The Birthplace of Professional Baseball, The Queen of the West, Athens of the West,[1] Cincy, Little Paris,[1] Paris of America, Porkopolis, The Queen City, The Nati
Throughout much of the 19th century, Cincinnati was among thetop 10 U.S. cities by population. The city developed as ariver town for cargo shipping bysteamboats, located at the crossroads of theNorthern andSouthern United States, with fewer immigrants and less influence from Europe thanEast Coast cities in the same period. However, it received a significant number ofGerman-speaking immigrants, who founded many of the city's cultural institutions. It later developed anindustrialized economy in manufacturing. Many structures in the urban core have remained intact for 200 years; in the late 1800s, Cincinnati was commonly referred to as the "Paris of America" due mainly to ambitious architectural projects such as theMusic Hall,Cincinnatian Hotel, and theRoebling Bridge.[12]
Cincinnati as depicted in 1812 with a population of 2,000[21]
Cincinnati began in 1788 when Mathias Denman,Colonel Robert Patterson, andIsrael Ludlow landed at a spot at the northern bank of the Ohio opposite the mouth of theLicking River and decided to settle there. The original surveyor,John Filson, named it "Losantiville", a combination of syllables drawn from French and Latin words, intended to mean "town opposite the mouth of the Licking".[22][23] On January 4, 1790,St. Clair changed the name of the settlement to honor the Society of the Cincinnati.[24]
In 1811, the introduction of steamboats on the Ohio River opened up the city's trade to more rapid shipping, and the city established commercial ties withSt. Louis, Missouri, andNew Orleans downriver. Cincinnati was incorporated as a city on March 1, 1819.[25] Exporting pork products and hay, it became a center of pork processing in the region. From 1810 to 1830, the city's population nearly tripled, from 9,642 to 24,831.[26]
Construction on theMiami and Erie Canal began on July 21, 1825, when it was called the Miami Canal, related to its origin at theGreat Miami River. The first section of the canal was opened for business in 1827. In 1827, the canal connected Cincinnati to nearbyMiddletown; by 1840, it had reachedToledo.[27]: 5–6
Railroads were the next major form of commercial transportation to come to Cincinnati. In 1836, theLittle Miami Railroad was chartered.[28]: 18 Construction began soon after, to connect Cincinnati with the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad, and provide access to the ports of theSandusky Bay onLake Erie.[27]: 7
During the time, employers struggled to hire enough people to fill positions. The city had a labor shortage until large waves of immigration by Irish and Germans in the late 1840s. The city grew rapidly over the next two decades, reaching 115,000 people by 1850.[17]
During this period of rapid expansion and prominence, residents of Cincinnati began referring to the city as the Queen City.[29]
Cincinnati's location, on the border between the free state of Ohio and the slave state ofKentucky, made it a prominent location for slaves to escape theslave-owning south. Many prominent abolitionists also called Cincinnati their home during this period, and made it a popular stop on theUnderground Railroad.[30] In 2004, theNational Underground Railroad Freedom Center was completed along Freedom Way in Downtown, honoring the city's involvement in the Underground Railroad.[31]
In 1859, Cincinnati laid out six streetcar lines; the cars werepulled by horses and the lines made it easier for people to get around the city.[28]: 29 By 1872, Cincinnatians could travel on the streetcars within the city and transfer to rail cars for travel to the hill communities. The Cincinnati Inclined Plane Company began transporting people to the top of Mount Auburn that year.[27]: 53,[page needed] In 1889, theCincinnati streetcar system began converting its horse-drawn cars toelectric streetcars.[32]
In 1884, outrage over a manslaughter verdict in what many observers thought was a clear case of murder triggered theCourthouse riots, one of the most destructive riots in American history. Over the course of three days, 56 people were killed and over 300 were injured.[36] The riots ended theregime of Republican bossThomas C. Campbell.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Cincinnati had a population of 325,902. The city completed many ambitious projects in the 20th century starting with theIngalls Building which was completed in 1903. An early rejuvenation of downtown began into the 1920s and continued into the next decade with the construction ofCincinnati Union Terminal, theUnited States Courthouse and Post Office, theCincinnati Subway, and the 49-storyCarew Tower, which was the city's tallest building upon its completion. Cincinnati weathered theGreat Depression better than most American cities of its size, largely due to a resurgence in river trade, which was less expensive than transporting goods by rail. TheOhio River flood of 1937 was one of the worst in the nation's history and destroyed many areas along the Ohio valley.[37] Afterward the city built protectiveflood walls. AfterWorld War II, Cincinnati unveiled a master plan for urban renewal that resulted in modernization of the inner city. During the 1950s, Cincinnati's population peaked at 509,998. Since the 1950s, $250 million has been spent on improving neighborhoods, building clean and safe low- and moderate-income housing, providing jobs and stimulating economic growth.[38]
The city experienced the2001 Cincinnati riots, causing an estimated $3.6 million in damage to businesses and $1.5–2 million in damage to the city itself. Subsequently, substantial transformations unfolded, particularly in the process of gentrification within theOver-the-Rhine neighborhood.
In 2018,MLS announced the inclusion ofFC Cincinnati, becoming the city's third professional sports team.TQL Stadium, located on Cincinnati's west end, was subsequently constructed and opened its doors in 2021. Notably, the 2020 census revealed that Cincinnati had witnessed a population growth, marking the first such increase since the 1950 census.
On January 4, 2022,Aftab Pureval assumed office as the 70th mayor of Cincinnati.
Cincinnati has manynicknames, including Cincy, The Queen City,[39] The Queen of the West,[40] The Blue Chip City,[41][42][43] and The City of Seven Hills[44] and "Porkopolis".
"The City of Seven Hills" stems from the June 1853 edition of theWest American Review, "Article III—Cincinnati: Its Relations to the West and South", which described and named seven specific hills. The hills form a crescent around the city:Mount Adams,Walnut Hills,Mount Auburn,Vine Street Hill,College Hill, Fairmont (now renderedFairmount), and Mount Harrison (now known asPrice Hill). The name refers to ancient Rome, reputed to be built on seven hills.[citation needed]
"Queen City" is taken from an 1819 newspaper article[45] and further immortalized by the 1854 poem "Catawba Wine". In it,Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote of the city:
And this Song of the Vine, This greeting of mine, The winds and the birds shall deliver, To the Queen of the West, In her garlands dressed, On the banks of the Beautiful River.[46]
For many years, Cincinnati was also known as "Porkopolis"; this nickname came from the city's large pork interests.[47] In 1988, the city built a park, Bicentennial Commons, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the city's founding and commissioned British artist Andrew Leicester to create a sculpture for the entrance. Leicester came up with four steamboat smokestacks, a nod to the city's riverboat history, each topped with a winged pig.[48] Initial reaction was derision, but the city soon embraced the "Flying Pigs"; the city'sFlying Pig Marathon was named after them, and the city'sBig Pig Gig inspired by them.[48][49][50] The city has used it as a symbol and a brand.[48][51]
Newer nicknames such as "The 'Nati" are emerging and are attempted to be used in different cultural contexts. For example, the localKeep America Beautiful affiliate, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, introduced thecatchphrase "Don't Trash the 'Nati" in 1998 as part of alitter-prevention campaign.[52][53][54]
The city is undergoing significant changes due tonew development and private investment. This includes buildings of the long-stalledBanks project that includes apartments, retail, restaurants, and offices, which will stretch fromGreat American Ball Park toPaycor Stadium. Phase 1A is already complete and 100 percent occupied as of early 2013. Smale Riverfront Park is being developed along with The Banks, and is Cincinnati's newest park. Nearly $3.5 billion have been invested in the urban core of Cincinnati (including Northern Kentucky). Much of this development has been undertaken by3CDC. TheCincinnati Bell Connector began in September 2016.[55][56]
Cincinnati is midway by river between the cities ofPittsburgh, Pennsylvania, andCairo, Illinois. The downtown lies near the mouth of theLicking, a confluence where the first settlement occurred.[57]Metro Cincinnati spans southern Ohio, southeastern Indiana, and northern Kentucky; thecensus bureau has measured the city proper at 79.54 square miles (206.01 km2), of which 77.94 square miles (201.86 km2) are land and 1.60 square miles (4.14 km2) are water.[58] The city spreads over a number of hills, bluffs, and low ridges overlooking the Ohio in theBluegrass region of the country.[59] The tristate is geographically located within theMidwest at the far northern extremity of theUpland South.
Three municipalities are enveloped by the city:Norwood,Elmwood Place, andSaint Bernard. Norwood is a business and industrial city, while Elmwood Place and Saint Bernard are small, primarily residential, villages. Cincinnati does not have an exclave, but the city government does own several properties outside the corporation limits:French Park inAmberley Village and the disused runway at the formerBlue Ash Airport inBlue Ash.
Cincinnati is home to numerous structures that are noteworthy due to their architectural characteristics or historic associations, including the aforementionedCarew Tower, the Scripps Center, theIngalls Building,Cincinnati Union Terminal, and theIsaac M. Wise Temple.[60]Queen City Square opened in January 2011. The building is the tallest in Cincinnati and the third tallest in Ohio, reaching a height of 665 feet (203 m).[61]
Since April 1, 1922, the Ohioflood stage at Cincinnati has officially been set at 52 feet (16 m), as measured from theJohn A. Roebling Suspension Bridge. At this depth, thepumping station at the mouth of Mill Creek is activated.[62][63] From 1873 to 1898, the flood stage was 45 feet (14 m). From 1899 to March 31, 1922, it was 50 feet (15 m).[63] The Ohio reached its lowest level, less than 2 feet (0.61 m), in 1881; conversely, its all-timehigh water mark is 79 feet11+7⁄8 inches (24.381 m), having crested January 26, 1937.[62][64] Various parts of Cincinnati flood at different points:Riverbend Music Center in the California neighborhood floods at 42 feet (13 m), while Sayler Park floods at 71 feet (22 m) and the Freeman Avenue flood gate closes at 75 feet (23 m).[62] Frequent flooding has hampered the growth of Cincinnati's municipal airport atLunken Field and theConey Island amusement park.[65] Downtown Cincinnati is protected from flooding by the Serpentine Wall atYeatman's Cove and another flood wall built intoFort Washington Way.[66] Parts of Cincinnati also experience flooding from theLittle Miami River andMill Creek.
Cincinnati consists of fifty-two neighborhoods. Many of these neighborhoods were once villages that have been annexed by the city, with many retaining their former names, such asWalnut Hills andMount Auburn.[67]Westwood is the city's most populous neighborhood, with other significant neighborhoods includingCUF (home to theUniversity of Cincinnati) andPrice Hill.[68]
Downtown Cincinnati is the city'scentral business district and contains a number of neighborhoods in the flat land between theOhio River and uptown. These neighborhoods includeOver-the-Rhine,Pendleton,Queensgate, andWest End. Over-the-Rhine is among the largest, most intact urbanhistoric districts in the United States.[69] Most of Over-the-Rhine's ornate brick buildings were built by German immigrants from 1865 to the 1880s.[70] The neighborhood has been intensely redeveloped in the 21st century, with a focus on fostering small businesses.[71]
Summers are hot and humid, with significant rainfall in each month and highs reaching 90 °F (32 °C) or above on 21 days per year, often with high dew points and humidity. July is the warmest month, with a daily average temperature of 75.9 °F (24.4 °C).[72]
Winters tend to be cold and moderately snowy, with January, the coldest month, averaging at 30.8 °F (−0.7 °C).[72] Lows reach 0 °F (−18 °C) on an average 2.6 nights yearly.[72] An average winter will see around 22.1 inches (56 cm) of snowfall, contributing to the yearly 42.5 inches (1,080 mm) of precipitation, with rainfall peaking in spring.[73] Extremes range from −25 °F (−32 °C) on January 18, 1977, up to 108 °F (42 °C) on July 21 and 22, 1934.[74]
While snow in Cincinnati is not as intense as many of the cities located closer to the Great Lakes, there have been notable cases of severe snowfall, including theGreat Blizzard of 1978, and more notable snowstorms in 1994,1999,2007,2021, and2025.
Severethunderstorms are common in the warmer months, andtornadoes, while infrequent, are not unknown, with such events striking the Metro Cincinnati area most recently in 1974, 1999, 2012, and 2017.[75]
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found onPhabricator and onMediaWiki.org.
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found onPhabricator and onMediaWiki.org.
Map of racial distribution in Cincinnati, 2010 U.S. Census. Each dot is 25 people:⬤ White⬤ Black⬤ Asian⬤ Hispanic⬤ Other
In 1950, Cincinnati reached its peak population of 503,998; thereafter, it lost population in every census count from 1960 to 2010. In the late 20th century, industrial restructuring caused a loss of jobs. More recently, the population has begun recovering: the 2020 census reports a population of 309,317, representing a 4.2% increase from 296,943 in 2010.[86] This marked the first increase in population recorded since the 1950 Census, reversing a 60-year trend of population decline.
At the 2020 census,[87] there were 309,317 people, 138,696 households, and 62,319 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,809.9 inhabitants per square mile (1,471.0/km2). There were 161,095 housing units at an average density of 2,066.9 per square mile (798.0/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 50.3%White, 41.4%African American, 0.1%Native American, 2.2%Asian, 0.1%Pacific Islander, 1.2% fromother races, and 4.6% from two or more races.Hispanic orLatino of any race were 4.2% of the population.
There were 138,696 households, of which 25.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 23.2% were married couples living together, 19.1% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.4% had a male householder with no wife present, and 53.3% were non-families. 43.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.09 and the average family size was 3.00.
The median age in the city was 32.5 years. 21.6% of residents were under the age of 18; 14.6% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 28.4% were from 25 to 44; 24.1% were from 45 to 64; and 10.8% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 48.4% male and 51.6% female.[88]
Downtown Cincinnati is the financial center of the city, Five Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in the metropolitan area.[89]
Metropolitan Cincinnati has thetwenty-eighth largest economy in the United States and thefifth largest in the Midwest, afterChicago,Minneapolis–St. Paul,Detroit, andSt. Louis. In 2016, it had the fastest-growing Midwestern economic capital.[13] The gross domestic product for the region was $127 billion (~$160 billion in 2023) in 2015.[90] The median home price is $158,200, and thecost of living in Cincinnati is 8% below the national average. As of September 2022, the unemployment rate is 3.3%, below the national average.[91][92]
Cincinnati was platted and proliferated byAmerican settlers, includingScotch Irish,frontiersmen, andkeelboaters. For over a century and a half, Cincinnati went unchallenged as the most prominent of Ohio's cities, a role that earned it the nickname of "chief city of Ohio" in the 1879New American Cyclopædia. In addition to this book, countless other books have documented the social history of both the city and its frontier people.[96][97][98][99] The city fathers, ofAnglo-American families of prominence, wereEpiscopalian. Inspired by its earlier horsebackcircuit preachers, earlyMethodism was also important. The first establishedMethodist class in theNorthwest Territory came 1797 to nearbyMilford. By 1879, there were 162 documented church edifices in the city. For this reason, from the beginning,Protestantism has played a formative role in the Cincinnati ethos.Christ Church Cathedral continues the legacy of the early Anglican leaders of Cincinnati, noted by historical associations as being a keystone of civic history; and among Methodist institutions wereThe Christ Hospital as well as projects of theGerman Methodist Church.[100] One of Cincinnati's biggest proponents of Methodism was the Irish immigrantJames Gamble, who together withWilliam Procter foundedProcter & Gamble; in addition to being a devout Methodist, Gamble and his estate donated money to construct Methodist churches throughout Greater Cincinnati.[101]
Tall Stacks, held every three or four years between 1988 and 2006, celebrated the city'sriverboat heritage.
Cincinnati, being a rivertown crossroads, depended on trade with theslave states south of the Ohio River at a time when thousands of black people were settling in the free state of Ohio. Most of them came after theAmerican Civil War and were fromKentucky andVirginia with many of them fugitives who had sought freedom and work in the North. In the antebellum years, the majority of native-born whites in the city came from northern states, primarilyPennsylvania.[102] Though 57 percent of whites migrated from free states, 26 percent were from southern states and they retained their cultural support for slavery. This quickly led to tensions between pro-slavery residents andabolitionists who sought lifting restrictions on free black people, as codified in the "Black Code" of 1804.[103] In the pre-Civil War period, Cincinnati had been called "a Southern city on free soil".[104]: 44 Volatile social conditions sawriots in 1829, when many black people lost their homes and property. As the Irish entered the city in the late 1840s, they competed with black people at the lower levels of the economy. White-led riots against black people occurredin 1836, when an abolitionist press was twice destroyed; and in 1842.[103] More than 1,000 black people abandoned the city after the 1829 riots. Black people inPhiladelphia and other major cities raised money to help the refugees recover from the destruction. By 1842 black people had become better established in the city; they defended themselves and their property in the riot, and worked politically as well.[105]
Germans were among the earliest newcomers, migrating from Pennsylvania, Virginia andTennessee.David Ziegler succeededArthur St. Clair in command atFort Washington. After the conclusion of theNorthwest Indian War and removal of Native Americans to the west, he was elected as Cincinnati's first town president in 1802.[106][107] Cincinnati was influenced byIrishmen, andPrussians andSaxons (northern Germans), seeking to emigrate away from crowding and strife. In 1830, residents with German roots made up 5% of the population, as many had migrated from Pennsylvania; ten years later this had increased to 30%.[108] Thousands of Germans entered the city after theGerman revolutions of 1848–49, and by 1900, more than 60 percent of its population was of Prussian background.[109] The menial-jobbed, aggravated Irish often organized mobs, and the Germans, far away from theirPennsylvania Dutch connections, did the same. Traditions and celebrations of the city's immigrant communities have been sustained; nearbyWaynesville hosts the yearly Ohio Sauerkraut Festival,[110] and Cincinnati hosts several big yearly events which commemorate connections to the Old World.Oktoberfest Zinzinnati,[111]Bockfest,[112] and theTaste of Cincinnati feature local restaurateurs.
Cincinnati's Jewish community was developed by those from England and Germany. A large segment of the community, led byIsaac M. Wise, developedReform Judaism in response to the influences of the Enlightenment and making their new lives in the United States. Rabbi Wise, known as a founding father of the Reform movement, and his contemporaries, bore a great influence on the Jewish faith in Cincinnati, the United States, and worldwide.[113]
TheCincinnati May Festival Chorus is an amateur choir that has been in existence since 1880. The city is home to theCincinnati Symphony Orchestra,Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Boychoir, andCincinnati Ballet. Metro Cincinnati is also home to several regional orchestras and youth orchestras, including the Starling Chamber Orchestra and the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra. Music DirectorJames Conlon and Chorus DirectorRobert 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 Music Hall was built to house the May Festival.
In 2015, Cincinnati held the USITT 2015 Conference and Stage Expo at theDuke Energy Convention Center, bringing 5,000+ students, university educators, theatrical designers and performers, and other personnel to the city.[120] The USITT Conference is considered the main conference for Theatre, Opera, and Dance in the United States.[citation needed]
The Cincinnati skyline was prominently featured in the opening and closing sequences of theCBS/ABC daytime dramaThe Edge of Night from its start in 1956 until 1980, when it was replaced 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 sitcomWKRP in Cincinnati and its sequel/spin-offThe New WKRP in Cincinnati featured the city's skyline and other exterior shots in its credits, although was not filmed in Cincinnati. The city's skyline has also appeared in anApril Fool's episode ofThe Drew Carey Show, which was set in Carey's hometown ofCleveland.3 Doors Down's music video "It's Not My Time" was filmed in Cincinnati, and features the skyline and Fountain Square. Also,Harry's Law, theNBC legal dramedy created byDavid E. Kelley and starringKathy Bates, was set in Cincinnati.[123]
Cincinnati also has its own chapter (or "Tent") ofThe Sons of the Desert (The Laurel and Hardy Appreciation Society), which meets several times per year.[124]
One of the United States's oldest[126] and most celebrated[127] bars,Arnold's Bar and Grill in downtown Cincinnati has won awards fromEsquire magazine's "Best Bars in America",[128]Thrillist's "Most Iconic Bar in Ohio",[129]The Daily Meal's "150 Best bars in America"[130] andSeriouseats.com's "The Cincinnati 10".[131] "If Arnold's were in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, or Boston—somewhere, in short, that people actually visit—it would be world-famous," wrote David Wondrich.[132]
Cincinnati chili, a spiced sauce served over noodles, usually topped with cheese and often with diced onions or beans, is the area's "best-known regional food".[137][138] A variety of recipes are served by respective parlors, includingSkyline Chili,Gold Star Chili, andDixie Chili and Deli, plus independent chili parlors includingCamp Washington Chili, Empress Chili[139] and Moonlight Chili.[140] It was first developed byMacedonian immigrant restaurateurs in the 1920s. Cincinnati has been called the "Chili Capital of America" and "of the World" because it has more chili restaurants per capita than any other city in the United States or in the world.[141]
Similarly to goetta's origins,mock turtle soup was a dish popularized by the influx of German immigrants in the late 19th century. Originally made withoffal, today Cincinnati-style mock turtle soup is characterized by ground beef, hard-boiled eggs, and ketchup. The only remaining commercial canner of the soup, Worthmore, has produced it in Cincinnati since 1918.[144][145]
The citizens of Cincinnati speak in aGeneral American dialect. Unlike the rest of the Midwest, Southwest Ohio shares some aspects of its vowel system withnorthern New Jersey English.[146][147] Most of the distinctive local features among speakers float as Midland American.[148] There is also some influence from theSouthern American dialect found in Kentucky.[149] A touch of northern German is audible in the local vernacular: some residents use the wordplease when asking a speaker to repeat a statement. This usage is taken from the German practice, whenbitte (a shortening of the formal "Wie bitte?" or "How please?" rendered word-for-word from German into English), was used as shorthand for asking someone to repeat.[150][151]
Cincinnati has three major league teams, three minor league teams, five college institutions with sports teams, and seven major sports venues. Cincinnati's three major league teams are Major League Baseball'sReds, who were named for America's first professional baseball team, theCincinnati Red Stockings;[152][153][154] theBengals of theNational Football League; andFC Cincinnati, which became aMajor League Soccer franchise in 2019.WalletHub has ranked Cincinnati as the No. 12 best sports city.
On Major League BaseballOpening Day, Cincinnati has the distinction of holding the "traditional opener" in baseball each year, due to its baseball history. Children have been known to skip school on Opening Day, and it is commonly thought of as a holiday.[155] The Cincinnati Reds have won fiveWorld Series titles, in1919,1940,1975,1976, and1990. The Reds had one of the most successful baseball clubs of all time in the mid-1970s, known as The Big Red Machine.
The Bengals have made three Super Bowl appearances since the franchise was founded, in1982,1989, and2022, but have yet to win a championship. The Bengals enjoy strong rivalries with theCleveland Browns andPittsburgh Steelers, both of whom are also members of theAFC North division. Whenever the Bengals andCarolina Panthers play against each other in an inter-conference matchup that occurs every four years, their games are dubbed the "Queen City Bowl", asCharlotte, North Carolina, the home city of the Panthers, is also known as the Queen City.[156]
FC Cincinnati is a soccer team that plays inMajor League Soccer. FC Cincinnati made its home debut in theUSL on April 9, 2016, before a crowd of more than 14,000 fans.[157] On their next home game againstLouisville City FC, FC Cincinnati broke the all-time USL attendance record with a crowd of 20,497; on May 14, 2016, it broke its own record, bringing in an audience of 23,375 on its 1–0 victory against thePittsburgh Riverhounds.[158] After breaking the USL attendance record on several additional occasions, the club moved to Major League Soccer (MLS) for the 2019 season.[159] FC Cincinnati was awarded an MLS bid on May 29, 2018, and moved toTQL Stadium in the West End neighborhood just northwest of downtown in 2021.[160]
TheCincinnati Cyclones are a minor league AA-level professional hockey team playing in theECHL. Founded in 1990, the team plays at theHeritage Bank Center. They won the 2010Kelly Cup Finals, their 2nd championship in three seasons.
TheCincinnati Park Board maintains and operates all city parks in Cincinnati. Established in 1911 with the purchase of 168 acres (0.68 km2), today the board services more than 5,000 acres (20 km2) of city park space. Notable historic public parks and landscapes include the 19th-centurySpring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum,Eden Park, andMount Storm Park, all designed by Prussian émigré landscape architectAdolph Strauch.[168] The city also has several public golf courses, including the historicAvon Fields Golf Course.
Downtown Cincinnati towers aboutFountain Square, the public square and event locale. Fountain Square was renovated in 2006.[169] Cincinnati rests along 22 miles (35 km) of riverfront about northern banks of the Ohio, stretching fromCalifornia toSayler Park, giving the Ohio a prominent place in the life of the city.[170]
The city proper operates with anine-member city council, whose members are electedat-large. Prior to 1924, city council members were elected through a system ofwards. The ward system was subject to corruption due to partisan rule. From the 1880s to the 1920s, theRepublican Party dominated city politics, with thepolitical machine ofGeorge B. "Boss" Cox exerting control.
A reform movement arose in 1923 which ended machine rule. It was led by another Republican,Murray Seasongood. He founded the Charter Committee, which used ballot initiatives in 1924 to replace the ward system with the current at-large system. They gained approval by voters for acouncil–manager government form of government, in which a smaller council hires a professional manager to operate the daily affairs of the city. From 1924 to 1957, the council was elected byproportional representation andsingle transferable voting. Starting withAshtabula in 1915, several major cities in Ohio adopted this electoral system, which had the practical effect of reducing ward boss and political party power. For that reason, such groups opposed it.
In an effort to overturn the charter that provided for proportional representation, opponents in 1957 fanned fears of black political power, at a time of increasing civil rights activism.[174] The PR/STV system had enabled minorities to enter local politics and gain seats on the city council more than they had before, in proportion to their share of the population. This made the government more representative of the residents of the city.[175] Overturning that charter, in 1957, all candidates had to run in a single race for the nine city council positions. The top nine vote-getters were elected (the "9-X system"), which favored candidates who could appeal to the entire geographic area of the city and reach its residents with campaign materials. The mayor was elected by the council. In 1977, 33-year-oldJerry Springer, later a notable television talk show host, was chosen to serve one year as mayor.
To have their votes count more, starting in 1987, the top vote-getter in the city council election was automatically selected as mayor. Starting in 1999, themayor was elected separately in a general at-large election for the first time. The city manager's role in government was reduced.[citation needed] These reforms were referred to as the "strong mayor" reforms,[by whom?] to make the publicate accountable to voters. Cincinnati politics include the participation of theCharter Party, the political party with the third-longest history of winning in local elections.[citation needed] On October 5, 2011, the Council became the first local government in the United States to adopt a resolution recognizing freedom from domestic violence as a fundamental human right.[176] On January 30, 2017, Cincinnati's mayor declared the city asanctuary city.[177]
The city of Cincinnati's emergency services for fire, rescue, EMS, hazardous materials and explosive ordnance disposal is handled by theCincinnati Fire Department. On April 1, 1853, the Cincinnati Fire Department became the first paid professional fire department in United States.[179] The Cincinnati Fire Department operates out of 26 fire stations, located throughout the city in 4 districts, each commanded by a district chief.[180][181][182]
The Cincinnati Fire Department is organized into 4 bureaus: Operations,[181] Personnel and Training,[183] Administrative Services,[184] and Fire Prevention.[185] Each bureau is commanded by an assistant chief, who in turn reports to the chief of department.
TheCincinnati Police Department has more than 1,000 sworn officers. Before theriots of 2001, Cincinnati's overall crime rate had been dropping steadily and by 1995 had reached its lowest point since 1992 but with more murders and rapes.[186] After the riot, violent crime increased, but crime has been on the decline since.[187] The Cincinnati Police Department was featured onTLC'sPolice Women of Cincinnati and on A&E's reality showThe First 48. Cincinnati had 71 homicides in 2023, down from 78 in 2022.[188]
Due to its location on the Ohio River, Cincinnati was a border town in a free state, across from Kentucky, which was a slave state. Residents of Cincinnati played a major role inabolitionism. Manyfugitive slaves used the Ohio River at Cincinnati to escape to the North. Cincinnati had numerous stations on the Underground Railroad, but there were also runaway slave catchers active in the city, who put escaping slaves at risk of recapture.
Given its southern Ohio location, Cincinnati had also attracted settlers from the Upper South, who traveled along the Ohio River into the territory. Tensions between abolitionists and slavery supporters broke out in repeated violence, with whites attacking black people in 1829. Anti-abolitionists attacked black people in the city in a wave of destruction that resulted in 1,200 black people leaving the city and the country; they resettled in Canada.[189] The riot and its refugees were topics of discussion throughout the country, and black people organized the first Negro Convention in 1830 inPhiladelphia to discuss these events.
White riots against black people took place again in Cincinnati in 1836 and 1842.[189] In 1836 a mob of 700 pro-slavery men attacked black neighborhoods, as well as a press run byJames M. Birney, publisher of the anti-slavery weeklyThe Philanthropist.[190] Tensions increased after congressional passage in 1850 of theFugitive Slave Act, which required cooperation by citizens in free states and increased penalties for failing to try to recapture escaped slaves.
Located in a free state and attracting many European immigrants, Cincinnati has historically had a predominantly white population.[84] By 1940, the Census Bureau reported the city's population as 87.8 percent white and 12.2 percent black.[84]
In the second half of the 20th century, Cincinnati, along with otherrust belt cities, underwent a vast demographic transformation. By the early 21st century, the city's population was 40% black. Predominantly white, working-class families who constituted the urban core during the European immigration boom in the 19th and early 20th centuries, moved to newly constructed suburbs before and after World War II. Black people, fleeing the oppression of theJim Crow South in hopes of better socioeconomic opportunity, had moved to these older city neighborhoods in theirGreat Migration to the industrial North. The downturn in industry in the late 20th century caused a loss of many jobs, leaving many people in poverty andhomeless. In 1968 passage of national civil rights legislation had raised hopes for positive change, but the assassination of national leaderMartin Luther King Jr. resulted in riots in many black neighborhoods in Cincinnati; unrest occurred in black communities in nearly every major U.S. city after King's murder.
More than three decades later, in April 2001, racially chargedriots occurred after police fatally shot a young unarmed black man,Timothy Thomas, during a foot pursuit to arrest him, mostly for outstanding traffic warrants.[192] After the 2001 riots, the ACLU, Cincinnati Black United Front, the city and its police union agreed upon a community-oriented policing strategy. The agreement has been used as a model across the country for building relationships between police and local communities.[193]
On July 19, 2015,Samuel DuBose, an unarmed black motorist, was fatally shot by white University of Cincinnati Police Officer Ray Tensing after a routine traffic stop for a missing front license plate. The resulting legal proceedings in late 2016[194] have been a recurring focus of national news media.[195] Several protests involving theBlack Lives Matter movement have been carried out.[196][197] Tensing was indicted on charges of murder andvoluntary manslaughter, but a November 2016 trial ended inmistrial[198] after the jury becamedeadlocked. A retrial began in May 2017, which also ended in mistrial after deadlock. The prosecution then announced they did not plan to try Tensing a third time.[199] The University of Cincinnati hassettled with the DuBose family for $4.8 million[200] and free tuition for each of the 12 children.
Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) include 18 high schools all with citywide acceptance. CPS, the second -largest school cluster by student population in Ohio, was the largest to have an overall 'effective' rating from the State.[201][failed verification] The district currently includes publicMontessori schools, including the first public Montessori high school established in the United States,Clark Montessori.[202] Cincinnati Public Schools' top-rated school isWalnut Hills High School, ranked 34th on the national list of best public schools byNewsweek. Walnut Hills offers 28Advanced Placement courses. Cincinnati is also home to the first Kindergarten – 12th grade Arts School in the country, theSchool for Creative and Performing Arts.
The Jewish community has several schools, including the all-girl RITSS (Regional Institute for Torah and Secular Studies) high school,[203] and the all-boy Yeshivas Lubavitch High School.[204]
The city has an extensive library system, both the city's public libraries and university facilities. TheCincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library system was the second largest in the nation by number of holdings in 2016.[211]
Cincinnati's daily newspaper isThe Cincinnati Enquirer, which was established in 1841. The city is home to several alternative, weekly, and monthly publications, among which are free weekly print magazine publications includingCityBeat[212] andLa Jornada Latina. The city's weekly African American newspaper,The Cincinnati Herald, was founded by Gerald Porter in 1955 and purchased by Sesh Communications in 1996.
According toNielsen Media Research, Cincinnati is the 36th largesttelevision market in the United States as of the 2021 television season[update].[213] Twelve television stations broadcast from Cincinnati. Major commercial stations in the area includeWLWT 5 (NBC),WCPO-TV 9 (ABC),WKRC-TV 12 (CBS, withCW on DT2),WXIX-TV 19 (Fox),WSTR-TV 64 (MyNetworkTV), andWBQC-LD 25 (Telemundo), which is a sister station to WXIX-TV through owner Gray Television's purchase of the station.WCET channel 48, now known as CET, is the United States' oldest licensed public television station (License #1, issued in 1951).[214] It is now co-owned withWPTO 14, a satellite ofWPTD in nearbyDayton.
As of September 2022[update], Cincinnati is the 33rd largestradio market in the United States, with an estimated 1.8 million listeners aged 12 and above.[215] Major radio station operators includeiHeartMedia andCumulus Media.WLW andWCKY, both owned by iHeartMedia, are bothclear-channel stations that broadcast at 50,000 watts, covering most of the eastern United States at night.Cincinnati Public Radio includesWVXU for news (anNPR member station) andWGUC for classical music.
Cincinnati has several standard modes of transportation including sidewalks, roads, public transit, bicycle paths and airports. The city's hills preclude the regularstreet grid common to many cities built up in the 19th century, and outside of the downtown basin, regular street grids are rare except for in patches of flat land where they are small and oriented according to topography.
Most trips are made by car, with transit and bicycles having a relatively low share of total trips; in a region of just over 2 million people, less than 80,000 trips were made with transit on an average day in 2012.[216] Like many other Midwestern cities, however, bicycle use grew rapidly in the 2000s and 2010s.[217] The city of Cincinnati has a higher than average percentage of households without a car. In 2015, 19.3 percent of Cincinnati households lacked a car and the figure increased slightly, to 21.2 percent, in 2016. The national average was 8.7 percent in 2016. Cincinnati averaged 1.3 cars per household in 2016, compared to a national average of 1.8.[218]
The development of alight rail system had long been a goal for Cincinnati, with several proposals emerging over many decades. The city grew rapidly during itsstreetcar era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is today served by theConnector. In 1917, citizens voted to spend $6 million (~$116 million in 2023) to build theCincinnati Subway. The subway was planned to be a 16-mile (26 km) loop around the city hitting the suburbs ofSt. Bernard,Norwood,Oakley andHyde Park before returning Downtown.[219]World War I delayed commencement of construction until 1920 and inflation raised the cost to over $13 million (~$150 million in 2023), causing the Oakley portion never to be built. MayorMurray Seasongood, who took office later in the decade, argued it would cost too much money to finish the system, and construction stalled after theWall Street Crash of 1929.
TheConnector streetcar line was established in 2016.
TheConnector streetcar line in Downtown andOver-the-Rhine opened for service on September 9, 2016, crossing directly above the unfinished subway on Central Parkway downtown.[55][56][220][221][222][223][224] Today the streetcar boasts over 3.5 miles of track and 16 hours of service per day on weekdays.[225] It had an annual ridership of over 846,000 in 2022.[226]
A system of public staircases known as theSteps of Cincinnati guides pedestrians up and down the city's many hills. In addition to practical use linking hillside neighborhoods, the 400 stairways provide visitors with scenic views of the Cincinnati area.[227]
Cincinnati is served byAmtrak'sCardinal, an intercity passenger train which makes three weekly trips in each direction between Chicago and New York City throughCincinnati Union Terminal.
Bus traffic is heavy in Cincinnati. Several motor coach companies operate out of Cincinnati, making trips within the Midwest and beyond. The city has abeltway,Interstate 275 (which is the third-longest beltway overall in the United States at 85 miles or 137 kilometers) and a spur,Interstate 471, toKentucky. It is also served byInterstate 71,Interstate 74,Interstate 75 and numerous U.S. highways:US 22,US 25,US 27,US 42,US 50,US 52, andUS 127. TheRiverfront Transit Center, built underneath 2nd Street, is about the size of eight football fields. It is only used for sporting events and school field trips. At its construction, it was designed for public transit buses, charter buses, school buses, city coach buses, light rail, and possibly commuter rail. When not in use for sporting events, it is closed off and rented to a private parking vendor.[228][229][230]
The city is served byCincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (IATA:CVG) which is located inHebron, Kentucky. The airport is a focus city forAllegiant Air and a global cargo hub for bothAmazon Air andDHL Aviation.[231] The airport offers non-stop passenger service to over 50 destinations in North America and to European cities includingParis andLondon.[232] CVG is the 6th busiest airport in the United States by cargo traffic and is additionally the fastest-growing cargo airport in North America.
^Cincinnati's connection with Rome still exists today through its nickname of "The City of Seven Hills"[20] (a phrase commonly associated with Rome) and the town twinning program ofSister Cities International.
^Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e. the expected highest and lowest temperature readings at any point during the year or given month) calculated based on data at said location from 1991 to 2020.
^Greve 1904, p. 27: "The act to incorporate the town of Cincinnati was passed at the first session of the second General Assembly held at Chillicothe and approved by Governor St. Clair on January 1, 1802."
^Greve 1904, pp. 507–508: "This act was passed February 5, 2851, and by virtue of a curative act passed three days later took effect on March 1, of the same year."
^Teetor, Henry Benton (May–October 1885). "Israel Ludlow and the naming of Cincinnati".Magazine of Western History.2. Cleveland:251–257.The fair and reasonable presumption is that after consultation (certainly with Ludlow, the surveyor of the town, the proprietor of a two-thirds' interest in his own right, and as agent ofDenman), St. Clair adopted the name suggested by Ludlow—a name which, as may seen from the following testimony, was not only mentioned for more than a year prior to the coming of St. Clair, but was selected and adopted by Denman,Patterson and Ludlow in the winter of 1788–9, and was inscribed upon the plat made by Ludlow to take the place of the one first made byFilson, which was destroyed in a personal altercation between Colonel Ludlow and Joel Williams.
^Suess, Jeff (December 28, 2013)."Cincinnati's beginning: The origin of the settlement that became this city".The Cincinnati Enquirer.Archived from the original on March 17, 2019. RetrievedAugust 11, 2018.On Jan. 2, 1790, Gen. Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory, came to inspect Fort Washington. He was pleased with the fort but disliked the name Losantiville. Two days later, he changed it to Cincinnati, after the Society of the Cincinnati, a military society for officers in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.
^Stevenson, Katharine Lent (1907)."1875-Cincinnati".A Brief History of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union: Outline Course of Study for Local Unions (Third ed.). Evanston, Illinois: Union Signal. pp. 11–13.Archived from the original on October 3, 2023. RetrievedOctober 1, 2023. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
^Close to home: Across the region, dozens of sites have historic ties to the Underground Railroad,The Cincinnati Enquirer, Sunday, August 15, 2004, "The poet Longfellow, recognizing the town's rising stature, immortalized Cincinnati as the "Queen City of the West".[1]Archived April 25, 2016, at theWayback Machine accessed May 3, 2008
^"Don't Trash the 'Nati". Archived fromthe original on September 26, 2008. RetrievedSeptember 4, 2018., Keep Cincinnati Beautiful website, accessed May 3, 2008
^abCoolidge, Sharon; Tweh, Bowdeya; Williams, Jason (September 9, 2016)."It's a go: Streetcar finally opens".The Cincinnati Enquirer.Archived from the original on February 2, 2019. RetrievedSeptember 10, 2016.
^Ohio Division of Geological Survey (1998)."Physiographic Regions of Ohio"(PDF). Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geological Survey. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on May 28, 2012. RetrievedFebruary 13, 2014.
^abcd"Station: Cincinnati Northern KY AP, KY".U.S. Climate Normals 2020: U.S. Monthly Climate Normals (1991–2020). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Archived fromthe original on February 6, 2024. RetrievedMay 9, 2021.
^Greve 1904, p. 440: "This explains a common confusion of ideas as to the first mayor of Cincinnati. David Ziegler was the first president of the town,William Corry the first mayor of the town, andIsaac G. Burnet the first mayor of the city."
I. M. Wise,Reminiscences, transl. from the German and ed. by David Philipson, Cincinnati, 1901;
Skolnik, Fred; Berenbaum, Michael.Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. XXI. New York: Macmillan. p. 100....Wise's foresightedness and tenacity in laying its three institutional cornerstones earned him the title 'founding father' of the indigenous Reform movement in America
^Smith, Steve; et al. (2007)."Are You Ready For Cincinnati?".Cincinnati Magazine. Cincinnati USA City Guide. p. 144.Archived from the original on March 27, 2024. RetrievedMay 6, 2013.
^"Today, dads let kids skip school".Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Sarasota, Florida. April 3, 2000. p. 5C.Archived from the original on December 8, 2013. RetrievedMay 30, 2010.'We'd skip school,'Ken Griffey Jr. said Sunday, when asked for his favorite opening day memory. 'My son's skipping school on opening day. It's a tradition. Cincinnati expects that a lot of kids are not going to be there.'
^abWoodson, Carter G.; Wesley, Charles Harris (1922).The Negro in Our History. Associated Publishers (digitized from original at University of Michigan Library). p. 140. RetrievedOctober 1, 2013.
^Levi Coffin,Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, the reputed president of the underground railroad: being a brief history of the labors of a lifetime in behalf of the slave, with the stories of numerous fugitives, who gained their freedom through his instrumentality, and many other incidents, Cincinnati: Western Tract Society, University of Michigan Library
^Wetterich, Chris (June 13, 2013)."DHL opens super-hub at CVG".Cincinnati Business Courier.Archived from the original on December 5, 2014. RetrievedJanuary 25, 2015.
Holli, Melvin G., and Jones, Peter d'A., eds.Biographical Dictionary of American Mayors, 1820-1980 (Greenwood Press, 1981) short scholarly biographies each of the city's mayors 1820 to 1980.online; see index at pp. 406–411 for list.
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