Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County.6 The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the
Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border.
With a 2006 population of 332,252, Cincinnati is Ohio's third largest city, behind Columbus and Cleveland, and the 56th largest city in the United
States. The much larger metropolitan area, commonly called "Greater Cincinnati," stands as the second largest metropolitan region in
Ohio, just behind Cleveland, and includes parts of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. As of 2006, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the Cincinnati-Middletown-Wilmington Combined Statistical Area has a population of 2,147,617[2] (making it the 20th largest in the country) and is growing at a rate
of about one percent annually.
Cincinnati is home to major-league sports, including the Cincinnati Reds (America's
first professional baseball team), the Cincinnati Bengals (a National Football League
team), the Cincinnati Masters (the oldest tennis tournament in the United States
played in its original city),[citation needed] as well as several minor league teams, including the Cincinnati Kings (a professional soccer team), the Cincinnati
Cyclones (a professional hockey team), and the Cincinnati Jungle Kats (an
arena football team).
It is considered to have been the first major American "boomtown," rapidly expanding in the
heart of the country in the early nineteenth century to rival the larger coastal cities in size and wealth. As the first major
inland city in the country, it is sometimes thought of as the first purely American city, lacking the heavy European influence
that was present on the east coast. However, by the end of the century, Cincinnati's growth had slowed considerably, and the city
was surpassed in population by many other inland cities.
Cincinnati is also known for having one of the largest collections of nineteenth-century Italianate architecture in the U.S. [3], primarily concentrated just north of Downtown in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, one of the largest historic districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
History
-
"With one hand he returns the fasces, symbol of power as appointed dictator of Rome. His other
hand holds the plow, as he resumes the life of a citizen and farmer."--A statue of
Cincinnatus in downtown Cincinnati.
Cincinnati was founded in 1788 by John Cleves Symmes and Colonel Robert Patterson. [4] Surveyor John Filson (also the author of The Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boone) named it "Losantiville" from four terms, each of a different
language, meaning "the city opposite the mouth of the Licking River." "Ville"
is French for "city," "anti" is Greek for "opposite," "os" is Latin for "mouth," and "L" was all that was included of "Licking
River."
In 1790, Arthur St. Clair, the governor of the Northwest Territory, changed the name of the settlement to "Cincinnati" in honor of the
Society of the Cincinnati, of which he was a member.[4] The society honored General George Washington, who was considered a latter day Cincinnatus --
the Roman general who saved his city, then retired from power to his farm. To this day,
Cincinnati in particular, and Ohio in general, are home to a disproportionately large number of descendants of Revolutionary War soldiers who were granted
lands in the state.
In 1802, Cincinnati was chartered as a village and David
Ziegler (1748-1811), a Revolutionary War veteran from Heidelberg, Germany, became the first mayor. Cincinnati was incorporated as a city in 1819. The introduction of steam
navigation on the Ohio River in 1811 and the completion of the Miami and Erie Canal helped the city grow to 115,000 citizens by 1850.[4]
Construction on the Miami and Erie Canal began on July
21, 1825, when it was called the Miami Canal, a reference to the Little Miami River, which was its origin, and water was diverted into the canal bed in 1827.[5] The canal began by connecting Cincinnati to nearby
Middletown in 1827 and, by 1840, the canal had reached Toledo, changing the Miami Canal to the Miami and Erie Canal and signifying the connection between the
Little Miami River and Lake Erie.
Railroads were the next major form of transportation to come to Cincinnati. In 1836, the Little Miami Railroad was
chartered.[6] Construction began soon after,
with the purpose of connecting Cincinnati with the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad, and thus the ports of the Sandusky
Bay.[5]
On April 1, 1853, Cincinnati's Fire Department became a paid
department, the first full-time paid fire department in the United States, and the first in the world to use steam fire
engines.[7]
Six years later, in 1859, Cincinnati laid out six streetcar lines, making it easier for people to get around the city.[6] By 1872, Cincinnatians could travel on the
streetcar line within the city and then be transported by rail car to the hill communities. The Cincinnati Inclined Plane Company
began transporting people to the top of Mount Auburn in that year.[5]
The Cincinnati Red Stockings, eventually known as the Cincinnati Reds, began their career in the 1800s as well. In 1868, meetings were held at the law offices
of Tilden, Sherman, and Moulton to make Cincinnati’s baseball team a professional one; it became the first regular professional
team in the country, being organized formally in 1869.[6]
During the American Civil War, Cincinnati played a key role as a major source of
supplies and troops for the Union Army. It also served as the headquarters for much of the war for the Department of the Ohio,
which was charged with the defense of the region, as well as directing the army's offensives into Kentucky and Tennessee. Due to
Cincinnati's proximity to and commerce with slave states across the Ohio River, there was significant "Southern sympathy" in the Cincinnati area. This is evidenced by the
history of the Copperhead movement in Ohio.[8]
In 1879, Procter & Gamble, one of Cincinnati's major soap manufacturers,
began marketing Ivory Soap. It got its appeal because of its ability to float. After a fire
at their first factory, Procter & Gamble moved to a new factory on the Mill Creek and began soap production again, which
eventually lead to the area being known as Ivorydale.[9]
The
Tyler Davidson Fountain was dedicated in 1871 to Cincinnati by
Henry Probasco and is a symbol for the city and the region.
Cincinnati weathered the Great Depression better than most American cities of its size, largely because of a resurgence of
inexpensive river trade. The rejuvenation of downtown began in the 1920s and continued into the next decade with the construction
of Union Terminal, the post office, and a large Bell Telephone building. The flood of 1937 was one of the worst in the nation's
history, resulting in the building of protective flood walls. After World War II, Cincinnati unveiled a master plan for urban
renewal that resulted in modernization of the inner city. Riverfront Stadium and Riverfront Coliseum were completed in the 1970s,
as the Cincinnati Reds baseball team emerged as one of the dominant teams of the decade.
Tragedy struck the Coliseum in December 1979 when eleven people were killed in a mass panic prior to a rock-and-roll concert by
the band The Who. In 1989, the 200th anniversary of the city's founding, much attention was
focused on the city's Year 2000 plan, which involved further revitalization.
The completion of several major new development projects enhance the city as it enters the early years of the new millennium.
Cincinnati's beloved Bengals and Reds teams both have new, state-of-the-art homes: Paul
Brown Stadium, opened in 2000; and the Great American Ball Park, opened
in 2003, respectively. Two new museums have opened: the Rosenthal Center
for Contemporary Art in 2003, and the National Underground
Railroad Freedom Center in 2004. With many delays and political setbacks, the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County are
currently planning The Banks--a 24-hour urban neighborhood of restaurants, clubs, offices, and
homes with sweeping skyline views, along the city's riverfront. Cincinnati has received such accolades as "Most Liveable City"
(1993), Partners for Livable Communities, April 2004; number five U.S. arts destination, American Style Magazine, Summer 2004;
and inclusion in the top ten "Cities that Rock," Esquire Magazine, April 2004.[10]
Nicknames
Cincinnati skyline at night, from the
Kentucky shore.
Cincinnati has a number of nicknames, including the "The Queen City," "The Queen of the West,"[11] "The Blue Chip City,"[12] "The City of Seven Hills,"[13], and "Porkopolis."[14] These are more typically
associated with professional, academic, and public relations references to the city and are not commonly used by locals in casual
conversation.
Newer nicknames such as "The 'Nati" are emerging and are used in different cultural contexts such as the hip-hop scene and
more casual settings. Don’t Trash the ‘Nati.
Some, particularly those of older generations, still use a regional pronunciation of the city's name where the final vowel
("I") is short as opposed to long. Phonetically, this variation would be spelled [sin-suh-nat-uh] instead of the generally
accepted [sin-sin-nat-ee]. This has seen less usage in recent years.
The nickname, "The City of Seven Hills," is not now a literal description of the city, as there are many more than seven hills
in modern Cincinnati. When the city was younger and smaller, the June 1853 edition of the West American Review, "Article
III--Cincinnati: Its Relations to the West and South" 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).
A common abbreviation for Cincinnati is "Cincy," used in casual conversation and informal usage, and once was common in postal
addresses. "Cinti" also is used, with somewhat less frequency, but can be seen on some road signs.
Geography
Physical geography of
Ohio, with the bluegrass region in yellow.
Topography
Cincinnati is located at 39°8′10″N, 84°30′11″W (39.136160,
-84.503088).1
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area
of 206.1 km² (79.6 mi²). 201.9 km² (78.0 mi²) of
it is land and 4.1 km² (1.6 mi²) of it (2.01%) is water.
The Cincinnati-Middletown-Wilmington
Combined Statistical Area has a population of 2,113,011 people and is the 20th
largest in the country. It includes the Ohio counties of Hamilton, Butler, Warren, Clermont, and Brown, as well as the Kentucky counties of Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton, and Pendleton, and the Indiana counties of Dearborn, Franklin, and Ohio.
Climate
Cincinnati is located within a climatic transition zone; the area is at the extreme northern limit of the humid subtropical climate or at the southern end of the humid continental climate (Koppen climate
classification Cfa or Dfa), depending on the criteria used. Although technically located in the
Midwest, Cincinnati also is considered to be within the periphery of the
Upland South. The local climate basically is a blend of the subtropics to the south and the
mid-latitude area to the north. Evidence of both climatic influences can be found in Cincinnati's landscape material and fauna
(see: Southern magnolia, Sweetgum,
Bald cypress, Musa (genus) hardy banana,
crape myrtle, needle palm [1] [2], and the common
wall lizard). The USDA Climate Zone map assigns Cincinnati with a 6a/6b hardiness zone rating (zone one being the coldest and zone 11 being the warmest). More mild
"microclimates" of a 7a/b rating may be found, particularly along the Ohio River basin. Cincinnati, which is in the
Bluegrass region of the Interior Low Plateau of Ohio, generally receives less snow and
has a longer growing season than much of the rest of Ohio.
The summers in Cincinnati generally are warm and humid with cool evenings. The mean annual temperature is
54 °F (12 °C), with an average annual
snowfall of 16 inches (58.4 cm) and an average annual rainfall
of 41 inches (1,040 mm). The wettest seasons are the spring and summer, although rainfall is fairly constant all year round.
During the winter, particularly in January and February, several days of snow can be expected, allowing for winter sports, although snowfall is lighter than in most of Ohio.
January temperatures range from 22 to 39 °F (-6 to 4 °C) and July temperatures range from 66 to 87 °F (19 to 30 °C).[15] The highest recorded temperature was 103.0 °F
(39.4 °C) on August 17 1988, and the lowest recorded
temperature was -25°F (-32 °C) on January 18 1977.
| Monthly Normal and Record High and Low Temperatures |
| Month |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
| Rec High °F |
69 |
75 |
84 |
89 |
93 |
102 |
103 |
102 |
98 |
88 |
81 |
75 |
| Norm High °F |
38 |
43.1 |
53.9 |
64.7 |
74.4 |
82.4 |
86.4 |
84.8 |
78 |
66.4 |
53.6 |
42.7 |
| Norm Low °F |
21.3 |
25 |
33.8 |
42.7 |
52.9 |
61.6 |
66.1 |
64.2 |
56.8 |
44.9 |
35.7 |
26.4 |
| Rec Low °F |
-25 |
-11 |
-11 |
15 |
27 |
39 |
47 |
43 |
31 |
16 |
1 |
-20 |
| Precip (in) |
2.92 |
2.75 |
3.9 |
3.96 |
4.59 |
4.42 |
3.75 |
3.79 |
2.82 |
2.96 |
3.46 |
3.28 |
| Source: USTravelWeather.com [3] |
Cityscape
-
The
Carew Tower not only is the tallest building in Cincinnati, but it also is a great
example of French
Art Deco.
Cincinnati is unique in design as an American city, with its focus centered around Fountain Square, Cincinnati, which then is surrounded by its tallest buildings.
Cincinnati is home to numerous structures that are noteworthy due to their architectural characteristics or historic
associations including the Carew Tower, the Scripps
Center, the Ingalls Building, Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal, and the Isaac M. Wise Temple.
The city is undergoing significant changes due to an influx of new
development and private investment as well as the beginning of the often-stalled "The Banks" project.
Society
Government and politics
The city is governed by a nine-member city council, whose
members are elected at large. Prior to 1924, city council was elected through a system of wards. The ward system lent itself to corruption and Cincinnati was run by the
Republican political machine
of "Boss" Cox from the 1880s through the 1920s with a few brief interludes. A reform movement arose in 1923, led by another
Republican, Murray
Seasongood. Seasongood eventually founded the Charter Committee, which used ballot initiatives in 1924 to eliminate the
ward system and replace it with the current at-large system and also to introduce a city manager form of government. From 1924 to 1957, the council was selected by
proportional representation. Beginning in 1957, all candidates ran in a
single race and the top nine vote-getters were elected (the "9-X system"). The mayor was selected by the council. In 1977
Jerry Springer, later a controversial television talk show host, was chosen to serve one
year as mayor. Starting in 1987, the top vote-getter in the city council election automatically became mayor. Starting in 1999,
the mayor was chosen in a separate election and the city manager
received a lesser role in government; these reforms were referred to as the "strong
mayor" reforms. Cincinnati politics include the participation of the Charter Party,
the party with the third-longest history of winning in local elections.
Race relations
-
The
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center offers
lessons on the struggle for freedom in the past, in the present, and for the future as it attempts to challenge visitors to
contemplate the meaning of freedom in their own lives.
Before the Civil War, Cincinnati was a bordertown between states that allowed
slavery such as Kentucky and those that did not, such as Ohio. Cincinnati and surrounding areas played a major role in
Abolitionism. The area was a part of the Underground
Railroad and was home to Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her characters in
Uncle Tom's Cabin were based on escaped slaves she met in the area. Levi Coffin made the Cincinnati area the center of his anti slavery efforts in 1847[16]. Today, The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center commemorates the era at its
center located at 50 East Freedom Way.
In 2001 a series of race riots was triggered by the police shooting death of Timothy
Thomas, an unarmed black teenager.
Law enforcement and crime
Before the riot of 2001, Cincinnati's overall crime rate was dropping
dramatically and had reached its lowest point since 1992.[17] After the riot, Keith Fangman, president of the Cincinnati Police Department's Fraternal Order of Police made various suggestive statements inspiring an unofficial "work
slowdown" to demonstrate frustration with the additional scrutiny and lack of support from other city entities. This meant they
did not go out of their way for discretionary or self-related work, but they still did respond to emergencies. One example of
Fangman's statements is: "If you want to make 20 traffic stops a shift and chase every dope dealer you see, you go right ahead,"
he wrote. "Just remember that if something goes wrong, or you make the slightest mistake in that split second, it could result in
having your worst nightmare come true for you and your family, and City Hall will sell you out."
After the riot, violent crime increased, but is still well below the level of the 1970s [citation needed]. The police force "work slowdown" correlates with this increase.
In May and June 2006, together with the Hamilton County Sheriff, the Cincinnati Police
Department created a task force to crack down on crime. This consisted of an extra twenty deputies assigned to Over-the-Rhine and helped reduce the crime rate of downtown Cincinnati by 29% [citation needed]. This marks a dramatic decrease in
crime but has not reduced the crime levels to pre-riot levels.
In June 2006 the Greater Cincinnati Police Historical Society Museum opened showcasing over
150 years of policing in the Cincinnati area.
In the general elections on November 7, 2006, Hamilton County voters rejected a quarter-cent
sales tax increase which would have been used to build a new jail system.
Mayor Mark Mallory is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition[18], a bi-partisan group with a stated goal
of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets." The Coalition is co-chaired by Boston, Massachusetts Mayor Thomas Menino and
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In 2007,
the city began a program called the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV), modeled after the Boston Gun Project, in an
effort to reduce the record-high 89 homicides of 2006. As part of the CIRV contract, the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission
(CHRC) employs youth outreach workers to approach at-risk youth on the streets of high-crime neighborhoods and connect them to
needed services, such as employment, and also to arrange community events. CHRC also has youth outreach workers, commonly
referred to as "street workers," who are under contract with CeaseFire Cincinnati, as well as the Cincinnati Empowerment
Corporation.[citation needed]
Another attempt to reduce gun violence in Cincinnati is the Out of the Crossfire program at University Hospital, which is a
rehabilitation program for patients with gunshot wounds. The program attempts to prevent them from falling back into the cycle of
violence which many gunshot victims return to after leaving the hospital. [19]
An article published in the Cincinnati Enquirer on May 30, 2007
affirmed that incidences of violent crime, including homicides, were 15.3 percent lower than they had been in the first four
months of 2006. Children's Hospital saw a 78 percent decrease in gunshot wounds, and University Hospital had a 17 percent drop.
[20]
Demographics
As of the census estimates2 of 2006, there were 332,252 people, 166,012 households, and 72,566 families
residing in the city. The population density was 1,498.0/km² (3,879.8.0/mi²). There
were 166,012 housing units at an average density of 822.1/km² (2,129.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 52.97%
White, 42.92% Black or African American, 0.21% Native American, 1.55% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.63% from other races, and 1.68% from two or more races. 1.28% of the population
were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 148,095 households out of which 25.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 26.6% were
married couples living together, 18.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and
51.0% were non-families. 42.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years
of age or older. The average household size was 2.15 and the average family size was 3.02.
The age distribution is 24.5% under the age of 18, 12.9% from 18 to 24, 31.6% from 25 to 44, 18.7% from 45 to 64, and 12.3%
who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 89.4 males. For every 100
females age 18 and over, there were 85.6 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $29,493, and the median income for a family was $37,543. Males had a median
income of $33,063 versus $26,946 for females. The per capita income for the city was
$19,962. About 18.2% of families and 21.9% of the population were below the poverty
line, including 32.0% of those under age 18 and 14.8% of those age 65 or over.
In June 2007, Mayor Mark Mallory announced that for the second time in as many years,
he would challenge the latest statistics released by the Census
Bureau.[23] Mallory
claimed that the numbers for city population were too low.
There has been concerted effort by the local government to stem the tide of emigrants. The population of Cincinnati decreased
by nine percent between 1990 and 2000. Many of those leaving are living in the suburbs just outside of Cincinnati (often
considered "Greater Cincinnati"). Several reasons are
mentioned for this phenomenon common to many American cities, including job opportunities, entertainment, racial tensions,
education opportunities and others. But according to a report released in The
Cincinnati Enquirer on October 30, 2006, for the
first time in over half a century, the U.S. Census Bureau has reported that the City of Cincinnati has actually gained
population. Based on the new 2006 estimate of 332,252[1], this represents an increase of over 20,000 new residents since the previously assumed
population of around 308,728 in 2005.[24]
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Source: United
States Census Bureau
Although the Jewish population of Cincinnati at the turn of the century was estimated to be
only about 15,000 -- roughly 1% of the national Jewish population of 1,522,500 at the time -- Cincinnati was a center of the
American Reform Judaism movement in the 19th century. Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, a major contributor to the movement, immigrated
to Cincinnati in 1854. Under his supervision the Hebrew Union College -- the oldest
Jewish Seminary in the Americas – opened here in 1875. The American Jewish Archives (AJA) is also
found on Hebrew Union College's campus, and is the repository for Reform Judaism in the Americas. Isaac Mayer Wise also founded the historic Isaac M. Wise
Temple, also known as K. K. B'nai Yeshurun.
Economy
Cincinnati is home to major corporations such as
