Why I live in (near) Cincinnati

Nobody rides a tired horse like I do.

Another Keillor quote, the Law of the Provinces

Don't think you're somebody. If you were, you wouldn't be here, you'd be on the Coast.

My friend Chad linked to a recent CityBeat article.

Now, I'm not a native Cincinnatian. It took me a while to get used to hear people ask "So where'd you go to school?" and realize that they meant high-school. But I'm a Midwesterner at heart and by birth. And like so many others I fled my own home (Central Indiana) shortly after cleaning up from my college graduation party. Goodbye flatlands, hello Bay Area.

And now I live here.

The reasons behind all that transpired back then are many, but I live, and continue to live, in the Cincinnati area very deliberately. I like the feel here. I enjoy that people have lived here their whole life, and their parents live across town, and they still have friends from high-school. Try finding that in San Jose, California. I like how the city is laid out so randomly and hugs the river and that streets are confusing. There is no friendly grid like Indianapolis and learning your way around actually represents some sort of accomplishment. I enjoy walking through the old parts of the city and feeling the juxtaposition of the urban and the pastoral, the flood of German and Appalachian influence, the hints of the old frontier-spirit that still linger.

I like this town.

Yes, Cincinnati has problems. But for every person who leaves and gripes about their old neighbors resisting change I wonder where the responsibility rests? If so many things need fixed then why don't these people stay around and fix them? As I feel about those who don't vote, I think moving away should force you to abdicate your right to criticize.

I have no idea if I'll live my life out here or not. I can imagine that happening, though. And hopefully, in some small way, I'll have helped create a neighborhood and community and city and region that more closely meets my ideal. Maybe I'll rehab an OTR building of my own, or move down to Norwood just to escape the suburbs. Maybe by riding the bus when I work downtown I can continue to be an evangelist for mass transit. Who knows what kind of influence a lifetime can uncover.

But in my experience, the exotic is indeed wonderful, with better weather, better views and many different people. But it's not home. I can't speak for Portland, but I know that the transient nature of Bay Area residents took it's toll. I lived there for a short while near the end of the Silicon Valley boom, and you didn't bother meeting your neighbors, because housing turnover was rapid. Peoples' yards were small, backyards surrounded by fences, and I cannot remember once doing anything remotely social with my coworkers.

But here?

My perception is that people are just a bit friendlier, a bit more open, not quite as calloused to the comings and goings of others. I've lived here just over five years and have good friends from both companies I've worked for.

Keep in mind that this whole argument can be so easily turned on its ear. If I think people are responsible to contribute to the community where they are raised, then why don't I still live in good ol' Muncie, Indiana, or at least in nearby Indianapolis? Well, I have my reasons. And as I drove around Muncie last weekend I thought "I wouldn't mind so much moving back here after all."

It's so easy to only see the problems in your familiar world and to only see the jewels of a foreign place.

Maybe Cincinnati is still foreign to me. Perhaps that's why I still like it.