Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

and the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US ...

of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and

rivers, the latter of which marks the state line with

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgini ...

. The city is the economic and cultural hub of the Cincinnati metropolitan area. With an estimated population of 2,256,884, it is Ohio's largest metropolitan area and the nation's 30th-largest, and with a city population of 309,317, Cincinnati is the third-largest city in Ohio and 64th in the United States. Throughout much of the 19th century, it was among the top 10 U.S. cities by population, surpassed only by

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

eastern seaboard, as well as being the sixth-most populous city from 1840 until 1860. As a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the ...

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than city, cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares ...

crossroads at the junction of the North, South, East, and West, Cincinnati developed with fewer immigrants and less influence from Europe than East Coast cities in the same period. However, it received a significant number of German-speaking immigrants, who founded many of the city's cultural institutions. By the end of the 19th century, with the shift from steamboats to railroads drawing off freight shipping, trade patterns had altered and Cincinnati's growth slowed considerably. The city was surpassed in population by other inland cities, particularly

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, which developed based on strong commodity exploitation, economics, and the railroads, and St. Louis, which for decades after the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...

served as the gateway to westward migration. Cincinnati is home to three major sports teams: the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

; the Cincinnati Bengals of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

; and FC Cincinnati of

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Cana ...

; it is also home to the Cincinnati Cyclones, a minor league ice hockey team. The city's largest institution of higher education, the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...

, was founded in 1819 as a municipal college and is now ranked as one of the 50 largest in the United States. Cincinnati is home to historic architecture with many structures in the urban core having remained intact for 200 years. In the late 1800s, Cincinnati was commonly referred to as the "Paris of America", due mainly to such ambitious architectural projects as the Music Hall, Cincinnatian Hotel, and Shillito Department Store. Cincinnati is the birthplace of

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

, the 27th President and former Chief Justice of the United States.

History

Etymology

Two years after the founding of the settlement,

Arthur St. Clair Arthur St. Clair ( – August 31, 1818) was a Scottish-American soldier and politician. Born in Thurso, Scotland, he served in the British Army during the French and Indian War before settling in Pennsylvania, where he held local office. During ...

, the governor of the Northwest Territory, changed its name to "Cincinnati", possibly at the suggestion of the surveyor

Israel Ludlow Israel Ludlow (1765 – January 1804) was a government surveyor who helped found Cincinnati, Dayton and Hamilton in southwest Ohio. Early life Israel Ludlow was born near Morristown, New Jersey in 1765. Greve 1904 : 165 In 1786, each of the ...

, in honor of the Society of the Cincinnati. St. Clair was at the time president of the Society, made up of Continental Army officers of the Revolutionary War who named their club for Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, a dictator in the early

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kingd ...

who saved Rome from a crisis, and then retired to farming because he did not want to remain in power.

Early history

Cincinnati began in 1788 when Mathias Denman, Colonel Robert Patterson, and

landed at a spot at the northern bank of the Ohio opposite the mouth of the Licking and decided to settle there. The original surveyor, John Filson, named it "Losantiville". On January 4, 1790, St. Clair changed the name of the settlement to honor the Society of the Cincinnati. 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 with St. Louis, Missouri, and

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Construction on the Miami and Erie Canal began on July 21, 1825, when it was called the Miami Canal, related to its origin at the Great Miami River. The first section of the canal was opened for business in 1827. In 1827, the canal connected Cincinnati to nearby Middletown; by 1840, it had reached

Toledo Toledo most commonly refers to: * Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain * Province of Toledo, Spain * Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States Toledo may also refer to: Places Belize * Toledo District * Toledo Settlement Bolivia * Toledo, Orur ...

. Railroads were the next major form of commercial transportation to come to Cincinnati. In 1836, the Little Miami Railroad was chartered. Construction began soon after, to connect Cincinnati with the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad, and provide access to the ports of the Sandusky Bay on

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

. 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. During this period of rapid expansion and prominence, residents of Cincinnati began referring to the city as the Queen City.

Industrial development and Gilded Age

Cincinnati's location, on the border between the free state of Ohio and the slave state of Kentucky, made it a prominent location for slaves to escape the slave-owning south. Many prominent abolitionists also called Cincinnati their home during this period, and made it a popular stop on the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...

. In 2004, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center was completed along Freedom Way in Downtown, honoring the city's involvement in the Underground Railroad. Cincinnati-in-1841

In 1859, Cincinnati laid out six streetcar lines; the cars were pulled by horses and the lines made it easier for people to get around the city. 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. In 1889, the Cincinnati streetcar system began converting its horse-drawn cars to electric streetcars. In 1880, the city government completed the Cincinnati Southern Railway to

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, it also extends into Marion County, Tennessee, Marion County on its west ...

. It is the only municipally-owned interstate railway in the United States. In 1884, outrage over a manslaughter verdict in what many observers thought was a clear case of murder triggered the Courthouse 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. The riots ended the regime of Republican boss

Thomas C. Campbell Thomas C. Campbell (April 25, 1845 January 4, 1904), also known as T. C. Campbell, was an American lawyer and Republican political boss of Cincinnati, Ohio. Biography Campbell was born on April 25, 1845, in Rochester, New York, to Scottish ...

During the Great Depression

An early rejuvenation of downtown began in the 1920s and continued into the next decade with the construction of Union Terminal, the post office, and the large Cincinnati and Suburban Telephone Company Building. Cincinnati weathered the Great 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. The

flood of 1937 The Ohio River flood of 1937 took place in late January and February 1937. With damage stretching from Pittsburgh to Cairo, Illinois, 385 people died, one million people were left homeless and property losses reached $500 million ($10.2 billion ...

was one of the worst in the nation's history and destroyed many areas along the

Ohio valley The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

. Afterward the city built protective flood walls.

Nicknames

Cincinnati has many

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

s, including Cincy, The Queen City, The Queen of the West, The Blue Chip City, and The City of Seven Hills. These are more typically associated with professional, academic, and public relations references to the city, including restaurant names such as Blue Chip Cookies, and are not commonly used by locals in casual conversation. "The City of Seven Hills" stems from the June 1853 edition of the ''West 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 rendered Fairmount), and Mount Harrison (now known as Price Hill). The name refers to ancient Rome, reputed to be built on seven hills. "Queen City" is taken from an 1819 newspaper article and further immortalized by the 1854 poem "Catawba Wine". In it, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote of the city: For many years, Cincinnati was also known as "Porkopolis"; this less desirable nickname came from the city's large pork interests. Newer nicknames such as "The 'Nati" are emerging and are attempted to be used in different cultural contexts. For example, the local Keep America Beautiful affiliate, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, introduced the catchphrase "Don't Trash the 'Nati" in 1998 as part of a

litter Litter consists of waste products that have been discarded incorrectly, without consent, at an unsuitable location. Litter can also be used as a verb; to litter means to drop and leave objects, often man-made, such as aluminum cans, paper cups ...

-prevention campaign.

Society

Cincinnati was platted and proliferated by American settlers, including

Ulster Scots Ulster Scots, may refer to: * Ulster Scots people * Ulster Scots dialect Ulster Scots or Ulster-Scots (', ga, Albainis Uladh), also known as Ulster Scotch and Ullans, is the dialect of Scots language, Scots spoken in parts of Ulster in North ...

known as the Scots Irish, frontiersmen, and keelboaters. To this day, most of Cincinnati's longtime residents have kinships rooted throughout the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Tristate and country. For over a century and a half, Cincinnati was the most prominent of Ohio's cities, as it was the largest: being the historical hub of Ohio culture, Cincinnati is referred to as the "chief city of Ohio" in the

1879 Events January–March * January 1 – The Specie Resumption Act takes effect. The United States Note is valued the same as gold, for the first time since the American Civil War. * January 11 – The Anglo-Zulu War begins. * Janu ...

'' American Cyclopædia''. In addition to this book, countless other books have documented the social history of both the city and its frontier people. The city fathers, of

Anglo-American Anglo-Americans are people who are English-speaking inhabitants of Anglo-America. It typically refers to the nations and ethnic groups in the Americas that speak English as a native language, making up the majority of people in the world who spe ...

families of prominence, were Episcopalian: Anderson, Drake, Emery, Foote, Harrison, Kilgour, Longworth, Lytle, McGuffey, Pendleton, Probasco, Procter, Rawson, Sawyer, Strader, Taft, and Yeatman, to name several. Inspired by its earlier horseback circuit preachers, early

Methodism Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...

was important. The first established Methodist class in the Northwest Territory came 1797 to nearby Milford. By 1879, there were 162 documented church edifices in the city, distributed as follows: Baptist, 14; Christian, 2; Congregational, 4; Disciples of Christ, 4; Friends, 2; German Methodist, 2; German Evangelical Union, 4; German Reformed, 3; Independent Methodist, 1; Hebrew, 5; Lutheran, 4; Methodist Episcopal, 26; Methodist Protestant, 3; Calvinistic Methodist, 1; African Methodist, 1; New Jerusalem, 1; Presbyterian, 16; United Presbyterian, 3; Reformed Presbyterian, 3; Protestant Episcopal, 11; Roman Catholic, 32, and 12 chapels; United Brethren in Christ, 3; Universalist, 1; Unitarian, 3; and Union Bethel, 1. For this reason, from the beginning,

Protestantism Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

has played a formative role in the Cincinnati ethos. Christ Church Cathedral at Queen City Square 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 were The Christ Hospital as well as projects of the German Methodist Church. In politics, Presbyterians dominated, and Anti-Papist resistance defined, much of Cincinnati's civic life in the mid-to-late 1800s. It was thought by city leaders that

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

influence and practices are contrary to free society, especially in the American Heartland; the Presbyterians organized marches against papalism, something echoed by

John Knox John Knox ( gd, Iain Cnocc) (born – 24 November 1572) was a Scottish minister, Reformed theologian, and writer who was a leader of the country's Reformation. He was the founder of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Born in Giffordga ...

centuries before—the namesake of Cincinnati's Knox Presbyterian Church. In recent times, Cincinnati has been referred to as a capital of the

Bible Belt The Bible Belt is a region of the Southern United States in which socially conservative Protestant Christianity plays a strong role in society and politics, and church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's av ...

, influenced by such business families as the Lindners, who are Baptist. This oft-derided trait of the city has, however, produced both economic and heavy revivalist activity, such as a visit by

Billy Graham William Franklin Graham Jr. (November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American evangelist and an ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well known internationally in the late 1940s. He was a prominent evangelical Christi ...

at what was then Paul Brown Stadium (now Paycor Stadium) and the city hosting the World Choir Games. One of Cincinnati's biggest proponents of Methodism was the Irish immigrant James Gamble, who together with William Procter founded

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer he ...

; in addition to being a devout Methodist, Gamble and his estate donated money to construct Methodist churches throughout Greater Cincinnati. The Belle of Louisville docks next to the Natchez in Cincinnati for Tall Stacks 2006

The Belle of Louisville docks next to the Natchez in Cincinnati for Tall Stacks 2006

Cincinnati, being a rivertown crossroads, depended on trade with the slave 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 the Civil War and were from Kentucky and Virginia 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, primarily

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

. 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 and those in favor of

abolitionism Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The Britis ...

and lifting restrictions on free black people, as codified in the "Black Code" of 1804. Germans were among the earliest newcomers, migrating from Pennsylvania and the backcountry of Virginia and Tennessee. General

David Ziegler David Ziegler (July 13, 1748 – September 24, 1811) was a German immigrant to the United States who served in the U.S. military and became the first mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio. Early life and career Johann David Ziegler was born in Heidelberg ...

succeeded General St. Clair in command at Fort Washington. After the conclusion of the Northwest Indian War and removal of Native Americans to the west, he was elected as Cincinnati's first town president (equivalent to a mayor) in 1802. Cincinnati was influenced by Irishmen, and

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

ns and Saxons ( 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%. Thousands of Germans entered the city after the Prussian revolution of 1848, and by 1900, more than 60 percent of its population was of Prussian background. The menial-jobbed, aggravated Irish often organized mobs, and the Germans, far away from their Pennsylvania Dutch connections, did the same. Thus, leaders of the city had to use fortifying measures against the arrivals' clashes. TylerDavidsonFountainAtNight

Volatile social conditions saw riots 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 occurred in 1836, when an abolitionist press was twice destroyed; and in 1842. More than 1,000 black people abandoned the city after the 1829 riots. Black people in Philadelphia 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. The emigres, while having been widely discussed, never overtook settlers in population. Nearby Waynesville hosts the yearly Ohio Sauerkraut Festival, and Cincinnati hosts several big yearly events which commemorate connections to the Old World.

Oktoberfest Zinzinnati Oktoberfest Zinzinnati is an annual weekend festival in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. Based on the original German Oktoberfest, it is billed as the largest Oktoberfest celebration in the United States and second largest in the world. First h ...

, Bockfest, and the Taste of Cincinnati feature local restaurateurs. Cincinnati's Jewish community was developed by those from England and Germany. A large segment of the community, led by Isaac M. Wise, developed

Reform Judaism Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous sear ...

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.
Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography: *I. M. Wise, ''Reminiscences'', transl. from the German and ed. by David Philipson, Cincinnati, 1901; * *'' The American Israelite'', 1854–1900, passim, and the Jubilee number, June 30, 1904. The

NRHP The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

-listed Potter Stewart United States Courthouse is a federal court, the

United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (in case citations, 6th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * Eastern District of Kentucky * Western District o ...

, one of thirteen United States courts of appeals. Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Cincinnati Branch is located across the street from the East Fourth Street Historic District.

Economy

Metropolitan Cincinnati has the twenty-eighth largest economy in the United States and the fifth largest in the Midwest, after

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, Minneapolis-St. Paul,

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

, and St. Louis. In 2016, it had the fastest-growing Midwestern economic capital. Due to its abundant amenities, Cincinnati is a magnet for

start-ups A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

. The gross domestic product for the region was $127 billion in 2015. The median home price is $158,200, and the cost of living in Cincinnati is 8% below national average. As of September 2022, the unemployment rate is 3.3%, below the national average. Several Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in Cincinnati, such as

, The Kroger Company, and Fifth Third Bank.

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

has headquartered their Global Operations Center in Cincinnati. The Kroger Company employs 21,646 people locally, making it the largest employer in the city, and the University of Cincinnati is the second largest at 16,000. Taste-of-Cincinnati-2009

Cuisine

Along with American cuisine, Cincinnati is host to numerous flavors infused from around the culinary world.

Restaurants

Frisch's Big Boy, Graeter's Ice Cream,

Kroger The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States. Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cinci ...

LaRosa's ''LaRosa's Pizzeria'' is a chain of pizzerias serving neighborhoods throughout Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. It was founded in 1954 by Donald "Buddy" LaRosa, along with partners Richard "Muzzie" Minella, Mike Soldano and Frank "Head" Serraino. Origi ...

Montgomery Inn Montgomery Inn is a barbecue restaurant chain based in the Cincinnati suburb of Montgomery, Ohio, United States. It is best known for its specialty, loin back ribs, and the barbecue sauce used in preparation and serving. History The family-o ...

, Skyline Chili, Gold Star Chili, Aglamesis Bro's and

United Dairy Farmers United Dairy Farmers (UDF) is an American chain of shops offering dairy products as well as coffee and gasoline. UDF was started by Carl Lindner Sr. and his children in 1938. Almost as soon as they started operations, the Lindners began work on ...

(UDF/Trauth) are Cincinnati eateries that sell their brand commodities in grocery markets and gas stations. Glier's goetta is produced in the Cincinnati area and is a popular local food. The Maisonette in Cincinnati was

Mobil Mobil is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil. The brand was formerly owned and operated by an oil and gas corporation of the same name, which itself merged with Exxon to form ExxonMobil in 1999. ...

Travel Guide's longest-running five-star restaurant in the United States, holding that distinction for 41 consecutive years until it closed in 2005. Its former head chef, Jean-Robert de Cavel, has opened four new restaurants in the area since 2001. One of the United States's oldest and most celebrated bars,

Arnold's Bar and Grill Arnold's Bar and Grill is the oldest continuously operating bar in Cincinnati, Ohio, and one of the oldest in the United States. History Arnold's is the oldest continuously operating bar in the city and one of the oldest in the country. The est ...

in downtown Cincinnati has won awards from ''Esquire'' magazine's "Best Bars in America", Thrillist's "Most Iconic Bar in Ohio", The Daily Meal's "150 Best bars in America" and Seriouseats.com's "The Cincinnati 10". "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.

Cincinnati chili

Cincinnati chili, a spiced sauce served over noodles, usually topped with cheese and often with diced onions and/or beans, is the area's "best-known regional food." A variety of recipes are served by respective parlors, including Skyline Chili, Gold Star Chili, and Dixie Chili and Deli, plus independent chili parlors including Camp Washington Chili, Empress Chili and Moonlight Chili. It was first developed by Macedonian 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.

Goetta

Goetta is a meat-and-grain

sausage A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs may be included as fillers or extenders. ...

or mush of German inspiration. It is primarily composed of ground meat (pork, or pork and beef), pin-head oats and spices.

Mock turtle soup

Similarly to goetta's origins,

mock turtle soup Mock turtle soup is an English soup that was created in the mid-18th century as an imitation of green turtle soup. It often uses brains and organ meats such as calf's head to duplicate the texture and flavour of the original's turtle meat af ...

was a dish popularized by the influx of German immigrants in the late 19th century. Originally made with offal, 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.

Dialect

The citizens of Cincinnati speak in a

General American General American English or General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm) is the umbrella accent of American English spoken by a majority of Americans. In the United States it is often perceived as lacking any distinctly regional, ethnic, or soc ...

dialect. Unlike the rest of the Midwest, Southwest Ohio shares some aspects of its vowel system with northern New Jersey English. Most of the distinctive local features among speakers float as Midland American. There is also some influence from the

Southern American Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, though concentrated increasingly in more rural areas, and spoken primarily by ...

dialect found in Kentucky. A touch of northern German is audible in the local vernacular: some residents use the word '' please'' when asking a speaker to repeat a statement. This usage is taken from the German practice, when ''bitte'' (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.

Demographics

Race and ethnicity 2010- Cincinnati (5560448832)

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 296,945 in 2010. This marked the first increase in population recorded since the 1950 Census, reversing a 60-year trend of population decline. At the 2020 census, there were 309,317 people, 138,696 households, and 62,319 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 161,095 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 50.3%

White White is the lightness, lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully diffuse reflection, reflect and scattering, scatter all the ...

, 41.4%

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

, 0.1% Native American, 2.2% Asian, 0.1%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of Ocea ...

, 1.2% from other races, and 4.6% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...

or Latino 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. As of 2021 Estimate, the Cincinnati- Middletown− Wilmington

Metropolitan Statistical Area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally Incorporated town, incorporate ...

had a population of 2,259,935, making it the 30th-largest metropolitan statistical area in the country. It includes the

counties of Hamilton, Butler, Warren, Clermont,

Clinton Clinton is an English toponymic surname, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton.Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Dictionary of Surnames''. Oxford University Press, 1988 Clinton has frequently been used as a given ...

, and Brown, as well as the

counties of Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Gallatin, Grant,

Kenton Kenton may refer to: Places Canada *Kenton, Manitoba South Africa *Kenton-on-Sea United Kingdom *Kenton, Devon *Kenton, London **Kenton station, Kenton Road, Kenton, London *Kenton, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear *Kenton, Suffolk **Kenton ra ...

, and

Pendleton Pendleton may refer to: Places ;United Kingdom *Pendleton, Lancashire, England *Pendleton, Greater Manchester, England ;United States *Pendleton, Indiana * Pendleton, Missouri *Pendleton, New York *Pendleton, Oregon *Pendleton, South Carolina *Pe ...

, and the

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

counties of

Dearborn Dearborn may refer to: People * Dearborn (surname) ** Henry Dearborn (1751–1829), U.S. Secretary of War under President Thomas Jefferson, Senior Officer of the U.S. Army during the War of 1812 Places in the United States Forts * Fort Dearborn, ...

, Franklin, Union, and

Cityscape and climate

The city is undergoing significant changes due to new development and private investment. This includes buildings of the long-stalled Banks project that includes apartments, retail, restaurants, and offices, which will stretch from Great American Ball Park to

Paycor Stadium Paycor Stadium, previously known as Paul Brown Stadium, is an outdoor football stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the home venue of the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League and opened on August 19, 2000. Originally named after the B ...

. 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 by 3CDC. The Cincinnati Bell Connector began in September 2016. Cincinnati is midway by river between the cities of

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, Pennsylvania, and Cairo, Illinois. The downtown lies near the mouth of the Licking, a confluence where the first settlement occurred. Metro Cincinnati spans southern Ohio, south-eastern Indiana, and northern Kentucky; the

census bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

has measured the city proper at , of which are land and are water. The city spreads over a number of hills, bluffs, and low ridges overlooking the Ohio in the Bluegrass region of the country. The tristate is geographically located within the Midwest at the far northern extremity of the Upland South. Three municipalities are enveloped by the city: Norwood, Elmwood Place, and Saint 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 in Amberley Village, the disused runway at the former

Blue Ash Airport Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical sp ...

in Blue Ash, and the Cincinnati Southern Railway, which runs between Cincinnati and

Landmarks

Cincinnati has many

landmark A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances. In modern use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures or f ...

s across its area. Some of these landmarks are recognized nationwide, others are more recognized among locals. These landmarks include: Union Terminal, Carew Tower, Great American Tower, Fountain Square, Washington Park, and Great American Ballpark. These landmarks add to the skyline, and function as good meeting spots in the city

Landscape

Cincinnati is home to numerous embankments that are noteworthy due to their architectural characteristics or historic associations, as well as the Carew Tower, the Scripps Center, the Ingalls Building, Cincinnati Union Terminal, and the Isaac M. Wise Temple. Notable historic public parks and landscapes include the 19th-century Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum, Eden Park, and

Mount Storm Park Mount Storm Park is a City of Cincinnati municipal park situated on a site on the western slope of a hill overlooking the Mill Creek Valley. In the mid-19th century the property comprised the site of the estate of Robert Bonner Bowler, a dry good ...

, all designed by Prussian émigré landscape architect

Adolph Strauch Adolph Strauch (b. August 30, 1822 – 1883) was a renowned landscape architect born in Silesia, Prussia, known particularly for his layout designs of cemeteries like Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio, Forest Lawn in Buffalo, NY and Oa ...

. Queen City Square opened in January 2011. The building is the tallest in Cincinnati (surpassing the Carew Tower), and is the third tallest in Ohio, reaching a height of . The mile-long

Cincinnati Skywalk The Cincinnati Skywalk was a series of walkways, primarily indoors and elevated, that allowed pedestrians to traverse downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. Built in segments starting in 1971, the skywalk was completed in 1997 at a total cost of more than $ ...

, completed in 1997, was shortened to bring more commerce, yet remains the viable way to walk downtown during poor weather. The

Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is the sixth oldest zoo in the United States, founded in 1873 and officially opening in 1875. It is located in the Avondale neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. It originally began with in the middle of the ...

in Avondale is the second-oldest zoo in the United States.

Waterscape

Downtown Cincinnati towers about Fountain Square, the public square and event locale. Fountain Square was renovated in 2006. Cincinnati rests along of riverfront about northern banks of the Ohio, stretching from

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

to Sayler Park, giving the mighty Ohio and its movements a prominent place in the life of the city. Frequent flooding has hampered the growth of Cincinnati's municipal airport at Lunken Field and the

Coney Island Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to th ...

amusement park. Downtown Cincinnati is protected from flooding by the Serpentine Wall at

Yeatman's Cove Sawyer Point Park & Yeatman's Cove are a pair of side-by-side parks on the riverfront of downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. The two linear parks stretch one mile along the north shore of the Ohio River. Since 2012, the parks have been th ...

and another flood wall built into

Fort Washington Way Fort Washington Way is an approximately section of freeway in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. The eight-lane divided highway is a concurrent section of Interstate 71 (I-71) and U.S. Route 50 (US 50) that runs from west to east f ...

. Parts of Cincinnati also experience flooding from the Little Miami River and Mill Creek. Since April 1, 1922, the Ohio flood stage at Cincinnati has officially been set at , as measured from the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge. At this depth, the

pumping station Pumping stations, also called pumphouses in situations such as drilled wells and drinking water, are facilities containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are used for a variety of infrastructure systems, ...

at the mouth of Mill Creek is activated. From 1873 to 1898, the flood stage was . From 1899 to March 31, 1922, it was . The Ohio reached its lowest level, less than , in 1881; conversely, its all-time high water mark is , having crested January 26, 1937. Various parts of Cincinnati flood at different points: Riverbend Music Center in the California neighborhood floods at , while Sayler Park floods at and the Freeman Avenue flood gate closes at .

Climate

Cincinnati is at the southern limit (considering the isotherm) of the

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freez ...

zone ( Köppen: ''Dfa''), bordering the humid subtropical climate zone (''Cfa''). Summers are hot and humid, with significant rainfall in each month and highs reaching 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 . Winters tend to be cold and snowy, with January, the coldest month, averaging at . Lows reach on an average 2.6 nights yearly. An average winter will see around of snowfall, contributing to the yearly of precipitation, with rainfall peaking in spring. Extremes range from on January 18, 1977, up to on July 21 and 22, 1934. Severe

thunderstorms A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are some ...

are common in the warmer months, and tornadoes, while infrequent, are not unknown, with such events striking the Metro Cincinnati area most recently in 1974, 1999, 2012, and 2017.

Sports

Cincinnati Cyclones Game - US Bank Arena

Cincinnati has three major league teams, seven minor league teams, five college institutions with sports teams, and seven major sports venues. Cincinnati's three major league teams are Major League Baseball's Reds, who were named for America's first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings; the Bengals of the

; and FC Cincinnati, who became a

franchise in 2019. On Major League Baseball Opening 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. The

Flying Pig Marathon The Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon is an annual race run the first Sunday of May in Cincinnati, Ohio. First held in 1999, it is the 3rd-largest first-time marathon in the United States. The marathon had nearly 5000 finishers in 2008, and total ...

is a yearly event attracting many runners and acts as a qualifier to the Boston Marathon. The Cincinnati Reds have won five World Series titles and had one of the most successful baseball teams of all time in the mid-1970s, known as The Big Red Machine. The Bengals have made three Super Bowl appearances since its founding, in 1981, 1988, and 2021, but have yet to win a championship. Whenever the Bengals and

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. ...

play against each other (an interconference matchup that occurs every four years), their games are dubbed the "Queen City Bowl", as Charlotte, North Carolina, the home city of the Panthers, is also known as the Queen City. The Bengals enjoy strong rivalries with the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers (both of whom are also members of the AFC North). Cincinnati is also home to two men's college basketball teams: The Cincinnati Bearcats and Xavier Musketeers. These two teams face off as one of college basketball's rivalries known as the

Crosstown Shootout The Crosstown Shootout is an annual men's college basketball game played between the University of Cincinnati Bearcats and Xavier University Musketeers. The two schools are separated by in Cincinnati, making the archrivalry one of the closest ...

. In 2011, the rivalry game erupted in an on-court brawl at the end of the game that saw multiple suspensions follow. The Musketeers have made 10 of the last 11

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

tournaments while the Bearcats have made six consecutive appearances. Previously, the Cincinnati Royals competed in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...

from 1957 to 1972; they are now known as the Sacramento Kings. FC Cincinnati is a soccer team that plays in MLS. FC Cincinnati made its home debut in the USL on April 9, 2016, before a crowd of more than 14,000 fans. On their next home game vs Louisville 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 the Pittsburgh Riverhounds. FC Cincinnati has since broken the USL attendance record on several additional occasions, and moved to

(MLS) for the 2019 season. FC Cincinnati was awarded an MLS bid on May 29, 2018, and moved to a new stadium in the West End neighborhood just northwest of downtown in 2021. The

Western & Southern Open The Cincinnati Masters or Cincinnati Open (branded as the Western & Southern Open for sponsorship reasons) is an annual outdoor hardcourt tennis event held in Mason, Ohio near Cincinnati. The event started on September 18, 1899, and is the olde ...

, a historic international men's and women's tennis tournament that is part of the ATP Tour Masters 1000 Series and the WTA Tour Premier 5, was established in the city in 1899 and has been held at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in suburban Mason since 1979. The Cincinnati Cyclones is a minor league AA-level professional hockey team playing in the

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). Th ...

. Founded in 1990, the team plays at the Heritage Bank Center. They won the 2010 Kelly Cup Finals, their 2nd championship in three seasons. The Cincinnati Sizzle is a women's minor professional tackle football team that plays in the Women's Football Alliance. The team was established in 2003, by former Cincinnati Bengals running back

Ickey Woods Elbert L. "Ickey" Woods (born February 28, 1966) is a former American football running back who played for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League from 1988 through 1991. He played college football at the University of Nevada, Las ...

. In 2016 the team claimed their first National Championship Title in the United States Women's Football League. The Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G will debut on the LPGA Tour in 2022 at

Kenwood Country Club Kenwood may refer to: Places ; England * Kenwood (or Ken Wood), a part of Hampstead Heath, London, the location of ** Kenwood House * Kenwood, in the parish of Kenton, Devon * Kenwood, St. George's Hill, John Lennon's home in Weybridge, Surrey ...

. It is the first time since 1963 that women's professional golf will return to Cincinnati. The table below shows sports teams in the Cincinnati area that average more than 5,000 fans per game:

Police and fire services

The city of Cincinnati's emergency services for fire, rescue, EMS, hazardous materials and explosive ordnance disposal is handled by the Cincinnati Fire Department. On April 1, 1853, the Cincinnati Fire Department became the first paid professional fire department in United States. The Cincinnati Fire Department operates out of 26 fire stations, located throughout the city in 4 districts, each commanded by a district chief. The Cincinnati Fire Department is organized into 4 bureaus: Operations, Personnel and Training, Administrative Services, and Fire Prevention. Each bureau is commanded by an assistant chief, who in turn reports to the chief of department. The

Cincinnati Police Department The Cincinnati Police Department is the primary law enforcement agency of Cincinnati, Ohio. The department has 1,057 sworn officers and 281 non-sworn employees. History When Cincinnati incorporated, as a village, in 1802, a ‘ night watch� ...

has more than 1,000 sworn officers. Before the riots 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. After the riot, violent crime increased, but crime has been on the decline since. In 2015, there were 71 homicides. The Cincinnati Police Department was featured on TLC's ''

Police Women of Cincinnati ''Police Women of Cincinnati'' is the fifth installment of TLC's '' Police Women'' reality documentary series, which follows four female members of the Cincinnati Police Department (CPD) in Cincinnati, Ohio. Cast * Sergeant Chantia "Tia" Miller ...

'' and on A&E's reality show ''The First 48''.

Government and politics

Government

The city proper operates with a nine-member city council, whose members are elected

at-large At large (''before a noun'': at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather than ...

. Prior to 1924, City council members were elected through a system of wards. The ward system was subject to corruption due to partisan rule. From the 1880s to the 1920s, the

Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa *Republican Party (Liberia) * Republican Part ...

dominated city politics, with the

political machine In the politics of representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives (such as money or political jobs) and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership co ...

of George 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 a council–manager government form of government, in which the smaller council (compared to the number of previous ward representatives) hires a professional manager to operate the daily affairs of the city. From 1924 to 1957, the council was elected by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

and single transfer voting (STV). Starting with Ashtabula 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.Douglas J. Amy, "A Brief History of Proportional Representation in the United States"
, revised version of "The Forgotten History of the Single Transferable Vote in the United States", in ''Representation'' 34, number 1 (Winter 1996/7), accessed March 30, 2015 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.
, Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1995, pp. Introduction 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-old

Jerry Springer Gerald Norman Springer (born February 13, 1944) is a British-American broadcaster, journalist, actor, producer, former lawyer, and politician. He hosted the tabloid talk show '' Jerry Springer'' between September 30, 1991 and July 26, 2018, an ...

, later a notable television talk show host, was chosen to serve one year as mayor. Residents continued to work to improve their system. 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, the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well as ...

was elected separately in a general at-large election for the first time. The city manager's role in government was reduced. These reforms were referred to as the "

strong mayor Strong may refer to: Education * The Strong, an educational institution in Rochester, New York, United States * Strong Hall (Lawrence, Kansas), an administrative hall of the University of Kansas * Strong School, New Haven, Connecticut, United S ...

" reforms, to make the publicate accountable to voters. Cincinnati politics include the participation of the Charter Party, the political party with the third-longest history of winning in local elections. 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. On January 30, 2017, Cincinnati's mayor declared the city a sanctuary city.

Race relations

National underground railroad freedom center main entrance 2006

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 in

. Many fugitive 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. The riot and its refugees were topics of discussion throughout the country, and black people organized the first Negro Convention in 1830 in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

to discuss these events. White riots against black people took place again in Cincinnati in 1836 and 1842. In 1836 a mob of 700 pro-slavery men attacked black neighborhoods, as well as a press run by

James M. Birney James Birney (June 17, 1817 – May 8, 1888) was an American lawyer, newspaper publisher and politician from the U.S. state of Michigan. He served as the 13th lieutenant governor of Michigan and as the U.S. Minister to the Netherlands. Ea ...

, publisher of the anti-slavery weekly ''The Philanthropist''. Tensions increased after congressional passage in 1850 of the

Fugitive Slave Act A fugitive (or runaway) is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from jail, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals. A fugitive from justice, also know ...

, which required cooperation by citizens in free states and increased penalties for failing to try to recapture escaped slaves. Levi Coffin made the Cincinnati area the center of his anti-slavery efforts in 1847.

Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (; June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American author and abolitionist. She came from the religious Beecher family and became best known for her novel '' Uncle Tom's Cabin'' (1852), which depicts the ha ...

lived in Cincinnati for a time, met escaped slaves and used their stories as a basis for her novel ''

Uncle Tom's Cabin ''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U ...

'' (1852). The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, which opened in 2004 on the Cincinnati riverfront in the middle of " The Banks" area between Great American Ballpark and Paul Brown Stadium, commemorates the volunteers who aided refugee slaves and their drive for freedom, as well as others who have been leaders for social justice. Findlay Market Cincinnati

Located in a free state and attracting many European immigrants, Cincinnati has historically had a predominantly white population. By 1940, the Census Bureau reported the city's population as 87.8 percent white and 12.2 percent black. In the second half of the 20th century, Cincinnati, along with other rust 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 the

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

South in hopes of better socioeconomic opportunity, had moved to these older city neighborhoods in their Great 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. In 1968 passage of national civil rights legislation had raised hopes for positive change, but the assassination of national leader Martin 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 charged riots occurred after police fatally shot a young unarmed black man, Timothy Thomas, during a foot pursuit to arrest him, mostly for outstanding traffic warrants. 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. 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 have been a recurring focus of national news media. Several protests involving the

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police brut ...

movement have been carried out. Tensing was indicted on charges of murder and voluntary manslaughter, but a November 2016 trial ended in mistrial after the jury became deadlocked. 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. The University of Cincinnati has settled with the DuBose family for $4.8 million and free tuition for each of the 12 children.

Schools

Gallagher Student Center, Xavier University

The city has an extensive library system, both the city's public libraries and university facilities. The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County was the third-largest public library nationally in 1998. The

, called Cincinnati or nicknamed UC, is a public university. The university is renowned in architecture and engineering,

liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term '' art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically th ...

, music, nursing, and

social science Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soc ...

. The Art Academy of Cincinnati, nicknamed AAC was founded as the McMicken School of Design in 1869. The University of Cincinnati Medical Center is the leading institute for community health in Ohio. The College Conservatory of Music taught Kathleen Battle, Al Hirt and Faith Prince. The Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) include sixteen high schools all with citywide acceptance. CPS, third-largest school cluster by student population, was the biggest one to have an overall 'effective' rating from the State. The district currently includes public

Montessori school The Montessori method of education involves children's natural interests and activities rather than formal teaching methods. A Montessori classroom places an emphasis on hands-on learning and developing real-world skills. It emphasizes indepen ...

s, including the first public Montessori high school established in the United States,

Clark Montessori Peter H. Clark Montessori Junior High and High School, usually referred to as Clark Montessori, is a junior and senior high school in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. The school had around 700 students in January 2018. It is in the Hyde Park&nd ...

. Cincinnati Public Schools' top-rated school is

Walnut Hills High School , streetaddress = 3250 Victory Parkway , city = Cincinnati , state = Ohio , zipcode = 45207 , country = United States , coordinates = , type ...

, ranked 34th on the national list of best public schools by ''Newsweek''. Walnut Hills offers 28 Advanced Placement courses. Cincinnati is also home to the first Kindergarten – 12th grade Arts School in the country, the School for Creative and Performing Arts. Cincinnati State is a small college that includes the Midwest Culinary School. Also located in Cincinnati was Cincinnati Christian University before it permanently closed in 2019. Five hundred years since

the Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

Cincinnati provided a global distinguished lecture marking the layout of books and research for stirred city goers and the Cincinnati Art Museum staff built ''Albrecht Durer: The Age of Reformation and Renaissance'', with more crafting by the university design, art, and architecture program given for the city. The Jewish community has several schools, including the all-girl RITSS (Regional Institute for Torah and Secular Studies) high school, and the all-boy Yeshivas Lubavitch High School. Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), founded by Isaac Mayer Wise, is a seminary for training of Reform rabbis and others religious.

Xavier University Xavier University ( ) is a private Jesuit university in Cincinnati and Evanston (Cincinnati), Ohio. It is the sixth-oldest Catholic and fourth-oldest Jesuit university in the United States. Xavier has an undergraduate enrollment of 4,860 stud ...

, one of three

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

colleges along with Chatfield College and Mount St. Joseph University, was at one time affiliated with The Athenaeum of Ohio, the seminary of the Cincinnati Archdiocese. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati operates 16 high schools in Cincinnati, ten of which are single-sex. There are six all-female high schools and four all-male high schools in the city, with additional schools in the metro areas.

Antonelli College Antonelli College was a for-profit career training school with a main campus located in Cincinnati. Founded in 1947 as the Gebhardt Art School, the college later switched its name to Ohio Visual Art Institute in the mid-1970s then renaming itsel ...

, a career training school, is based in Cincinnati with several satellite campuses in

and

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Mis ...

Theater and music

Trevor Noah 2019-02-01 - Aronoff Center crowd (46151350875)

Professional theatre has operated in Cincinnati since at least as early as the 1800s. Among the professional companies based in the city are Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati,

Cincinnati Shakespeare Company Cincinnati Shakespeare Company is a professional Ensemble cast, ensemble theater located in downtown Cincinnati focusing on William Shakespeare, Shakespearean and other classical works. History Cincinnati Shakespeare Company originally was incorpo ...

, the Know Theatre of Cincinnati,

Stage First Cincinnati Founded in 1999, Stage First Cincinnati was a professional theatre company in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primari ...

, Cincinnati Public Theatre,

Cincinnati Opera Cincinnati Opera is an American opera company based in Cincinnati, Ohio and the second oldest opera company in the United States (after the New York Metropolitan Opera). Beginning with its first season in 1920, Cincinnati Opera has produced oper ...

, The Performance Gallery and

Clear Stage Cincinnati Founded in 2003, Clear Stage Cincinnati is a professional theatre company in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primaril ...

. The city is also home to Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, which hosts regional premieres, and the Aronoff Center, which hosts touring Broadway shows each year via Broadway Across America. The city has community theatres, such as the Cincinnati Young People's Theatre, the Showboat Majestic (which is the last surviving showboat in the United States and possibly the world), and the Mariemont Players. Since 2011,

and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music have partnered to sponsor the Opera Fusion: New Works project. The Opera Fusion: New Works project acts as a program for composers or librettists to workshop an opera in a 10-day residency. This program is headed by the Director of Artistic Operations at Cincinnati Opera, Marcus Küchle, and the Head of Opera at

CCM CCM may refer to: * Cubic centimetre (''ccm''), metric unit of volume * Climate change mitigation (''CCM''), climate change topic Biology and medicine * Calcium concentration microdomains, part of a cell's cytoplasm * Photosynthesis#Carbon ...

Robin Guarino Robin Guarino (born April 3, 1960) is an opera and film director. She has directed operas such as ''The Marriage of Figaro'', ''Don Giovanni'', ''Lohengrin'', ''Così fan tutte'', and ''The Magic Flute'' at the Metropolitan Opera. She has directed ...

Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, 2019

Music-related events include the Cincinnati May Festival, Bunbury Music Festival, and Cincinnati Bell/WEBN Riverfest. Cincinnati has hosted the World Choir Games with the catchy mantra "Cincinnati, the City that Sings!" In 2015, Cincinnati held the USITT 2015 Conference and Stage Expo at the

Duke Energy Duke Energy Corporation is an American electric power and natural gas holding company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Overview Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Duke Energy owns 58,200 watt, megawatts of base-load and peak generati ...

Convention Center, bringing 5,000+ students, university educators, theatrical designers and performers, and other personnel to the city. The USITT Conference is considered the main conference for Theatre, Opera, and Dance in the United States. '' A Rage in Harlem'' was filmed entirely in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Over the Rhine because of its similarity to 1950s Harlem. Movies that were filmed in part in Cincinnati include '' The Best Years of Our Lives'' (aerial footage early in the film), '' Ides of March'', '' Fresh Horses'', '' The Asphalt Jungle'' (the opening is shot from the Public Landing and takes place in Cincinnati although only Boone County, Kentucky, is mentioned), '' Rain Man'', '' Miles Ahead'', '' Airborne'', '' Grimm Reality'', '' Little Man Tate'', '' City of Hope'', ''

An Innocent Man ''An Innocent Man'' is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Billy Joel, released on August 8, 1983. The concept album is a tribute to the American popular music of Joel's adolescent years with Joel paying homage to a number of di ...

'', '' Tango & Cash'', '' A Mom for Christmas'', '' Lost in Yonkers'', '' Summer Catch'', '' Artworks'', '' Dreamer'', '' Elizabethtown'', '' Jimmy and Judy'', '' Eight Men Out'', '' Milk Money'', '' Traffic'', '' The Pride of Jesse Hallam'', '' The Great Buck Howard'', '' In Too Deep'', '' Seven Below'', '' Carol'', '' Public Eye'', ''The Last Late Night'', and '' The Mighty''. In addition, '' Wild Hogs'' is set, though not filmed, in Cincinnati. Shiny And The Spoon at the zoo

The Cincinnati skyline was prominently featured in the opening and closing sequences of the CBS/ABC daytime drama '' The 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 sitcom '' WKRP in Cincinnati'' and its sequel/spin-off '' The 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 an April Fool's episode of '' The Drew Carey Show'', which was set in Carey's hometown of

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U ...

. 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'', the NBC legal dramedy created by David E. Kelley and starring

Kathy Bates Kathleen Doyle Bates (born June 28, 1948) is an American actor and director. Known for her roles in comedic and dramatic films and television programs, she has received various accolades throughout her career spanning over five decades, includ ...

, was set in Cincinnati. Cincinnati has given rise or been home to popular musicians and singers,

Lonnie Mack Lonnie McIntosh (July 18, 1941 – April 21, 2016), known as Lonnie Mack, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was an influential trailblazer of blues rock music and rock guitar soloing. Mack emerged in 1963 with his breakthrough ...

Doris Day Doris Day (born Doris Mary Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922 – May 13, 2019) was an American actress, singer, and activist. She began her career as a big band singer in 1939, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, " Sent ...

, Odd Nosdam, Dinah Shore, Fats Waller, Rosemary Clooney, Bootsy Collins, The Isley Brothers, Merle Travis,

Hank Ballard Hank Ballard (born John Henry Kendricks; November 18, 1927 – March 2, 2003) was an American singer and songwriter, the lead vocalist of The Midnighters and one of the first rock and roll artists to emerge in the early 1950s. He played an int ...

, Otis Williams,

Mood Mood may refer to: *Mood (psychology), a relatively long lasting emotional state Music *The Mood, a British pop band from 1981 to 1984 * Mood (band), hip hop artists * ''Mood'' (Jacquees album), 2016 * ''Moods'' (Barbara Mandrell album), 1978 ...

, Midnight Star,

Calloway Calloway may refer to: People * A.J. Calloway, American TV personality * Auburn Calloway, flight engineer of FedEx Express who nearly hijacked FedEx Flight 705 * Blanche Calloway, American jazz singer, bandleader, and composer * Cab Calloway, an ...

, The Afghan Whigs, Over the Rhine,

Blessid Union of Souls Blessid Union of Souls (sometimes abbreviated to Blessid Union or BUOS) is an American alternative rock band from Cincinnati, Ohio, that was formed in 1990 by friends Jeff Pence and Eliot Sloan. The band's first studio album, ''Home'', had s ...

, Freddie Meyer, 98 Degrees, The Greenhornes,

The Deele The Deele (pronounced like "deal") is an American band from Cincinnati, Ohio who achieved success in the 1980s with such hit singles as " Body Talk" and "Two Occasions". When the group began recording in the early 1980s, the lineup consisted of ...

, Enduser, Heartless Bastards,

The Dopamines The Dopamines are an American punk rock band from Cincinnati formed in late 2006 by Matt Hemingway (drums), Jon Lewis (guitar, vocals) and Jon Weiner (bass, vocals). In 2008, Hemingway left the band and was replaced by Michael Dickson. Occasio ...

, Adrian Belew, The National, Foxy Shazam, Why?, Wussy, H-Bomb Ferguson,

Sudan Archives Brittney Denise Parks (born January 29, 1994), better known by her stage name Sudan Archives, is an American violinist, singer, and songwriter based in Los Angeles, California. Parks learned to play the violin by ear as a young child in Cincinna ...

and Walk the Moon, and alternative hip hop producer Hi-Tek calls the Metro Cincinnati region home. Andy Biersack, the lead vocalist for the rock band Black Veil Brides, was born in Cincinnati. The Cincinnati May Festival Chorus is an amateur choir that has been in existence since 1880. The city is home to the

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its primary concert venue is Music Hall. In addition to its symphony concerts, the orchestra gives pops concerts as the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. The Cinc ...

, Cincinnati Boychoir, and Cincinnati 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 Director James Conlon and Chorus Director

Robert Porco Robert Porco is a noted American director of large choral groups performing orchestral works. He has directed the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra since 1989 along with the Cleveland Orchestra's Blossom Festiv ...

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. The Hollows series of books by Kim Harrison is an urban fantasy that takes place in Cincinnati. American Girl's ''

Kit Kittredge Kit Kittredge is a fictional character in the '' American Girl'' series of books, written by Valerie Tripp. Kit serves as a protagonist and central character to her story arc, set during the Great Depression. Kit's core series of books was writt ...

'' sub-series also took place in the city, although the film based on it was shot in Toronto. Cincinnati also has its own chapter (or "Tent") of '' The Sons of the Desert (The Laurel and Hardy Appreciation Society)'', which meets several times per year. Cincinnati is the subject of a

Connie Smith Connie Smith (born Constance June Meador; August 14, 1941) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Her contralto vocals have been described by music writers as significant and influential to the women of country music. A similarity ...

song written by Bill Anderson, called

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...

. Cincinnati is the main scenario for the international music production of Italian artist and songwriter Veronica Vitale called "Inside the Outsider". She embedded the sounds of the trains at

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

Downtown Cincinnati, filmed her music single "Mi Sono innamorato di Te" at the American Sign Museum and recorded her heartbeat sound at Cincinnati Children's Hospital replacing it to the drums for her song "The Pulse of Light" during the broadcasting at Ryan Seacrest's studio. Furthermore, she released the music single "Nobody is Perfect" featuring legendary Cincinnati's bass player Bootsy Collins. Cincinnati was a major early music recording center, and was home to King Records, which helped launch the career of James Brown, who often recorded there, as well as Jewel Records, which helped launch Lonnie Mack's career, and Fraternity Records. Cincinnati had a vibrant jazz scene from the 1920s to today. Louis Armstrong's first recordings were done in the Cincinnati area, at Gennett Records, as were Jelly Roll Morton's,

Hoagy Carmichael Hoagland Howard Carmichael (November 22, 1899 – December 27, 1981) was an American musician, composer, songwriter, actor and lawyer. Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s, and was among the firs ...

's, and

Bix Beiderbecke Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke (March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931) was an American jazz cornetist, pianist and composer. Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s, a cornet player noted for an inventive lyrical a ...

, who took up residency in Cincinnati for a time. Fats Waller was on staff at WLW in the 1930s.

Media

Newspapers

Cincinnati's daily newspaper is ''

The Cincinnati Enquirer ''The Cincinnati Enquirer'' is a morning daily newspaper published by Gannett in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. First published in 1841, the ''Enquirer'' is the last remaining daily newspaper in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, altho ...

'', which was established in 1841. The city is home to several alternative, weekly, and monthly publications, among which are free weekly print magazine publications including '' CityBeat'' and ''

La Jornada Latina La Mega Media, Inc., also known as La Mega Nota, is a chain of bilingual weekly newspapers, monthly magazines, and Spanish-language radio stations based in Columbus, Ohio, that serves Hispanic communities in several metropolitan areas of the Unit ...

''. The city's weekly African American newspaper, ''The Cincinnati Herald'', was founded by Gerald Porter in 1955 and purchased by Sesh Communications in 1996.

Television

According to

Nielsen Media Research Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

, Cincinnati is the 36th largest television market in the United States as of the 2021 television season. Twelve television stations broadcast from Cincinnati. Major commercial stations in the area include WLWT 5 ( NBC), WCPO-TV 9 ( ABC), WKRC-TV 12 ( CBS, with CW on DT2), WXIX-TV 19 (

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelv ...

), and WSTR-TV 64 ( MyNetworkTV). In addition, locally owned Block Broadcasting owns one low-power station, WBQC-LD 25. WCET channel 48, now known as CET, is the United States' oldest licensed public television station (License #1, issued in 1951). It is now co-owned with WPTO 14, a satellite of WPTD in nearby Dayton.

Radio

As of September 2022, Cincinnati is the 33rd largest radio market in the United States, with an estimated 1.8 million listeners aged 12 and above. Major radio station operators include iHeartMedia and Cumulus Media. WLW and WCKY, both owned by iHeartMedia, are both clear-channel stations that broadcast at 50,000 watts, covering most of the eastern United States at night. Cincinnati Public Radio includes WVXU for news (an NPR member station) and WGUC for classical music.

Online

CincyMusic.com is the city's comprehensive guide to live concerts, local bands, and hyper-local music-related news.

Transportation

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. The development of a light rail system has long been a goal for Cincinnati, with several proposals emerging over many decades. The city grew rapidly during its streetcar era of the late 19th century and early 1900s. Public transit ridership has been in decline for several decades and bicycles and walking has accounted for a relatively small portion of all trips in the past. Like many other Midwestern cities, however, bicycle use grew rapidly in the 2000s and 2010s. In 1916 the Mayor and citizens voted to spend $6 million to build the Cincinnati Subway. The subway was planned to be a loop from Downtown to Norwood to Oakley and back to the east side of Downtown.

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

delayed the construction in 1920 and inflation raised the costs, causing the Oakley portion never to be built. Mayor Seasongood, who took office later on, argued it would cost too much money to finish the system.

Public transportation

Cincinnati Bell Connector on Race St at Glass Alley (2017)

A century later, the Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar line, which opened for service on September 9, 2016, crosses directly above the unfinished subway on Central Parkway downtown. Cincinnati is served by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

's '' Cardinal'', an intercity passenger train which makes three weekly trips in each direction between Chicago and New York City through Cincinnati Union Terminal. Cincinnati is served by the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA), the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky (TANK) and the Clermont Transportation Connection. SORTA and TANK primarily operate diesel buses, though some lines are served by longer articulated or hybrid-engine buses. SORTA buses operate under the "Metro" name and are referred to by locals as such. In 2012–16, Cincinnati constructed a

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...

line in Downtown and Over-the-Rhine. This modern version of the streetcar opened in September 2016. The Cincinnati Streetcar project experienced railcar-manufacturing delays and initial funding issues, but was completed on time and within its budget in mid-2016. Today the streetcar boasts over 3.5 miles of track and 16 hours of service per day (on weekdays). A system of public staircases known as the Steps 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.

Air transportation

The city is served by Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport ( IATA: CVG) which is actually located in Hebron, Kentucky. The airport is a focus city for Allegiant Air and a global hub for both Amazon Air and DHL Aviation. In addition to that Delta offers daily nonstop flights to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

. Cincinnati Municipal Lunken Airport ( IATA: LUK) has daily service on commercial charter flights and is located in

. The airport serves as a hub for

Ultimate Air Shuttle Ultimate Air Shuttle is an airline based in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the operating name of Ultimate Jetcharters LLC, an FAR Part 135 air charter carrier. Ultimate Air Shuttle previously operated public charter flights on a published schedule, serv ...

and Flamingo Air.

Streets and highways

Bus traffic is heavy in Cincinnati. Greyhound and several smaller motor coach companies operate out of Cincinnati, making trips within the Midwest and beyond. The city has a beltway, Interstate 275 (which is the longest beltway in the

Interstate Highway System The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. T ...

, at ) and a spur, Interstate 471, to

. It is also served by Interstate 71, Interstate 74,

Interstate 75 Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from ...

and numerous U.S. highways:

US 22 U.S. Route 22 (US 22) is a west–east route and is one of the original United States highways of 1926, running from Cincinnati, Ohio, at U.S. Route 27, US 27, U.S. Route 42, US 42, U.S. Route 127, US 127, and U.S. Route 52, US 52 to Newark, New ...

, US 25, US 27,

US 42 U.S. Route 42 (US 42) is an east–west United States highway that runs southwest–northeast for from Louisville, Kentucky to Cleveland, Ohio. The route has several names including Pearl Road from Cleveland to Medina in Northeast Ohio, R ...

, US 50, US 52, and US 127. The Riverfront 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.

Notable people

Sister cities

Cincinnati's sister cities are: * Amman, Jordan * Gifu, Japan *

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its ...

, Zimbabwe *

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Liuzhou, China *

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, Germany *

Mysore Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...

, India * Nancy, France *

New Taipei New Taipei City is a special municipality located in northern Taiwan. The city is home to an estimated population of 3,974,683 as of 2022, making it the most populous city of Taiwan, and also the second largest special municipality by area, b ...

, Taiwan

Explanatory notes

References

External links

Official website

Cincinnati Parks
– Official City of Cincinnati Public Parks website
Greater Cincinnati Convention & Visitors Bureau

Cincinnati USA: Official Visitors and Tourist Site

* {{Authority control 1788 establishments in the Northwest Territory Cities in Hamilton County, Ohio Cities in Ohio Populated places established in 1788 Populated places on the Underground Railroad