Also, plans are afoot for a “WHY MY OPINION IS BETTER THAN ANYTHING YOU COULD COME UP WITH” Center. Here, people will come from all over to read your recent blog post…and we hope this will prompt more like Andy thinking ACROSS THE REGION!

thanks for pointing out a couple of spelling mistakes. much appreciated. those have been corrected.

now…i’ve got this sweet idea. how about before you decide to rip on someone for spelling mistakes you learn to spell yourself. what a novel idea! ‘pretenous’? ‘accoustic’? i see that sweet amelia high school education is serving you well. of course, i have the same education, so i guess i can’t say much.

so…how do you figure i’m ‘pretenous’? did i say something that sounds as much? if you’d like to expound upon any of the questions i threw out there, i’m certainly happy to hear your humble opinions on why you think things are the way they are.

i’m not sure where you get that ‘my opinion is better than anyone elses’. an opinion is an opinion, and mine isn’t necessarily any better or worse…it just ‘is’. having lived in a new city, it becomes painfully apparent how many things are wrong in cincinnati. and it becomes painfully apparent that nobody is doing much about it.

my final question to you is: why do you have to be such a giant sarcastic ass-hat? i’ve always known that you were as much…but at least you didn’t try to be such an idiot to me.

neat.

.a.out.

As for a response to your questions: Dude…blogs owe their entire exsistance to pompous asshats. Your post just proves it. I have TRIED to do blogs…but the I am just not that much of a narcissist to assume everyone cares about my opinions. I know my place…and I not really a person that matters.

I am also equally sure that the odds of someone visiting Austin could come up with an equal number of negative points. But in the end…who cares.

And yes, I taste the delicious irony of me responding to a blog with the comment of “not caring” and nothing matters, when in fact…it appears I am guilty of the offiense.

To sum up, you are a whiny ass…but I have much love for you.

lol?

The reality is that some of us are perfectly happy living in Cincinnati. Sure, Cincinnati isn’t the greatest when it comes to entertainment and nightlife (but like you said doesn’t suck either, if you know where to go), but that and the fact that Cincy city planners seem to have the IQ of a lima bean isn’t of a great deal of concern to a lot of us. I pretty much couldn’t care less if they shut down every bar and club downtown. (Hell, I’d really appreciate it if they boarded them up while full of people. The ow-boy and woo-girl population could certainly stand to be thinned significantly.) They’re just not important to me because I grew out of that scene a long time ago. I’ve lived in NYC and Florida, traveled to LA, Chicago, Europe, etc, so its not like I’m a sheltered hermit afraid to leave the city limits. (We all know people like that though.) I’ve known for a long time now and its only gotten more apparent as I’ve gotten older and started my own family that I don’t particularly care to live in a “happening” city. I want to live in an area that is safe, affordable and gives my kids the opportunity to grow up near family and be happy, and things like a house with a yard are an essential part of that vision. I’d be bitter living in NYC paying $2000/month for a shoebox in the ghetto. Its just not worth it or at all appealing to me.

For a musician or huge music fan like you, yes, a place like Austin may be ideal. For a lot us though, it just isn’t. I can honestly say I have zero desire to move out of Cincy in the next 20 years. I’ve got no problem with you feeling the exact opposite (and I would assume Tom, Scott and others don’t either), but its that feeling that you think we’re all just aching to get out that is annoying.

I’m fairly sure you don’t/didn’t intend any arrogance and/or pretentiousness, but hopefully you can see why some people are interpreting it that way.

- The Mediator

A city is an organism.. It needs to regrow after a damaging event. it’s just sad that it hasn’t seemed to hit rock bottom yet because it’s still quite obviously on the decline, not on the return.

“On behalf of all of Cincinnati I would like to formally appologize for not meeting your expectations. I will be forming the “make Cincy more like Austin” committee later this year, we will probably put on a music festival or some shit, I’d invite you to be on the board if you would fix the padding on your image. It’s driving me nuts :)”

like scott, i’m not real sure how to take this. so…i beg your forgiveness in advance if this sounds shitty.

like i said previously, living in another city has made me very much aware of how completely off cincinnati is. you’ve lived there all of your life (or at least, i think you have), so i don’t think you have anything to compare to. i’m willing to attribute some of my feelings to just not liking cincinnati to begin with…or having a bias, if you will…but please…feel free to argue with me on the points i’ve made. do you disagree that the downtown area is a little silly? do you disagree that the riverfront lacks any kind of logic? do you disagree that you can still feel racial tension there? do you disagree that hardly any change has been made towards repairing the damage from 2000 riots?

i don’t think i’m any better than anyone else from there. what i am cognizant of is the fact that there are a lot of cities that are far more forward thinking and liberal than cincinnati will ever be. i’m lucky to live in one of those cities. and i wish all of my friends that lived there who are unhappy had the means to find a way out.

your opinion on blogs: i understand where you’re coming from. i would opine though that you are wrong. i don’t consider myself more important than anyone else. nor am i vain enough to think that anybody cares about what i say. because i like you, i’ll explain why i personally have one:

1. i like to write. i haven’t done it in a long time, and it’s an outlet for me to do so. why don’t i just keep a diary or something, you ask? because the secondary purpose is to perhaps eventually get some freelance writing work out of it. i don’t think i’m that shabby of a writer, and so it’s good for a ‘portfolio’ of sorts.

2. i have a really hard time keeping in touch with everyone. i flat out suck at it. it’s much easier for me to do so if i have one central place to go. that’s assuming i have friends to read it…which i obviously do, given that you’re posting here. given that tom and ben and james are posting here. if i just happen to catch the random passer-by, then awesome.

3. i’m using it as a way to better myself in my career. i’ve learned a little bit about php and how to manipulate WP to do what i want (although, as tom points out, i have a hard time getting pictures to show up right…:) i have to know how most of the latest web technologies work, so what better way for me to do that than experiment with them in this environment and then, perhaps, write about them?

the bottom line is that i’m not doing this for anyone but myself and because i like to write. because it’s in a public area doesn’t mean anything. it just happens to be a space where it accomplishes multiple goals i had in mind. call me a narcissist if you feel like it, but i think that’s just a flat out wrong opinion.

i don’t care if people care or not whether my city is better than yours/your better than mine/etcetcetc. again, i’m just writing for conversation sake…to let friends know what i think and whomever else happens to read it. you know, i’m going to give you a great example of ‘who cares’ and yet ANOTHER reason why i continue to do this. i have ulcerative colitis. it’s a horrible digestive disease. i wrote on it around february because i was miserable. low and behold, i get a response back from a random person who found the post giving me the best advice on controlling it that i have ever received. it helped me so much, in fact, that i almost feel normal again.

if i hadn’t been writing here, i would not have had that response. and i would probably be just as sick as i was previously.

sorry if you think i’m ‘whining’. that’s not he intent. i generally write what’s on my mind, and when i made that post, that was what was on my mind.

i love all my friends that are still there…i just don’t like the city.

Where I don’t agree is that the solution is to be more liberal and forward thinking(whatever this means) and or have a thriving downtown scene(whatever this means). And I sure as hell don’t want the city council to be granted any additional funds or authority to do anything about it.

Now in regards to your situation, I think you were in the wrong spot in Cincinnati. Northside would probably have been more to your liking. Why you expected to be immersed in local culture in a square surrounded by banks is beyond me.

i’m disappointed that i didn’t get to see you when i was back. maybe @ christmas?

anyway…i find it curious that whenever a negative opinion city gets brought up that someone lives in, people actually take it as a personal attack. i guess that it could be summed the same when it comes to talked about someone’s school football team or whatever, as if the football team was a public reflection of that person…

so…let’s just get this straight. i don’t think i’ve ever said anything amounting to ‘people who live in cincinnati must be pathetic or miserable schlubs’. as a matter of fact, i went back and read the e-mails that i sent out to everyone initially, and the only negative things i said were that 1) the rivers here are clean and 2) cincinnati has a wasteland for a downtown. so if you think that i said something against any people in cincinnati, that must’ve been something you conjured up, my friend. on the contrary, i think a lot of people there are great people, and i love all of my friends there. i think the representation of the people in cincinnati sucks terribly. really….ken blackwell? the police commissioner…kenneth fangman ( i think that’s his name)? city council? JERRY SPRINGER?!! seriously…

so…if anyone is taking what i have to say about cincinnati personally or as me ripping on you, my apologies. that isn’t my intent. we’ll leave it at that. you, as my friend, have known for a long time how i feel about cincinnati. i believe you’ve even partaken in the ripping. perhaps your feelings have changed over the years. mine have not. if you’re happy there, good for you! i’m glad you’ve found your place and you feel like it’s some place you want to be for a while.

let me expound a little more on the whole ‘cincinnati night life’ thing or whatever you’re going to call it. young people in cincinnati are leaving at a quick pace. if you read one of my first posts, i made a lot of points eluding to the fact that the city, overall, is shrinking. it might not concern you that there isn’t an ‘accessible’ nightlife there or whatever…but for the overall health and integrity of the city, those are the things that attract young people. and young people are what eventually start to make change in a city. if the city is shrinking in it’s young population, then yoiu have a problem. i believe there is a figure somewhere that the cincinnati is shrinking by 6% every year. you see where i’m going with this…

ben, there are a lot of people with the same vision you have. but wouldn’t it be nice to live in a city that has all of what you’ve listed and more too? maybe not…i don’t know. and that’s cool if you don’t. you know i don’t judge you one way or another for deciding you want to stay there. priorities change in your life. from my perspective, though, cincinnati is not the place for me. it’s not the place for a lot of my friends either, or so that’s what they’ve told me.

let me ask you a question: how would you know that “a place like austin” isn’t ideal for you? yeah, i love music…but it might surprise you to know that i haven’t been to ONE single show down here yet. one of the reasons i moved here was because of music…but it ends up being secondary to the general attitude and vibe here from ALL people. that’s what makes this place what it is.

you can interpret arrogance or pretention all you want, but i would tell you that you’re taking opinions of one guy about a city that you live in too literally. i’m not talking about you…i’m talking about how ridiculous the city of cincinnati can seem when you come to a city that is more forward thinking.

and i’ll define forward thinking here later for sake of continuing this lovely conversation in another post.

A couple of counter points. Or questions. What about Newport? I’d imagine a substantial portion of the people that pack the levy are this demographic you speak , and since it’s packed I can’t really say it fails. If we agree on this, do you really think then that merely moving the levy from one side of the river to the other is what matters and would fix things? If so, FUCK I should have been an urban planning consultant, that seems pretty straightforward.

Question 2: what is the significance of it being downtown? For myself anyway I’m not much for partying around banks and insurance company buildings.

Question 3: Businesses and Jobs are leaving at pretty high rates too? SO is it really the lack of an entertainment district? THe lack of opportunities? or Both? does one pre-clude the other?

And finally I’d like to offer up a theory if I may. I’ve been told as part of various endeavors to start new businesses that innovation does not happen in Cincinnati because nothing gets funded without some form of approval from the CBC. The CBC includes P&G , Krogers and all the other “Cincinnati” Companies. Now I’ve been told that P&G pretty much heads this up and everyone else follows. And as we all know there is the “P&G way” of doing things which is to pretty much take 10 years to develop anything for fear of putting something on the market and having it fail for whatever reason. P&G DOES NOT FAIL.

So if this is true, and I’m not saying it is but it is plausible. Wouldn’t it make sense that only “sure things” would get green lighted? Say like, new GHEY sports stadiums for example? Or a cool Politically Correct museum?

Actually now that I think about it, I’d like to entertain some what if scenarios on what would happen if some cooler more forward thinking liberal corporation moved in and moved P&G and GE out. They are the old guard. They are a little too comfy with things to be worried about the city around them dying.

significance of being downtown = a couple of things. first, it encourages limit to suburban sprawl. of course, that’s if you live there. otherwise, if people are coming downtown just to hang, they are spending money. spending more money = potential for more business to open. more business = more tax dollars. more tax dollars = a better city by being able to provide police protection, social services, etc.

business and jobs leaving = many reasons…but one of them would be inability to find young talent. like i said in the post i just wrote, if you don’t have young people, you can’t hire cheap new young talent to come and work for you. more on that in the other post…

i don’t know about the whole CBC thing, so i won’t speculate on that. i think what you say makes sense… i do know that P&G DOES fail. lots. i’ve witnessed it several times. look up juvian. what a monumental piece of crap.

if you want to talk pretension, we can talk about northside all day long. i definitely think they are going in the right direction. but again, at this point, it’s not really safe enough for me.

Cincinnati is a great place to live and work for grown ups.

- I don’t think it should be surprising that some people get offended when their city/school is criticized. To me, suck ass city + you live in said city = what is wrong with you that you live in said suck ass city?

- I’ve never really taken any offense to any of your emails or posts (especially not this one). Some have struck me as a bit abrasive, but it was the fact that other people have expressed the same sentiments as Tom and Scott did here initially that made me decide to try and explain the perspective.

- I have indeed ripped on Cincy before. Its got some seriously fucked up goings on. They’re just not enough to make me want to leave.

- I think part of the reason downtown is so shitty is because its so small. Its what, about 12 square blocks? I’ve never heard of such a small ‘downtown’ area in a ‘major city’. Cincy just happens to be a spread out city, which I don’t think is inherently bad. Hell, if I remember correctly the ‘downtown’ area of LA is pretty similar in the fact that its a ghost town outside of M-F 9 -5.

- Austin isn’t ideal because both my family and my wife’s family are here. Our kids spend a good deal of time with them, and I wouldn’t want to deprive them or our family members of that.

I guess its that last one that is the sticking point really. If we had a big family reunion and there was a propane explosion that killed everyone but my immediate family then yea, we might look into moving. Once Hannah finishes school at least. I have indeed developed more “liberal” opinions on some topics in recent years and being surrounded by ultra-conservative fucktards can sometimes be downright painful and infuriating. Its a balancing act though, I think SF would probably get on my nerves on the other end of the spectrum. I’ve also stumbled into a job here that I would be insane to leave anytime soon.

In summary, my feelings won’t be hurt if you decide to rip on Cincy in a new post every day. Your opinion just doesn’t matter that much to me. At the same time, I don’t think you should be surprised when some people do take offense.

City Council wants to build new jails.
Local Businesses are competing for survival
I’m trying to pay off my house.

And andrew, I was in no way suggesting you should move to Northside. I’m saying that what you were expecting downtown seems to me more similair to northside with the artistic community and higher percentage of the GHEYS and liberal minded folks.It’s not perfect, but if someone like you was coming to town for the first time and wanting to take in that kind of culture, I would not point them at downtown, I’d drop them off in the middle of Northside. Maybe armed with a gun for protection or money for crack whatevs.

And unlike you I fucking HATE Mariemont/Madeira/Indian Hill, I do love the dilly deli though, I go there even though it’s in the heart of that shithole . So what’s one to do? I just can’t fit in your idea of a thriving society.