Nashville vs Cincinnati (living, crime rate, compared, places)
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I'm from Ohio and I think Nashville is the obvious choice for most everything. It's an epicenter for live music, art, food and entertainment and young people are moving there in droves, pointing to a healthy economy. Cincinnatis is slowly improving, but it doesn't compare other than aesthetically, being on the Ohio River and having impressive 19th century architecture.
Ouch! These are 2 of my favorite cities/metros, much tougher for me to choose personally than some people. I do take metro influence into these decisions, even though we may sometimes be specifically talking about the city. A metro and city have a huge influence on each other that can't be ignored, so for me it's part of the equation to some point. I'm a big theme park/water park fan, so Kings Island makes this a closer competition for me in terms of Cincinnati. But I have to go with Nashville when balancing everything out (I wish they hadn't closed Opryland Theme Park, lol). They're economy, growth, and climate are noticeably better than Cincy's. I truly love both, but Nashville's the winner here.
COL Cincinnati
Economy Nashville
Climate Cincinnati
Crime tie
Education Cincinnati
Food/Cuisine tie
Housing Cincinnati
Transportation Cincinnati
Livability Cincinnati
Culture Cincinnati
Location Cincinnati
Shopping tie
Sports Cincinnati
Things to Do Cincinnati
Scenery Cincinnati
Outdoor Activities tie
Sports Cincinnati
Better Future/Potential Nashville future, but Cincinnati honestly has more raw potential that it could live up to.
I always have liked Cincinnati's skyline. It has incredible density, and feels bigger than the city is, at least to me.
Nashville's skyline has just so completely boomed over the past 60 years+.
If you look at pictures of Nashville's downtown from the 1950s until 2020, it's just phenomenal to see the one skyscraper back then (Life & Casulty Tower) grow into several dozen today--and many under construction.
Love to see Nashville evolve into a truly big city in so little time.
COL: Cincinnati, I'm pretty sure.
Economy: Comparable, I think Cincinnati has better traditional economy network there with GE and P&G, but Nashville is bustling and with tourist economy present.
Climate: Comparable.. with Cincinnati with milder summers, Nashville with milder winters-maybe a slight edge to Nashville because Piedmont cities just seem to be so forested.. and you can get to climate cooling mountains faster from Nashville.
Crime: Nashville more violent crime rate overall but Cincinnati higher murder rate.. even because one can find plenty of areas to be safe in both.
Education: Nashville area for college, Cincinnati area for K-12 I think
Food/Cuisine: Nashville I would assume is attracting more foodie culture there overall, so I'll say Nashville. That said Cincinnati might win ethnic food, and I love Graeter's Ice Cream and Skyline Chili.
Housing: Both have good housing stock
Transportation: Not sure.. but from what I have heard, Cincinnati
Livability: Subjective.. but I think the living might be a little easier in Cincinnati
Culture: Cincinnati has better arts and high culture institutions than Nashville does, but Nashville literally is music city.. so I guess it depends on taste.
Location: I would tend to prefer the Midwest and Cincinnati's improved ability to connect to other major cities and regions... Cincinnati is also not much further removed from mountains/hiking than Nashville is, and it's a shorter drive from Cincinnati to a big body of water (Great Lakes, but still, plenty for me)
Shopping: I would pretty strongly assume Nashville here.
Sports: Close.. but for me Cincinnati because of the MLB. You can also more easily get to other cities/sports markets from Cincinnati, though Nashville that might be true with for college sports.
Things to Do: I don't think I'd be bored in either. Nashville might be more vibrant/happening overall being the IT city it is (I really don't think I've ever had my perception of a city change from "eh" to "maybe I need to get there for a weekend soon" faster, than when I was watching the NFL Draft in Nashville. That said, maybe Nashville, but both offer plenty.
Scenery: Hmm... can I say comparable for this one too? I think Cincinnati sits in a more immediately pretty setting.. but I think if taken out to the wider metro level Nashville has the edge. So I guess it depends on what we're asking. Cincinnati might be compared to Pittsburgh in this sense, whereas Nashville a little more akin to Atlanta, but slightly further removed from mountain scenery by comparison.
Outdoor Activities: Hmm.. this is again, where these cities are a pretty good pairing for one another. Even though Nashville will, of course, win the poll. But my point for Cincinnati here, is perhaps just the midwest in it, I perceive it as having a better parks and rec infrastructure than Nashville. Nashville though on the other hand,I think has more cool nature preserves, outdoor opportunities, one could do a half day or full day or weekend trip to within a few hours than Cincy does overall (though, being within a few hours of one another, they share many of these amenities.
Better Future/Potential: I think Nashville seems to really be on a springboard right now.. it gets more hype than just about any midsized city out there, and even many much larger ones. I don't think the future for Cincinnati is poor, just that at least right now.. it seems like Nashville is having a moment.
My natural preference is going to be for Cincinnati here probably as a northerner/midwesterner... just exudes an awesome sense of character. That said both these places intrigue me. I really do need to spend a weekend in Nashville to see what the hype is about.
I'm planning on visiting both (Nashville sometime before the end of next summer, and Cincinnati during the fall of 2021 when UCF goes up there next), and will hopefully remember to revisit this thread and update my thoughts once I do.
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