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Derby Week gets national attention and tourists and various celeberities and rich folks coming to town, but is more of an excuse to party for the locals...maybe sort of quasi-madi gras, but the local scene has moved beyond that...the Derby stuff is sort of an outlier.
Cincy has Tall Stacks and Oktoberfest, which are pretty cool events in their own right. One thing Cincy does have that I really like and Louisville doesnt are
1. Bockfest (this is more the urbanist/hipster version of Oktoberfest, perhaps)
2. The Fringe Festival (which is a great performing arts thing if you are into dance and theatre)
...and Cincy has the incomparable FIndlay Market, which is one of my favorite spots in Ohio. I alsways tell folks to check it out.
Louisville HAD a market like that (the Haymarket), but it was destroyed by urban renewal...twice (the original and...just recently.... the relocated market).
So Cincy is the only city in the Ohio Valley outside of Pbgh to retain an inner city market area. Findlay Market is great. I think after that Gateway Quarter is redone they should focus on gentrifying stuff around Findlay Market.
Dayton, that is a pretty good analysis. Have you walked the areas of Louisville that got urban renewed lately? The projects are all gone. There is brand new row housing and apartments all around downtown, and a huge new development is going into the former Shephard Square.
Tall Stacks cannot compete with Thunder Over Louisville for crowds or national prominence (Thunder is rebroadcast for millions around the world in the US Military as the 4th of July show since it is the largest show in North America).
Look, I love Cincinnati. Any lover of urban cities cannot help but like it. But you do not see the national media or hipsters or progressives themselves mentioning Cincinnati as a "cool" place to be like they do for Louisville. The Louisville buzz is plastered all over the net and for good reason; the place is humming. I was born in Chicago, and have lived in several states. I live in FL now and have been strongly considering Portland since I go there often for work. I can tell you that the argument here may be moot; Portland has as much urban, progressive, and hipster culture as Louisville and Cincy combined. And until Cincy (and Louisville) get serious about transit, they will never be Portland.
Here is to hoping that both Louisville and Cincy continue their renewal though, since I think the area must start thinking as a region, as weird as that sounds. Tampa and Orlando promote themselves as a region, are the same distance as Cincy and Louisville, and they are trying to build high speed rail connecting the cities.
I used to live in Cincinnati. I was there a total of around 7 years. I love Cincinnati but I dislike snow. I have many good friends in the Natti and miss going to all the clubs that used to be in OTR.
I lived in PDX for about two years. I also have some good friends in PDX. I miss not needing a car to get around b/c the public transit system was so good.
PDX is a lot safer crime wise than Cincinnati. Yes PDX does have its dangers but having lived and worked in both in a downtown outside environment I can tell you that I was not on guard even half as much in downtown PDX as I was in downtown CVG. The worst time I remember working outside in downtown CVG was during the riots. Since the entire city was forced into a curfew my roomates and I bought some beer and stayed inside for three days. They set the dumpster outside of our apartment on fire and OMG that made everything smell for a few days. In PDX I have seen mass amounts of people together for what would seem like a riot, however it was usually people camped in parks protesting something. In essence violence wise stay on your toes in the Natti. Crime wise go w/ PDX. Bike riders in PDX like to scream at motorists for multiple reasons. Bike riders in Cincinnati are riding very fast trying not to get mugged.
Weather wise I would go w/ the Natti. In Natti you get four seasons. In PDX you get nine months of the grey blanket w/ moisture. Yes I know the summers in PDX are awesome but being as the summer only lasts for about two or three months I would go w/ the Natti.
It's ok to not like Cincinnati. I remember so many of my friends in the Natti saying that they hated the city. Funny b/c they never left. You can say you don't like Cincinnati and you won't get lynched.
Portland on the other hand is not ok to not like. If you are living in Portland and you state that you don't like it many people freak out on you. I know b/c this happened to me when my co-workers found out I was moving away.
In Cincinnati when I told people I was moving away their reply was simply, "So when will you be back?"
I miss both Cincinnati and Portland for different reasons. I love river cities w/ hills and a tall thrown together industrial build. CVG and PDX both meet this criteria. I love both cities but ironically now live in neither one. I would encourage you to go and spend a good amount of time in Cincinnati before you commit. From what I've heard Cincinnati is making some tremendous steps forward. When I was living in the Natti about 15 years ago I was working as a valet and we would often discuss how great it would be to have a casino in downtown b/c it would be so busy and bring in a ton of business. Well now that is actually becoming a reality. I have also however seen much of the core business district in Cincinnati die out and move over to the Kentucky side of the river. PDX would be a safer move for you b/c it's simply a smaller version of Seattle. In a sense if you moved from Seattle to PDX it would be like moving from Cincinnati to Dayton. Moving to CVG is going to be a much larger change for you in a cultural sense.
Good luck with whatever choice you make. Just remember that regardless of what city you choose that Seattle isn't going to run away while you are gone. You can always return if you wish to. You are young and thus still have plenty of time. If you choose Cincinnati please hit up Skyline Chili for me. If you choose Portland please hit up Pepino's for me.
Since so many of you only read the title of the thread w/o having the attention span to actually get to the crux of the matter to help the OP, I will quote for you what the issue at hand is. It's not a choice between Portland and Cincinnati, it's a couple moving to Cincinnati who want reassurance that their lifestyle will be accepted in Cincinnati. To the which I, and others, have replied with a resounding yes. I even mentioned several neighborhoods (when combined represent a large swath of Cincinnati) where they should consider moving to avoid the notoriously conservative portions in the Cincinnati metro.
How this has turned into what this thread has become is beyond me. "Oh, move to this city instead." "Oh, this city is way more of this than that." "Oh don't move to Cincinnati, move to Timbuktu." "etc."
At this late time, I think it's crucial that we jettison this discussion of politics and CUR ("Cincy Urban Renewal") and reorient ourselves to CUF, Clifton, Northside, and OTR, and how these core neighborhoods might benefit the couple from the PNW (i.e., the OP). Somewhere along the line, as many of us continue to parry needless intrusions by those who wish to divert this thread to other cities, we've lost our focus of what was actually being asked:
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhizohm
Hello Everyone!
Thanks for taking a moment to read this thread.
I am a native of Wisconsin who has been living in Seattle Washington for the last 6 years. I moved out here for a variety of reasons, most prominently to go to school for Acupuncture and East Asian Medicine, but also because I enjoy the progressive culture that the Pacific Northwest cities offer. Now my fiance & business partner and I are thinking of moving to Cincinnati at the encouragement of her family, who is connected to the medical and business community there. Financially it is a great fit-- we are fortunate to have an open-minded MD in the family who is excited about promoting our East Asian medical practice-- while Seattle and Portland are notorious for having relatively "saturated" markets for our field. Also, real estate is obviously more affordable and frankly of higher quality in Cincinnati, which is nice. However, we are concerned about whether we will fit in and be able to enjoy the way of life, culturally speaking, that we do out here in the PNW.
To give you an idea of our cultural disposition, Portland is kind of our ideal city. It is bikeable, transit-oriented, has composting and other green programs, supports local business and art, and hosts one of the most socially progressive populations in the country, while still maintaining a not-too-big, almost small-town feel. Seattle is also great, and similar culturally, but is more expensive and much harder to get around due to topography. Seattle has more ethnic/racial and international diversity, which is a plus, but cost of living and navigability push us more toward Portland. Both cities also have a great culture of supporting local, organic foods.
We are both Buddhist/Daoist and feel great to have those communities out here in the PNW. We realize that moving to Cincinnati would be sacrificing that--none of the lineages we practice are represented there. However, part of Buddhist/Daoist living is finding a way to take the middle path, lead a moderate life and be able to actually spend time meditating and cultivating. The more reasonable cost of living and the financial prospects that Cincinnati offers certainly support having more freedom in that sense. Also, Cincinnati seems to need people teaching things like meditation and Qigong, which we can do! Most of our family and connections in Cincy are Catholic, which we love and respect, but we are concerned about finding acceptance and more importantly like-minded community.
We don't hunt, we're not into professional sports, I drink microbrew beer (love those German and Belgian beers too!) and only fair-trade coffee or tea, we eat mostly organic, we like to dance to house music, world-beat, salsa, samba, etc or listen to progressive folk music live, and we are not planning to have children. We make green choices, have semi-open relationship boundaries, support local business and artisans and generally refuse to shop at big-box retail. My ideal existence would involve walking and biking as my primary modes of transportation.
I am 28 and my partner is 30. I personally don't identify as "intellectual" and see the word a little pejoratively as a person who tries to lead a Heart-first existence, but when I lived in Wisconsin it was a frequent charge against me by people who found my resistance to eating processed food products and shopping at Walmart unreasonable and "elitist." My partner is known for being more liberal and outspoken than I am on many social issues.
Will we fit in in Cincinnati? Certainly we are encouraged by seeing more urban renewal in the OTR region, which probably has the potential to support our more walkable, bikeable and urbane existence in the near future. And I personally LOVE Cincinnati's climate-- best in the nation perhaps only second to Oakland, CA, in my opinion. The architecture is also phenomenal and we are excited to see the OTR Foundation promoting sustainable and green redevelopment in the region while preserving historic architecture.
So can a progressive/green, early 30s, semi-polyamorous, Buddhist/Daoist couple not planning to have children really find community in Cincinnati?
Needless to say, I've submitted not only TomJone123's earlier plea to refocus, but the OP's original post for review. No, I'm not stepping in as a moderator, but I do have skin invested in this game and long ago I've grown weary of forum members who continually send threads plowing off the tracks. At this point, can we all simply reread the OP's post--and hope that the PNW couple is still listening and interested?
Dayton, that is a pretty good analysis. Have you walked the areas of Louisville that got urban renewed lately? The projects are all gone. There is brand new row housing and apartments all around downtown, and a huge new development is going into the former Shephard Square.
Tall Stacks cannot compete with Thunder Over Louisville for crowds or national prominence (Thunder is rebroadcast for millions around the world in the US Military as the 4th of July show since it is the largest show in North America).
Look, I love Cincinnati. Any lover of urban cities cannot help but like it. But you do not see the national media or hipsters or progressives themselves mentioning Cincinnati as a "cool" place to be like they do for Louisville. The Louisville buzz is plastered all over the net and for good reason; the place is humming. I was born in Chicago, and have lived in several states. I live in FL now and have been strongly considering Portland since I go there often for work. I can tell you that the argument here may be moot; Portland has as much urban, progressive, and hipster culture as Louisville and Cincy combined. And until Cincy (and Louisville) get serious about transit, they will never be Portland.
Here is to hoping that both Louisville and Cincy continue their renewal though, since I think the area must start thinking as a region, as weird as that sounds. Tampa and Orlando promote themselves as a region, are the same distance as Cincy and Louisville, and they are trying to build high speed rail connecting the cities.
Cincy has so much development going on here is whats going on
Streetcar system
Light rail system
Casino
mercy hostpital
rockwood exchange(retail center)
many lofts and condos high rises going up right now(they fill right up in the heart of downtown)
riverfront park
21c museum
the banks(restaurants, retail, condos center/lofts)
their are many many more things going on i just put the main stuff and only the stuff THAT IS ACTUALY BEING BUILT RIGHT NOW NOT THE STUFF PLANNED) anyway you make it seem like everyone cares about Louisville nobody cares about that city. Also with the high speed rail its only going to be cincinnati, columbus and cleveland.....we are leaving louisville out. Also CINCINNATI is cool....more hip then louisville! one more thing THE OP DOESNT HAVE ANY INTEREST IN LOUISVILLE!!!!
Look, I love Cincinnati. Any lover of urban cities cannot help but like it. But you do not see the national media or hipsters or progressives themselves mentioning Cincinnati as a "cool" place to be like they do for Louisville. The Louisville buzz is plastered all over the net and for good reason; the place is humming. I was born in Chicago, and have lived in several states. I live in FL now and have been strongly considering Portland since I go there often for work. I can tell you that the argument here may be moot; Portland has as much urban, progressive, and hipster culture as Louisville and Cincy combined. And until Cincy (and Louisville) get serious about transit, they will never be Portland.
It frustrates me to see other cities that have lesser architectural and historic grandeur steal the light from Cincy. I hope that long term due to cultural shifts the word finally breaks out and people understand what a glorious city this could be if it was put into the care of the right people. The hip people should be flocking to Cincy based on architecture and its history, sadly due to many cultural hurtles its not happening - hopefully these can be torn down as times change.
I hope this happens as the hip people would actually bring the city back to its glory and prevent it from falling into permanent mediocrity give it the kind of care that a city with top tier historic architecture and a real urban environment (albeit a degraded one) deserves.
Louisville is pretty much like Columbus mixed with a splash of Covington, what's left of the old neighborhoods is negligible, and from what I've seen of the built environment its mediocre (about at the same level as Columbus but somewhat more Southern) yet due to a somewhat more open culture (its still provincial in its own right) its attracting people. This is frustrating.
Everytime I have been to OTR of late it's been mobbed with yuppies and hipsters. I was at City Flea in Washington Park last Saturday night. I attempted to get something to eat at The Anchor on Race and 15th. They had an hour and a half wait. aTavola had a 45 minute wait. Senate was the same. I wound up at Abigail Street where my wife spotted three stools open at their bar, so we hawked them (family of 3.) Abigail Street had a wait of an hour and a half as well. What's my point in all of this?
OTR is already on target for attracting the young and hip, and they have mobbed the place. You can't put in housing fast enough. The CBD, OTR, and Pendleton now have 13,000 residents and a shortage of housing in light of the demand. Cincinnati is starting to come into the national spotlight for it's accomplishments. Don't let a few suburban posters on CD throw you a curve ball and give you the wrong impression. Cincinnati is up and coming, and I predict it will eventually have the rep. as a hip place to be. Especially given the vibrancy that has taken hold in OTR.
BTW - in the short time I have been in Cincinnati, OTR has come alive on another level. It was not at all vibrant when I first came here two short years ago. I honestly am astounded at how it has changed so very quickly.
Last edited by TomJones123; 12-14-2012 at 09:26 AM..
Cincy has so much development going on here is whats going on Streetcar system
Light rail system
Casino
mercy hostpital
rockwood exchange(retail center)
many lofts and condos high rises going up right now(they fill right up in the heart of downtown)
riverfront park
21c museum
the banks(restaurants, retail, condos center/lofts)
their are many many more things going on i just put the main stuff and only the stuff THAT IS ACTUALY BEING BUILT RIGHT NOW NOT THE STUFF PLANNED) anyway you make it seem like everyone cares about Louisville nobody cares about that city. Also with the high speed rail its only going to be cincinnati, columbus and cleveland.....we are leaving louisville out. Also CINCINNATI is cool....more hip then louisville! one more thing THE OP DOESNT HAVE ANY INTEREST IN LOUISVILLE!!!!
BTW, I would genuinely like to know the status of the streetcar project? When I was there I kept hearing talks of it possibly being up and running by Spring 2013; obviously that isn't going to happen. I've talked to a few people I know back in Cincy, and they virtually forgot about the project until I brought it up, so apparently it isn't receiving much media coverage.
And what light rail project are you speaking of? I've heard of a few ideas thrown out there for light rail, but nothing remotely serious. Cincinnati missed that boat ten years ago (i.e., MetroMoves). A grand opportunity turned down.
High speed rail? Didn't Kasich kill that plan a couple years ago, unless there is something new in the works that I'm unaware of.
Yeah anyone talking about Cincinnati who lived here 10 years ago doesn't have a valid opinion anymore. It's completely different. The so-called "riot" is now just a minor footnote in the city's history. Almost nobody who lives in OTR now was here when the riot happened. They haven't even heard of it.
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