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Scenery/outdoor recreation: On the virtue of scenery, I’d say Cincinnati. It sits in a more scenic overall immediate region to be sure. Outdoor Recreation might be closer to a tie. I could see with Mount Scott and Turner Falls (don’t get me wrong, Cincinnati maybe has a few comparable day hikes in that region as well) but again, since this combines scenery too, Cincinnati carries this one overall.
Culture: Cincinnati has a deeper level of culture. It was nicknamed Paris of America and has perhaps a 100 Yr head start on OKC in establishing fine arts and cultural institutions.
Education: Not really sure. What I’ll say is at the metro level, OKC has the State flagship, OU, 30 mins south. However, I don’t know what universities OKC has right in town, while Cincinnati city/metro is served by Xavier, Cincinnati, and Northern Kentucky. I don’t know how OKC does on K-12, but I know Cincinnati has a few nationally rated both private and public high schools.
Economy: Cincinnati’s I believe is larger at this point. It also has more recognizable brands and companies like P&G and GE to name a couple. However, OKC has the energy/oil industry and its economy is growing more rapidly at this point. OKC also has the advantage of being the primary city/capital within its state.
Food: Again, can’t really speak to OKC. Does it have good Mexican food perhaps? Native? Southern Cooking? I really honestly don’t know. Could be dating myself but Cincinnati seems to have a better known brand, between Barbecue, Chili (skyline style lol), German/Central European, etc. I really don’t know if there’s a huge edge for either one but I know Cincy is more known for specific things/niches, being an older, legacy city.
Cost of living: I’m not gonna try to speak to specifics, but I’ll say that they are both among the most affordable major cities in the US.
Crime: Again IDK. I’ll guess that City wise, OKC has a statistical edge but there are reasons for that. Metro wise, I’ll guess they are comparable.
Infrastructure/transportation: Both are probably easier to get around driving than most US cities. I’d guess Cincy’s transport/bus network is maybe a little wider spread. That said, OKC has more of a streetcar network right now than Cincy, both are car oriented but Cincy is more walkable, probably gets more car congestion/traffic though.
Urbanity: Cincinnati is almost certainly ostensibly more urban than OKC. Over the Rhine and Mount Adam’s esp. but just in general.
Desirable suburbs: Cant really speak to OKC super well. Mariemont, Kenwood, Mason, Florence I would describe as varying levels of desirable. I’m sure OKC has some nice suburbs too. But, I would guess population wise, there are more places in OKC itself that could be characterized as more “suburban” than Cincinnati, given the size and population difference in the cities.
Climate: Short version, OKC better in winter, Cincinnati better in summer. Both have hot and cold stretches. Overall, I’ll take Cincy. I find the plains to just be really hot, and I’ll take a little more cold vs a little more heat. Even with Cincy maybe being more humid.
I’ll take Cincinnati overall. It’s a more established city with more things happening that I like, better architecture and history, a more robust sports scene, and a more desirable location to the east coast, more/different cities, and natural/hiking areas.
Cincinnati overall, but OKC is growing at a faster rate.
Yet, how strangely ironic how people on here quite strongly think that Cincinnati is a better place to live, by far, than Oklahoma City by around 75% to 25%. The only way I can figure out why is because Cincinnati is better than Oklahoma City is because the metro area is quite significantly bigger in population as in: Cincinnati metro: 2,256,884. Oklahoma City metro only: 1,425,695.
It's quite totally irrelevant how Cincinnati, itself, has been declining in population as a rust belt city for decades, while Oklahoma City has been headed well up in population.
Last edited by StillwaterTownie; 08-18-2021 at 12:28 AM..
Yet, how strangely ironic how people on here quite strongly think that Cincinnati is a better place to live, by far, than Oklahoma City by around 75% to 25%. The only way I can figure out why is because Cincinnati is better than Oklahoma City is because the metro area is quite significantly bigger in population as in: Cincinnati metro: 2,256,884. Oklahoma City metro only: 1,425,695.
It's quite totally irrelevant how Cincinnati, itself, has been declining in population as a rust belt city for decades, while Oklahoma City has been headed well up in population.
It's because Cincinnati is more urban and OKC is known as a more suburban city. Put OTR in OKC and it wins.
Scenery/outdoor recreation: Cincinnati
Culture: Cincinatti
Education: Cincinatti
Economy: OKC
Food: OKC
Cost of living: Tie
Crime: Tie
Infrastructure/transportation: Tie
Urbanity: Cincinnati
Desirable suburbs: Cincinatti
Climate: Cincinatti
Other: OKC for more western/open feel.
Ultimately, that last one overrides everything for this matchup. Oklahoma City would be my preference here.
Cincinnati is at a very busy crossroads in a more densely populated region. That would be too claustrophobic. I've been in the Cincinnati area many times, but it never appealed to me. The big hills and river setting are admittedly pretty.
Yet, how strangely ironic how people on here quite strongly think that Cincinnati is a better place to live, by far, than Oklahoma City by around 75% to 25%. The only way I can figure out why is because Cincinnati is better than Oklahoma City is because the metro area is quite significantly bigger in population as in: Cincinnati metro: 2,256,884. Oklahoma City metro only: 1,425,695.
It's quite totally irrelevant how Cincinnati, itself, has been declining in population as a rust belt city for decades, while Oklahoma City has been headed well up in population.
The forum has held a long standing bias against cities that are not as dense as other places. In respects, that is fair. Add to that the fact that the three C's in Ohio have a long standing presence on this forum known to be driven by their own collective insecurity about themselves. Not everyone of course, but it is a thing. Regardless, I've never been to OKC, but I would like to check it out sometime. Cincinnati is only 90 minutes or so by car from me, so I've been there a lot. Cincinnati is a cool city, I've never understood why people feel the need to overlook it.
^Yeah, I think the fact that Oklahoma City is 621 square miles in size and is in parts of 4 counties plays a part in this in terms of standard urbanity across the city. Its population density is a little over 1,000/sq. mi. To put this into perspective, Hamilton County OH, which is where Cincinnati is located is only 406 square miles and has about 150,000 more people. So, that likely plays a big part in this.
OKC would need a lot more than OTR to match Cincinnati's urbanity.
Yeah OTR probably represents about 16 percent of Cincinnati's urbanity. You can walk 3 to 4 miles south of OTR and 2 miles north of OTR and still be in a very dense tightly packed urban area with narrow streets and 19th century buildings massed upon one another. This tightly built urban area stretches about 6 miles from south to north and about 3 miles from east to west.
Last edited by Coseau; 08-18-2021 at 06:57 PM..
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