Cincinnati

Yesterday, we went to the Northside, which is considered one of the hip parts of town. It has everything you'd find in Williamsburg but in smaller doses. One great record store. One independent video store. One bar where paint peels on the door and people still drink Pabst Blue Ribbon (another up the road has a line of Harleys parked out front. They serve delicious burritos and have a photo booth in the back). There are still holdovers from a pre-hip era; a typesetting business on a prominent corner, White Castle and Taco Bell/KFC across from the record store, a seedy pawn/jewelry shop that has a two-stories high "DIAMONDS" sign. And then there's the rotted out warehouse that looms from a distance. You see it peeking out at every intersection, chipped white walls and red trim. Floors gutted and useless. How long would it have taken Williamsburg to turn this into loft condos? A week? The site remains unchanged from my first trip to Northside, over four years ago. My dad says Cincinnati is ten years behind. As young people flee for the coasts and the recession settles in, I wonder if it will ever catch up.