The Cincinnati Streetcar is modeled off the Portland Streetcar, here are some comparisons between the two cities.
Cincinnati – Portland Skylines
February 9, 2009
Cincinnati and Portland
Posted by CincyStreetcar under Uncategorized | Tags: Cincinnati, Portland, Streetcar |[13] Comments
February 9, 2009 at 11:33 am
Wow, I had no idea our cities were so close in all these factors. Thanks for the info!
February 9, 2009 at 6:11 pm
It’s similar is lots of other ways.
* High concentration of regional jobs in the city’s core.
* Urban university.
* Downtown streets and sidewalks of equal width to Cincinnati’s.
* Viable neighborhood business districs, but more of them.
* Hills and valleys, lots of parkland.
* An ethic of doing things right.
That’s why we take Cincinnatians to Portland all the time. It is very similar to Cincinnati.
Did you know that Cincinnati is actually more dense than Portland? So much for the notion that rail can’t succeed here because we don’t have Portland’s Urban Growth Boundary.
February 9, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Other than that…Portland and Cincinnati are very very different…especially culturally, and politically…all of which have helped to transform Portland into a model city for urban growth, tolerance and diversity…while Cincinnati continues to stagnate…but who says you can’t push for change
February 10, 2009 at 1:03 am
Of course there are differences too, such as our riverfront is way cooler.
February 10, 2009 at 8:43 am
[...] the whole post: Cincinnati and Portland Oregon [...]
February 10, 2009 at 11:20 am
I too found this very interesting and surprising, but they are very different culturally and while the weather looks similar, it really isn’t.
They have a much more continental climate and so their average January low temp is about 13 degrees cooler and their average high is about 7 degrees warmer in July.
They also get way more than twice the snow and days over 90 degrees and almost 3 times the number of days below 32 degrees.
I definitely prefer both our culture and weather.
February 12, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Surprising, but the stats say very little about race and ethnicity. I’d gamble Cincinnati is more diverse, but Portland probably has more farmers’ markets and brew-pubs…just a guess
February 12, 2009 at 6:20 pm
I moved from Cincinnati to Portland a few years ago and have noticed some similarities, but they are way different in a lot of ways; for example, Cincinnati is conservative/mainstream and Portland is liberal/progressive.
February 12, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Ever try to get a 3-way and cheese coney in Portland? Or a bag of sliders? Would 100,000 ex-huns in Portland do the chicken dance? Would 400,000 Portlandites plus 200,000 hillbillies across the river celebrate Labor Day with Riverfest? Could the city college of Portland defeat OSU (Ohio State or Oregon State) for the NCAA basketball crown two years in a row? Would the Portland baseball squad ever be called the “Big Green Machine”? I ask you, is this not a case of Yin and Yang rather than twins??? The erudite ecotopia versus the beer-guzzling grits of the rust belt?
Curiously, I visited both cities for the first time during the summer of 1963. But I grew up only 110 miles from Cincinnati!
February 13, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Paul (#9) – As an ex-Detroiter who lives in Portland, here’s my response:
Coney: good luck – Portland has nothing resembling midwest food except by coincidence of name.
Chicken Dance: oh, heck yeah – that’s the kind of bizarreness Portland is (in)famous for!
Riverfest: Probably – this is a real party town, and some of our events cross every cultural and political line
College Basketball: Don’t know, and most of us probably don’t care (no offense intended to those who do)
Baseball: Definitely no one here cares. Again, no offense.
We also seem to have a lot of bikey and alternative transportation transplants from Cincinnati – to my surprise, but I’m starting to understand it more.
Sounds like Cincinnati is doing a lot of great things from the articles and posts I’ve read lately – I look forward to visiting there again soon (my first visit wasn’t a “real” one, I was passing through on my way to Tennessee)
I think there’s a lot that both cities can learn from each other – and I hope that they do!
February 13, 2009 at 10:26 pm
I was born in Cincinnati (left at age 3) and visited it often until Grandma died a few years back at 102.
I LOVE Portland and do see some similarities. However, Portland has a more vibrant downtown that people actually live in or near compared to Cincinnati. Also, Cincinnati seems very catholic and conservative (neighborhoods are referred to as parishes if I am correct). My kids thought the Ohio River was chocolate as it was so brown and they are used to the Willamette and Columbia. I am assured that the brown river in Ohio has to do with the heavy clay soil. I think the brick buildings in Cincinnati make it seem much older and German influenced than Portland, but both are cities that I love.
The Newport Aquarium in Kentucky -just across the river is one of the BEST aquariums my family has visited – amazing shark tubes.
Happy to see that Cincy is emulating Portland’s streetcar and I hope it brings more livability to downtown Cincinnati.
Maybe they can send Grater’s ice cream to Portland! YUM!
February 19, 2009 at 9:50 pm
How’s the skiing in Cincinnati?
March 31, 2009 at 12:19 am
Well, statistically speaking, our towns are very similar yes.
And it’s true, you guys have WKRP in Cincinnati and we have to still try and live down Hello Larry.
But we have Unicorns.
http://zehnkatzen.blogspot.com/search?q=unicorn