Everything about Cincinnati Ohio totally explained
Cincinnati is a city in the
U.S. state of
Ohio and the county seat of
Hamilton County. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the
Ohio River at the Ohio-
Kentucky border. With a 2006 population of 332,252, Cincinnati is Ohio's third largest city, behind
Columbus and
Cleveland, and the 56th largest city in the United States. Residents of Cincinnati are called Cincinnatians.
Cincinnati is considered to have been the first major American
boomtown rapidly expanding in the heart of the country in the early nineteenth century to rival the larger coastal cities in size and wealth. As the first major inland city in the country, it's sometimes thought of as the first purely American city, lacking the heavy European influence that was present on the east coast. However, by the end of the century, Cincinnati's growth had slowed considerably, and the city was surpassed in population by many other inland cities.
Cincinnati is home to major sports teams including the
Cincinnati Reds (named for the first professional baseball team ) and the
Cincinnati Bengals (an
NFL team), as well as events like the
Cincinnati Masters (the oldest tennis tournament in the United States played in its original city),and the Thanksgiving day race (the second oldest race in the country-- after the Boston marathon). The
University of Cincinnati traces its foundation to the Medical College of Ohio, which was founded in 1819.
Cincinnati is also known for having the largest collection of nineteenth-century Italianate architecture in the U.S., primarily concentrated just north of Downtown, one of the largest historic districts listed on the
National Register of Historic Places.
History
Cincinnati was founded in 1788 by
John Cleves Symmes and
Colonel Robert Patterson. Surveyor
John Filson (also the author of
The Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boone) named it "Losantiville" from four terms, each of a different language, meaning "the city opposite the mouth of the
Licking River." "Ville" is French for "city," "anti" is Greek for "opposite," "os" is Latin for "mouth," and "L" was all that was included of "Licking River."
In 1790,
Arthur St. Clair, the governor of the
Northwest Territory, changed the name of the settlement to "Cincinnati" in honor of the
Society of the Cincinnati, of which he was a member. The canal began by connecting Cincinnati to nearby
Middletown in 1827 and, by 1840, the canal had reached
Toledo, changing the Miami Canal to the Miami and Erie Canal and signifying the connection between the Little Miami River and Lake Erie.
During this period of rapid expansion, citizens of Cincinnati began referring to the city as the "Queen" city. The phrase was cemented in the poem "Catawba Wine" by
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who wrote that the city was "the Queen of the West," giving the city its nickname.
Railroads were the next major form of transportation to come to Cincinnati. In 1836, the Little Miami Railroad was chartered. Construction began soon after, with the purpose of connecting Cincinnati with the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad, and thus the ports of the Sandusky Bay.
Six years later, in 1859, Cincinnati laid out six streetcar lines, making it easier for people to get around the city.. In July of 1863, Cincinnati was placed under
martial law due to the imminent danger posed by the Confederate
Morgan's Raiders who came very close to Cincinnati but never actually attacked the city proper (although it should be noted that several outlying villages such as
Cheviot and
Montgomery fell victim to the Morgan's threat.).
In 1879,
Procter & Gamble, one of Cincinnati's major soap manufacturers, began marketing
Ivory Soap. It got its appeal because of its ability to float. After a fire at their first factory, Procter & Gamble moved to a new factory on the Mill Creek and began soap production again, which eventually lead to the area being known as Ivorydale.
Cincinnati weathered the Great Depression better than most American cities of its size, largely because of a resurgence of inexpensive river trade. The rejuvenation of downtown began in the 1920s and continued into the next decade with the construction of Union Terminal, the post office, and a large Bell Telephone building. The flood of 1937 was one of the worst in the nation's history, resulting in the building of protective flood walls. After World War II, Cincinnati unveiled a master plan for urban renewal that resulted in modernization of the inner city. Riverfront Stadium and Riverfront Coliseum were completed in the 1970s, as the
Cincinnati Reds baseball team emerged as one of the dominant teams of the decade. In December 1979, eleven people were killed in a mass panic prior to a rock-and-roll concert at the Coliseum by the band
The Who. In 1989, the 200th anniversary of the city's founding, much attention was focused on the city's Year 2000 plan, which involved further revitalization.
The completion of several major new development projects enhance the city as it enters the early years of the new millennium. Cincinnati's beloved Bengals and Reds teams both have new, state-of-the-art homes:
Paul Brown Stadium, opened in 2000; and the
Great American Ball Park, opened in 2003, respectively. Two new museums have opened: the
Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in 2003, and the
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in 2004. With many delays and political setbacks, the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County are currently planning
The Banks--a 24-hour urban neighborhood of restaurants, clubs, offices, and homes with sweeping skyline views, along the city's riverfront. Cincinnati has received such accolades as "Most Liveable City" (1993), Partners for Livable Communities, April 2004; number five U.S. arts destination, American Style Magazine, Summer 2004; was the highest rated city in Ohio for "Best Cities For Young Professionals" and 18th overall, Forbes Magazine, June 2007
(External Link
); and inclusion in the top ten "Cities that Rock," Esquire Magazine, April 2004.
Geography
Cincinnati is located at (39.136160, -84.503088), with a core metro area spanning parts of Southern Ohio and Northern Kentucky.
According to the
United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 79.6
square miles (206.1
km²), of which, 78.0 square miles (201.9 km²) of it's land and 1.6 square miles (4.1 km²) of it (2.01%) is water. The city spreads over a number of hills, bluffs, and low ridges overlooking the
Ohio River in the
Bluegrass region of the country. Although sometimes referred to as part of the
Midwest, Cincinnati is geographically located within the periphery of the
Upland South. The Cincinnati Northern Kentucky area is the upper point in the
Golden Triangle, an area in Kentucky defined by that region along with
Lexington and
Louisville, that accounts for most of the Kentucky economy and population growth.
Climate
Cincinnati is located within the northern limit of the
humid subtropical climate and the southern limit of the
Humid continental climate zone, with average temperatures by U.S. standards. Summers are generally warm and humid with slightly cooler evenings. July is the warmest month, with an average high of 87°F (31°C) and an average low of 68°F (20°C). Winters are colder, with occasional snow fall. January is the coldest month, with an average high of 38°F (3°C) and an average low of 21°F (-6°C). Precipitation is fairly evenly distributed each month, averaging 41 inches of rainfall and 16 inches of snowfall annually. The highest recorded temperature was 109.0 °F (42.8 °C) on
July 21 1934, and the lowest recorded temperature was -25°F (-32 °C) on
January 18 1977.
Cityscape
Fountain Square, Cincinnati, which then is surrounded by its tallest buildings.
Cincinnati is home to numerous structures that are noteworthy due to their architectural characteristics or historic associations including the
Carew Tower, the
Scripps Center, the
Ingalls Building,
Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal, and the
Isaac M. Wise Temple.
The city is undergoing significant changes due to an influx of
new development and private investment as well as the beginning of the often-stalled
Banks project.
A new building will soon be added to the Cincinnati skyline.
Queen City Square, which will be anchored by American Financial Group and the Western and Southern Financial Group, is scheduled to be open in 2011. The building will be the tallest in Cincinnati and the third tallest in Ohio, reaching a height of 660 feet.
Government
The city is governed by a
nine-member city council, whose members are elected at large. Prior to 1924, city council was elected through a system of
wards. The ward system lent itself to corruption and Cincinnati was run by the
Republican political machine of "Boss" Cox from the 1880s through the 1920s with a few brief interludes. A reform movement arose in 1923, led by another
Republican,
Murray Seasongood. Seasongood eventually founded the Charter Committee, which used ballot initiatives in 1924 to eliminate the ward system and replace it with the current at-large system and also to introduce a
city manager form of government. From 1924 to 1957, the council was selected by
proportional representation. Beginning in 1957, all candidates ran in a single race and the top nine vote-getters were elected (the "9-X system"). The mayor was selected by the council. In 1977
Jerry Springer, later a controversial television talk show host, was chosen to serve one year as mayor. Starting in 1987, the top vote-getter in the city council election automatically became mayor. Starting in 1999, the
mayor was chosen in a separate election and the city manager received a lesser role in government; these reforms were referred to as the "
strong mayor" reforms. Cincinnati politics include the participation of the
Charter Party, the party with the third-longest history of winning in local elections.
Race relations
Before the
Civil War, Cincinnati was a bordertown between the states that allowed slavery, such as Kentucky, and those that did not, such as Ohio. Cincinnati and surrounding areas played a major role in
Abolitionism. The area was a part of the
Underground Railroad and was home to
Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her characters in
Uncle Tom's Cabin were based on escaped slaves she met in the area.
Levi Coffin made the Cincinnati area the center of his anti slavery efforts in 1847. Today, The
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center commemorates the era at its center located at 50 East Freedom Way.
In 2001 a series of
2001 Cincinnati riots occurred after the shooting death of an unarmed black male
Timothy Thomas by police during an on foot pursuit.
Crime
Before the
riot of 2001, Cincinnati's overall crime rate was dropping dramatically and had reached its lowest point since 1992. After the riot, violent crime increased, but is still well below the level of the 1970s . The police force "
work slowdown" correlates with this increase. In 2007 though an article published in the Cincinnati Enquirer on
May 30,
2007 affirmed that incidences of violent crime, including homicides, were 15.3 percent lower than they'd been in the first four months of 2006. Children's Hospital saw a 78 percent decrease in gunshot wounds, and University Hospital had a 17 percent drop.
In
May and June 2006, together with the Hamilton County Sheriff, the Cincinnati Police Department created a task force to crack down on crime. This consisted of an extra twenty deputies assigned to
Over-the-Rhine and helped reduce the crime rate of downtown Cincinnati by 29% . This marks a dramatic decrease in crime but hasn't reduced the crime levels to pre-riot levels.
In the
general elections on
November 7,
2006, Hamilton County voters rejected a quarter-cent
sales tax increase which would have been used to build a new jail system.
The city has attempted to reduce gun violence in Cincinnati by using the Out of the Crossfire program at University Hospital, which is a rehabilitation program for patients with gunshot wounds. The program attempts to prevent them from falling back into the cycle of violence which many gunshot victims return to after leaving the hospital. Mayor Mark Mallory is a member of the
Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, a bi-partisan group with a stated goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets.
2007 saw 68 homicides, nearly a 25% drop from 2006 in which there were 89. Part of this is due to the Out of the Crossfire and Ceasefire programs, which help gunshot victims avoid a life back on the streets after they're released from the hospital. However, this is still not lower than 2000 count of 15 homicides.
Demographics
and
The Mighty. In addition,
Wild Hogs is set, though not filmed, in Cincinnati.
The Cincinnati skyline was prominently featured in the opening and closing sequences of the daytime drama
The Edge of Night from its start in 1956 until 1980, when it was superseded by the Los Angeles skyline; the cityscape was the stand-in for the show's setting, Monticello. Procter & Gamble, the show's producer, is based in Cincinnati. The sitcom
WKRP in Cincinnati featured the city's skyline in its credits, as well as obviously being set, though not shot in, Cincinnati. The city's skyline has also appeared in an
April Fool's episode of
The Drew Carey Show, which was set in Carey's hometown of Cleveland.
Cincinnati gave rise to many popular bands and musicians, including
The Isley Brothers,
James Brown,
Mood,
Calloway,
The Afghan Whigs,
Over the Rhine (which traces its roots to Cincinnati's
Over-the-Rhine district),
Bootsy Collins,
Blessid Union of Souls,
98 Degrees,
The Greenhornes,
The National, and
Heartless Bastards. In addition, many other bands and musicians call the
Greater Cincinnati region their home, including
Adrian Belew,
Peter Frampton and alternative Hip Hop DJ, DJ
Hi-Tek, who is one half of
Reflection Eternal.
3 Doors Down's music video "It's Not My Time" was filmed in Cincinnati showing parts of the skyline as well as Fountain Square.
Cincinnati is also home to the region's only non-profit for the experimental and noise arts,
Art Damage Inc as well as the broadcasting home of The Future of Rock& Roll,
woxy.com.
The Cincinnati May Festival Chorus is a prestigious amateur choir that has been in existence since 1880. Music Director James Conlon and Chorus Director Robert Porco lead the Chorus through an extensive repertoire of classical music. The May Festival Chorus is the mainstay of the oldest continuous choral festival in the Western Hemisphere. Cincinnati's Music Hall was built specifically to house the May Festival.
Cincinnati is home to the
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra,
Cincinnati Opera,
Cincinnati Boychoir and
Cincinnati Ballet. The Greater Cincinnati area is also home to several regional orchestras and youth orchestras, including the
Starling Chamber Orchestra.
Sports
Cincinnati has seven major sports venues, two major league teams, six minor league teams, and five college institutions with their own sports teams. It is home to baseball's
Reds, who were named for America's first professional baseball team, the
Cincinnati Red Stockings(External Link)(External Link)(External Link); the
Bengals of the National Football League; and the historic international men's and women's tennis tournament, The A.T.P. Masters Series
Cincinnati Masters. It is also home to three professional soccer teams, two outdoor teams, the Cincinnati Kings (men's) and Cincinnati LadyHawks (women's), and one indoor team, the Cincinnati Excite (men's).
Major League Lacrosse has announced that Cincinnati is in the running for one of the two expansion teams that will start play in 2008.
Fans often refer to the city and its teams as "Cincy" for short. Even the Reds' official website uses that name frequently.
(External Link)
Transportation
Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) is the major
airport serving the metropolitan area and is located across the river in
Kentucky. The airport is the second largest hub for
Delta and the largest for its subsidiary,
Comair. The city has three other airports;
Lunken Airport, a municipal airfield used for smaller business jets and private planes; a smaller airport,
Cincinnati West Airport, is located in
Harrison, Ohio; and lastly the
Blue Ash Airport, in
Blue Ash.
Cincinnati is served by the Metro city passenger bus system, operated by the
Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA). The
Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky (TANK) serves Northern Kentucky and operates bus links in Cincinnati at Metro's main Government Square hub. There is also rail service by
Amtrak with ticket offices and boarding stations at
Cincinnati Union Terminal. Of the several railroad freight services serving the city, the largest is provided by
CSX Transportation which operates a railroad yard west of
Interstate 75.
The city has a river ferry and many bridges. The
Anderson Ferry has been in continuous operation since 1817.
Cincinnati’s major bridges include:
The Newport Southbank Bridge (a.k.a. the Purple People Bridge because of its status as a pedestrian-only bridge as well as its color)
The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge Opened in 1866, this bridge was the prototype for the Brooklyn Bridge, also designed by Roebling.
The Daniel Carter Beard Bridge
The Brent Spence Bridge
The Clay Wade Bailey Bridge.
Cincinnati is served by three major interstate highways. Interstate 75 is a north-south route through the Mill Creek valley. Interstate 71 runs northeast towards Mount Adams and Walnut Hills. Interstate 74 begins at Interstate 75 west of downtown and connects to Indiana.
The city has an outer-belt, Interstate 275, and a spur to Kentucky, Interstate 471. It is also served by numerous U.S. highways: US 22, US 27, US 42, US 50, US 52, and US 127.
Cincinnati has an incomplete subway system. It was abandoned in 1925 before completion due to cost overruns and is now used as a conduit for fiber optic and water lines. There have been several attempts by SORTA to utilize the subways for a modern light-rail system within Hamilton County. All of these initiatives have thus far failed when placed on the ballot, with the most recent (a $2.8 billion plan) failing 2 to 1 in 2002.
There have been numerous attempts over the past decade to build commuter rail from Milford (in nearby Clermont County) to the Downtown Transit Center in Cincinnati. The most recent of these began gaining support in early July 2007. The $411 million plan currently calls for using and upgrading existing rail lines and new diesel cars called DMUs (diesel multiple units).
Cincinnati is also currently planning a streetcar line to connect Downtown, Over-the-Rhine and the area around the University of Cincinnati.(External Link) An initial study conducted by Omaha-based HDR Engineers was completed on May 31, 2007 and estimated the cost to be around $100 million dollars. The first line connecting Over-the-Rhine to the Banks is expected to be ready by 2009 and is expected to spur the establishment of 1,200 to 3,400 new households resulting in $1.4 billion in redeveloped property, $34 million in new tax income for the city per year, and $17 million in new retail spending.
Sister cities
Cincinnati has nine sister cities:
Further Information
Get more info on 'Cincinnati Ohio'.
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