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Since I was old enough to start seriously thinking about what I would do when I became ‘an adult’, I’ve wanted to leave Cincinnati. I wasn’t born here, and, beyond people here that I enjoy, I don’t have any real ties to the city. 

Most people, on finding out that I live in Ohio, ask if I have a cow. Or live on a farm. Our football team is laughable, our baseball team is average, and we have no basketball team. There was a hockey team, but how could you take a team named after a Disney movie seriously, anyway? The public transit consists of buses only. Once, we tried to have a subway, but failed.  There is nothing notable or noteworthy about Cincinnati to outsiders. The few times I’ve seen the city show up in outside news were related to race riots, T.I.’s entourage being shot at, or a dude who bought his car with coins. There is nothing inherently cool about Cincinnati. Or, if I am being honest, most places in the midwestern United States. There’s Chicago, that’s about it.

If there is a restaurant to frequent, it’s probably a chain. Even our local delicacy of Cincinnati-style chili is a chain in most places. Sure, there are a few non-chains, but to me it feels as if the ratio of local/independent to national/corporate is heavily skewed, in all aspects of life- very different from what I experienced in Manhattan, or observed in my limited time in other cities such as Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, or Seattle. And I love the local/independent feel of things so much more. There is a bit of it around, but I find that I either have to leave the city (going to Kentucky is a fun night out here in Cincinnati) or go to a place I am uncomfortable being (”Oh, this is where I was mugged”).

So, needless to say, I’ve always felt the urge to get the freak out of here before I find myself “stuck”. I don’t want to think about saving up to buy a condo here because I don’t know if I will honestly be here long enough to make it worthwhile. Then I go and remember what one of my teachers told me my freshman year of college, lamenting that all of the people who have the power to change Cincinnati and shape it into the kind of place that I would enjoy living in end up moving to one of the places that’s already established as being ‘cool’.

So maybe I ought to start cultivating that kind of mindset. Stay here, find the places that I enjoy and support them, shun the parts I don’t, making it my Cincinnati. Have pride in my town (nevermind the fact that I am forced t live in a suburb of a northern county- I work there, dammit). Nurture and help that community grow. One of my favorite local artists is Julie Hill. She just did a fundraising event for ArtWorks that I missed, and now I’m kicking myself at the lost opportunity to do just that- support my Cincinnati. 

Being fair, the city is trying. New projects in Over-The-Rhine. My own company is helping to revitalize Findlay Market. There’s supposed to be a project by the river. So maybe I should stop thinking of staying here as being “stuck” and actually enjoy it. I mean, minus the shitty music, the city looks kind of cool in this video by 3 Doors Down.