Why does Cincinnati and all of Ohio have such a bad rep? (Columbus: unemployed, school)

[ProkNo5]

Originally Posted by Mplsite

The Ohio-West Virginia border area is Appalachian Ohio and not representative of most of Ohio.

As for the OP, look who Cincinnati voted for mayor: Cranley, the guy who tried to kill the streetcar and threw a big long temper tantrum makes it hard for other cities to take you guys seriously down there, and as for the Ohio governor: Kasich. Again. There's your bad rap and the reason why Ohio is looked down upon as backwards. So glad I got out of that state and live in a blue one where liberals actually vote so that our cities have some control over their destinies without having to fight tooth and nail with a pro-suburban-rural state that is hostile to urban interests, let alone anti-urban mayors. Not only did we vote for a female mayor, but we voted again for Al Franken. A couple of Ohio related fun facts: Dayton is our governor and for Columbusites, St Paul has a mayor Coleman too.

??? ...and Minneapolis is probably the most suburban city in the Midwest. There are freeways everywhere. I know y'all are doing some great things with Metro Transit and Nice Ride, but it still takes two hours to get from Blaine to U of M because of all that sprawly mess.

We may have fewer light rail miles per capita than most other cities, but we also have some of the shortest rush hour commute times...because we didn't go crazy building a bunch of crap. We also just happened to weather the recession better than most metros, a notoriously stable economy including more Fortune 500 companies then MSP and more Fortune 1000 companies per capita than MSP.

I'm glad you're happy in Minneapolis, but I'm not about to apologize for Cincinnati. It's a fantastic city.

[Wilson513]

On a good day, the Famous Blue Line makes the 11 mile trip from MOA to Target Field in 45 minutes. Its a little less than the distance from the Cincinnati City Center to Kenwood, or, about a 10 minute trip here by car. It cost over 750 million to build and operates whenever the union transit workers are not on strike. If memory serves me, it is 100% publicly funded so ridership means nada since local drivers are paying for themselves and the passengers on the train.

[flashes1]

Isn't Minneapolis where the mayor flashes gang signs and the citizens of the state of so enlightened they gave politicians like Al Franken, Walter Mondale and Michelle Bachman. Ha-ha..what a bunch of losers...enjoy Antarctica.

[RustBeltOptimist]

100% publicly funded? So it's free to ride? That's a pretty big whopper. It's a community good just like city streets and freeways, which rail riders help pay for despite not using too. The Portland business community obviously finds it worth it, or they would move. They have the money and power to leave if they desire. Instead, $6.6 billion in development and thousands of jobs created for $750 million up front and the ongoing operations (which are more than covered by the growing revenue from the job expansion or else we'd be seeing Portland payroll tax rates go up or the system shutting down.) Seems like a pretty good ROI to me.

A Cincinnati to Dayton line could work, it probably wouldn't be quite as lucrative given the Blue Line has seen the most total development of any transit line in the last twenty years, but given the flatter terrain and lower property values to build through, it wouldn't cost as much per mile. It would help people like the OP and numerous commuters and businesses in the area.

[goyguy]

Originally Posted by flashes1

..the citizens of the state of so enlightened (sic) they gave politicians like Al Franken, Walter Mondale and Michelle Bachman.

Two out of three ain't bad. But they also elected - TWICE - a former pro wrestler as governor and not even under his real name. OTOH Paul Wellstone is still missed.
It's not much different than Ohio with Howard Metzenbaum and Jean Schmidt (to name one example.) For every great public servant there's another who makes most thinking people cringe. A downside to SC - matter of fact - is that the latter kind is routinely voted in there. "Nikki"...Mark Sanford...Lindsey Graham...and of course Strom Thurmond for eons...yeesh!
Too many Yankees behave like "ugly Americans" abroad when they venture over the Mason-Dixon line. Pushy behavior and accent mocking deserve a bad attitude in return.
I thought of this thread and had a laugh last night, when a basketball game which was being played as part of a tournament in Charleston came on TV. The tourney brackets showed that one of the invited colleges was the University of Akron!

[Wilson513]

OK, let's see. The blue line cost 750 million to build. Expected ROI, what would be fair? 10%? 5%? Interest cost?

So, the revenues were 10million from fares. Expenses were 28 million for 2013. LEt's see, that would be a NEGATIVE 18million? And, that's before counting the ROI they didn't earn of what? $75 million? $37.5 million?

Note, local sales tax pays for this debacle.

Ridership has not increased in three years.

Do we really need this here?

[Rangerred]

Too many Yankees behave like "ugly Americans" abroad when they venture over the Mason-Dixon line. Pushy behavior and accent mocking deserve a bad attitude in return.

This is too true. As someone who grew up in Cincinnati but now lives in East Tennessee, I hear it all the time from family and friends back home. They were amazed when they came to visit that we wear shoes and have running water. In all seriousness, though, it was fun seeing people's preconceived notions of Appalachia be proven wrong. I think it's funny how many in Cincinnati, a city that's nearly Appalachian and borders Kentucky, have such a superiority complex regarding the South.

[UKWildcat1981]

Originally Posted by Rangerred

This is too true. As someone who grew up in Cincinnati but now lives in East Tennessee, I hear it all the time from family and friends back home. They were amazed when they came to visit that we wear shoes and have running water. In all seriousness, though, it was fun seeing people's preconceived notions of Appalachia be proven wrong. I think it's funny how many in Cincinnati, a city that's nearly Appalachian and borders Kentucky, have such a superiority complex regarding the South.

Yes that is true. Most people from Ohio hate the South and think they are way better than Southern people because they are from up north, Ohio is really a midwest state so they are not even true yankees like MA and NY citizens.

[flashes1]

Originally Posted by goyguy

Two out of three ain't bad. But they also elected - TWICE - a former pro wrestler as governor and not even under his real name. OTOH Paul Wellstone is still missed.

Now that you mentioned some of those names that I had long forgotten, one could hold Minnesota as having among the worst voters in the U.S.

The joke's on us. When will we ever learn?

[rogead]

Originally Posted by ProkNo5

??? ...and Minneapolis is probably the most suburban city in the Midwest. There are freeways everywhere. I know y'all are doing some great things with Metro Transit and Nice Ride, but it still takes two hours to get from Blaine to U of M because of all that sprawly mess.

We may have fewer light rail miles per capita than most other cities, but we also have some of the shortest rush hour commute times...because we didn't go crazy building a bunch of crap. We also just happened to weather the recession better than most metros, a notoriously stable economy including more Fortune 500 companies then MSP and more Fortune 1000 companies per capita than MSP.

I'm glad you're happy in Minneapolis, but I'm not about to apologize for Cincinnati. It's a fantastic city.

To begin with, I don't perceive Ohio, or Cincinnati in particular, to have bad reputations. I think Cincinnati is a wonderful city. I actually envy Ohio for having three interesting major cities so relatively close together.

The poster, Mplsite routinely goes onto the Columbus forum to trash that city. His negativity certainly doesn't represent very many people here. However, he may have somewhat of a point in regards to politics. Conservative politics often impede development of a city's infrastructure. For example, Wisconsin's governor remains one of the biggest obstacles to high speed rail between here and Chicago. Cincinnati has long had a conservative reputation--I think it may take a few more years to fully exorcise the ghost of Charles Keating--but I've always found that, in the end, the people of a large city are seldom accurately represented by politicians and moguls.

I would correct a couple of your statements. Minneapolis is far from the "most suburban city" in the Midwest. In fact, only Chicago has a greater population density among large Midwestern cities. St Paul is fourth (after Milwaukee). St Louis and Cleveland are the only two other cities with a population density over 5,000. The density in Minneapolis is over 7,000, in Cincinnati, it is under 4,000. That doesn't make one city better than the other, but it is a significant difference. Since it is the heart of a very large geographical area with few major population centers, Minneapolis does have a very extensive metro area in regards to land area. But even when one considers that fact, Minneapolis (MSP metro) has a greater population density than does Cincinnati (metro), whether measured by average density or population-weighted density.

Fortune 500 and 1000 numbers vary from year to year, but by my last count Minneapolis had seventeen F500 companies, while Cincinnati had ten. This would give Minneapolis a slight advantage in per capita numbers. However both cities do extraordinarily well in that regard. For Fortune 1000 companies, the last count I saw had Minneapolis at thirty-one and Cincinnati at fifteen, which would give Minneapolis a fairly solid advantage in F1000 companies per capita.

On my last visit, I found Cincinnati to be a great city to walk around in--with a picturesque and truly unique cityscape. I certainly plan on visiting again.