Oh boy, now me now me!

Well, I live in both the city and one of it's suburbs, so I guess I have to do double duty.

Cincinnati is in the south-west corner of Ohio directly across the Ohio River from Kentucky. The population is about 300,000 a number that is shrinking as people dissipate to the vast suburbia that encompasses areas of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. The metro area is about 2 million, which I was surprised to find out is larger than the metro areas of Indianapolis and Columbus. The urban sprawl is resulting in a doughnut effect, all the population around the egdes, but nothing but the main business district in the center. If the current trend continues, and it will, the Cinci and Dayton suburbs will basically become synonymous.

The city is currently working hard on improving the riverfront on both sides of the river with new sports stadiums (Reds and Bengals), large parks and the soon-to-be-started Underground Railroad Freedom Center. The idea is that the riverfront is integral to the city economically and historically. It was founded in 1789 as a fort town. The infrastructural joint of I-71 and I-75 that runs right between downtown and the riverfront is called Fort Washington Way. The city grew as an important port for steamboats heading to the Mississippi and then became known as Porkopolis for it's numerous slaughterhouses. It served as the largest stop for the Underground Railroad and Harriet Beecher Stowe lived here when she wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin. In the 1880s Cincinnati was at the height of it's popularity, referred to as the Paris of the West. It had the highest concentration of theaters and such in the US and the central artery (Vine Street) of the district still has the largest collection of Italianade architecture the nation, but that area, north of the road that was once a canal, called Over the Rhine, is basically the slum area of the city now, but many efforts are currently being made to revitalize the area.

Longfellow referred nicknamed Cinci the Queen City. Mark Twain said that if the world was going to end, he'd want to be in Cincinnati because it's 10 years behind everyone else. It's a pertinent quote based on the city's recent claim to (in)fame as a center for racial inequality and rioting. The black population is about 40% and there's definitely a we/they atmosphere. Fortunately, the city has recently (within the last week) accepted recommendations from the Justice Dept. about how to better handle police, citizen relations. It probably won't have much of an effect though. Cinci is still one of the most conservative cities in the nation, but we do have the highest audience rating for Survivor.

Despite the recent events, Cinci has frequently been named as one of the best places in the US to live. Most of the region's schools are very good and there's a high concentration of parks and forests in the metro area. Cinci is also the least flat city in the midwest, which doesn't really say much, but it does have some nice hills, mainly because it's a valley. It's been said the city has a southern US charm, whatever that is.

The biggest cultural icon of the city is probably the distinctive chili, which is very thin, but includes a pinch of chocolate and is served over spaghetti noodles. There's also an ice cream company named Graeter's which is, quite frankly, the best in the world. The ice cream is incredibly thick and creamy because they use the French pot method, which is apparently not used anywhere else in the US anymore. I guess it's not very efficient, but it's damn good. All of the franchises are owned directly by the family, so it hasn't expanded beyond Columbus and Lexington, KY.

One speech quirk, that I hear is unique to Cinci, is the saying of "Please?" for "What did you just say?". It doesn't make sense. I'm not a native, haven't used it and don't plan to.


I actually live in Loveland (when I'm not at the university). Loveland is a suburb about 20 miles north east of the city. It was settled in 1796 on the Little Miami river, which eventually flows into the Ohio. It's a quaint little forested town with a population of about 12,000. It got it's name from one of the city's early (maybe first) postmasters named James Loveland. It was originally named Paxton, after the founder, but when sending letters, people would send their mail "to Loveland's" and the name caught on.

The downtown is quite small, but an important bike trail runs right through the center. At some point they started converting old train lines into walking/biking paths, and Loveland was the center of a fairly large one, so it's commonly called the Loveland Bike Trail. It's now been extended north and connected to a trail that runs to north of Dayton. The goal is to eventually have a continuous trail from Cinci to Cleveland.

Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, had a home in Loveland at some point, and Jerry Springer, a former mayor of Cinci, lived here. It's now the home of Dan Stroeh, last year's Kennedy Center national student playwright.

Loveland is a very nice town. It's a suburb now, but it's one of the oldest in the area, so it doesn't have the sprawling feel of other suburbs.