

Come and visit us. When you get off the highway you'll be impressed.
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Old 08-20-2017, 06:38 PM
 
Location: Nashville, TN -
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Thanks for responding! I was beginning to think no one has anything to say about Cincinnati.

I'm surprised that your comments aren't more positive, though. Granted, I've seen very little of the area, but I did get off the highway to avoid the construction that seems to have been going on for years (?), and I ended up driving through downtown for a few blocks. It looked pretty nice to me, but I know it's only a small sample of the city as a whole.

Did you read any of the NY Times piece? Would you agree that there's a boom going on there, or at least significant revitalization?

Cincinnati has just piqued my interest for some reason.
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Old 08-20-2017, 06:57 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wilson513 View Post
Like many cities, travelers pass through the worst, least attractive views of Cincinnati when on the highways. I am always amazed that anyone would want to visit Cincinnati after making the trek from Exit 13 south across the river. The northbound direction is not quite so bad, but, except for the skyline view coming down the cut-in-the -hill, still very ugly.

Come and visit us. When you get off the highway you'll be impressed.
Yeah, the views from most of the main roads are mostly really bad. I forgot to mention Fields-Ertel and the Eastgate area in my list of commercial area abominations. Cincinnati has to have the most of these abominations per capita.

One place that always strikes me as having nice freeway curb appeal is Charlotte. I don't know if they maintain those trees along I-77 or if they are just lucky enough to have native tries down there that don't require a lot of maintenance, but that's a very pretty view north of Charlotte. It's night and day when you cross over into South Carolina. You start to get that Cincinnati "feel" on the I-77. I also like that short I-471 highway stretch from Downtown Cincinnati into Kentucky.


Quote:
Originally Posted by newdixiegirl View Post

Would you agree that there's a boom going on there, or at least significant revitalization?

Cincinnati has just piqued my interest for some reason.
I also need to correct something from my response above where I said "maybe" it's a notch above. There are no maybes about it, Cincinnati is definitely a notch above. I'll take the Three-C's (Columbus, Cincinnati-Dayton and Cleveland) over just about any other place in the country when it comes to everyday living. These are all solidly above-average cities.

But Wilson is correct, Cincinnati is a pretty nice city overall. I still like the place.

I did not read the NY Times article, but I think they have a lab rat mentality about all of us in flyover country. Greater Cincinnati was never one of those areas that was "down and out". It may be having more growth now, but it has always been steadily growing. Columbus has been growing even faster, but Cleveland hasn't. But Cleveland will have their day again, sooner or later.
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Old 08-20-2017, 07:06 PM
 
Location: Nashville, TN -
9,588 posts, read 5,816,424 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PerryMason614 View Post
I also like that short I-471 highway stretch from Downtown Cincinnati into Kentucky.
Yes. I enjoy that drive, too.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PerryMason614 View Post
I need to correct something from my response above where I said "maybe" it's a notch above. There are no maybes about it, Cincinnati is definitely a notch above. I'll take the Three-C's (Columbus, Cincinnati-Dayton and Cleveland) over just about any other place in the country when it comes to everyday living. These are all solidly above-average cities.
Interesting. Why do you say that? I haven't lived in any of the Three-Cs, so I don't know. I do hope more people post their opinions about what it's like to live in Cincy.

Last edited by newdixiegirl; 08-20-2017 at 07:41 PM..
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Old 08-20-2017, 07:19 PM
 
Location: Nashville, TN -
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PerryMason614 View Post

I did not read the NY Times article, but I think they have a lab rat mentality about all of us in flyover country. Greater Cincinnati was never one of those areas that was "down and out". It may be having more growth now, but it has always been steadily growing. Columbus has been growing even faster, but Cleveland hasn't. But Cleveland will have their day again, sooner or later.
So, Cincinnati hasn't suffered any of the economic decline of Cleveland? I lived in Metro Detroit for 14 years (not from there originally), so, because of its proximity to Cleveland, I'm a little more familiar with that "C city."

Yeah, I've read that Columbus is growing rapidly. It seems to be a city that has always had strong core public amenities and spaces in place. By many accounts, it has an excellent library system, for example, as do a number of Ohio communities. Is Cincinnati similar in that respect?
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Old 08-20-2017, 08:57 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by newdixiegirl View Post
So, Cincinnati hasn't suffered any of the economic decline of Cleveland? I lived in Metro Detroit for 14 years (not from there originally), so, because of its proximity to Cleveland, I'm a little more familiar with that "C city."

Yeah, I've read that Columbus is growing rapidly. It seems to be a city that has always had strong core public amenities and spaces in place. By many accounts, it has an excellent library system, for example, as do a number of Ohio communities. Is Cincinnati similar in that respect?
I'm not a big fan of categorizing things by city. It's the metro area that counts and the Cleveland metro area is and has always been, nice. They talk about population decline but I see new houses being built there so how much of a decline can there be? You don't build houses in a place where people are running for the exits. For that matter, metro Detroit is still one of the wealthiest regions in our country.

Cleveland is still home to some of the nation's largest companies, too.

New Homes In Cleveland For Sale - Cleveland Homebuilders - Ryan Homes

Quote:
Originally Posted by newdixiegirl View Post
Yes. I enjoy that drive, too.

Interesting. Why do you say that? I haven't lived in any of the Three-Cs, so I don't know. I do hope more people post their opinions about what it's like to live in Cincy.
I'm not a huge fan of growth. I like open spaces and farmland and I don't want to be a big, dirty, congested, eastern city. I am perfectly okay with being considered a small large city/metro in the Midwest. As long as the economy is doing well, I couldn't care less about growing population. In fact, I wish we were at the same population we had 20 years ago.

What it's like to live in Cincy (or Cleveland or Columbus)? For most people other than urban hipsters, it's just like any other Midwestern city. And I mean that in a good way. Good quality of life, clean, hassle-free living. We have it great in this region, IMO.
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Old 08-21-2017, 11:41 AM
 
Location: Kennedy Heights, Ohio. USA
3,860 posts, read 3,120,289 times
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What is it like to live in Cincinnati. For me personally I didn't appreciate it until I left. Where we live and work has the most influence on how we view a place because that is where we spend the majority of our time. I grew up in Kennedy Heights and I worked In Corryville, Clifton, Clifton Heights, Camp Washington, Fairmount, Cumminsville, Northside. I have fond memories of all those neighborhoods. Maybe that why I take so many photos cause I have so many fond memories of those places.

Camp Washington was my favorite. It is kinda hard to explain because to a casual visitor it is very easy to dismiss as an inferior working class neighbor to say a Mt Adams. To this day I still miss Camp Washington. Due to how the houses were so close to each other and close to the street it gave off a vibe of coziness especially at nighttime after a snowfall . It was a neighborhood that felt like a community. It was tight knit, had everything a neighborhood needed such as a bank, dry cleaners, grocery store, restaurants, post office, diverse range of all age groups and races. I don't know how it is now because I left there in 2003.

There was an elementary school on Short Vine in Corryville that has since been demolished. I went to that school for a short time one summer while my mom took some classes at the University of Cincinnati. It was a beautiful place inside and out. Later as an adult my location of employment was located basically across the street from the school. A co-worker of mine told me his wife's a teacher there. At the time I use to think to myself how lucky she was to work in building that had such beauty inside and out. Beauty is one the finer things of life. It has an effect on our souls. That is why people want to move to or visit places that has natural beauty. Cincinnati Public Schools sold the building about 12 years and it was demolished for student housing for the University of Cincinnati.

As a teenager I use to catch the bus from Kennedy Heights to Downtown then walk up to Over the Rhine to go to a Military Surplus store . I forgot where it was at but I think it was in one of those buildings on the right in the bottom photo.
DSC_5405 by GGG BBB, on Flickr.

The point I'm trying to make is most Cincinnati-ans do not appreciate or even know what the city has. I know I didn't. If it wasn't for my job I would have never known anything about the other Cincy neighborhoods in the urban core accept from I hear on the news because I had no reason to frequent those other Cincy neighborhoods. Everything I needed was either in Pleasant Ridge, Norwood, Bond Hill, Roselawn, Kenwood, Madeira, Oakley, Madisonville, Deer Park, Blue Ash, Silverton all of them being a 5 to 10 minute drive from Kennedy Heights.. So imagine somebody who live in the suburbs such Mason or West Chester and their knowledge of Cincy neighborhoods if someone who grew up in a Cincy neighborhood in the city limits such as me who had no clue of how it was to live day to day in the other Cincy neighborhoods. Buildings and houses that were built in the 19th century in these neighborhoods I use to walk past everyday I didn't appreciate their value because I assumed every city had them.

Last edited by Coseau; 08-21-2017 at 12:30 PM..
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Old 08-21-2017, 04:31 PM
 
Location: Colorado
389 posts, read 328,766 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by newdixiegirl View Post
So, Cincinnati hasn't suffered any of the economic decline of Cleveland? I lived in Metro Detroit for 14 years (not from there originally), so, because of its proximity to Cleveland, I'm a little more familiar with that "C city."

Yeah, I've read that Columbus is growing rapidly. It seems to be a city that has always had strong core public amenities and spaces in place. By many accounts, it has an excellent library system, for example, as do a number of Ohio communities. Is Cincinnati similar in that respect?
Per the American Library Association Cincinnati's library total collection is #4 in the country.

Home - The Nation's Largest Public Libraries - LibGuides at American Library Association

Rank Library Name Total Collection
1 New York Public Library, NY 24,676,932
2 Boston Public Library, MA 8,367,300
3 Detroit Public Library, MI 6,654,432
4 Public Library of Cincinnati 6,542,009
And Hamilton County, OH
5 Los Angeles Public Library, CA 6,280,921
6 Chicago Public Library, IL 6,094,190

Last edited by ms12345; 08-21-2017 at 04:52 PM..
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