Picture Cincinnati in your mind and you think of its beautiful skyline. The scenic Ohio River twisting between the hilly banks. The riverfront, the high-rise office buildings, and downtown, surrounded by neighborhoods seeping into the hills all around the city.
It is very scenic with some prominent landmarks.
You’ll see the Carew Tower, Cincinnati’s tallest building, which was built in less than a year during the height of the Great Depression by hundreds of hands eager for the work. You’ll also see most of the high-rises that have been built since, with new ones going up on both sides of the river on a yearly basis.
It’s appropriate that the center of the city is near the riverfront. After all, it is the Ohio River that gave birth to the city and made Cincinnati at one time the second-largest city west of the Alleghenies and the sixth-largest city in the nation. The river continues to be one of the things that draw people downtown. There are some beautiful parks and restaurants that flank both sides of the river.
The skyline changed again with the addition of two sports facilities that have taken the place of Cinergy Field, which used to be known as Riverfront Stadium. More development planned along the river will make the city even more fun to visit.
But the skyline doesn’t show you why Partners for Livable Communities named Cincinnati its Most Livable City in 2004.
It’s the people. It’s like a big city with small-town people. You can ask people on the street for the time of day and they will give it to you. People enjoy spending their lunchtime on Fountain Square along the Tyler Davidson Fountain, talking to one another and watching the world go by.
Many of the first settlers of the city were German, bringing along with them the root of the conservative, hardworking philosophy still evident in many of the city’s residents. In the last few decades, the city has become more diverse, with people coming in from all over the world to work at companies in the tristate area. However, the tristate remains very conservative, both politically and socially.
But there are other reasons. Low crime rates, for one—the sixth lowest among major U.S. cities. The area also has some of the lowest unemployment figures and has affordable housing.
In 1993 Cincinnati was rated as America’s Most Livable City by Places Rated Almanac. Although the city has dropped in the almanac listing since then, it remained in the top 5 percent through five consecutive editions. Its millennium edition rated Cincinnati eleventh.
The city has received other commendations. Employment Review also rated Cincinnati in 1996 as one of the 20 best cities in the country in which to live and work, and Fortune magazine ranked it seventh among cities balancing business and quality of life. In 1996 Entrepreneur magazine ranked Cincinnati seventh on its list of the 30 best cities for small-business development, citing its diverse economy, new zoning laws for home-based businesses, and eager-to-lend banks. In 2004 Esquire magazine rated Cincinnati in its top-10 Cities That Rock. And American Style magazine rated the Queen City the No. 5 arts destination.
That’s plenty of proof for some people that Cincinnati is truly a special place to live. It has the amenities of a big city, they will point out, without most of the urban problems. Others, though, will argue that new ideas are met with cynicism, that the city is so conservative and set in its ways that it can easily be described as dull. Mark Twain, who lived in Cincinnati for six months and left unimpressed, wrote, “If the world would end, I would come to Cincinnati, for everything happens here 10 years later.”
Mostly, though, the city is typical. Psychographically, American Demographics ranks the area as the ninth most typical metro area in the United States, as measured by a number of attitudinal issues. It is also the eleventh most typical city demographically and one of only four cities nationwide to rank in the top 25 in both categories. A strong showing overall—that’s typical of Cincinnati.
Demographically the city of Cincinnati squeezes 331,000 people into just 77.62 square miles. Geographically it is at the midpoint of the 981-mile-long Ohio River and sits 540 feet above sea level. The Cincinnati area is more than just the city, though. It is a region that encompasses portions of three states, eight counties, and dozens of smaller cities, unincorporated townships, incorporated villages, and tiny one-horse towns. Collectively, the area is better known as the tristate or Greater Cincinnati.
Put it on a map and Greater Cincinnati engulfs the southwesternmost portion of Ohio, the northernmost portion of Kentucky, and the southeasternmost portion of Indiana. As a whole, this tristate region takes up 3,810 square miles and includes two million people, making it the second-largest city in Ohio and the 23rd largest in the country.
Despite its size, the area is easily accessible. Even the most distant suburbs are reachable within 30 minutes, affording residents the opportunity to live fairly deep in the country yet still within easy driving distance of downtown. And despite the city’s efforts to develop more housing downtown, most of the area’s residents live in the suburbs.
A recent study says that residents of Greater Cincinnati spend 36 percent more on entertainment than the national average. The Bureau of Labor Statistics report says tristate households spend $2,485 per year on entertainment, about 7 percent of the household budget. Nationally, families spend about $1,824 per year.
So it only goes to show that there are lots of entertainment opportunities in the area. The major attractions covered in this chapter are those not covered in other chapters of the book. You’ll have to look for the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Broadway Series in The Arts chapter. Information on Reds and Bengals games can be found in the Spectator Sports chapter. But if you want to know about Paramount’s Kings Island or the Cincinnati Zoo, keep reading.
The chapter is divided into four sections: Pure Fun, Pure Fun Plus (fun plus special interest/education), Museums, and Historic Attractions.
As with all our information, many of these tourist attractions change each year (adding or closing rides and points of interest or changing hours or admission charges), so to get the absolute latest information, you may want to call ahead.
Several recorded messages about current attractions are also available through different services. The Talking Yellow Pages, (513) 333-4444, has numerous specialty lines for entertainment and events: a concert line, a points-of-interest line, and a special-events line. Check the front of the Yellow Pages for a complete listing.
It’s a familiar story. Cincinnati kids grow to adulthood, move away to one coast or the other to pursue careers, and then—inevitably—return here to raise their own families.
This astounding return rate is no accident. Cincinnati is a terrific place for raising children, as nurturing and relatively safe an environment as you’d expect to find in any midsize midwestern town. There’s an added emphasis here on play and enrichment, however, and that’s largely due to the voters, who diligently keep passing levies for museums and parks. Furthermore, corporate giants such as Procter & Gamble and Kroger, both headquartered here, wisely invest in any attraction that helps them lure new talent (and their families) to Cincinnati. Recent examples of corporate and public partnership include the Newport Aquarium, the Cinergy Children’s Museum, and the Cincinnati Zoo’s Giraffe Ridge eco-environment.
City and suburban governments put an unusual emphasis on public parks—in fact, the city of Cincinnati devotes more acreage to urban parkland and green space per capita than any other metropolis in America. A complete listing of parks and recreation centers can be found in the Parks and Recreation chapter, but we’ve noted the public parks and playgrounds with the best attractions for kids in this chapter, along with a kid’s-eye view of some popular activities that are also in the Attractions chapter. Unless otherwise noted, all the attractions listed here accept major credit cards. Whenever available, toll-free 800 and 888 numbers are noted.
We’ve distinguished those parks and museums you wouldn’t want to miss as “major attractions.” These are the places to head to first if time or money is an issue (although many of these attractions are free, or nearly so).
We’ve spent all this time convincing you that Cincinnati is such a great place that you’d never want to leave. Now, we’re going to tell you how to get away. Go figure.
Actually, you’ll find plenty of good reasons to leave Cincinnati, at least for a day. Because the city is centrally located in one of the nation’s most densely populated regions, it’s just a short drive to many attractions.
This chapter organizes day trips by the four cardinal directions. We’ve limited ourselves to trips you can make in roughly two hours or less by car. And even at that, we couldn’t include everything. For shorter excursions within the Greater Cincinnati area, see listings in our other chapters, including Attractions, Parks and Recreation, and River Fun.
Here’s one simple rule for this chapter: If an attraction in a nearby town is duplicated just as well in Cincinnati, you won’t read about it here. And one word of warning: If you’re taking day trips north or west, take along a hot cup of joe or someone to keep you alert. The scenery along Interstates 71, 74, and 75 north and west of Cincinnati is not exactly invigorating, though the destinations are worthwhile. Heading south or east, you’re more likely to enjoy the rolling hills.
Happy trails.