Is Cincinnati Southern?

[LAsam]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001

They're the New York City and Los Angeles (east coast and west coast) of Appalachia

[goat314]

Originally Posted by Handro

It's impossible to define regions with strict borders. They overlap and blend into one another on their edges.

To say Cincinnati is clearly one or the other is disingenuous. I'd say it feels way more like Nashville than Minneapolis, but could be claimed by either region.



What do you consider Kentucky?

For what it's worth. Minneapolis is also very much an outlier when it comes to Midwestern cities.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by goat314

For what it's worth. Minneapolis is also very much an outlier when it comes to Midwestern cities.

Minneapolis is pretty quintessentially Midwest.

[BnaBreaker]

In terms of built form, definitely not... but culturally speaking, yeah probably. If you consider Louisville to be southern, then Cincinnati should be put in the same boat, in my opinion.

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001

They're the New York City and Los Angeles (east coast and west coast) of Appalachia

ha -- sounds on point to me!

[edale]

delete

[edale]

Originally Posted by BnaBreaker

In terms of built form, definitely not... but culturally speaking, yeah probably. If you consider Louisville to be southern, then Cincinnati should be put in the same boat, in my opinion.

Why should Cincinnati be in the same boat as Louisville? Louisville is definitely way more southern feeling than Cincinnati, imo. Cincy is as close to Columbus as it is to Louisville. For the bulk of the population (which skews north), it's actually considerably closer to Cbus than it is Louisville.

This map is just one way of helping to determine where the line is between south and midwest. As you can see, greater Cincinnati, including the 3 northernmost counties of Kentucky, are all majority Catholic. Baptists dominate the south, and you can see that starts just south of the Cincy area. Admittedly, Louisville and Lexington also show up as Catholic majorities, but they're basically islands in the sea of Baptist dominated counties.

[Buckeye Native 001]

I'm not sure Cincinnati's built form/urban environment can even be considered Midwestern or Southern, seeing as how it boomed before the prominence of other Midwestern cities and leveled off around the time places like St. Louis, Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit boomed. If anything, the built environment is vaguely eastern, almost like a smaller and newer Baltimore?

It was, for all intents and purposes, one of the first boomtowns west of the Appalachians.

"Cincinnati: The Los Angeles of the early 19th century"

Also: Good God, the Catholic influence in the area...many a battles have been fought over the powerhouse high school football teams of the Greater Catholic League as well as which parrish has the best summer festival

[BigDipper 80]

In terms of built environment, Cincinnati is probably closer to Boston’s North End than anything in Baltimore. Almost all of the old working-class housing was in large multi family units as opposed to Baltimore-style rowhouses. Cincinnati has some “rowhouses”, but they’re mostly detached and were mostly middle- and upper class houses so they’re significantly more elaborate than what you’d find in all but a few parts of Baltimore. Of course, the density drops off significantly once you get “up the hill” and the built environment starts feeling significantly more midwestern.

[goat314]

Originally Posted by Obadno

Minneapolis is pretty quintessentially Midwest.

Cincinnati and St . Louis feel southern to people from the Twin Cities. Twin Cities feels like it's damn near Canadian to me. With that said, I actually think Indianapolis has the most Southern feel to me in the Midwestern region. St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh are also kind of in their own category of old, industrial, river cities. Although, I do see the Appalachian influences in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. St. Louis has slight Delta undertones. I wouldn't consider any of them truly Southern. For Example, St. Louis is way more like Detroit and Chicago than Nashville or Atlanta.

[pj3000]

Cincinnati is not the “capital of Appalachia”.

It’s not even part of Appalachia.

[R1070]

Originally Posted by Handro

I suppose it's similar (although less downright wrong, lol) to people from out west who think of Chicago as east coast. That one boggles my mind.

Similarly (but not really, I just want to tell this anecdote)--my girlfriend was on a conference call with people from Columbus, OH and at the end of the call they asked about the weather in Chicago, "Wow it must be really cold there, huh? I don't know how you guys do it!" She was a little confused... "does Columbus have warm winters or something?"

We all have weird representations of places in our heads based on god knows what, I guess.



Perhaps that (bolded) but also I should reiterate my original post that I don't think of Cincinnati as a full blown southern city, just much more southern than most other "classically midwestern" cities. From the slight accents to the higher-than-expected number of confederate flags.

LOL...

Yes, when I lived in Columbus anything North of there is considered too cold in Winter. The warm weather season in Columbus and southward also gets a lot warmer for longer than the Great Lakes region.

As for Cincinnati, you can definitely tell you're in Ohio, but that area has it's own unique culture as does Cleveland. Columbus is very solidly Midwestern.

[hammersklavier]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

minneapolis is about as far as one can get away from cincinnati in the midwest and still be in a major city.

what about racing cincy against nashville and a more equally distant midwest city like st. louis?

i'd say cincy comes a lot closer to st. louis.

Exactly. I think there's good reason to argue that there's an Ohio Valley Midwestern-ness that's different than that of the Great Lakes. The Ohio Valley was settled earlier and historically had stronger ties to Philadelphia and Baltimore capital than New York and Boston capital. Even the vernaculars of the major Ohio Valley cities show this connection!

[jmecklenborg]

Has anyone here lived/worked in both Cincinnati and the true South? Like Mobile, AL? Aside form myself, probably not. They are worlds away.

Kentucky is not and never was the South. Tennessee in 2020 is barely the South. Knoxville was never the South. Nashville has turned into a cartoon.

But hey, Kentucky never joined the Confederacy, but let's post a thread in 2020 about Cincinnati being "southern". Swish, you win. You got the attention you wanted.

I rode my bicycle in Kentucky this past Saturday. Did I see any confederate flags? No, but I saw two Canadian flags.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Cincinnati is not the “capital of Appalachia”.

It’s not even part of Appalachia.

I agree. But it did get a lot of Appalachians who moved there for work in the Early 20th century.

There is a so-called "hillbilly highway" which ran roughly in tandem to the Great Migration, but was less known. Basically during the same period that mass immigration from Europe came to a halt, the demand that drove blacks into the north also drove Appalachian whites north. The big cities for this were Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Baltimore, and Cincinnati/Dayton.

The weird thing is Pittsburgh - despite being in Appalachia - didn't really get this migration to a significant extent (except for from rural Western PA and northern WV - which was always the "hinterland" of Pittsburgh). Therefore we didn't really get the later layers of southern influence a lot of the Rust Belt did.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

Has anyone here lived/worked in both Cincinnati and the true South? Like Mobile, AL? Aside form myself, probably not. They are worlds away.

Kentucky is not and never was the South. Tennessee in 2020 is barely the South. Knoxville was never the South. Nashville has turned into a cartoon.

But hey, Kentucky never joined the Confederacy, but let's post a thread in 2020 about Cincinnati being "southern". Swish, you win. You got the attention you wanted.

I rode my bicycle in Kentucky this past Saturday. Did I see any confederate flags? No, but I saw two Canadian flags.

Wow, I would definitely disagree with all this. KY and TN feel extremely southern. Even most of southern OH and IN (esp. IN) feel very southern.

Mobile, to me, actually feels somewhat less southern, and more like an extension of NOLA. Feels Catholic and the Gulf Coast is full of transplants. North Alabama, and Black Belt Alabama, though, feel ultra-southern.

[KB0679]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

Kentucky is not and never was the South. Tennessee in 2020 is barely the South. Knoxville was never the South.

You should take this act on the road.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Obadno

Minneapolis is pretty quintessentially Midwest.

My view from the southern midwest...naw. Minneapolis has tinges of the pacific northwest (northern pacific?) and other things like this. If Chicago were smaller, it would probably be the closest thing to "quintessentially midwest" but the midwest is a vast place and there is no "pure" archetype. Just because Minneapolis is the furthest from the south doesnt move it towards purity, lol.

[Crawford]

Yeah, to me, Minneapolis feels like Anglo Canada and Pacific NW. Doesn't feel like Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, etc.

Tall, blond, nominal Protestants, few AAs, progressive but practical, clean, organized, prosperous, a bit bland and (behaviorally) cold.

[Steely Dan]

I grew up in chicago, and went to college in the twin cities.

the twins seemed pretty damn "quintessentially midwest" to me.

i never got the PNW vibe that others claim it has when i lived up there.