Can anyone compare Nashville and Cincy? (Cincinnati, Kent: transplants, houses, neighborhoods)

[fiskkm]

My wife and I have two options with my current company - move to Cincy or Nashville. Can anyone on this site compare the two cities? I have the stats on weather, cost of living, school spending, and about every other comparison you can find on the internet. So, I am just looking for personal comments comparing the two. For instance, you might say I used to live in Nashville and I really miss the music scene, but I am glad my kids go to school in the Cincinnati area because education is much better here (or whatever insight you might have comparing the two places).

For background info, I can afford up to $450k for a house, want at least 2000 sq ft, a basement, and ideally 4BR. In Nashville, I am looking at Brentwood and Franklin. In Cincy, I like Hyde Park, Mariemont, and Madeira.

Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[CraigCreek]

I've lived in both cities, but quite some time ago. I greatly preferred Nashville, though I spent longer in Cincinnati.

Both cities have similarities: river towns, good-sized downtowns, colleges and universities, fine museums and parks - but Nashville's climate and air quality are superior and it has a far more friendly vibe, at least in my own experience. Prettier, greener city, prettier countryside, close to the mountains, a much livelier feeling place, late 18th century Scots-Irish heritage vs. Cincy's very mid-19th century Germanic history. However, Cincinnati has a long and rich artistic and (classical) musical heritage and many architecturally significant buildings, not all in good repair. Nashville's country music industry is too well-known to need description, of course. Both cities have excellent public library systems.

Nashville is a very Southern city - Cincinnati is definitely Northern. Nashville has it way over Cincy climate-wise - there are usually no more than two significant snowfalls each (mild) winter, fall tarries late and spring comes early. Of course summer is hot and humid and can be oppressive, but boating on the Cumberland River and nearby lakes is popular. Nashville is on central time, which means that the sun sets around 4:30 in December and January - depressing to many. But mornings come early.

Cincinnati also has a nice spring but it doesn't arrive until April. Fall is the best season by far - but usually is all over by late October. Summers are pleasant enough, but the winters are long, cold, and gray. Cincinnati (and Nashville, too, for that matter) is a city of hills, which can be difficult to negotiate when covered with snow and ice. It took me three hours to get to the outer suburbs - about twelve miles away - from downtown Cincy once, when snowfall began around noon and continued through the afternoon. That drive normally took me around an hour - half an hour in the morning. Another reason I was glad to move back to the Bluegrass...

Cincinnati is much more industrialized than is Nashville (hence the air quality issues) and seems to have a tired, run-down feeling in many of the older parts of the city which have not been revived. Nashville also has run-down neighborhoods here and there. Both cities have had their shares of racial tension over the years, though things seem stable at present, as far as I can tell from a state away.

All of the neighborhoods you name are very attractive. You could live very comfortably and pleasantly in any of them, as far as housing and ambiance are concerned.

Nashville is known for having numerous colleges and universities (some of which have merged in recent years), and is termed "the Athens of the South" for good reason. Public schools are mostly good here, with some exceptions, I am told. There are also good private schools.

There are many good private and parochial schools in Cincinnati, but the public schools' quality is less than ideal in too many cases. The institutes of higher learning in Cincinnati are good, but lack the cachet and reputation of those in Nashville.

I was last in Nashville earlier this spring and encountered very friendly people, as well as some who were not so pleasant. The latter category was far, far smaller than the first. Many Cincinnatians seem courteous enough but quite reserved upon first encountering them - very, very different from Nashvilleans, who typically are much more informal and friendly in manner with new acquaintances.

Hope this helps - I'd pick Nashville immediately, were I you!

[ram2]

The snow in Cincinnati melts by 5:00pm. When I lived in Cincy, snow was a non-issue.

[fiskkm]

CraigCreek, thanks for the great comments. Your response was spot on. I really appreciate your assistance.

[CraigCreek]

The snow in Cincinnati melts by 5:00 p.m. - several days after it falls, or at least that was the case during each of the three winters I spent there!

This past winter was especially harsh in the Ohio River Valley, with one snowfall after another. Snow definitely affected traffic on primary and secondary roads in Cincinnati, a hilly city, when I lived there. I do hope things have improved since.

[fiskkm]

I really liked Nashville for a lot of the reasons mentioned by CraigCreek. But, one of the things I was a little concerned about was that I did not see a ton of character in the housing/neighborhoods. Cities like Cincy, because of their age, have a lot of older and unique homes, restaurants, and shops. But, from what I saw in a short visit, Nashville was mostly new development. Sometimes the area looked really nice and new, but other times it felt a little cookie-cutter. Is that fair, or did I not see enough of the area? I have only spent a couple days in Nashville versus weeks in Cincinnati.

[MTFan]

Check out the east Nashville area or Germantown for a lot of beautiful historic homes.

[Tex?Il?]

I think Cincinnati is definitely more "urban" by traditional definition for sure. While Cincinnati lies on the Kentucky state line, and definitely has a semi-southern vibe (compared to say Chicago or Detroit) , with a significant % of its population of Appalachian ancestry, Cincinnati is still a northern/midwestern city.

Like someone mentioned before, Nashville for most of its history was much more staunchly southern/Scots Irish until, the the economic rising of the south brought in recent transplants.

Cincinnati however, has neighborhoods its downtown which are dominated by dense four story Italianate19th century rowhouses that belong in cities like Baltimore, Boston, and and Philly.

Cincinnati was the sixth largest city in the mid-1800s, bringing in one of the largest German populations in the country, which helped to develop the cities early, and well grounded cultural insitutions like its symphony orchestra and art museums. With this German immigration came similar immigration patterns throughout the 19th century, including Irish Catholics, German Jews (early center of reform judaism), and even some Greeks and Italians (skyline chili evolved from a Greek stew).

Nashville is unquestionably a southern city. While Cincinnati is a midwestern city, that was one of the great urban areas of the 19th century.

However in the 20th, better located cities passed up Cincinnati, to the point where it was no longer a destination for immigrants, therefore you were left with a strong German-American, tradition valuing city, overlayed with a large chunk of its newcomers being Kentucky Appalachian migrants, thus giving the conservative reputation that Cincinnati is known for. But yet it still has all the cultural amenities required to offer newcomers whatever they are looking for in terms of culture.

The universities and corporations still bring people from all over the world, and Cincinnatis central location (its still close to the median center of American population) means that it does continue to bring newcomers and thus giving it the critical mass where people can find there own niche.

I think Cincinnati is big and varied enough where its fair to say if you are bored in Cincinnati, that maybe its you. However, I don't Nashville, is quite at that point yet. Although Nashville may have less deterioration of neighborhoods simply because it is not as old.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by fiskkm

My wife and I have two options with my current company - move to Cincy or Nashville. Can anyone on this site compare the two cities? I have the stats on weather, cost of living, school spending, and about every other comparison you can find on the internet. So, I am just looking for personal comments comparing the two. For instance, you might say I used to live in Nashville and I really miss the music scene, but I am glad my kids go to school in the Cincinnati area because education is much better here (or whatever insight you might have comparing the two places).

Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

And don't forget the very significant income tax difference between the cities. In Cincinnati, you'll pay state and local INCOME taxes and property taxes far in excess of what you find in Nashville.

I am a Cincinnati native, lived in Nashville, and will be moving back to Nashville in a few years to retire.

[ram2]

Originally Posted by jlawrence01

And don't forget the very significant income tax difference between the cities. In Cincinnati, you'll pay state and local INCOME taxes and property taxes far in excess of what you find in Nashville.

I am a Cincinnati native, lived in Nashville, and will be moving back to Nashville in a few years to retire.

I lived in the Cincinnati suburb of Anderson Township and never payed local income taxes.