I will be in Cincinnati for three and possibly four months starting March 24, doing some flight training Monday through Friday 8 am until 3 or 5 pm every day. The training is right at the Cincinnati airport (KCVG), i.e., in Covington, Kentucky. This leaves me with some questions for my gentle readers…
1) where to live? I need to find a house or apartment to rent that is dog-friendly (12-year-old well-behaved Samoyed), reasonably close to the airport, and, ideally, close to restaurants and social/cultural activities (maybe near a university?). I am planning to spend at least half of the weekends in Cincinnati and it would be nice to be somewhere interesting for friends to visit.
2) where to exercise? I will be doing a lot of classroom work and nighttime study, so will need to go the gym at least 3X/week. Would be nice to find a gym with a 25-yard pool.
3) options for entertaining a 12-year-old dog? He likes people and other dogs, especially females, but is getting somewhat creaky.
I’m thinking that it might be nice to hire a thesis-writing humanities graduate student with a love of dogs to keep Alex company during the day and maybe bring him by the airport at lunchtime for a walk/lunch. That would be another reason to live near a university. Any idea how to find such a person?
Thanks in advance for any help.
Hi Phil:
Cincinnati is a really great Midwestern town, usually a bit underrated IMO.
The best place to live while staying close to the city is undoubtedly over the bridge in Covington, which is a more upscale suburban type of area, yet still extremely close (since it’s seperated by the Ohio river) to the city.
If you wanted to be close to a University, the University of Cincinnati would be your best option, with Xavier being fairly close also. Between the two, you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding someone to take care of your dog for you after a post of Craig’s List or two. However, you might have to resort to posting up an ad in one of the neighborhood coffee shops that such people often frequent (Baba Budan’s or Sitwell’s are the UC haunts)
If you were to live around UC, they have a fairly nice gym for the University (with a very good pool) where unaffiliated people can purchase memberships. It’s doubtful that Xavier would give out public memberships to their facilities, but I am not sure either way. Other than that, there are several mega-gyms that are rather popular with the locals (Gold’s in Hyde Park), but I have always preferred UC.
Final word of warning, though: some of the neighborhoods around UC are fairly “marginal,” especially to the direct north and southeast of campus. The more well-off types tend to gravitate towards Gaslamp (close) and Hyde Park (10 min away)
HTH,
KPW
You should get a place within walking distance of Ludlow in Clifton. A park between you and the University and lots of restaurants, art, music, cafes, college students and yuppies.
A few days in Covington left me depressed. My clearest recollection is an impressive collection of taverns and strip clubs. A nearby wedding gratified my inner anthropologist with the encounter of a new species, the Jewish redneck. The food was mostly fried and bland.
My only practical advice is to eschew a local seafood called ‘spoonfish’. Seriously.
I happen to live in Cincy- bout 1 mile from KISZ (The opposite side of town as CVG). When I have a bit of time I will send you a few ideas but consider me a resource… Don’t commit to anywhere rental wise just yet. Being close to University has some safety challenges…
Steve
DA20 student
Thanks, folks, for the input. I think I may end up at
http://www.ashleyquartershotel.com/
because it is close enough to the airport that I can zip home to the dog at lunch time. The environment sounds like suburban strip mall, but at least it is walking distance from my favorite store (PetSmart). I guess I will drive into downtown if I want to pretend to be hip for a few hours.