Best place for my family? (Cincinnati, Milford: new home, neighborhood, purchase)

[erinpjensen]

Hello, my family is moving to the Cincinnati area this summer.

Here is what we are looking for: strong nieghborhood feel, good restaurants, cafes, a nice "main" street wtih cafes, coffee shops, boutiques, etc. We are politically liberal and progressive. Excellent school system (prefer public but would consider private if necessary). Parents involved in childrens' lives and education. Commute less than 1/2 hour into downtown (including traffic). Housing less than 500k. I am a stay at home mom so I'd love to find a network of other moms who stay at home.

I read the other post from the woman who asked about schools. It looks like Hyde Park may be an option for us but I am not clear about the Hyde Park school system, if there is such a thing.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

[jlrosen]

I would recomend Hyde Park, the public school there is Kilgor which is very good. Also Gaslight Clifton is very nice. The school there is Fairview German Language School which provides bilingual instruction from k-8. as for high schools you have walnut hills and SCPA both of which are excellent.

Hyde park is maybe ten or twelve minutes to downtown, gaslight clifton is even less.

[Sunnydee]

Hyde Park is exactly what you have described.

The down side to Hyde Park is that housing is expensive to purchase there and the schools are Cincinnati Public Schools which don't have the best scores/reputation. As indicated above, there are some good schools within the CPS district and the ones listed above are good. If you want excellent schools and the same kind of vibe I'd look at Mariemont.

[SonnyDaze]

Madiera/Mariemont are exactly what you are looking for.

[jlrosen]

Originally Posted by CincyExpert

Madiera/Mariemont are exactly what you are looking for.

but more conservative

[Briolat21]

Do you want urban? Yuppie-outpost within the city? Suburban? New Suburban (big box and new homes- some that are quite lovley) or old Suburban? (older homes, leafy trees, little tiny replicate downtowns)...

There are a lot of places approx 1/2 hour from downtown that will fit your description - some within the city of Cincinnati itself, some outside the city...

[wastina]

You might want to look at the village of Glendale (The Village of Glendale, Ohio). It is a small community with older homes, has a village square with bakery and restaurants, and has pockets of active liberals, although the dominant political view (in keeping with Cincinnati) is conservative. It's part of the Princeton CIty School district, which has strong programs for academic acheivers but gets mixed ratings in general (and for "middling" achievers). There is a local private elementary (Bethany school) and bussing to other private schools, also.

If you don't know about Glendale, it's worth a look. It's a comparable to Hyde Park, but homes and lots are larger, for a lesser price.

[Frazzledmomofboys]

You should totally look at Terrace Park, and then maybe Mariemont. TP has all the things you mentioned... awesome stay at home mom network, walkable school (ranked one of the top in Cincinnati), homes range from 200 - over a million, so you get a lot of different people, but I will tell you, the main focus is the kids. Community pool and tennis court, complete with own summer swim team. Most of the sports actually run out of TP, so many times the kids can walk or ride there bikes. Lots of newcomers activities. One great example... in TP, once you get to know some people, if you have a baby, the community provides you 3 meals a week for almost 3 months. Lots of liberals, but a good mix.

The only thing missing is that you need to drive to Milford or Mariemont for the cafe part. 5 minutes east or west, though, gets you good options.

Mariemont has the cafe part, and the school part, but I think TP has a more neighborhood feel. Just my two cents.

[squids]

Originally Posted by Frazzledmomofboys

You should totally look at Terrace Park, and then maybe Mariemont. TP has all the things you mentioned...

I would NOT consider Terrace Park unless you've had time to get to know the locals. There are many 10 cent millionaires there who have an inferiority complex in relation to their truly wealthy neighbors in Indian Hill.

Indian Hill residents are generally very wealthy and have nothing to prove to anybody. Terrace Park folks often have haughty yuppie attitudes which are most unbecoming. It's a pretty area, but so are Milford and the other outlying areas. Milford's decent, but like many Cincinnati areas, it's slow and a bit out of touch with the outside world.