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My family is moving to Cincinnati. We’re an interracial couple (black and white) with two kids. I’m looking for recommendations as to where we might live. What neighborhoods/towns are best in terms of diversity/acceptance of interracial families? Also, what schools ( elementary) are best for biracial kids? Thanks for any advice.
Princeton city schools is the most diverse district in the Cincinnati area. The district covers Springdale, Sharonville, Glendale, Lincoln Heights, Woodlawn and Evendale. Springdale has a very diverse population including blacks, whites and hispanics. I personally know alot of mixed families that live there and it's my home neighborhood.
The Princeton district is also rated Excellent, and they've rebuilt or renovated every single elementary school. I believe sometime next year they will break ground on the new Highschool/Middleschool/Community center where the existing campus now stands.
if you are interested in living in the city, pleasant ridge might be a good choice. things tend to be racially segregated by street somewhat (i haven't found anywhere in cincinnati that isn't), but in pleasant ridge life-in-general is fairly mixed and the local public montessori school is absolutely mixed. it is generally quite a safe neighborhood with a library, good park, and some restaurants and shopping within walking distance.
college hill and kennedy heights also come to mind. northside is mixed on paper but i wonder if the gentrification process going on there causes some additional tension.
although they are 95% white, the east side neighborhoods (oakley, hyde park, columbia tusculum) will be absolutely accepting of a mixed-race couple.
the springdale area is a good choice too. you are a little farther from the city, but it is a nice middle-class diverse area up there.
maybe tell us some other characteristics you want to see in your town or neighborhood (walkability, affordable, etc.) to help us get a better idea of what you're looking for.
There are no neighborhoods with significant numbers of bi-racial families. One of the most often cited neighborhoods is the one my S-I-L and her AA husband and BR children live in. On her street there is not one other white person. Forget that idea.
You will experience absolutely no discrimination in any middle class neighborhood you move to here and your children will be welcomed at every school.
Do what people do who are not fixated on race. Find a really good neighborhood with good schools (if they are not to go private) and then find the best house in that neighborhood you can afford.
Welcome to Cincinnati, bebe76! Good suggestions all way around . (the diverse, top-notch Princeton school district, the Pleasant Ridge/Kennedy Heights communities, etc. ) But tell us more about yourselves as far as what you're looking for job-wise, transportation-wise, entertainment-wise, etc. As wilson1010 pointed out, Cincinnati is a collection of many diverse neighborhoods, some very near downtown, some many miles away. Where would you like to fit in in this fabric of communities?
The most thoroughly "integrated" section of Greater Cincinnati is the adjoining pair of upper-middle-class enclaves within the city known as Paddock Hills and North Avondale. It's there and in the most affluent corner of Kennedy Hts that someone can take a stroll in the neighborhood and not look or feel out of place. And it's the rule, not the exception, that households are so interspersed there's no "White" or "Black" end or side of a street. Similarly, the northern end of College Hill is fairly well-off and race-neutral.
What each of the places mentioned above have in common is, you need to have a fair amount of money before you can rent or buy there. The homes are large and appealing so don't come cheap (although typically they're priced lower than comparable dwellings in suburbia.) A step or two down the economic scale, but still great places to live, are Silverton, Westwood, and Madisonville, with the latter two being part of Cincinnati and Silverton being an independent city but connected to the Cincy school district.
Outside Cincinnati's boundaries, the aforementioned Springdale along with Forest Park are historically the most popular communities of choice for AA and multiracial families. Largely but far from entirely well-to-do Wyoming, Montgomery, and West Chester are also somewhat diverse, and each stay in high demand owing in no small part to their superb public schools. The suburb called North College Hill, along with nearby parts of Springfield and Colerain Townships, has gone from being almost entirely Caucasian to being increasingly "multicultural" (student populations in NCH are now roughly 80% Black, and average about 35% in the township districts.) But those locales don't score so high with me because the transition is going unhappily. Many of the newer arrivals are taking advantage - not always in the right way - of homes and apartment complexes available to Section 8 recipients. A good number of the current inhabitants, no small quantity of whom are near or past retirement age, harbor resentments. The same scenario is playing out in Cincinnati's Mt Airy section. So, while "standing out" wouldn't be an issue you wouldn't necessarily be welcomed with open arms.
Two locales with "lawn" in their names may have undergone racial turnover to the point of being popularly perceived as AA communities, but there are sections within them which stay quietly "integrated." Suburban Woodlawn - part of the Princeton school district brought up earlier - includes the post-WWII Mayview Forest neighborhood of Cape Cod and "contemporary" homes tucked in between Grove and Riddle Rd's west of Springfield Pike. The northern Cincinnati area known as Roselawn stays mixed to some degree in the portion lying south of Section Rd; east of Reading Rd is where all the west-east side streets' names end in "Place" and contain Capes and small Colonials. West of Reading Rd, you'll find a few smaller houses and a lot of inviting Tudors in the "garden district."
As a Caucasian easing into middle age and battling to stay middle-class, I've seen the social landscapes of both my actual and chosen hometowns continually shift toward being "color-blind." Slurs once commonly heard are almost completely off the radar. Tolerance is now the norm; more folks have taken the next step and are fully accepting. And it's more common to see complete assimilation happening while "sellout" and "n-word-lover" are losing ground as popular terms and thought patterns. I sincerely believe that few locations in Greater Cincinnati should be considered off-limits as places to think about settling down. My own Southern-raised parents treated as non-events the arrival of an AA family and one headed by a physician from Mexico on their formerly lily-White street in Wyoming. (This was helped greatly by the fact that each had the financial means to live there.) When longtime friends decided to take their relationship to the next level and move in together, against the advice of most they looked toward Boston's outer suburbs and ultimately purchased a house in an entirely Caucasian enclave. That turned out to be a non-event as well. Being the warm, outgoing people they are, these friends (White woman, AA man) like nothing more than to host backyard cookouts in warmer weather. I and the rest of their families (by blood and by choice) haul our pale and dark selves out there while neighbors either pass through to say hello or grab places at a table. Every child present is pulled into a group to play on the trampoline or ride bikes in the street or run from house to house or whatever. Only once in seven years have I witnessed anything "untoward," when a pair of unfamiliar White people strolling down the street hurled the stink eye as several carloads of folks (mostly AA) pulled up at the same time and everybody was boisterously greeting each other. I caught it and shot it back, and they kept going without a word.
So, outline more criteria for us and we'll fill in the blanks. Happy MLK Day!
gouguy... Kind of long winded but I agree our society has come a long way with respect to racial tolerance, including mixed couples. I also agree in many neighborhoods if you can afford to live there you are accepted. Economic segregation seems to be more prevalent than racial.
There are no neighborhoods with significant numbers of bi-racial families. One of the most often cited neighborhoods is the one my S-I-L and her AA husband and BR children live in. On her street there is not one other white person. Forget that idea.
You will experience absolutely no discrimination in any middle class neighborhood you move to here and your children will be welcomed at every school.
Do what people do who are not fixated on race. Find a really good neighborhood with good schools (if they are not to go private) and then find the best house in that neighborhood you can afford.
Wilson, I completely agree that they should look for what they want and to hell with everyone else. Yet, I'd say some areas would probably be more welcoming than others. Although I must say all the racists I know simply don't know any person of their particular bigotry's focus. I did witness discrimination at my middle class high school on the basis of race, though this was indeed a tiny minority. The issue was glossed over time and again. Such things do occur and need to be taken into account, that said, Wilson is mostly correct in saying you will not have a problem in the vast majority of Cincinnati neighborhoods.
Some of the most accepting by race neighborhoods in greater Cincinnati that are desirable are mason especially, westchester, liberty township, and also sycamore. Areas north of the city are much more diverse than others being the amount of Indian students, mixed like your son, and your everyday white and aa teenagers in schools. I am sure that you will love the neighborhoods I've mentioned to your liking.
The areas I would stay away from are most of the areas people who have commented before have mentioned... College hill and my airy?? Are we being serious? I don't think this family wants their kid ending up like the street trash walking around colerain avenue which looks like it's becoming trashier and trashier each month. The westside of the city seems to be the woes choice if you want your kid to be accepted into a good school where children accept him for who he is and not what he looks like, only heartless, mind lackered racists do such. But if you're looking for more bang for your buck definitely consider green township on the west a major option. Affordable, definitely convenient, safe, suburban atmosphere for sure even though you are less than 30 minutes from the city.GREAT private schools (St ignatius, james, etc) which has it's share of kids who fit right in just like your son. I would definitely check out the neighborhoods around north bend road in green township limits along with rybolt people love the access and easiness of westside suburbs such as green and miami twps. STAY OUT OF CINCINNATI PUBLIC SYSTEM. You won't regret sending your son to a private school, cincinnati has some of the best private schools around if yo ask anyone just keep out of city limit public schools in obviously bad areas (college hill, colerain (not in city but is becoming bad), mt airy, finneytown, forest park, greenhills, springfield township, etc) green township, Miami township, parts of colerain township, and parts of the city on the edges of limits on the west are your best bet for the lifestyle you're looking for. If you didn't already figure it out I'm a westside native and anyone over here can tell you they wouldn't leave it for anything, that's why I love it, actual sense of community and safety at the same time
Some of the most accepting by race neighborhoods in greater Cincinnati that are desirable are mason especially, westchester, liberty township, and also sycamore. Areas north of the city are much more diverse than others being the amount of Indian students, mixed like your son, and your everyday white and aa teenagers in schools. I am sure that you will love the neighborhoods I've mentioned to your liking.
The areas I would stay away from are most of the areas people who have commented before have mentioned... College hill and my airy?? Are we being serious? I don't think this family wants their kid ending up like the street trash walking around colerain avenue which looks like it's becoming trashier and trashier each month. The westside of the city seems to be the woes choice if you want your kid to be accepted into a good school where children accept him for who he is and not what he looks like, only heartless, mind lackered racists do such. But if you're looking for more bang for your buck definitely consider green township on the west a major option. Affordable, definitely convenient, safe, suburban atmosphere for sure even though you are less than 30 minutes from the city.GREAT private schools (St ignatius, james, etc) which has it's share of kids who fit right in just like your son. I would definitely check out the neighborhoods around north bend road in green township limits along with rybolt people love the access and easiness of westside suburbs such as green and miami twps. STAY OUT OF CINCINNATI PUBLIC SYSTEM. You won't regret sending your son to a private school, cincinnati has some of the best private schools around if yo ask anyone just keep out of city limit public schools in obviously bad areas (college hill, colerain (not in city but is becoming bad), mt airy, finneytown, forest park, greenhills, springfield township, etc) green township, Miami township, parts of colerain township, and parts of the city on the edges of limits on the west are your best bet for the lifestyle you're looking for. If you didn't already figure it out I'm a westside native and anyone over here can tell you they wouldn't leave it for anything, that's why I love it, actual sense of community and safety at the same time
Referring to people as trash really doesn't help your point.
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