Growing up in Cincinnati Ohio

Lauren Young- Cincinnati Ohio

Unlike other cities that were perfectly planned out and engineered for human life, Cincinnati is just a city that has many different aspects. Within a 10-mile radius of my house there are farms, there are downtown apartments, there are old mansions that have acres of land, there are pods of sprawl, and so much more. Cincinnati is just a very hilly city that is somehow built on parts of various hills. Around every turn it looks like an entirely different place. There are small shops in a place called Hyde Park, but literally five minutes down the street and you are at the biggest mall with all the nation wide stores. It’s too hard to classify where I grew up as one thing because a little bit of everything is what pieces together Cincinnati.

Based of my neighborhood however, I grew up in what I guess is a mix between suburban sprawl and a traditional neighborhood. It fit sprawl because I lived in a subdivision with only houses, no commercial industry. Each subdivision was kind of categorized by income status, and there was definitely no diversity. Ages may have varied, but my township itself was 98% Caucasian. I had to take a car around as my only possible source of transportation, because paved roadways were the only effective way to travel. But unlike other cities where mass transit is possible, Cincinnati did not have that kind of option. The roads are not in blocks, but rather several sharp turns and curves everywhere. It is physically impossible to put sidewalks everywhere, and even if they existed it would be way too much work to go up and down all the hills. Unless the city was flattened out before migration there, it would not really have been possible to create effective public transportation. It’s actually just an impractical place to live that happens to be inhabited.

On the other hand, I feel like I didn’t grow up in the typical sprawl because I grew up in an upper-class area where all the houses were different. Each lot in my neighborhood was sold separately to different builders, so none of the house look anything alike. Everyone has at least a half-acre or more of yard space, and a lot of people have forest space behind their house. We don’t really have any parks nearby because everyone has enough space of their own. Literally five minutes away from my house though, there are several houses built mixed in with small businesses and there are low-income houses built directly next to mansions. It just depends exactly where you are in Cincinnati. Also unlike sprawl, there was not much traffic where I lived. They say sprawl creates traffic problems, but Cincinnati is never congested unless there is an accident or unless you happen to be on roads that randomly switch from one to two lanes without warning. There are a few areas, the mall area in particular where traffic is bad, but for the most part it is not an issue. Maybe Cincinnati is completely suburban sprawl still, but I don’t like to think it was completely. Even though there are some large churches and schools for lots of people, there were still several tiny churches and schools that had a sense of community attached.

My neighborhood I guess supported sprawl being good? I used a question mark because I’m not entirely sure if I should consider where I lived sprawl. But I really enjoyed growing up where I did. My neighborhood all had parties and get-togethers. We definitely had a good sense of community. It’s hard to say if it represented traditional neighborhoods as “good” and sprawl “bad.”

Overall, it’s rather tough to classify Cincinnati. If I lived over in Hyde Park which is ten minutes away, there would be tons of parks I could walk to, sidewalks, bike paths, and lots of small shops. If I drive ten minutes the other way I end up in Indian Hill, which is all private secluded mansions and lots of forests and land. If I continue a different direction, I end up in what looks like more homogeneous houses from the sixties. If I leave fifteen minutes away I can go from upper-class homes to the ghetto and inner-city housing. And lastly, if I travel one last path, it can take me to horse farms and crop fields. As I said it’s a little bit of everything, and I’ve had a taste of all of it.

Hyde Park 1

Cliffton

Cliffton Homes

If you go to Cincinnati, you must try Skyline Chili (yes, we eat chili on spaghetti)

The terrain of cincinnati...

weirdest house ever in Rookwood

Avondale

Columbian- Tusculum (All the houses there are like this!)

Woodland Mound Park

Mariemont (small town, five minutes from my house, all the buildings look like this)

Downtown Cincinnati

Home from Sherwood Forest

A house from my neighborhood.

Kenwood Mall

Hyde Park Plaza

Beechmont Avenue

(All of these pictures are within 15 minutes of my house)

If you want to see more on all the parts of Cincinnati, go to

Cincy Images

Westmoorings, Caribbean Flavored Sprawl

Hey. I’m Phillip Miller from Westmoorings, Trinidad and Tobago. Set in the southern Caribbean this neighborhood was a “failed” attempt at sprawl...or maybe just done to the perfect scale. It is somewhat known for housing the upper-class as well as many of our ‘oil friendly internationals’.

The neighborhood would appear to have been designed as sprawl( built on reclaimed land, separated into shopping, housing, school, apartments,and green-space) . Because of the scale as well as

my people’s friendly culture it’s a pretty tight knit neighborhood. It can be described as a concrete jungle on the coast due to its unnatural landscape and pancake flat land. There are a few parks in between to provide larger play space for kids. Most people have a backyard or a pool in which most of the kids in the neighborhood sped their time, wether its kicking a ball or to cool down in the water The housing is in a way diverse because most houses were designed b a different architect to provide its own ‘individual’ look. Because the neighborhood was originally designed as sprawl some of the older buildings as well as the apartments are pr

etty much the same. This doesn’t account for much of the neighborhood’s aesthetics though because they have mostly been rebuilt.

I can essentially walk to everywhere I need to go. This does not mean that the car is impractical in Westmoorings though, in fact very far from... Because of cheep fuel and the ridiculously poor public transport system most families have at least two cars in my community. People choose to drive to most places due to the heat and shear laziness.

Several neighborhoods are nearby so it is easy to walk over and hang out. The marina is about a 2 minute bike ride but I need a car. Coolers, bags and boards can’t exactly fit in my backpack. Cars enhance people’s lives so much in trinidad due to its lack of good public transport. In order to access the nightlife, local cuisine and the heart of Trinidadian lifestyle I need a car to simply drive to where a bike would only take 5 minutes. Trinidad has also increased crime so a car is also another form of protection.

Things in Trinidad are pretty crazy and many of the factors that apply in are different down there. Overall though I would have to say westmoorings is a good example of w

here sprawl has been able to extend her clutches. Fortunately for us back home the ‘ways of the Trini” will always stand out above any factor. It is because of this I can say that I live in a neighborhood.

Steven Waugh Peachtree City Ga

Ranked as the 8th Best Place to live by US News and World Report, Peachtree City Georgia is a perfect example of a pleasant suburb trying to resist the effects of sprawl. Known as "the bubble," Peachtree City is a suburb forty minutes south of Atlanta. Built as a planned community, Peachtree City was chartered fifty years ago. The 4 local golf courses provide a paradise for retired senior citizens looking for a convenient place to play, as well as a tightly knit atmosphere for the youth of the town.

The undulating terrain mixed with a large amount of trees and elements of nature allow citizens of Peachtree City to enjoy beautiful scenery as they walk, or drive, along the city's famed golf cart paths. Cars are not a necessity on account of the eighty miles of paved golf cart paths. The paths allow residents of Peachtree City to navigate through the City's forests on their own personal golf carts. People can also walk or ride their bikes along the paths. Every family of Peachtree City owns a golf cart. The golf cart paths enable a resident to access any commercial or residential address that a car could. Senior Citizens no longer have a need for a car on account of the golf courses allowing them to ride their personal carts as they play their weekly rounds of golf.
The public transportation of Peachtree City allows the city to be compared to Portland Oregon. Portland Oregon's transportation provides an appealing look. If I had to choose between the cities portrayed in "Blueprint America," I would choose Portland. Bike paths and street cars line the streets of Portland allowing its residents to move through Portland without a heavy reliance on automobiles. The access to modes of transportation other than "gas guzzlers" directly relate Peachtree City to Portland. The heavy costs that accompany a personal car can be avoided through the various forms of public transportation. Both cities are trying to resist sprawl. Portland has anti-sprawl legislation that was passed to preserve its natural landscape.

Peachtree City also has anti-sprawl legislation. A multi-million dollar project was vetoed in the City council for a new hockey rink. The environmentalist in the city gave the council an uproar on account of the amount of trees that would be torn down. New sprawl-like housing developments were not allowed to be built because of the look that it would bring to the city. The buildings in Peachtreee City are not allowed to be more than two stories high. Houses must have a certain amount of space between them, and they all must have a certain amount of trees in their yards. Above ground pools are not allowed in Peachtree City on account of their "dirty look."

"Blueprint America" describes sprawl as an entity that destroys the natural beauty of a town, through roadways and housing projects. These housing projects are not focused on beauty, but how many houses can be built in a certain area. Peachtree City resisted this type of sprawl for years. Sprawl did make a foothold in Peachtree City for a few years though. Three new housing developments were made on the northern edge of town. These developments were made with very few trees left in their natural places. Placed close together, the houses were conventional in look, and lacked a brick face that most every house in Peachtree City has. The two state highways through the city were expanded to four lanes, and the airport runway was extended. The construction on all these projects were finished last year, but little effort will be made for those types of projects in the future. Complaints from residents created a massed hate of sprawl construction in the city. For those few years, the city was starting to look like Denver. Massive developments, like Highlands Ranch in Denver, were being planned on the Northern Edge of Peachtree City. The highway expansion in Peachtree City is similar to Denver's construction of Highway 470. The construction of both projects were to be run straight through neighborhoods and wildlife habitats. The highway expansion in Peachtree City destroyed the backyards of countless homes just like highway 470 went through the traditional poor areas near Denver.

The similarities that Peachtree City had to Denver and Portland classify Peachtree City as a mix between a sprawl city, and a city that is trying to resist sprawl. The alternative transportation in Peachtree City compares the City to Portland, which has the bike trails and street cars. The attempts of sprawl in the housing developments compares Peachtree City to Denver. Highlands Ranch can be compared to the few housing developments on the northern edge of Peachtree City. No one City is directly similar to Peachtree City. No one City is neither completely similar nor completely different. Hopefully my hometown of Peachtree City Georgia will remain, for the most part, a sprawl free community.

Roswell Georgia

The town of Roswell, Georgia is not far from the city of Atlanta. It is about half an hour north of Atlanta, and is the result of sprawl. Roswell is a typical suburbial town with lots of big, spread out neighborhoods. It has quite a few local parks, and does have a few nearby miniature forests as well. It hasn't quite eaten up all of the natural surroundings yet, even though it is still constantly expanding with the use of neighborhoods.

Blueprint America lists several different towns and cities that deal with sprawl in one way or another. Roswell is sprawl, but isn't very bad sprawl. Its main problem is the massive amounts of spaced out houses and neighborhoods. I think that it is most similar to the suburbs of Denver. Roswell has major traffic going into the city similar to that of the suburbs of Denver. There also isn't really any public transportation at all. The closest thing to it is carpooling.

Out of all of the towns described in Blueprint America, Denver is probably the one I can relate to and would want ot live in the most. The homes in Roswell are faily homogenous, and don't have any other uses really other than residential. The Denver suburbs seems to share this characteristic. Although, Roswell was a sprawl, it had a good bit of diversity in age, ethnicity, and income. Roswell shares so many similarities, so it is only natural to want to live in something that I happily grew up in.
By: Stephen Sealy

We need a cool blog name...

So we need to come up with a cooler blog name.... if only we were all named Steven. Then we could be steven cubed or something like that. Just comment if you come up with anything.

Test Run

Hey this is Steve Waugh just trying to figure out the whole posting process