Cinci vs Dayton (Cincinnati, Euclid, Fairfield: rent, house, neighborhoods)

[JefferyT]

Other than size, are they fairly similar in terms of "vibe"?

"vibe" does have something to do with size, and there is a pretty big size diff between the metros.

A) Dayton was an old river-town and it's establishment was dependent on it

But it boomed with the canal. The river was never very navigable so no steamboat trade. An old canal town. There are a few Midwest cities like that..Fort Wayne and Akron...that grew with canal trade, then jumped to railroads.

Cincinnati generally has an older, more southern rivertown vibe (a la St. Louis)

I'm seeing more Pittsburgh and Balitmore (but never been to St Louis long enough to say)

Dayton's citizens are nice, friendly, and very midwestern, but they do not care about their hometown.

Big difference....dearth of civic pride with Daytonians and surfeit of it with Cincinnatians.





Though Cincinnati is on the Ky border, Dayton seems more "southern blue collar" due to the mass migration of Appalachians to the place starting in WWII. The joke is that Dayton is the "northernmost city in Kentucky", though a lot of the migrants came from east Tennessee and WVA, too.

Cincy got this too, but it didnt overwhelm and transform the local culture the way it did in Dayton.

Prior to that Dayton was more like one of those great lakes factory towns, with a lot of Germans and some Eastern and Southern European ethnics...there are still Hungarian, Lithuanian, and Polish parishes here, about as far south as you'd find that.

[Cincy-Rise]

^ Jeff, when I said rivertown, I meant the connection of the Ohio and Erie via canal.

Big difference....dearth of civic pride with Daytonians and surfeit of it with Cincinnatians.

lol .... everyone keeps saying this, but I don't see it, especially after reading the Enquirer and it's citizen's comments.

[maestro]

I lived in Dayton for 6yrs and Cincy for 2yrs after that, and all I can say is I was VERY glad to get out of Dayton and down to Cincy. Part of that may because I was not a native Ohioan and I was looking for bigger city life. Dayton was fairly boring. Downtown is so inactive, and the burbs didn't have a lot to offer me at the time (single, early 20's). There are some great suburbs Kettering, Beavercreek, Centerville, Belbrook, etc for shopping and all your familar chain stores.

Cincinnati, though NYC it is not, has such a better vibe. Great neighborhoods, very nice restaurants, more active community. I guess the biggest thing is that Cincinnati has more civic pride. Maybe it's the "major league" city thing but I guess I just felt part of a strong community feel in Cincinnati, where in Dayton I felt people tended to be more "ho hum" about things.

[hillside]

cincinnati's civic pride has been going down for some time now. what do cincinnatians have to be proud of at this point? the two worst franchises in sports? the riots and the boycott? the feeling you get in your stomach when you tell someone you're from cincinnati, and they reply, "i heard cincinnati's really racist"? the best planned downtown in the midwest outside chicago with the least action at night is embarrassing. the slums are embarrassing. with the bengals losing every week, my co-workers have been lighting into me, and subsequently cincinnati pretty hard lately. i would love to come back with something strong at the transplants, but it doesn't ever stick because cincinnati does something silly about daily.

[unusualfire]

Who's keep saying the two cities are far apart? They are not.

[JefferyT]

^
far apart in time.

In the stagecoach days it was an overnight trip. In the canal era it was a day.

Now its about 45 minutes from the south suburbs of Dayton to downtown Cincy, in good traffic (if you speed its quicker).

[JefferyT]

I just felt part of a strong community feel in Cincinnati, where in Dayton I felt people tended to be more "ho hum" about things.

Good call. That would describe a lot of people here. Blase'

The thing I like about Dayton is the music scene. I like going out to listen to bands, and there is a lot of that going on, mostly in the Oregon and a few places downtown. You'd think Dayton would be pretty dead in regards to this type of scene but it isn't. Actually having Cincy close by helps, as bands from both cities play venues in both towns, with bands touring in from Cols too.

[RedBankGirl]

Originally Posted by hillside

cincinnati's civic pride has been going down for some time now. what do cincinnatians have to be proud of at this point? the two worst franchises in sports? the riots and the boycott? the feeling you get in your stomach when you tell someone you're from cincinnati, and they reply, "i heard cincinnati's really racist"? the best planned downtown in the midwest outside chicago with the least action at night is embarrassing. the slums are embarrassing. with the bengals losing every week, my co-workers have been lighting into me, and subsequently cincinnati pretty hard lately. i would love to come back with something strong at the transplants, but it doesn't ever stick because cincinnati does something silly about daily.

Hillside - sorry you feel the way you do. I was born and raised here and I love what we have to offer. Agreed, Cincinnati has it's problems but there is far more good to speak of. While the Bengals are nothing to write home about and the Red's didn't have a great year, I still believe folks enjoy going to the Great American Ball Park because of the baseball history. It feels good to sit at the park, being able to see the Ohio River in the background and watch the barges doing their thing.
Cincinnati has the Aronoff - with excellent Broadway shows. We have Music Hall and our own Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. How about River Bend with its stage right on the river, sitting out under the stars listening to a variety of concerts? We have concerts in the park in the summer and a multitude of places to go to see live plays and productions.
Maybe some folks do make comments about some of the problems we have had but you can be part of the problem or part of the solution. I love this town and I do whatever I can to spread good news about it whenever I can.
I am a member of Sweet Adelines International and we have brought our regional conventions to Cincinnati twice now and nearly everyone had a great time. They loved the restaurants in downtown and neighboring Kentucky. Comments were things like, "the people here are so friendly...", "the hotel staff has bent over backwards to make our stay a good one...". (We did have that little issue with the Cincinnati bed bugs...) Never-the-less, people here are good natured and willing to come together when times are tough. Good news doesn't always make it to the media but there are a lot of positives to speak of when it comes to Cincinnati, it's history and it's people.

[hillside]

Originally Posted by RedBankGirl

Hillside - sorry you feel the way you do. I was born and raised here and I love what we have to offer. Agreed, Cincinnati has it's problems but there is far more good to speak of. While the Bengals are nothing to write home about and the Red's didn't have a great year, I still believe folks enjoy going to the Great American Ball Park because of the baseball history. It feels good to sit at the park, being able to see the Ohio River in the background and watch the barges doing their thing.
Cincinnati has the Aronoff - with excellent Broadway shows. We have Music Hall and our own Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. How about River Bend with its stage right on the river, sitting out under the stars listening to a variety of concerts? We have concerts in the park in the summer and a multitude of places to go to see live plays and productions.
Maybe some folks do make comments about some of the problems we have had but you can be part of the problem or part of the solution. I love this town and I do whatever I can to spread good news about it whenever I can.
I am a member of Sweet Adelines International and we have brought our regional conventions to Cincinnati twice now and nearly everyone had a great time. They loved the restaurants in downtown and neighboring Kentucky. Comments were things like, "the people here are so friendly...", "the hotel staff has bent over backwards to make our stay a good one...". (We did have that little issue with the Cincinnati bed bugs...) Never-the-less, people here are good natured and willing to come together when times are tough. Good news doesn't always make it to the media but there are a lot of positives to speak of when it comes to Cincinnati, it's history and it's people.

most definitely, cincinnati has a lot to offer, and i'd pick cincinnati over a lot of cities that are in better shape. i just don't get the sense that the city is very happy with how it's being represented by its politicians and sports franchises, and it hasn't just gotten that way. people want cincinnati to turn the corner, but it's stuck on the side of the road cranking the engine instead of opening the hood.

[Cincy-Rise]

Hillside, DT Cincinnati's nightlife being dead are long gone. You can get caught through 2 light changes now at the same intersection on a Saturday night at 11 pm.

It used to be dead and it used to be unsafe, but even the suburbanites don't make those claims now.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/5366319-post27.html