The CashFlow

Cin City

CINCINNATI IS A study in contrasts: a relatively cosmopolitan place in an industrial Rust Belt state, a semi-sizable city with much to offer that never seems able to penetrate the national consciousness for positive reasons. It has seen its share of problems recently, most significantly several days of riots in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in April 2001 following the police shooting of an unarmed African-American man.

Over-the-Rhine is a microcosm of Cincinnati itself: full of promise and always on the cusp of revival without ever quite getting there. Still, the Queen City, situated along the Ohio River across from northern Kentucky, offers easy access to the Midwest's other population centers, a solid downtown core and a burgeoning arts scene. Racial tension in this bare-majority-white city lingers, but common consensus holds that major civic progress has been made in the nearly nine years since the violence. It's cheap to live here, and the local business community has shown a great deal of interest in fostering the growth of startups. As the national economy begins to step back from the brink, perhaps Cincinnati can at last make good on its still-present potential.

PEOPLE

ASIAN POPULATION

1.8%

BLACK POPULATION

44.7%

LATINO POPULATION (OF ANY RACE)

1.7%

WHITE POPULATION

50.2%

POPULATION GROWTH

-7.0% since 2000 (U.S. average: +8%)

POPULATION EDUCATION: HIGH SCHOOL DEGREE (U.S. AVERAGE: 84%)

80.9%

POPULATION EDUCATION: UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE (U.S.AVERAGE: 27%)

27.7%