Central Business District (Downtown) and the West End
- Anthony Gustely
- Feb 21, 2021
- 8 min read
A long delayed new blog post is finally here! This is week 11 of my 52 First Impressions project. I visited two of the most well-known neighborhoods in Cincinnati this week: Downtown and the West End. It feels somewhat odd to call the Central Business District a "neighborhood": after all, a neighborhood is supposed to be somewhere that people work AND live in. When I think of downtown, I think of skyscrapers, landmarks, restaurants: somewhere that people drive into and out-of as visitors. As Cincinnati's downtown population continues to grow, however, I hope that downtown becomes more and more of a live/work/play environment.
Central Business District (Downtown)
This week is an interesting one because I probably could've just talked about the places I visited in this post, but I'll break down a bit of history here:
Detailed as early as in the 1948 Master Plan for the City, Downtown was envisioned to be the hub of a collection of thoroughfares that would quickly bring people in and out of Downtown. Why? To accommodate for the swaths of ex-city dwellers (mostly white) who still needed to get into and out of downtown to work.
Downtown Cincinnati, like many other cities, was in a transition period during the mid-20th century. After the second World War, many families living in inner-city neighborhoods were buying their first cars, starting families, and wanted bigger homes and a yard to fulfill the great "American Dream". In turn, they moved out to newly built suburbs, where the houses and yards were bigger, the streets were cleaner, and the crime rate was lower. Highways were designed as a quick way to bring people to and from the city center. Several streets within Downtown were reconfigured into one-way gauntlets with 3 to 4 lanes to allow higher traffic volumes (many are still one-way today!). Additionally, the construction of these highway systems, per the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 passed under Eisenhower, cut through and demolished poor neighborhoods around the downtown (one of these neighborhoods, partially located in the West End, was Kenyon Barr).
I think point I'm trying to get at here is that Downtown Cincinnati is very much seen as a place to visit, or play in, and then leave. It is very much a car-centric "neighborhood", with wide-laned and one-way streets that allow for the quick enter and exit of traffic.
My friend Emma (@emma.nico on instagram, give her the follow!) joined me this week to explore a couple landmarks and attractions in each neighborhood. Downtown is especially dense with retail and restaurants, so we wanted to visit some new places neither of us had been before. Think of this week not as a holistic summary of everything there is to do in Downtown, but more as a "here's a couple things you COULD do" in Downtown.
Emma and I kicked off our Downtown excursion at Mazunte Centro, a Mexican restaurant at 611 Main Street. Mazunte Centro is actually a part of a triad of Mazunte locations (the other 2 are in Madisonville). We started off with the salsa amarilla and chips, which was packed with flavor. I got the chile relleno tacos, which were tacos with cheese-stuffed jalapeños in them. It was the perfect amount of spice, and I am somewhat sensitive to spicy food.
3 sizable tacos for 10 bucks is slightly pricey, but its was honestly worth it! Emma got the al pastor tacos (pork with pineapple salsa) and I loved them equally as much as mine (I got to try hers). It also wasn't crowded at all, but we did go on a Sunday evening so that may be why. I would definitely check it out. Tacos are one of my favorite foods, and I would put Mazunte's tacos up in the top 5 in the City that I've tried!
Since they always say never to grocery shop on an empty stomach, Emma and I decided to walk down to the new Kroger that opened up on Court Street in September of 2019. This Kroger is somewhat controversial because it replaced an older, smaller Kroger location that was 6 blocks north of the new one. Although the new Kroger on Court Street is larger and renovated, it is also now in Downtown and not in the center of Over-the Rhine, making it less walkable for residents there.
When we walked into the Kroger, Emma and I were on the hunt for the new Lady Gaga Oreos which were going viral on Tik Tok all of January. I am happy to report that we did find them! I actually really enjoyed the inside of the Kroger, it was pretty full and the aisles were closer together, but the high ceilings opened the room up. The second floor is actually full of a couple restaurants and maybe a wine or beer bar, but we didn't go up there because most of the restaurants were closed Sunday. By the way, the oreos tasted just like golden oreos, but I would still recommend getting them because of the packaging and appearance!
To cap off our trip to Downtown, Emma and I visited the Purple People Bridge down on the Banks.
"The Newport Southbank Bridge — popularly known as the Purple People Bridge — is a pedestrian-only bridge that stretches 2,670 feet (one-half of a mile) across the Ohio River, connecting Newport, Ky. to downtown Cincinnati and to trails along the river in both states (via www.purplepeoplebridge.com)."
The bridge is significant because it's been open since 1872 as the first railroad bridge over the Ohio River connecting Cincinnati to Kentucky. Today, the bridge is an iconic landmark that leads right to Newport on the Levee, and can even be rented out for events!
Visiting Downtown with Emma was a little bittersweet considering Emma is graduating this Spring and I'll be a senior next year. We both love Downtown so much and it will be weird not being as close to it in the future.
West End
I alluded to it earlier, but the West End has historically undergone a sort of degeneration since its heyday in the late 19th - early 20th century. Who's to blame for the shuttering of businesses, mass evictions of communities of residents, borderline substandard public housing? I don't really know if I want to go there today, but I will say that since I-75 split the West End into two, there has been a lack of community investment and the neighborhood no longer is a hub of a mix of activity (commercial, residential, civic, green space, etc).
I actually did a presentation this past semester on theaters in the West End, which were a part of the culture and community life within the neighborhood for decades. Here's a brief transcript explaining the transformation of the West End:
Cincinnati’s urban pattern was completely remade in the post-war era, becoming a “highway metropolis". The 1948 Master Plan envisioned a City encircled by highways, serving visitors during the daytime and weekends.
White residents afforded the ability to flee higher taxes, rising crime rates, urban unrest, and struggling schools near the core. At the same time, City governments were unable and unwilling to improve deteriorating conditions in majority-minority inner city neighborhoods.
The City would target the West End as a prime location for industrial and highway construction. Interstate-75, constructed in 1961, would serve as a means to connect suburbanites to the core for work and leisure. Population loss in the West End stemmed from the destruction of the Kenyon-Barr neighborhood in modern-day Queensgate.
With a population of over 25,000 residents, Kenyon-Barr had been the heart of the black community in Cincinnati since the 1920s. Industrial land and Interstate-75 replaced the neighborhood. Spatial inconveniences to community landmarks (such as Allison's West End Theater) emerged through new development and the highway.
The link to the full presentation is here! Emma and I began our trip to the West End with a visit to the Betts House, which is the oldest standing brick building in the entire State of Ohio. Built in 1804, the Betts House was the home of the Betts Family for 4 decades after its construction, becoming one of the only surviving residential relics of settlement-era Cincinnati.
The house is quaint and somewhat unnoticeable from the street, but nonetheless a part of history! The Betts House offers tours on specific days of the week for a small fee. Check it out here.
The West End is also known for the City West project, which was the largest housing project in Cincinnati since World War 2 and transformed the West End. City West took over 10 years to complete (1999-2012) and included blight removal, 686 rental units, 211 for-sale homes, 20,000 square feet of retail space and a park on 14 acres of land. When driving around, Emma and I both took note of how the housing stock has seemingly held up since the City West project was completed. There was definitely a more sufficient balance of green space to residential use on the streets we drove down.
It wouldn't be a trip to the West End if I didn't mention the elephant in the room... er... I mean ... the elephant in the neighborhood. The construction of the new FC Cincinnati Stadium continues to loom over the neighborhood. I feel like the drawn out, bitter, and complicated process of choosing a site for the stadium dominated local news cycles for the first few years of my college experience. We talked about the issue in nearly every. single. class. And for good reason.
I'm not going to sugar coat the fact that I am biased against the construction of the stadium. What's the logic of constructing a humongous stadium smack-dab in the middle of a residential neighborhood? If the roaring crowds and noise weren't a nuisance enough for for local residents, original renderings of the stadium had year-round orange LED lighting surrounding the stadium.... anyways, you get the gist.
The stadium, while iconic, monumental, and an economic booster, also makes for an optical (and REAL life) nightmare for the existing West End community. ANYWAYS...here is a picture of it under construction.
If you'd like to learn more about the stadium, check out the website here.
To finish out our trip to the West End, Emma and I got an early dinner at Richie's on 1301 Linn Street. First opened in 1986, Richie's is a soul food restaurant famous for their fried chicken. The location in West End has both a drive-through and walk-up window, so it's super convenient to get fresh, hot food in a short amount of time. Emma opted for a slice of their cheesecake and I got a 2 piece spicy chicken dinner with mac and cheese and baked beans on the side.
The food was, to no surprise, amazing! I especially liked the spicy fried chicken: you could actually see the spicy marinade beneath the crispy fried exterior. The flavor was unreal. If I'm ever craving that comforting soul food again, I'm definitely coming to Richie's. For the price (I think my dinner was somewhere just under $10) the convenience, and the flavors, I will definitely be back. Richie's has five locations across Cincinnati also, so you can't miss it!
I am definitely excited to see Downtown and the West End bloom in the next couple decades. I'm hoping that community voices command the conversation of "revitalization" and investment in the West End despite the construction of the FC stadium. It's always important to think about improvements in neighborhoods as "Improvements for WHO?". Putting a community's interests and desires at the forefront is different than putting a stadium in a neighborhood that provides a marginal improvement (and potential detriment) to the quality of life of the existing people who live there.
Join me next week when I visit Over-the-Rhine and Pendleton neighborhoods. Super excited for this one :) See you soon!
Additional Info:
CityBeat, "Echoes of a Lost West End"
Cincy Flags, "West End"
Cincy Flags, "CBD/Downtown"
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