Explore Cincinnati

Interesting discussion on this episode. I keep hearing similar conversations coming up as where our city is headed and a general lack of overall identity. I’m actually working as an assistant and participant in a design studio at UC that is looking at how we can hopefully add to the vision for fixed rail travel (primarily local, and less about the 3C) and we kind of started hitting on the ability to connect neighborhoods and strengthen each ones identity, but also find a way that those things can build an overall identity for Cincinnati. It seems like there are definitely some ‘burbs and neighborhoods with strong identities, and others without, but I think more people would identify with their neighborhood before even Cincinnati as a whole, or downtown. Great cities always seem to have strong neighborhoods, and we certainly have some in Cincinnati. I think it would be smart to frame the transportation discussion around building that pride and identity in addition to the ease of visiting each neighborhoods so its not a Price Hill is greater than Northside is greater than OTR debate, but rather a “where do you want to visit, or catch dinner, or a show tonight?” with the possibility of hitting a few places easily along the route.

One quick comment again about a topic that I’ve heard come up in conversations, and was mentioned repeatedly in this podcast, is the lack of reason for a city to exist in its current location. I think the same case can be made for every major city, as most (not all) cities were founded based on geological factors that made them advantageous as outposts or shipping centers. While a number of major cities do maintain much of that shipping and trade traffic, I would say that most metropolis size cities that operate major ports do not rely mainly on that for trade. San Francisco did not become an internet powerhouse because they were founded at the mouth of a major bay along the California cost, but instead it was a series of events stemming from its founding and culture as various changes happened across time, from native to Spanish to Goldrush to Silicon Valley. The same can really be said about why Cincinnati finds itself a major branding and marketing center, which is to say we were founded as a great location for shipping up from Kentucky and down from newer Ohio territory, which positioned us in a place to process the incoming grains through pork and whiskey production, which could be shipped down the river at higher prices. The pork production fueled innovation in the leftovers as soap, then the growth of similar products into the modern P&G brand conglomerate, and the need to better understand the huge field of Consumer Market Research. Of course its not a direct link, but the locational reason for a city’s foundation is part of a string of history that has built the culture of any city.