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Cincinnati definitely has a Southern feel at times, but definitely is NOT to be classified as simply Southern.
Columbus on the other hand DEFINITELY feels like a Midwest city...
Being from Cincinnati, and going up to Cleveland only once and Columbus 3 times...
I can say Columbus is actually a very impressive city, it is maintaining its city limits and definitely is a model Cincinnati and other Midwestern cities should follow. BUT. I hate the overly suburban feel of the new developments in Columbus.
Cleveland I wasn't very impressed with, it is built to house millions of people within the immediate city area like Cincinnati, but is overrun with underused transportation networks that are under serviced and an eyesore to be honest. This may be true but it also has alot of national attention lately and seems to be trying to make a comeback somehow but the way the media portrayed it gives it a poor rep it doesn't deserve...
Cincinnati is improving, in the city limits that is. OTR, UC area, and Northside are growing rapidly and it is crazy what it used to be 10 years ago for basically every area in the greater region. However, we need to stop using our money poorly on streetcars. I understand alot of you will attack me for this but we need to improve our current transportation arteries such as 71 and 75 instead of making new issues. United States loses plenty of money due to heavy traffic on underserviced roads and highways.
The perfect city that would fit into Ohio would be a city by a mass of water (Cincy or Cleveland) and that has impressive transportation networks (Columbus/Cincinnati) along with plenty of historical history and architecture.
But overall, instead of fighting over which is better, I don't see why we cannot simply come together and realize how great of a state this is to live in as a whole instead of criticizing the other parts of it. We have 5 big scale cities, not all may be in amazing condition or desirable, but its something that can be built upon. This makes you wonder how much different Ohio will be in 10 years, it seems to change drastically.
Cincy is more "Southern" while Columbus is more Midwestern. I feel there is more to do in Columbus, and more people living within the city while Cincinnati is more suburb-centric and downtown area has a pretty bad reputation. Cincy has more history and alot of cool, older architecture. Both are fine cities, I prefer Columbus.
Stories such as this also don't help.
Downtown Robbery Caught On Tape - Cincinnati News Story - WLWT Cincinnati (http://www.wlwt.com/news/29991211/detail.html - broken link)
There are things I like about both cities, but I think I would probably prefer living in Cincinnati slightly more than Columbus. Cincinnati feels like a larger city, and has the infrastructure of such, while a lot of Columbus feels more suburban and sterile.
However, IMO, Columbusites have the more larger city mindset, while many Cincinnatians have a small town, provincial mentality. I also love going to Comfest; something that would probably not go over too well in Cincinnati. Columbus is also a fairly liberal city, while Cincinnati is much more conservative.
Neither downtowns are all that great, but Cincinnati's downtown is a lot more interesting IMO. Columbus has High St. however, which is pretty fun, but I feel like the city doesn't offer much more than that. The OSU fanbase can also be stifling, and the city revolves around OSU football in the fall.
Both cities' public transit systems leave a lot to be desired, but Cincinnati's Metro is a whole lot better than Columbus' COTA. Metro covers more area than COTA, and the buses run more frequently, but it is not anything close to what I would call impressive.
Cincinnati has bettter and more interesting parks. The library system here is also very impressive. Cincinnati has a better food scene IMO; I love Graeter's but absolutely detest Cincinnati Chili (sorry Cincinnatians)
Columbus and Cincinnati both have their positive and negatives, but as I said earlier, I give the slight edge to Cincinnati.
Downtown Robbery Caught On Tape - Cincinnati News Story - WLWT Cincinnati (http://www.wlwt.com/news/29991211/detail.html - broken link)
There are things I like about both cities, but I think I would probably prefer living in Cincinnati slightly more than Columbus. Cincinnati feels like a larger city, and has the infrastructure of such, while a lot of Columbus feels more suburban and sterile.
However, IMO, Columbusites have the more larger city mindset, while many Cincinnatians have a small town, provincial mentality. I also love going to Comfest; something that would probably not go over too well in Cincinnati. Columbus is also a fairly liberal city, while Cincinnati is much more conservative.
Neither downtowns are all that great, but Cincinnati's downtown is a lot more interesting IMO. Columbus has High St. however, which is pretty fun, but I feel like the city doesn't offer much more than that. The OSU fanbase can also be stifling, and the city revolves around OSU football in the fall.
Both cities' public transit systems leave a lot to be desired, but Cincinnati's Metro is a whole lot better than Columbus' COTA. Metro covers more area than COTA, and the buses run more frequently, but it is not anything close to what I would call impressive.
Cincinnati has bettter and more interesting parks. The library system here is also very impressive. Cincinnati has a better food scene IMO; I love Graeter's but absolutely detest Cincinnati Chili (sorry Cincinnatians)
Columbus and Cincinnati both have their positive and negatives, but as I said earlier, I give the slight edge to Cincinnati.
Only comment I have is that COTA in Columbus and SORTA in Cincinnati are about the same as far as ridership, though Columbus has the fastest growing ridership in the country right now, up 10.8% just in the last year alone. Hopefully the increasing demand for public transportation will revive the rail debate here.
The columbusers I've met that have a big city mindset because they are transplants from big cities, not because of their time in columbus. Columbus is a branch plant, back office city with established businesses from more expensive places looking for a way to lower their costs, not a place to start new businesses. Think citibank, abbott, Roxane labs, ABB, Mettler-toledo (You know your a transplant town when an important employer is named after another city). The people follow the businesses there as they leave higher cost big cities while still remaining in the U.S. If columbus can foster more nationwides, limiteds, and cardinals, it could grow up to another level of population and economic size. There would be no arena district if there was no nationwide headquartered in columbus. It matters were decision are made and where the decision makers meet as much as it ever did.
Cincinnati "feels" bigger because it is bigger. 20% bigger by population and 30% by gross metropolitan product. It 'controls' more of its own economy. Think P&G, Kroger, Macy's, cincinnati milacron, Ashland Chemical, convergys, fifth-third, first financial, Western-Southern, Great-American, E.W. Scripps, general cable, cintas, AK Steel, Cincinnati Bell, Cincinnati financial, even GE aviation and toyota to some degree despite being part of mutinationals headquartered elsewhere. I'm constantly amazed at how columbusers talk about anything that happens in ohio as if it is local while cincinnatians don't even seem to be aware columbus exists. columbusers seem to be looking out at the world because they don't particularly value things that happen in columbus just because it happens in columbus, while cincinnatians seem to be looking inward at themselves because they care much more about things that happen near to them. I wouldn't say columbusers are more liberal as much as just uninterested in what others around them are doing. Its more a libertarian live and let live than a genuine liberalism. Columbus is a neutral place where those from elsewhere can come to do business or get an education. Cincinnati is a much older place where people share a way of life that has been created there over more than two centuries. I've been able to make professional connections in columbus more easily because complete strangers will do business with each other because that is why they came to columbus in the first place, but i can't honestly say I've every made a friend there. I've found it harder to make professional connections in Cincinnati, but I've made true, deep friendships there that are unimaginable in columbus based on my experiences. These two cities really are an apple and an orange despite the superficial statistical similarities.
Last edited by Matthew Hall; 12-14-2011 at 01:24 PM..
Cincinnati "feels" bigger because it is bigger. 20% bigger by population and 30% by gross metropolitan product. It 'controls' more of its own economy. Think P&G, Kroger, Macy's, cincinnati milacron, Ashland Chemical, convergys, fifth-third. Even GE aviation and toyota to some degree despite being part of mutinationals headquartered elsewhere. I'm constantly amazed at how columbusers talk about anything that happens in ohio as if it is local while cincinnatians don't even seem to be aware columbus exists. columbusers seem to be looking out at the world because they don't particularly value things that happen in columbus just because it happens in columbus, while cincinnatians seem to be looking inward at themselves because they care much more about things that happen near to them. I wouldn't say columbusers are more liberal as much as just uninterested in what others around them are doing. Its more a libertarian live and let live than a genuine liberalism. Columbus is a neutral place where those from elsewhere can come to do business or get an education. Cincinnati is a much older place where people share a way of life that has been created there over more than two centuries. I've been able to make professional connections in columbus more easily because complete strangers will do business with each other because that is why they came to columbus in the first place, but i can't honestly say I've every made a friend there. I've found it harder to make professional connections in Cincinnati, but I've made true, deep friendships there that are unimaginable in columbus based on my experiences. These two cities really an apple and an orange despite the superficial statistical similarities.
Cincinnati – Northern Kentucky $100,594
Columbus metro area $93,353
a difference of about 7 billion. Not quite 30%
And, how does Cinci have more control of its economy? I dont know all the small city names, but they seem to have about the same number of fortune 1000 companies.
Cincinnati is improving, in the city limits that is. OTR, UC area, and Northside are growing rapidly and it is crazy what it used to be 10 years ago for basically every area in the greater region. However, we need to stop using our money poorly on streetcars. I understand alot of you will attack me for this but we need to improve our current transportation arteries such as 71 and 75 instead of making new issues. United States loses plenty of money due to heavy traffic on underserviced roads and highways.
Yuck, yuck and quadrupal yuck.
Spending even more money on more highway construction/expansion is precisely what we should not be doing. Added highway lanes do little to nothing to alleviate traffic congestion and is primarily responsible for even more sprawl.
Cincinnati – Northern Kentucky $100,594
Columbus metro area $93,353
a difference of about 7 billion. Not quite 30%
And, how does Cinci have more control of its economy? I dont know all the small city names, but they seem to have about the same number of fortune 1000 companies.
You're not going to win this with Matt. He neither believes in statistics (unless he is offering them, of course) nor does he believe Columbus is a major city with any relevant economic strengths.
Win? Whose keeping score? CSAs are meaningless and the my MSA numbers are from brookings' State of Metropolitan America report at http://www.brookings.edu/metro/StateOfMetroAmerica/. They give cincy 2,171,000 and columbus 1,800,000. That is about 17% I admit, but I reject CSAs utterly. The market capitalization value of a company is the best way to measure it, not its ranking in a list. P&G's market cap alone (177 billion) is many times that of all S&P 500 companies headquartered in Columbus. Add Kroger, Macy's, and Fifth Third which are all over 10 billion in market capitalization. Columbus largest in cardinal at 14 billion. Limited brands is at 11 billion. Nationwide is a mutual. Its 2010 annual report states the value of its assets at about 10.5 billion which would put it third. The other columbus-based businesses are all much smaller. This concentration of economic power is what matters, not the amount of money that may pass through a company from its customers to its suppliers in a year's time. Creating wealth is more important than transferring it. Columbus economic strength is its low costs and easy access. Columbus should play this for all its worth. If it wants to originate ideas and businesses instead of just lure established ones, it will have to change somehow. Columbus could be a midwestern Austin or even Portland if it did. But it isn't that now. Take it as friendly advice.
Last edited by Matthew Hall; 12-14-2011 at 05:34 PM..
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