| Northside • The Urban Village
With a unique blend of classic homes, eclectic and traditional businesses and entertainment venues, and a long tradition of community activism, Northside is the place to be for those who want an urban environment, yet also want to connect with their neighbors just as if they lived in a small town.
Pedestrian Friendly
Drop off a letter at the post office, cash a check at the bank, pick up the latest CD from your favorite artist, get your hair styled, rent a DVD, buy a best-selling novel, browse the hippest fashions, shop for antiques, imported furniture or vintage clothes, get a tattoo, buy organic produce, fresh fruit, eggs and bread, and then relax with a latte over lunch – all within four blocks! If you live in Northside, that’s just a sample of what our 'downtown' has to offer, all within walking distance of your home.
NEWS
 Northside Spring Art Fair
Saturday, May 10, 11am-5pm along Hamilton Avenue.
Artworks mural dedication at 11am at Hoffner Park with Mayor Mark Mallory.
Artists interested in showing their work should contact Rachel at 375-9071.
See our brochure.
To find out more, visit Northside Arts.
Safe, Clean, Friendly - Northside Summit's Comprehensive Neighborhood Safety Plan
Between August and December 2007, participants at the Northside Summit, a gathering of residents, business representatives, churches, social service agencies and other neighborhood-based organizations, undertook an initiative to create a vision and an action plan for a safe neighborhood.
The goal was to identify what safety-related programming and activities currently are being conducted and by whom, determine what activities are being duplicated and those that could be initiated to more efficiently focus energies within the community and lead to a greater overall sense of safety.
The purpose of this safety plan is to promote and encourage individuals and organizations to collaborate in improving neighborhood safety and livability
The Summit has also created a list of safety call-in numbers, designed so you can cut it out and post it in a covenient place.
Parks and Green Space
An urban village wouldn’t be complete without parks and green space. Northside has many attractive parks and woods, complete with hiking trails:
- Hoffner Park – at the center of Northside and the site of numerous festivals
- Jergen’s Park – a favorite for families with children.
- Mt. Airy Forest – the largest park in Cincinnati
- Parker's Woods*
- Buttercup Valley*
- Badgeley Run Park*
- Bradford-Felter Tanglewood*
* All kept in their natural state.
New Business District Light Pole Banners Design Competition
The Northside Community Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation has raised money for the
fabrication of new custom designed light pole banners for the Hamilton Avenue Business
District. The Board of the Northside Community Fund is seeking a new, creative and bold
design for the banners and is willing to pay $500 for the selected banner design. Designs are due by 5pm on Friday, February 29, 2008. Read more...
Community Activism
- When Northside was threatened with being cut in half by a freeway connector between Hamilton Avenue and I-74, activists rallied and fought for forty years until the project was finally cancelled.
- When the Northside’s streetscape needed refurbishing, activists raised over $4,000,000 dollars to make it happen.
- In 1999, when Kirby Avenue residents informed Northside Community Council that in they had been promised curbs, gutters, new sidewalks, and additional storm water intakes on Kirby Avenue in 1977, the community rallied and the City responded with 4.5 million dollars for the Kirby Avenue Project.
- Citizens on Patrol volunteers walk our streets and keep the neighborhood safe.
- Our Community Problem-Oriented Policing group is working closely with the police to solve problems in our neighborhood.
- With over 200 members, the Northside Community Council is one of the largest and most active in the city. Its members, committees and affiliates are all dedicated to making Northside the best place to live.
News
As part of the Cincinnati Public Schools 1 billion dollar building project, CPS is tearing down the current Chase School and building a new school in its' place. Literally. Despite the fact that Duke Energy has pledged to decommission the power substation on Chase and donate the site to CPS (thank you Duke!), the CPS administration is currently refusing to consider use of that or any other parcel in site design and proposes putting the new $12 million school in the 'pit' where it is currently located. Northside Community Council is strongly against this plan, voting 42 to 0 to urge the Board of Education to not repeat the mistakes of the past and to locate the building in a location that maximizes visibility, safety, and integration with the Northside community.
At the August 13th Board of Education meeting members of the Northside community urged the Board to do just that. These pdf's (which require Adobe Acrobat Reader, available for free here) illustrate what we're talking about. Green space is green, buildings are gray. Note that these are large files (10mb) so we recommend downloading them over a high speed connection.
If you agree that we can do better than locating the school in essentially the same location as the current school that has failed our students for the last 30 years, a location whose street address bears only a slight relevancy to its' location and is next to a group home for juvenile delinquents from Montgomery County, a location barely visible from Northside's arterial streets, a location whose lack of visibility breeds problems, then please contact the Board of Education and let them know that the community has a better alternative. Let them know that the community is working to create a sensible site and we are not asking CPS to really do anything other than give us the time to complete our work. It is worth noting that we are not asking CPS to do any property acquisition, the community will continue to pursue this on our own, as we did with the Duke property. This is something that will benefit the students, the community, and Cincinnati Public Schools for many years into the future. The idea that we should have to fight CPS to make it happen is extremely frustrating at best.
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Great Location
Northside is centrally located to all of Greater Cincinnati:
By car:
- 5 minutes from downtown
- 2 minutes from I-75
- 2 minutes from I-74
- 4 minutes from I-71
- 15 minutes from I-275
By bus:
- Northside has the second-largest hub in the Metro system. |
In short, if you are looking for an urban setting with a small-town feel, where neighbors know and care about one another, then Northside is the neighborhood for you. But don’t just take our word for it…
Click on the image, above, to find out about some of the hot and eclectic locally owned bars, restaurants, salons, boutiques and services in the Northside area.
For a complete list of all events in Northside, visit our calendar page.
Stay Informed
@ Subscribe to Bits & Pieces, Northside's own email newsletter, to find out about community events, classes, programs and workshops, housing and job opportunities, political events, services and businesses, parties, concerts and festivals. |
