It’s Cincinnati
Someone accidentally let the cat out of the bag on another blog, so it’s sort of dumb for me not to say here: Our US base is going to be Cincinnati. I’d wanted to keep this private in order to avoid harassment by someone in Ohio who has caused my family a lot of heartache, the sort of harassment that my living in England has limited to incessant phone calls and deranged emails, both of which have died down over the last year or so. I liked the relative quiet, but I suspected it would be sort of futile to try to keep the specifics from this person, and I was right. Oh, well. I guess hiding is a bit ridiculous, anyway. (Please note that our apartment building has secured entry, so you can’t even get into the building without a key card or being vetted by security.)
Everyone keeps asking me: Why Cincinnati?
* The cost of living is cheap, but the standard of living is pretty high (at least according to what I value). It has a lot going on, great architecture, a nice mix of old and new, and a European feel to it.
* It’s got direct flights to and from London, which Antoine and I are going to need on a frequent basis.
* You’re never more than about a 20 minute drive from downtown into the countryside, which is very important to me (though I think Antoine is less enthused).
* My family is 100 miles away, which is an, ahem, reasonable distance. They’re pretending to be happy about me moving toward them now, but I’m sure they don’t want me too close.
* My oldest, best friend, Karri, and her husband live only 100 miles away, too.
* We have very dear friends just over the Ohio/Kentucky border, about 20 minutes away.
* My work in the US this year will likely be scattered all over the country, and with all of the above, Cincinnati should make a good base for that (and commuting to London).
So if anyone knows Cincinnati particularly well, feel free to chime in with any pointers. Also, I now have an excuse to share this early version of the WKRP intro that I hadn’t seen before:
Filed under: Life
vine street is fun.
http://www.shortvineonline.com/business/
in particular:
bogarts: http://www.bogarts.com/
sudsy’s: http://www.sudsys.com/
topcat’s: http://www.topcatsclub.com/
I grew up north of Cincinnati, and make it back there every year or so. I’m not especially fond of the place, but if I had to live in Ohio, it’d be there. It ain’t London. But, then, it ain’t Chillicothe, either.
Except for the rush-hour strangle points on the interstates downtown on the approach to the bridges, it’s reasonably easy to get around with a car. The metro area population is something over 2 million, but the city itself is around 340,000. Politically, it’s one of the redder parts of the state. Foodwise, the chili places get the hype, but good real restaurants exist, too.
One of it’s better assets, as far as I’m concerned, is its proximity to Kentucky. Not the Florence and Covington suburbs, but real Kentucky around Lexington and elsewhere. Drive down I-75 for a couple hours, tour some high-end horse farms, and understand what it is to envy an animal.
Delta has a lock on the airport, which keeps ticket prices on the high side. Flights from Dayton are often cheaper, but, of course, you’d connect through New York or D.C. for London.
Congratulations! I’ve been saying for a while that anyone who is smart and leads a largely virtual work life should decamp from Silicon Valley and head for greener pastures.
Just the other day, I spoke with an entrepreneur who wants to move to Silicon Valley. I asked him about his house (a 2750 square feet) and how much it cost ($178,000). Then I informed him that he would be lucky to acquire a 1 bedroom condo at twice the price.
Didn’t deter him though…
And of course, there’s the 5-way chili.
Thanks, Chris! That looks really cool. I’m getting so excited about this!
Bill: Yeah, I’ve heard that about Delta. We’re not planning to get a car, not at first, because being downtown we can walk places or get cabs (for less money than owning a car, running it, parking it, etc) and rent a car when we want to go away for a weekend or whatever. When we were snowed in, in January, in Florence and had to make it up to Columbus for a flight, we got the Greyhound from Cincinnati and were pleasantly surprised at how relatively un-scary that was - and it’s a two hour straight shot right to CMH. That may come in very handy indeed.
As for 5-way chilli, I don’t think I’ve ever had it, and it doesn’t strike me as especially appealing. I was relieved, though, to find that Cincinnati does have a few Indian restaurants. Not being able to get a decent curry would really suck.
Jackie, I was just checking in and saw the great news. Hopefully with you living in Ohio we will finally get a chance to meet up.
Vine St. is a great place just don’t travel too far down Vine… it is the scariest place I have ever been.