First off, I have never lived in Cleveland, so I can’t answer that part of your question. Sorry!

Secondly, where in Cincinnati, specifically? I’m from Eastgate, which as you might guess is on the EAST part of town, half an hour from the city. (I work in the city, so I know. ) Can you be more specific?

Email me at Redrabbit[at]gmail.com if you’d like to keep talking. :)

—Erica

I’m going to be brutally honest in this… I really don’t like Cincinnati and I would not want my daughter raised there. Its very suburban, VERY conservative, it lacks an any sort of arts/culture scene (particularly in the indy sense), its very insulated (no new blood moves there, and few ever leave), and it is the most racially divided place I’ve ever been. Downtown is a gangland that isn’t safe at all outside of the work day and the suburbs while safe, are a million miles away from everything and the city insists that there is no need for any sort of train or upgraded public transportation system. Very short sighted methinks. I’ve heard good things about the schools on the east side, Andersonville (might be called Anderson Township, I forget but “anderson” is definitely in the name), but the rest of the schools are like everywhere else, bad.

I’ve always heard that home is where the heart is, and your efforts and actions make a place what it is. I recognize the truth in all that to an extent, but sometimes you just have too many factors working against you. That’s what I had in Cinci.

I grew up in Cincy, lived there 15 years. Went to Anderson HS in fact. It’s very suburban. Very conservative. If you have kids and want a safe enviroment for them growing up Anderson Township and Sycamore township are the two nicest areas with good public schools. I don’t think I world move back now that I have lived in the Chicago, Dallas, and Florida. I’d want to expose my kids to some diversity and culture growing up. I’ll defenitly live in the city, but put them in private school. Oh, and Cincinnati is way better than Cleveland.

I’ve lived here my whole life and the schools I went to were good but they were also private/religious. The suburbs tend to be conservative as other people have said. Each of Cincinnati’s many suburbs has its own unique characteristics and I’m sure there is probably one which would suite your needs. There is an arts/culture scene, which is fairly decent for a city of this size. There are tons of parks located throughout the city and the Greater Cincinnati area. I don’t know how Cincinnati compares to Cleveland since I’ve only been there a few times, but the cost of living in Cincinnati as in other parts of Ohio is relatively low.

I have also lived in Cincy all my life – went to public school in Milford on the east side, college in Clifton downtown, and now live north of Cincinnati in West Chester. I would say that growing up here was great – the suburbs provide a nice environment to live in. I loved going to college in an urban environment, and working downtown (took the bus every day to work). There are plenty of art activities going on – everything from the classical (symphonies, operas, may festival, art museums) to the contemporary (a really nice contemporary art museum, and lots of in smaller studios).

The west side of cincinnati is more densly populated than that of the east or more north. It’s a great location for weekend trips to everything from Chicago to Nashville, or further east to Pittsburgh with lots of much shorter day trips in-between. I can’t compare to cleveland as I have never made it up there. I may be biased, but I think Cincinnati is a great place to grow up!

Like many of the answers you have already recieved, I am going to tell you that it is different, in each part of cincinnati. To be completely honest, there is REALLY good areas, and REALLY bad areas. I know you already have already gotton lot of answers, but I may be able to give you some different insight.
I grew up in kentucky, and went to a private school growing up, and now, I live in “over the rhine”. I stay there with my cousin and our boyfriends. It is a shit hole. I mean, as a near-20 year old, I can say that it is good experiance for me, and excelllent motivation for me to want to create something better for myself…..but, I would never EVER suggest you taking a small child near the down town area. Although the “culture” is nice, unless you want your kid to grow up and be a “thug”, I wouldn’t do it.
Instead try almost anywhere directly outside cincinnati limits. Like others have said, Anderson Township is nice, so is Indian Hill, and Milford or even Hyde Park is okay.
Northern Kentucky is really nice too. There is a very neat little town called Taylor Mill, not any more than 10 minutes away from downtown cinci., so if you still want them to experiance culture, you should try staying close, but just don’t get too close. You just might loose your child to the inner city.

Oh yeah, this is just an idea…. go to google local maps (just go to google.com and put “maps” in search engine) Then look at cincinnati in Satellite Mode. You can take a look for yourself, to see what it’s like. (it zooms in pretty close….kinda creepy….makes you wonder who’s watching.)

Good luck in your moving adventure!

I think Cincinnati is boring socially, but it is a wonderful place to raise a family. I have visited Cleveland on several occasions and I like the night life but that is about it. I don’t like the Cincinnati Public School District, but there are many surrounding area’s with wonderful schools. Our suburbs are beautiful. The only reason I am still living in Cincinnati is because of my two children ages 5 and 11.

Lived here all my life. Hope to move away soon. :)

Good place to raise children? In the suburbs, generally yes. Anderson Township has great schools (Forest Hills School District) as does Wyoming and Sycamore township.

Cincinnati is very segregated, and more conservative politically than Cleveland. But, we get less snow and cold weather than Cleveland.

Suburbs are generally pretty nice. The people . . . are people, just like anywhere else. Some nice, some a-holes. It can be hard to meet people because it’s true that a lot of people who live here have lived here all their lives (or grew up here and moved back).

Cost of living is pretty good, especially compared to other cities of this size.

There IS an arts/culture/music scene, but it’s more “underground”—meaning you have to look for it actively, you won’t just walk down any street and see lots of lively things to do. Downtown is not vital or compelling, and in many areas, is not safe.

Cincinnati is really a city of many suburbs. Some of them are more urban and “hip”—Hyde Park, Mt. Lookout, Oakley (all east side). I’m from the east side so don’t know a lot about west side neighborhoods; that’s another segregation in the city. West side tends to be more Catholic and (as someone else noted) more densely populated.