Reviews & Comments
Cincinnati, OH
now for something completely different -
10/2/2012I normally don't post on these sort of rant pages, but I feel compelled to because of how this site mislead me. I moved to Cincinnati about a year and a half ago because that's where we found a job, not much choice, really. I read the comments on here, almost entirely negative,and thought "oh crap, this might suck, but we've got a family to take care of, etc." I was expecting a rusting trashpile to be endured.
What I found when I got here were welcoming people, great schools (very dependent on exactly where you live), and a shocking amount of opportunities to get outside for some exercise (I like to trail run). Within a year I have dozens of friends, mostly through being involved with coaching youth sports, which have plenty of options for kids of all ability levels and interests.
Now, it's true that a surprising number of Cincinnatians are natives that never left. But I don't necessarily find that liking your hometown makes it bad. These folks have welcomed my family into theirs without exception and my home is normally filled with friends of my kids, making noise and messes, and I'd have it no other way. In the interest of accuracy, which doesn't seem to be at the top of many poster's priority list, I should note that I am the 40 something white guy still married to my first wife with 2 kids living in the Eastern 'burbs that was derisively referenced in another comment. So, I have no doubt that our acceptance in Cincinnati was affected by demographic fact that we "fit" with our new neighbors. But I assume most people move into neighborhoods that seem to be a good fit for them.
I would like it to be less segregated, but that's true of almost everywhere I've ever been. On a personal level, everybody I have approached with a positive attitude has responded in kind. I suspect that had I hit town pissed off with a chip on my shoulder, it wouldn't have gone as well.
For the record, I am nowhere close to wealthy, religious, or politically conservative. So those aren't prerequisites. I am very grateful to have been able to be educated and for the stability that helps bring to life. I recognize that if I had to live in the parts of town populated by folks that haven't had the good fortune to have things work out as well as I have, my experience would be very different. Hopefully, I can do my little part to help more people have a positive Cincinnati experience, whatever that may be. But, while I'm working on that, I just wanted there to be one voice on here that made it clear that there are good times to be had in Cincinnati. Go Reds!