Any 'urban' "hip' towns on the outskirts of Cincinnati? Great schools, walkable downtowns? (Loveland: houses, safe area)

[NicoleWh]

Hi, my husband and I and our 3 kids are thinking of relocating to the Cincinnati area. We currently live in Whitefish Bay, WI. TOP schools, we can walk anywhere, to the mall, coffee shop, library, ice cream shop. My husband can scoot to downtown Milwaukee easily. We are hoping to find a similar community near/right on the border of Cincinnati with excellent public schools. Are target home price ranges from $250,000 to $350,000. Anyone no of anything like this? I keep finding great homes around Cincinnati with great schools, but they are all in gated communities or just too rural and feel isolated. Any advice or info will be greatly appreciated!!

[motorman]

Originally Posted by NicoleWh

...We currently live in Whitefish Bay, WI. TOP schools, we can walk anywhere, to the mall, coffee shop, library, ice cream shop. My husband can scoot to downtown Milwaukee easily. We are hoping to find a similar community near/right on the border of Cincinnati with excellent public schools...

Two questions and one large concern... First, in what part of the Cincy metro will your husband be working and what will be the maximum time that he'll be willing to spend getting there? Second, Cincinnati itself... Your post suggests that you may harbor some kind of aversion for the city itself. Please clarify.

[Sarah Perry]

It might help us if you'd post a couple links to houses you think are appropriate.

That said, the words urban and hip in this area basically translate into a smallish number of older, core neighborhoods within Cincinnati. Northside, Clifton, Over the Rhine, Mt. Adams, possibly Hyde Park and Mt. Lookout. Most of these are somewhat walkable, although probably not in as broad a sense as you are thinking about. Quality of schools within the Cincinnati Public district ranges from abysmal to excellent, but the excellent schools are limited to a few neighborhoods plus specialized magnet schools which students have to test or specifically apply to get into. I believe rankings of specific schools are available online.

I suggest you read some other recent relocation related threads on this board to see if they yield any ideas or more specific questions.

[Joeytraveler]

Without knowing any more details as far as how far is to far I'd say check out mariemont.

[NicoleWh]

Thank you both for your replies. Travel time is no concern, my husband works from home. But we do love to go out a lot, and he loves his scooter, but it doesn't travel on highways, so being connected to the city instead of outside of it would be ideal. (We do have a car though.) I know what we're looking for sounds somewhat confusing....we just love the city like feel of our neighborhood right now, and are looking for the same with great public schools. No aversion to the city, we just want where we live to be really safe (for our 3 kids). We're not too picky about a house, just need 4 bedrooms (I realize this narrows it for us.)

I've looked at Hyde Park a bit, and I will check out the others! I've never heard of magnet schools. You have to test into them? I've looked a lot at rankings. So far I think Loveland looked good, and people seem to like West Chester....I'll continue to read the other posts.

Thank you both!

[NicoleWh]

Thanks! I will check out Mariemont. Distance is not an issue, we just need a safe area with great public schools, and preferably an area that's not cut off by highways (so my husband can go around the city in his scooter from home.)

[kjbrill]

Soon as you say Good schools and Walkability together you severely reduce the selections in Cincinnati.

The Cincinnati neighborhoods already mentioned, providing you are willing to battle the CPS situation.

Try Mariemont and Wyoming. They both have good schools and are more compact and walkable. They also are reputed to be high priced as to the amount of house you get for these very reasons.

[t45209]

...but neither Wyoming nor Mariemont are anything close to "hip".

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by t45209

...but neither Wyoming nor Mariemont are anything close to "hip".

Maybe so, but they do have good schools and are walkable. With 3 kids I doubt if "hip" is the major criteria.

[TomJones123]

None of Cincy's suburbs could be considered hip. Conservative and family oriented is what they are. But hipness you will not find.