Tale of the Tape:
Cincinnati Pop. 2007: 332,458 (City); 2,155,137 (Metro-2008) - (incorporated in 1819)
Jacksonville Pop. 2007: 805,605 (City); 1,313,228 (Metro-2008) - (incorporated in 1832)
City population 1950: Jacksonville (204,517); Cincinnati (503,998)
Metropolitan Area Growth rate (2000-2008)
Cincinnati: +7.24%
Jacksonville: +16.97%
Urban Area Population (2000 census)
Cincinnati: 1,503,262 (ranked 26 nationwide)
Jacksonville: 882,295 (ranked 43 nationwide)
Urban Area Population Density (2000 census)
Cincinnati: 2,237.8
Jacksonville: 2,149.2
City Population Growth from 2000 to 2007
Cincinnati: +1,173
Jacksonville: +69,988
Convention Center Exhibition Space:
Cincinnati: Duke Energy Convention Center - 195,000 square feet
Jacksonville: Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center (1986) - 78,500 square feet
Attached to Convention Center:
Cincinnati: Millennium Hotel (872 rooms), Hyatt Regency (486 rooms), The Westin (456 rooms) all connected via skywalk system.
Jacksonville: N/A
Tallest Building:
Cincinnati: Carew Tower (current) - 574 feet; Queen City Square "Western & Southern Financial" (U/C-2011) - 660 feet
Jacksonville: Bank of America Tower - 617 feet
Downtown Fortune 500 companies:
Cincinnati: Procter & Gamble (20), Kroger (22), Macy's (96), Fifth Third Bancorp (302), Western & Southern Financial (441)
Jacksonville: CSX (240)
Urban infill obstacles:
Cincinnati: Interstate 71 cuts downtown off from the riverfront.
Jacksonville: State & Union Streets cut off Downtown Jacksonville from Springfield.
Downtown Nightlife:
Cincinnati: Over-the-Rhine's Main Street.
Jacksonville: East Bay Street, located between Main Street and Liberty Street. This four block stretch is home to four bars and clubs.
Common Downtown Albatross:
Underutilized riverfront, although Cincinnati is in the process of dealing with this issue.
Who's Downtown is more walkable?
Cincinnati: 91 out of 100, according to walkscore.com (Downtown Cincinnati as keyword)
Jacksonville: 95 out of 100, according to walkscore.com (Downtown Jacksonville as keyword)
Cincinnati - Jacksonville Scaled Comparison
Jacksonville municipal borders: present (red), pre-consolidated city limits (green)
Jacksonville present (red line) and pre-consolidated city limits (green line) over Cincinnati city limits (red shaded area)
The Cincinnati Subway
Image by Gyopi at http://www.flickr.com/photos/gyopi/129410931/in/set-72057594107830170/
The Cincinnati Subway is a set of unused tunnels and stations for a rapid transit system beneath the streets of downtown. It is recognized as the largest abandoned subway tunnel in the United States. Construction on the first seven mile tunnel took place from 1920 to 1927, but the project was not completed so it never hosted a paying customer.
The project has been described as "one of the city's biggest embarrassments," and "one of Cincinnati's biggest failures." Some argue that because rapid transit was never completed Cincinnati is smaller, forces its citizens to be automobile-dependent, has its downtown area dominated by highways and parking lots, lacks "walkable communities," motivates people to live outside of the city, and has spawned today's traffic jams. Others say it may have been abandoned anyway due to waning ridership, as was the case with the city's original streetcars and the Mount Adams Incline.
Proposals to complete the subway have been near continuous since its initial failure, but all attempts to use the tunnels for transit have failed thus far. Many Cincinnatians do not know subway tunnels exist under their city.
The last proposal occurred in 2002 when the tunnels were proposed as a route for a regional light rail system that would cost $2.6 billion and take thirty years to build. The tunnels were favored because they were in an ideal location, they could easily be used to connect the east side and the west sides of Cincinnati, and they would've saved the city at least $100,000,000 in construction costs at the time. The light rail plan, called MetroMoves, proposed a tax levy that would've raised sales tax in Hamilton county by a half-cent. The plan was voted down by more than a 2-to-1 ratio.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati_Subway
Today, the city has plans to construct a $103 million modern streetcar line that will connect the waterfront to the University of Cincinnati. Backed by the mayor, the city believes this streetcar starter line will lead to more than $1.4 billion in economic activity in Over-The-Rhine and Downtown.
http://www.cincystreetcar.com
The proposed streetcar line is represented by the green lines in the image below. The old subway tunnels, which still exist, are highlighted in red.
Downtown Cincinnati Aerial
Downtown Cincinnati
Procter & Gamble was founded by William Procter, a candlemaker, and James Gamble, a soapmaker, in 1837. As of 2008, P&G is the 8th largest corporation in the world by market capitalization and 14th largest US company by profit. Well known P&G products include Always (feminine hygiene), Bounty (paper towels), Crest (toothpaste), Dawn (detergent), Gillette (safety razors), Head & Shoulders (shampoo), Old Spice (aftershave), Ivory (soap), Pampers (diapers), Pringles (potato chips), Secret (deodorant), Tide (laudry detergent) and Vicks (over-the-counter medicines).
Across the Ohio River: Downtown Covington, KY. Northern Kentucky will be covered in a future Elements of Urbanism article.
Yeatman's Cove Park
Yeatman's Cove Park, opened in 1976, was named for Griffin Yeatman who ran the "Square & Compass" tavern back in the 1790's. This part of Sawyer Point, located between Central Bridge and the "Skyline Arches" underneath L&N Bridge, is a popular spot for concerts, picnics, festivals, and river watching. Unfortunately, expressways cut off the waterfront from the downtown core.
The Banks is a mixed-use project under construction along the riverfront. The development is being constructed over surface parking lots that sat between Paul Brown Stadium (Cincinnati Bengals) and the Great American Ballpark (Cincinnati Reds). Components include the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, the Riverfront Transit Center, multi-family housing, 70,000 square feet of retail and a 40 acre riverfront park.
Driving west along West 4th Street.
Walnut Street looking south from 8th Street
7th & Vine Streets
Looking west along 7th Street from Vine
An alley between Vine and Walnut Streets
Looking south at the intersection of 5th & Walnut Streets.
Designed by Zaha Hadid, the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art is located at 44 East 6th Street.
A parking garage with street retail adjacent to the Museum of Contempory Art. There are four parking garages in the downtown area that allow visitors to pay a $1 to park up to two hours during the week.
Cincinnati is the hometown of the funkadelic William "Bootsy" Collins. In 2007, Cincinnati restaurateur Jeff Ruby and Bootsy Collins teamed up with a plan to add a rock-and-roll vibe to downtown's nightlife. The result is Bootsy's, a two-story restaurant and nightclub that boasts memorabilia from Collins' career, art from around the world and Spanish-spiced cuisine from Ruby's chefs.
Founded by Bernard Henry Kroger in 1883 and headquarter in downtown, the Kroger Co. is the second largest grocery retailer in the country, with Wal-mart being the largest. Kroger pioneered the first supermarket surrounded on all four sides by parking lots in the 1930s.
The Aronoff Center is a large performing arts center that opened in 1995. The center was designed by renowned architect Cesar Pelli. The Aronoff Center and the Contemporary Arts Center are the anchors of an area of downtown known as the Backstage District.
Smile for the camera, I bet you didn't think your wedding day would make the front page of Metro Jacksonville!
Established in 1817 and located in the center of Garfield Place, Piatt Park is the oldest park in Cincinnati.
Looking west along 8th Street at the Elm Street intersection. The building with the clock tower is city hall. City hall is Cincinnati's best remaining example of Richardson Romanesque architecture.
Fountain Square
Fountain Square has been the symbolic center of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States since 1871. The square, which replaced a butcher's market, was a gift from Henry Probasco in memory of Tyler Davidson. Probasco traveled to Munich and commissioned a bronze allegorical fountain from Ferdinand von Miller named The Genus of Water that symbolizes the uses of water, both natural and man-made. Today, Fountain Square remains the restaurant and entertainment hub for the central business district.
Founded in Columbus, OH in 1929 as Federated Department Stores, Inc., Macy's, Inc. is now headquartered in downtown Cincinnati. In addition to the Macy's at Fountain Place (image above), downtown also has a Saks Fifth Avenue, TJ Maxx and a three-level shopping mall called Tower Place Mall.
Unique Cincinnati
- Cincinnati is considered to have been the first American boomtown in the heart of the country in the early 19th century.
- Cincinnati is known for having one of the largest collections of 19th century German architecture in the U.S.
- The city is named after Cincinnatus, the Roman who was called to serve Rome as dictator, an office which he immediately resigned after completing his task of defeating the Aequians.
- In 2008, Cincinnati was ranked as the 10th most walkable city in the United States.
- In 1977, Jerry Springer, the controversial talk show host, was elected to be the mayor of Cincinnati.
- Popular local cuisine includes Cincinnati Chili and Goetta.
- In 2008, Forbes magazine ranked Cincinnati as 10th in a list of "America's Hard-Drinking Cities."
- Cincinnati has an abandoned subway system. Construction stopped in 1924 and today, the subway tunnels are used as a conduit for fiber optic and water lines.
- According to Forbes Magazine, Cincinnatians spend 20% of their income on transit, which makes the city the sixth most expensive city for commuting in the United States.
Over-The-Rhine
Over-the-Rhine is a historic district, treasured for its massive collection of 19th century Italianate structures, that was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on May 17, 1983. It contains 943 contributing buildings. Approximately 75 percent of the buildings in Over-the-Rhine are vacant.
The neighborhood's distinctive name comes from its builders and early residents, German immigrants, many of whom made a daily trek across bridges over the Miami and Erie Canal which separated the area from downtown Cincinnati. Jokingly, the canal was referred to as "the Rhine," in reference to the Rhine River in Germany. So if one needed to go to the German part of town they would need to cross "Over the Rhine." The neighborhood has since changed considerably in terms of demographics, economics, and architecture, but elements of the old style remain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over-the-Rhine
Findley Market
Founded in 1852, Over-the-Rhine's Findlay Market is Ohio's oldest continuously-operated public market. The market routinely attracts the most socially, economically, racially, and ethnically diverse crowds found anywhere in the city.
Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal
Originally the Cincinnati Union Terminal, after the decline of railroad travel, most of the building has been converted to other uses. It now houses museums, theaters and a library, in addition to Amtrak. During its heyday as a passenger rail facility, Union Terminal had a capacity of 216 trains per day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati_Museum_Center_at_Union_Terminal
Article by Ennis Davis
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jeh1980
June 29, 2009, 05:16:53 AMWKRP In Cinninnati!
copperfiend
June 29, 2009, 07:54:25 AMMy wife's family is from Cincinnati and I spent some time there two years ago. It's a nice town but very spread out. It took at least an hour for us to drive from the Cincinnati airport (in Kentucky) to Northern Cincinnati.
As for the chili, to say people in Cincinnati love chili would be an understatement. They obsess over it.
zoo
June 29, 2009, 08:05:44 AMA great many pics showing prevalent signage and art -- two keys to urban vibrancy.
Hurricane
June 29, 2009, 08:06:16 AMCooler city than I thought. The aerial electrical wires look terrible, but I like some of the architecture. It's good to see by the numbers that JAX is growing compared to these other similar sized cities. All we need is another Fortune 500 company to be based here and you never know...
heights unknown
June 29, 2009, 09:21:50 AMColorful, artistic looking city and clean to say the least; looks real good and nice in photos. Too far up north for me though, wouldn't be able to tolerate those harsh, brutal, bone chilling winters. Good to look at from pics or for a visit but wouldn't want to live there. Think I'll keep Florida.
Heights Unknown
heights unknown
June 29, 2009, 09:24:32 AMCincinnati has lost almost 200,000 people in the last 40 years or so. Hard to say what happened for it to decline in size. Seems to be humming right along though and Cincy was a much more major city in the 1950's when Jax was a smaller City. Great looking city as I said in previous post but wouldn't want to live there.
Heights Unknown
brainstormer
June 29, 2009, 09:36:23 AMYour right, Hurricane, and if you were a fortune 500 company would you choose downtown Jacksonville as your headquarters?
A great photo tour of a city I've unfortunately only driven past. Here are some things I noticed.
1. Not one, but three hotels connected via skywalks to their convention center. Building a new convention center on the old courthouse site gives us the option of including another hotel space in the design as well as connecting the Hyatt via skywalk over Market.
2. We don't have a freeway keeping us from the river, so let's make the most of it!
3. The city has lots and lots of shade trees along streets and parks. We need to branch out and not just put palm trees in. People like to get in out of the heat during summer and palm trees don't provide much shade.
4. I noticed lots and lots of garbage cans and the streets seemed to be pretty clean.
5. Outdoor Seating! I love how Rock Bottom incorporated the nice fence and flowers. I can't think of many places in our downtown that have flowers.
6. I guess the Over the Rhine district is like San Marco or 5 points. You don't notice many one story buildings in any of the pictures. For example, Main Street in Springfield is full of all these sporadically placed one story buildings that are historical, but nothing like the beautiful architecture of the Rhine district. I'm glad the new Third and Main ventured up. The cool thing about the old 4-5 story buildings is that it allows for apartments above retail creating greater density and more walkable neighborhoods. Adams Street from Ocean to Hogan might be a street that could really turn into something like this if we got more of the old buildings turned into residential with street level retail opportunities.
7. I agree with zoo, I love the urban art and creative signage. We should encourage fun and creative, not squash it.
thelakelander
June 29, 2009, 09:44:04 AMHeights Unknown
Cincinnati's population has declined for the same reason Jacksonville's urban core has fallen. A mixture of things that include white flight, urban renewal, declining manufacturing base, and smaller household sizes. The major difference is Cincinnati is not consolidated with its core county, so they were not able to hid their loses through suburban growth like we have.
thelakelander
June 29, 2009, 09:55:32 AMOver-The-Rhine's demographics and historical struggles are similar to Springfield's. An urban historic district close to downtown that became blighted and abandoned by city leaders during the second half of the 20th century. After 75% vacancy rates, its now well into the process of gentrification.
Architecturally, they are different but Cincinnati was built to be a much denser city. Architecture aside, the largest difference between Over-The-Rhine and Springfield is that most of Over-The-Rhine's buildings still stand. We got a little demo happy on Springfield's commercial structures.
Ocklawaha
June 29, 2009, 10:03:35 AMCincinnati's population has declined for the same reason Jacksonville's urban core has fallen. A mixture of things that include white flight, urban renewal, declining manufacturing base, and smaller household sizes. The major difference is Cincinnati is not consolidated with its core county, so they were not able to hid their loses through suburban growth like we have.
Lake our central city is so dead, we are way past "white flight," I think we're the only city that has experienced "black flight", "Hispanic flight," etc. Just the other day I saw a stampede of cockroaches leaving downtown Jax for the Beaches.
OCKLAWAHA
thelakelander
June 29, 2009, 10:15:13 AMWe have our pockets of vibrancy. San Marco, Riverside, Avondale, and Ortega come to mind. Murray Hill and Springfield are rapidly coming back to life and Durkeeville is a decent working class neighborhood. Unfortunately, all of these districts have been disconnected by senseless urban renewal projects, expressways, demolition and complete zones of abandonment. This is why I continue to say that Jacksonville's urban core has great bones. We just have to find a way to reconnect the vibrant spots with each other, downtown and trigger infill growth in the desolate spots that separate them. Which brings us back to the thing that made the urban core boom in the first place......fixed mass transit
Joe
June 29, 2009, 10:19:55 AMYou guys sure get around!
Cincinnati does have a very underrated downtown. Even many Cincinnati locals are unaware of how nice their downtown is (there were race riots in 2001. Many suburbanites haven't been back since.)
Cincinnati also has plenty of instructive examples of what NOT to do. It's a pretty good analog to Jacksonville.
- Sky-high taxes are pushing people out of city limits, even to this day
- Over-the-rhine is held back by a total saturation of social services that concentrate poverty and crime into the urban core.
- Tremendous racial tension. It puts the South to shame.
- Overspending. Their streetcar plan (while amazing) is projected at $25 million per lane-mile, and supporters refuse to consider a cheaper bi-directional track option. They've designed a $100 million downtown loop that could probably have been done for a bit over $30 million if they wanted to cut costs. Now the streetcar might not happen at all because of public opposition to the cost.
- Political bickering. The streetcar and the long-awaited riverfront redevelopment have been delayed for years because of political squabbling. It's basically like the Shipyards project and Courthouse, only worse.
thelakelander
June 29, 2009, 10:24:41 AMGood points, Joe. Especially about the streetcar. What they have designed costs just as much as light rail, which kind of defeats the general idea behind the modern streetcar. Also the concentration of social services in and around Over-The-Rhine makes it very comparable to the challenges Springfield faces.
CrysG
June 29, 2009, 10:37:52 AMI remember going twice to Cincy in the last 4 years. One of the things that the Carew Tower has over the BOA tower is that it has AMAZING Art Deco decor on the inside. I went up to the observation tower and you can see views of the city for miles.
Cincinnati Museum Center has about 4 museums in it. The one I like the most is the history of Cincy. Similar to the one in MOSH but larger and more detailed.
Also notable that Cincy has over Jacksonville are Krohn Conservatory, Taft Museum and in Newport Ky they have Newport Aquarium
Joe
June 29, 2009, 10:43:20 AMIf I were to take only one thing away from Cincinnati it would be the success of 3CDC (Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation). Is anyone familiar with them?
3CDC is a huge non-profit partially funded by Cincinnati's big corporations. Basically, they get historic renovation tax credits and sell them to the corporations. They use the profits to buy more dilapidated buildings and renovate them.
They are partially responsible for the Fountain Square you all photographed. They are also responsible for virtually all of the renovated buildings in your Over-the-rhine shots. They've been an amazing catalyst for revitalization.
Jacksonville desperately needs a similar corporation.
hanjin1
June 29, 2009, 11:42:28 AMHas Jacksonville ever looked better than any of the cities shown on metrojax? I think we are batting 0 for 100 so far.
Joe
June 29, 2009, 12:36:52 PM^Well, the photos are intentionally showing the "best practices" of the featured cities. It's showing things from all these cities that Jax can learn. It's not really showing the bad stuff (and there IS bad stuff)
Although Cincinnati has some assets that are more impressive than Jacksonville, it's also part of a CMSA of over 3 million people when you include Dayton.
On the whole, Jacksonville is actually in a much better position than Cincinnnati. Growth, taxes, location, weather, etc. If anything, Cincy is somewhat stagnant. But that doesn't mean that we can't learn from the things that they have done well.
stjr
June 29, 2009, 07:04:57 PMOnce again, lots of much wider and pedestrian friendly sidewalks present throughout their downtown. And, a 40 acre RIVERFRONT park. Is anyone in Jax paying attention?
coredumped
June 29, 2009, 10:15:03 PMI don't know, has MJ done a photo tour of Detroit?
thelakelander
June 29, 2009, 11:16:26 PMcoredumped, here you go.
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2007-sep-elements-of-urbanism-detroit-international-riverfront
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2006-nov-rust-belt-special-ii-learning-from-downtown-detroit
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2008-feb-the-detroit-people-mover-the-skyways-sister-system
Ocklawaha
June 29, 2009, 11:20:25 PMhttp://www.pro-transit.com/Maps/
http://www.pro-transit.com/Default.asp
Tip the plan clockwise 90% and think... "Water - Newnan - Beaver - Randolph - Duval - Lee - Water."
The Cincinnati Plan has a much larger future scheme built into it. Laying out a core (if they get the $) with all double track, medians, up-graded stations etc... Won't defeat the benefit of Modern Streetcar, rather it will move them up in the Federal Pecking order toward a balanced regional rail system. This is now doable because of the constantly blurring lines between Streetcar, LRT, EMU and DMU technology's. I'm betting they'll do the "David Copperfield," and suddenly spring on the scene with a fully integrated mixed and fixed mass transit system.
Do I see a feature story spinning off of this? Sure!
OCKLAWAHA
parabellum
July 06, 2009, 01:02:18 PMI lived in Cincinnati from early 1999-mid 2000.
I don't miss it, not one bit.