Has anyone lived in Cincinnati? Are there many young professionals there? How bad are the winters? Many cultural events? Is there much reinvestment in the inner city with a decent urban community (i.e. places like Cameron Village in Raleigh or South End in Charlotte) where people live, go out, shop? I don't want to live somewhere where everyone is spread out in the suburbs and the only places to go out is Hickory Tavery/Chili's.

A major automation company has been courting me for a position in their main engineering HQ up there. Previously they passed on me for a position at their smaller local office in Charlotte (they ended up hiring the marketing managers college buddy from what my recruiter told me). The engineering manager, however, who works out of Cincinnati has been in contact with my recruiter asking if i'd consider moving up there for an open role.

I've been really thinking about making a move lately. I've lived my entire life in various places around NC. Just not sure if I'd want to move to Ohio. Seems like half of the migrants from Charlotte are from Ohio, says it sucks, and hence moved to the queen city.

4/9/2014 1:56:42 PM

Hope you can skate down Devil's Backbone.

4/9/2014 1:59:20 PM

^ awesome

[Edited on April 9, 2014 at 2:02 PM. Reason : was that Seth Green's big break in hollywood??]

4/9/2014 2:01:51 PM

4/9/2014 2:05:13 PM

i have seen Airborne probably 200 times

4/9/2014 2:10:53 PM

Fuck HUR, this thread is now about Airborne.

Here's a nice little oral history of the movie filming and production.

http://www.wcpo.com/entertainment/movies/cincinnati-celebrates-20th-birthday-of-movie-airborne-at-japps

Quote :

"The 91-minute film plays on standard tropes and the storytelling is obvious, part of the reason why it received a positive score of only 17 percent from movie reviewers on the movie rating website Rotten Tomatoes. But while the movie will not be remembered in the annals of film history, "Airborne" has a special place in the hearts of many people from the Tri-State. “There was nothing more epic in my mind than rollerblading through the hills of Cincinnati and downtown, as the characters do during the final race,” Michael Sweeny recalled thinking after his first viewing of the movie. “Seeing it, the thrill was very real and sincere.” The 26-year-old Northside resident says he first “fell in love” with “Airborne” when his sister gave him a VHS copy of the movie for his eighth birthday. “It’s a tongue-in-cheek love. There’s a level of pride that it was shot here but I think a lot of people love it because of how ridiculous it is,” said Sweeny who referenced a scene on Mitchell’s first day where he was asked to stand in front of the class and introduce himself. “I mean, where do they even do that? It certainly wasn’t my high school experience,” the St. Xavier High School grad said before letting out a brief laugh. In some ways Cincinnati served as a stand-in for a generic 1990s Midwest town--where progress was slow-developing and life moved at a snail's pace compared to places like Los Angeles and New York City. Seeing drastic development over the years, Sweeny thinks the city is now an incubator for big ideas and events so the film’s portrayal of Cincinnati is laughably dated and unrecognizable to him. In spite of a less than genuine presentation of the Queen City, there's still something "romantic" about the movie to Sweeny and others of his generation. "It was romantic to me as a child, and remains so—this notion of Cincinnati being the place a kid travels to in order to find adventure, rather than being the place he flees from. Big, exciting things can happen here. I believed that as a kid and still do." The low-budget film was released Sept. 17, 1993 in 982 theaters nationwide and made $2,850,263 domestically, including $1,262,239 in its opening weekend. It earned the No. 12 spot at the box office that weekend. It was also released in several other countries, including Australia, Japan and Hungary, where it received moderate box-office success. But where the film made its biggest impact, at least socially, was in Cincinnati. “I couldn’t get over the fact that a big screen teen romance/coming of age tale—arguably the quintessential American movie genre—was set in my very own city,” Sweeny said. His reaction to the film isn’t rare in that regard. “Cincinnatians have a deep affection for the movie. And almost every person has some sort of ‘Airborne’ story,” he said. “Either their high school boyfriend was an extra or their dad lives on a street where a scene was filmed or their aunt helped with casting.” Over several months in 1992, director Rob Bowman, cast and crew made their way to various parts of the Tri-State including Newport, Bellevue, Covington, Hamilton and various parts of Cincinnati. Some of the famed locations in the film are Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport, Krohn Conservatory, Western Hills High School and Riverfront Stadium, where the epic race scene at the end of the movie was filmed. The movie also featured Pompilio's Bar and Restaurant in Newport, which was first made famous in the movie “Rain Man” (1988), one of several films set at least in part in Greater Cincinnati. "My experience of Cincinnati was unique because a film crew was always present due to the heavy shooting schedule. But, I would have to say Pompilios restaurant, the city skyline and the botanical gardens (Krohn Conservatory) stand out as favorites," McDermott told CityBeat in a recent interview. Although McDermott and the film crews' visit to Cincinnati was short-lived, the few months they spent working on the film in the area entrenched them as a part of the city's quirky history. “Call it a corny bit of overstatement, but ‘Airborne’ is a part of our history. I just wish the accents weren’t so inaccurate," Sweeny said in a half-serious manner. While other films were shot in and around town, there’s something about the movie that has endeared itself to Cincinnatians, particularly children of the ‘90s. “It has got all the characteristic features of that decade: Tie-dye, swooping haircuts, torn jeans, mad amounts of plaid, a soundtrack that’s a cross between ‘New Jack City’ and ‘Empire Records,’ and, of course, in-line skating,” Sweeny said. One YouTube user labels “Airborne” a feature-length commercial for the ‘90s and that pretty much sums up the love affair many Cincinnatians have with the film. The website FilmDrunk.com called it “the most '90s movie ever made” because of all the montages, bullies, wailing guitars, surfing, rollerblading and street sports. The film’s production coincided with the popularization of ESPN’s X-Games. All that’s missing is a picture of Kelly Kapowski from “Saved by the Bell” and a Spin Doctors CD. “We are currently living through a phase of intense ?’90s nostalgia, so it only makes sense to relish the cinematic time machine that is ‘Airborne,’” Sweeny said. Watching kids rollerblade around the exotic flora and fauna at the conservatory is fun and the hilarity of watching Green try on every stereotypical look of the decade during a scene set to the song “I’m Too Sexy” by Right Said Fred is hard to match. But the movie operates on a much deeper social level and touches on some of the major topics in the United States at the time. “On a more serious note, the ‘90s were all about the culture wars and ‘Airborne’ has that in spades. A grad student could write a dissertation on how Mitchell’s struggle represents the crisis of the left in the wake of Reaganism and he would have plenty of material to go on,” said Sweeny, who studied film at New York University before returning to the area two years ago. “Practically every line out of Mitchell’s mouth is a recycled hippie catchphrase. That was the cultural climate my generation grew up in, so it feels very familiar and relatable.” The ability to relate to the themes and events depicted in “Airborne” is what inspired Sweeny and his old high school classmate, Joe Besl, to celebrate the movie's 20th birthday. The pair joked about hosting an actual event but it didn’t get much traction at first. But after voicing the idea to a few friends, the duo said putting on the show “only made sense.” “Everyone we talked to about the event chuckled and said it sounded like a great idea,” Sweeny said, noting the numerous pro-‘Airborne’ Facebook pages created by Cincinnatians. At first they thought about trying to air the film at Krohn Conservatory, Longworth Hall or one of the other event venues featured in “Airborne,” but those weren’t conducive for hosting a movie-watching event for dozens of people. They finally settled on Japp’s, a popular bar on Main Street in downtown Cincinnati where some of Sweeny and Besl’s friends work. They plan to start the movie at 8 p.m. Wednesday night. “I knew people who worked there and it’s a great space with a projector so I thought, 'let’s rent out Japp’s,'” said Sweeny. Sweeny and Besl refer to the event as a “labor of love” because they paid for the space out of pocket and aren’t going to profit from the event. The duo ended up approaching 12 of their friends to help rent out the space and make the event a reality. While they won’t get rich as a result of the event, they do plan to have a great time. “The bar managers said we could do anything we want with the space because we rented it for the night so we thought 'why not have a ’90s-themed dance party?'” said Sweeny who admitted to scheduling to be off work Thursday in order to ensure he could enjoy Wednesday night’s festivities.?? Attendees are invited to wear their best throwback attire and participate in "drinking salutes" during parts of the film such as when a character says "Cincinnati," when Mithcell goes airborne or a couple kisses on the now-defunct Covington landing. “The goal of the screening is simple: To show attendees a great time. We want people to come watch the movie, have a laugh, dance and have a few drinks in the process,“ Sweeny said. The support for the event has exceeded even its creators’ expectations. “Joseph and I have been completely blown away by the response. When we first started organizing the event, we expected a turnout of about 30 people. But as we’ve promoted it, it’s become clear that the people of Cincinnati have a deep affection for ‘Airborne,’” Sweeny said. They now expect a few hundred people to attend, including some who were only a year or two old when the film was released. “We know some of the people will never have seen the movie before. For those who haven’t seen it, there is no better occasion to lose your ‘Airborne’ virginity.” Who knows? Maybe a new generation of fans of the film will be born Thursday night. That’s an idea Sweeny and Besl support whole-heartedly. “If the turnout is big and the response is positive, then maybe an ‘Airborne’ screening can become an annual event. That would be a dream come true.”"

4/9/2014 2:12:09 PM

Quote :

"was that Seth Green's big break in hollywood??"

Jack Black's for sure

4/9/2014 2:16:22 PM

Quote :

"hence moved to the queen city"

FYI - Cincinnati is also called the queen city.

Compared to Charlotte/Raleigh, Cincinnati is going to have worse winters (duh, since it is further north). However they are not horrible. It will snow more frequently, but there are breaks between the snow. The rest of the year is pleasant.

Cincinnati has been investing heavily in the downtown areas to revitalize it, and a lot of progress has been made (and there are plenty of plans to keep the momentum going). New shopping centers, apartments/condos, and bar districts are being built, and I think they are investing around the stadiums to create a cooler atmosphere there too. There are some cool areas already; Mount Adams has a great bar scene, there are a lot of bars near UC's campus in Clifton, and like I mentioned they are building up downtown as well. A lot of the neighborhoods also have their own "main streets" with local establishments if you like the idea of having a local bar.

Compared to Charlotte/Raleigh, Cincinnati has a lot more history and culture. Current residents' families have lived there for generations, so there is a lot of pride and passion for Cincinnati. The german influence on the town is really cool (there are german beer houses and the largest Oktoberfest in the US, and I love the German bakeries/butchers). Cincinnati has a great zoo and awesome museums. There is also a decent young middle-class population there due to the large corporations that have their headquarters or large installations there (P&G, GE, Kroger).

There are several universities in the area (Cincinnati and Xavier), so basketball is a big deal. If you are into pro sports, the Reds games are a lot of fun and people are very passionate for the Bengals. There are a ton of good views in Cincinnati due to the hills that make up the city and the river that runs along its south edge.

The Bad - I generally feel safe when going anywhere in the city, but you don't want to go wandering into the wrong areas downtown late at night. The city is being cleaned up (and making progress), but there was a period and a reason why people were moving away. The winters can get rough when you are used to NC (I don't think they are bad, but I didn't grow up in NC).

I grew up in Cincinnati and go back to visit family several times a year. I meet up with my uncles and cousins who live in the city and we usually pick different bar areas every time I visit. I may be a little biased, but I genuinely appreciate Cincinnati's charm. If you are looking for a city with a lot of history, distinct culture, and an improving future, it would be a good match. If you are looking for a city with great weather, great access to the beach/mountains, and a fast growing population (like Charlotte/Raleigh), it may not be the best option.

4/9/2014 2:22:58 PM

didn't realize i posted in chit-chat

^ thanks for the response!

4/9/2014 2:32:31 PM

You are the Hodgkin's lymphoma of TWW.

http://filmschoolrejects.com/features/airborne-twentieth-anniversary.php

Quote :

"Sept. 17, 2013 If you search IMDb’s incredibly handy “plot keywords” for the phrase “rollerblading,” only twenty-eight titles pop up, and most of them aren’t even truly concerned with rollerblading as an actual plot element. The number one rated entry is “Skitchin,’” which is actually a video game from 1994. The number two rated entry? The UK’s uproariously funny series “Absolutely Fabulous,” which has absolutely nothing to do with rollerblading. You’ll have to scroll all the way down to the exact middle of the list – entry number 14 – to find Rob Bowman’s Airborne (above 2002’s Rollerball, below an Erik von Detten-starring Disney movie called Brink! about a pack of teens who call themselves “Soul-Skaters” because “Hammy Sad People Skating Together Because You Don’t Get Me, Mom” wasn’t punchy enough), which is an immense cinematic tragedy, simply because Airborne is the best film about rollerblading ever made. It also turns twenty today. There is no real reason that Airborne should work – it’s basically demented and it hit screens without any true named talent. Bowman is and was a TV guy, and his resume is peppered with more television shows than you can shake a stick (wheeled boot?) at, from 21 Jump Street to Star Trek: The Next Generation to Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, all the way up to current stuff like Castle. Sure, he also directed the first X-Files film, along with Reign of Fire and Elektra, but let’s forget about all those titles because wouldn’t you want to if you were Rob Bowman? The man directed Airborne, for chrissakes! Let’s give him some respect! The film is also the lone screenwriting credit for its two (two!) scribes, super-producer Stephen McEveety and the otherwise non-Hollywood-affiliated Bill Apablasa. Star Shane McDermott was a former gymnast whose major claim to fame pre-Airborne was a role in The Baby-Sitters Club television series (he’s now a real estate agent). It was love interest Brittany Powell’s first starring role. It co-stars no less than both Seth Green and Jack Black, and only one of them plays a kind of douchey hockey guy. The film opened on September 17, 1993 in a staggering 982 theaters. It went up against other new releases like Striking Distance and The Age of Innocence. It placed twelfth in a crowded box office field that was still eating up The Fugitive, True Romance, Jurassic Park, and Sleepless in Seattle. It made only $2.8m at the box office and has the distinction of being only the 28th best “extreme sports” moneymaker. It is still entirely wonderful and relentlessly dumb. If you can watch the first five or so minutes of Airborne without laughing hysterically, good for you. McDermott plays a California surfer dude named Mitchell “Goose” Goosen who is blindsided by the news that his zoologist parents are ditching him for half a year and shipping him off to live with distant family in goddamn Cincinnati. Goose is either some sort of deeply centered prophet or a complete idiot – obsessed with things like “stylin” and calling people “brah,” Mitchell is really only suited for life by the beach (where else could he call something a “consciousness raiser” without being laughed out of the room?). Cincinnati does not appeal to him. Snow does not appeal to him. Hockey goons do not appeal to him. Brah? Brah? It’s simply enough, really – what is a surf bum to do in Cincinnati? While surfing is Mitchell’s main gig, he’s also into rollerblading, and when someone finally wises up (his parents? Aren’t they off somewhere sans Mitchell?) and send him his blades, his life starts to look up almost immediately. See, Mitchell’s hippie-dippy dumbness doesn’t play too well in his new high school, and the fact that his cousin Wiley (Green) is a loser and that he’s taken a shine to Head Hockey Goon’s sister Nikki (Powell) isn’t working out too well for him. Are there hijinks and gags?, you ask. Are there ever! There is sand in a locker and a prank about Mitchell not being to wipe his own ass and Jack Black basically telling people he’s a stoner and just all kinds of mirth. There’s a trip through a huge greenhouse in which he charms Nikki by routinely skating away from her (charming, horrifying). There’s just a lot of stuff, and it’s all very nineties and very Rollerblade-y. Mitchell often hallucinates. And then there is the competition. For whatever reason, the hockey goons must go up against “the preps” (no, really) in a massive in-line skating competition down a hill called “The Devil’s Backbone” (no, really) and suddenly – suddenly! – they need Goose’s skills. Desperate for attention and acceptance, cripplingly lonely, utterly forgetful of his outcast cousin, Goose signs up for the competition. Now they will accept him! Now they will love him! Raise your consciousness, brah! The real tragedy of Airborne is that nobody dies, but it does teach us a lot of life lessons about high school relationships (mainly that you can be mean to someone until you need them). It’s the only film that manages to make rollerblading look cool, vital, and life-threatening in an appealing way. It’s also a film that includes no less than seven taglines, in which “There are two kinds of people: those who get AIRBORNE…and those who don’t” is only the second most stupid. Happy birthday, Airborne!"

4/9/2014 3:55:19 PM

Leave your crap in chit-chat....

[Edited on April 9, 2014 at 5:48 PM. Reason : a]

4/9/2014 5:47:55 PM

Cincinnati is the fake Queen City. I don't ever recall a Queen Cincinnati in my history books.

4/9/2014 7:07:23 PM

I really want to watch Airborne right now. Although I'm sure I found her very attractive when I was kid...I think they could have done a lot better with the leading lady in this film. Why wasn't Tiffany Amber Thiessen doing motion pictures at the time.

4/9/2014 7:33:13 PM

CHECKING IN

I will read this thread and reply thoroughly tomorrow.

(My favourite city in America)

4/9/2014 11:46:26 PM

Chill, brah.

I have to find this on torrent somewhere. It's going into my iTunes movie library.

[Edited on April 10, 2014 at 9:20 AM. Reason : .]

4/10/2014 9:18:08 AM

Driving tour of Devil's Backbone.

http://youtu.be/2xRZvxK6u2M

4/10/2014 10:43:17 AM

DonMega gave a good response to this thread; from my limited perspective, not actually living in the city itself (not the suburbs, just one of the many areas that look and feel like part of the city but technically aren't), it seems like the historically "dangerous" areas in the city (like Over-the-Rhine) are gentrifying, while the unincorporated townships surrounding it, like mine, are in decline (I don't know how the suburbs are doing, but IMO you should only move to one of them, like Mason, if that's specifically where your job will be, to save some of the commute).

Also, much as I understand Raleigh to be a liberal enclave within the Bible Belt, Cincinnati is very different from that region despite bordering it; however, a substantial portion of the population is Catholic, and (in case that's important) the Mercy Health system dominates the Greater Cincinnati area.
On the flip side HUR, if you are Catholic and considering raising a family and putting the kids in Catholic school, the area has an embarrassment of riches.

More generally, this area has had a reputation for being more conservative than a typical metro of its size, and part of that might have to do with former Sheriff Simon Leis, who famously hounded Larry Flynt and his Hustler store both before and after becoming Sheriff (the "before" case was the inspiration for The People vs. Larry Flynt) and is probably the reason some adult-video companies refuse to ship to Hamilton County (like Adult DVD Empire...and I know this because I heard about it on the blogosphere, not because I tried ordering anything from there); Leis retired in 2012 after 25 years, and his deputy and chosen successor, Sean Donovan, was defeated by Jim Neil, but he's not soft just because he's a Democrat, like he shooed the homeless off the courthouse grounds, while Leis had let them sleep there at night.

Unfortunately, you won't get decent Internet access in the area for long, unless FiOS comes to your residence (or Google Fiber picks this area lol) or you're willing to pay the huge cost of a Cincinnati Bell phone line on top of your Internet bill; this is because the area's cable provider is Time Warner Cable, which will soon be owned by Comcast.

[Edited on April 10, 2014 at 12:13 PM. Reason : Oh yeah, the winters aren't usually bad (just this year's), but the summers

4/10/2014 12:13:04 PM

Seems like a lateral move to me. Cincy is a typical Rust Belt city, so it's not going to be a complete 180 in terms of lifestyle and culture. If I had to live in Ohio, I'd much rather live in Columbus, warts and all.

4/10/2014 1:48:16 PM

Columbus over Cincinnati? Are you fucking serious? Unless you're main activity is tailgating and going to football games (which at Ohio State...is fucking awesome)...I don't see any reason to choose Columbus over Cincinatti.

(Airborne alone puts Cincy over Columbus)

4/10/2014 2:56:31 PM

Let me tell you what stylin' is. The perfect session: A-Frame wave, ground swell, spittin' out salt water in your face, doing a little lip action move, a 360 without a bounce. I call it a Liquid Drano Wannabe Bullwinkle. I tell you no lie, my friends. It's a consciousness raiser.

[Edited on April 10, 2014 at 6:40 PM. Reason : Did he just call you a piece of underwear?]

4/10/2014 6:39:30 PM

Quote :

"Columbus over Cincinnati? Are you fucking serious?"

yes, I'm serious. Luckily, I don't have to live in either one, because to me they're both shitty rustbelt cities in Ohio.

4/10/2014 8:30:19 PM

http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7621117/Airborne_1993_DvDrip_XviD_greenbud1969_26K

Just began trying to download. Not sure if it will work or not...

4/12/2014 4:12:18 PM

Torrent works. Definitely pre-gaming and watching Airborne, moondoggies.

4/12/2014 7:28:02 PM