Help me...I know nothing about the west side of town (Cincinnati: section 8, apartments)

[Staliz77]

Hi! I've lived here for about 2 years, and am very familiar with east-side neighborhoods...I lived in Hyde Park and am now downtown, and somehow it seems that all my friends are east side people as well. A friend of mine from up north recently got a job near Cleves, and is looking for apartments on the west side of town. He wants to be close(r) to downtown and in a cool, fun neighborhood (or at least in a cool, fun pocket of a neighborhood, as can be the case in Cincinnati). Any suggestions from you experts out there?

[CincyExpert]

Northside would be a decent option on the "west side" due to it's proximity to 74 but he'd still probably have around a 20-25 minute drive to Cleves. If he doesn't mind being around 30 minutes away Clifton and Downtown are options too. There aren't many "hip" places to live west of 75.

[fluorescent]

Northside is nowhere near Cleves, but it is really fun neighborhood and it's close to the highway. I think it would be more like a 30-40 minute drive. I have known people that have lived in Clifton and worked in Northside, but it's still about the same commute as from Northside. I wouldn't recommend that.

It is true what they say about Westsiders not being too open to outsiders. I would definitely recommend that he NOT live in Cleves.

I'm originally from the West Side and the funnest neighborhood that I can think of on the West Side would probably be Cheviot. They have a lot of bars for younger people and some neat places to live. This would be a nice spot because it's 15 min to Cleves and 15 minutes to Central Cincy. Plus, the neighborhood is really safe and the rent is really cheap. This neighborhood is not very used to outsiders, but they are very friendly. I do know a few people who have moved here from outside of Cincinnati.

[wilson1010]

There is nothing "hip" over there. And, besides being a dump, Northside is still a 30 minute drive to Cleves; about 5 minutes shorter than from Hyde Park. Tell your friend that working in Cleves leaves him two choices: move downtown into your neighborhood, which would be very cool, or tough it out in trailerville.

[goyguy]

One of the things separating "east" from "west" is the fact that everything trendy somehow never finds its way south of I-74 until years later! I agree, though, that Cheviot probably has the highest energy level of the west-side communities relatively close in to town. But you have to really really like Catholic church festivals, and parochial-school sports/events, and cornhole to appreciate it.
Westwood and Mt Airy used to be magnets for the unattached between the '60s and maybe as recently as the late '80s or early '90s. The brick-box apartment houses on streets like La Feuille and Boudinot were always jumpin', and so were the complexes like McFarland Woods and Hawaiian Terrace that were built toward the start of that era. Now a lot of those places are Section 8 buildings, and the "communities" I named - with their townhouses or balconied apartments - have actually spawned street gangs. They're NOT an option for today's salaried singles.
I side with the majority that likes Northside, but it's definitely not an easy drive from there to Cleves. Another thought would be to have a look at downtown Covington (or its Wallace Woods neighborhood) or perhaps Newport, since 75 south to 275 west (straight to Route 50 at Cleves) would be a reverse commute.