Downtown Middletown (Cincinnati, Hamilton, Fairfield: real estate, unemployed, neighborhoods)

[midwest1]

Hey there. curious about downtown Middletown, and it's gathering revitalization, and how greater Cincinnati may feel/know about it. Is Middletown on the radar yet?

[NorwegianCat]

Everytime I drive through downtown Middletown its an absolute ghost town and most of Middletown itself has always seemed "trashy". I haven't heard of any sort of revitalization, but I hope it happens. It is FAR behind other Butler County communities like West Chester, Fairfield and Hamilton.

[ABQConvict]

I feel that Middletown's fortunes are tied to Hamilton's and as Hamilton rises or falls, so does Middletown, with Middletown a few years behind and with less vigor.

That's my general impression.

[Briolat21]

Originally Posted by midwest1

Hey there. curious about downtown Middletown, and it's gathering revitalization, and how greater Cincinnati may feel/know about it. Is Middletown on the radar yet?

As far as "greater Cincinnati"; I don't know that we have a great respresentation of "greater cincinnati" on this board. Most folks are city residents, with a few of us from north of the 275 loop dropping by or lurking..

I live in the northern lands (lebanon) and so have the odd occasion to go to Middletown. I know there had been some revitalization with the arts, etc.. (there's a very cool old building that has some studios/galleries).. But overall, I haven't seen a lot. Perhaps because you have to drive through quite a bit of the outlying areas (stripmalls, etc.) before you ever get to "downtown" middletown, it's just not apparent.

That said, I certainly hope it does regain some strength. The old buildings are beautiful, and certainly for the population that lives in and around middletown, it would be a plus is middletown could once again thrive.

[SWOH]

Originally Posted by ABQConvict

I feel that Middletown's fortunes are tied to Hamilton's and as Hamilton rises or falls, so does Middletown, with Middletown a few years behind and with less vigor.

That's my general impression.

Interesting observation!

I grew up in Monroe three miles south of the mill, and aside from a year I spent a couple hours west of there I've never strayed too far from Butler County.
From what I have observed, the exact opposite is true... as Hamilton gets better, Middletown does worse, and vice versa.

Case in point - 2003 vs 2017.
In 2003, auto-centric development was all the rage. The real estate bubble was inflating fast as a result, and the steel mill was humming. So AK was doing great, Towne Mall has 0 vacancies (hard to believe but I can confirm first-hand) even Briel was looking alright with Ames in the blighted Hills properties across from the rail yard. The pollution and bad schools are constant factors, but who cares with AK is paying out bonuses? Hamilton meanwhile was not doing so hot, with Champion Paper teetering and blight spreading even into its more affluent west side neighborhoods. Its housing and urban stock was out of fashion, its people were classless, unemployed and trashy, and its river was a sewer. Hamiltucky it was dubbed, while nobody ever mentioned "Middletucky".

The tables have flipped now in 2017 as walkable developments are all the rage. Hamilton capitalizes on this nicely due to the fact it has a great walkable downtown made bigger with walkable side neighborhoods sitting conveniently at the end of Butler Regional. Champion's dead and gone, and the choking grip of paper factory pollution is out of town. The city is doing well bringing in a lot of jobs, and the schools are now about on par with neighboring Fairfield. And just from my personal experience, the streetfight I saw in the Rossville district three years ago would be unimaginable there today, Hamilton's come a long way.

In the meantime, Middletown is doing worse than 2003, if anything because the retail either dried up or moved out to places like Monroe, AK brought in the scabs in 2004 to thwart the union (with mixed business success since then), and heroin became big. Middletown never moved on. And now with the natural gas power plant spewing more pollution into the city and Suncoke spewing more coal soot the city is more toxic than ever. A NYT Best-seller was written about how bad life in Middletown can be. And the schools are still atrocious. I wish the city the best but it's got a long hill to climb...