Anywhere beside you is a place that I'll call Home.

Today marks eight years, three months and nineteen days since I moved to Cincinnati. Little did I know I'd become besotted with the city, pouring my heart and soul into loving the people and advocating for the region more than most my age. I'm a Cincy guru - giving advice, recommendations and history lessons (oftentimes unsolicited) to anyone who will listen. I've had the opportunity to participate in building a community, in making a home and a name here.

Why on earth would I leave?

One year, six months, and twelve days ago, the third season of the OTR Kickball League began. Team Losantivillians welcomed a new member - a guy who, I later learned, was my neighbor in OTR. The fire escapes of our apartments faced out onto the same street. Nearly a year after that game, I started dating this neighbor of mine.

We enjoyed a great summer full of trips to the park, ball games, pies, and learning more about each other. In September, the unthinkable happened. He got a new job, in a new city - an offer too good to pass up. I had a choice to make.

Baltimore with him is better than Cincinnati without him. 

this is the harbor.

Everything's fallen into place. It's the right decision - a hard decision, to leave the people and home I know so well - and scary, to drop everything and try something new.

My new job is a mobile office - I can work from home in Bmore just as I was in Cincy - and come back every so often to check in. We found a new apartment in a neighborhood that could be Over-the-Rhine's big brother. Fell's Point is historic, renovated, and stuffed to the gills with bars, restaurants, shops, live music, parks close by, and even a little market a block away. To the left is the harbor. To the right is the market. The farmer's market sets up in the square literally fifty feet from the front door.

Snow much fun in Baltimore

 So far, my impression's of Baltimore has been pretty good. People are friendly, there's lots to see and explore. It's a (relatively) inexpensive, water facing, industrial town - about as Cincinnati as the East Coast gets.

Guys, I need to discover what's left of me - my personality, brand.. whatever-  when Cincinnati is taken out. I'm afraid there's not much left over - and that's the part that needs building up. I hope this next chapter will do just that.

So now you know - a lot of you already knew - but it's happening. It's really happening. I'll be unpacking more feelings in subsequent posts, but please know this:

We'll be back.

So. I have 65 days left in Cincinnati. Time to make them count. Wanna hang out? Get a drink? Do something crazy or meaningful or have a chat or make a pie or get dinner or lunch or breakfast or dance or sing or laugh or watch a movie or play games or ANYTHING at all? Let's not put it off. Get in touch.

Cincinnati vs. the upper Northwest.

I recently got to go out to the Pacific Northwest for the first time ever. The combination of newfound freedoms and an intensely good deal on a roundtrip ticket were the main motivations; the opportunity to meet up with long-time friends sealed the deal.

It was my first trip planned and executed mostly solo, which ended up being a lot of fun. Seattle in springtime is beautiful. The results of people invested in their neighborhoods and a rainy, temperate climate is flowers. Everywhere, beautiful, incredible amounts of flowers. Flowering trees, tulips, even the grass exploded with tiny white, purple and yellow blossoms. The sun came out for a bit while I was there and I got to soak the beauty of a blossoming landscape married with blue sky, water, and distant mountains.


I feel like Cincinnati is the kid brother to post-pubescent Seattle and Portland. These cities have a good 20 years on us in terms of people investing heavily in the small businesses in their community. The result is a positive swirl of tons of businesses open because people only shop there because there are amazing businesses that customers want and are in turn supported... you see what I'm saying. The infrastructure is there. The culture is there. The energy is palpable, and it's easy to get swept up with awe of so many interesting places to eat, drink, shop and try. There's art everywhere. It's beautiful. It's easy to get around.

And in 10 years, Cincy will be there, too. We're in our awkward phase - promising starts, complete with braces and figuring out what we want to be when we grow up - but imitating our elders as best we can. It's easy to look at the city with a bemused smile, hopeful with the potential of what will mature and become of us with the right training and investment. We're so close, you can taste it. (and a city being impossibly close to maturity and amazingness tastes like waffles, beer, and a sense of community)

Everything I experienced in Seattle and Portland reaffirmed my commitment to Cincinnati. By seeing what IS in other cities, I only get more and more excited as I see the starts and shoots of our community finally growing up into its own skin. In the next few years our OTR, Walnut Hills, Price Hill, Clifton will grow into the richness of Capitol Hill, Queen Anne, Fremont, Bell District.

Our progess, however, will be even better and more beautiful- Cincinnati has history, architecture, and diversity that the upper Northwest can only dream about. But the development and progress will be significantly hindered if the streetcar project gets canceled or delayed any longer. Plus, we're way nicer. Seriously. No one in Seattle says hi or acknowledges each other on the street, which really threw me off.

Why is this project STILL an issue? If we're going to dream big, if we want to get noticed - and it's clear from the development that's happened thus far that our leaders, business people, and citizens like the positive attention we're getting - we must move forward with this project. Rail is necessary for our forward motion, and we must continue. To stop it in its tracks will drag us back.

Our citizens deserve the opportunity to live without being tied to a car. We deserve the development that occurs around permanent transit. It's past time for us to step up and accept that we are growing into something great - that the naysayers are rendered irrelevant, and the only way out is up.

I am SO TIRED of having this argument. But I will step up, one last time. Monday, April 29 at City Hall. Please come at 5:30 pm to support the Cincinnati Streetcar project, and show City Council that this city deserves the progress it's capable of completing. See you there. Sign up to speak. I'll have stickers, buttons, and t-shirts for those who want to visually show they're a supporter. If you're looking for some great perspective on the project from a cool guy running for council, check here.

In the meantime, check out my pics from my trip... and be reminded of Cincinnati's potential.