traveler

I have a couple co-workers who commute daily from Dayton to downtown Cincinnati. Does anyone know if the number of commuters between the cities/areas is increasing lately?

I've always thought Sousa's "Stars and Striped Forever" was the natural national anthem. Very rousing. As a bonus, it was actually composed by an American, rather than being an English drinking song.

I like it even better when French people pronounce it Day-Twah.

Where the Ohio River meets the Mississippi is Cairo (Kay-ro), Illinois, a virtual ghost town that has lost nearly 80% of its population since 1940 (14,407 to 3,220 in 2006 est.). Just north of Cairo is an even ghastlier, tin-heap "suburb" named ... Future City. A few years ago I read that the Cairo High School principal's commencement speech included a call to all the graduates to get out of town as fast as they're able because they had no future there in terms of jobs.

Some European airlines codeshare with trains. You can ride the rails with Air France from Paris to Brussels.

Don't forget the huge and growing Delta gateway/hub at JFK. Plus, we have focus cities at Boston and LaGuardia.

Yeah, CVG probably would be downgraded. When the assistant head of Delta's Reservations came to the Cincy call center, he told us (yes, I work for Delta) that a normal, profitable hub has at least 40% of the flights originate there. CVG is something like 10% -- it's overwhelmingly a connections airport. I suspect a major reason this town still has a hub is because of the influence of the big corporations hq'd here (like P & G) who require lots of nonstop flights and will pay anything for them; I don't know if I'm right (being fairly new to the town). In any case, JFK and Atlanta would be the only clearly safe Delta hubs in a merger with United. I can't imagine most people in Cincinnati (e.g., not corporate executives) would really be sad to see the hub downgraded, and airline competition return to CVG. You can have a cheap airport, or you can be a hub, but this town just isn't big enough to do both. Hey, nothing wrong with being a focus city -- just ask Indy (NW) or KC (Midwest)!

Atlanta's High Museum of Art has a shockingly mediocre collection, arranged in a dumbed-down thematic scheme. ("People!" "Nature!") Gotta love the Richard Meier architecture, though. And I still say that 20th best art museum in the country with no admission fee is better, for the masses, than 20th best art museum for 8 or 10 bucks.

The restaurants in Cincinnati that appear to be of quality, though, are quite expensive. The places in my price range tend to be pretty bad. For example, how can a city that borders the South have such awful BBQ food? Montgomery Inn? You've gotta be kidding! Having both pro stadiums downtown is a nice touch, though. You can get an affordable place in downtown Cincy, Covington or Newport and walk to the Reds!

Ha ha ha! Yeah, I meant nearly "free" for me and other low-income residents, since most of the city's taxes are paid by people far wealthier than me, and a good chunk of libraries' budgets also come from donations. Of course, these days, books seem almost secondary to the purpose of some public libraries: free Internet, commercial music CD's, and feature film DVD's for the masses. The CAM may not have a world-class modern art collection, but combine the European Old Masters collections of the Taft and the CAM, and Cincinnati is probably at least equal to any US city except on the East Coast, or Chicago, or LA. I think the Asian and Middle Eastern collections at the CAM are pretty good, too, and the Cincinnati wing is a lot of fun.

In terms of arts Cincinnati has some great deals. I often go to Cincinnati Symphony concerts at Music Hall, sitting in the third or fourth row, for $12! They call the seats on the sides "extreme" seats, because supposedly it alters the acoustics. It still sounds great, and I've never heard of any other concert hall offering huge discounts for side orchestra seats. I mean, I'm right next to the boxes. (Btw, I am not a student -- $12 is the full ticket price. Students get $10 for ANY seats.) Also, since Music Hall is the biggest (and most beautiful) symphony hall around, I can always count on getting a walk-up ticket after work, as it never sells out. Also, the Cincinnati Art Museum is one of the best in the country, and always totally free. The Taft Museum and Contemporary Arts Center are also quite good, and cost $7-7.50 (not bad considering art museums in NYC are twice that). Also, the Cincinnati/Hamilton Co. Library System is one of the largest in the country, and you never have to pay for that. Of course, I'm pretty sure Cleveland rivals Cincinnati on all these counts, and has cheaper housing and (according to some) better restaurants, so I'm not sure why it didn't crack the top 10.

Sure, go ahead and make a cell phone call for the stranded motorist. But if you're in the habit of picking up strangers, yeah, you might die a martyr. A young female friend of mine in rural Kentucky let three young men into her house because they supposedly needed help getting away from someone. They promptly gang-raped her. A much older friend of mine in Illinois, a migrant worker activist and former friar, gave shelter for a few weeks to a troubled drifter, who later turned out to be the multistate railroad killer, Angel Resendez. (Luckily, my good Samaritan friend was unharmed.) My excessively benevolent mother has an occasional weakness giving rides to panicky people in rough neighborhoods ("I need milk for my baby!" or sweet-old-lady-who-can't-afford-the-bus) yet surprisingly finds that they generally turn out to be mentally ill or addicts. Lesson: if people seem scruffy, they usually are. Stereotypes are useful. By all means give gas money to the mom at the gas station with the minivan and the kids in the backseat -- or a bus token to well-dressed businessman whose car has been towed. But literally every time I let my guard down when some "friendly" stranger downtown wants to chat with me, he gives me some lame sob story and tries to hit me up for my hard-earned cash. Result: I'm an impervious, uncaring, Manhattan-y hardass on the streets of the neighborhood where I live, work, and socialize. Hate to say it, but bums really do affect your quality of life and personality. I may die an asshole, and I don't care.

I mean, I listen to their spiel for entertainment purposes, but I've gotten more aggressive in cutting them off...

For that matter anyone who stops me on the sidewalk gets a very curt response from me ("No," or a headshake) as soon as I hear the phrase "Can you help me" or "How are you doing?," because 100% of the time these are panhandlers. When people are lost, they look lost and immediately ask for directions. When people are selling something (even a Street Vibes), they openly hawk it and don't ask for my "help." Any other stranger who stops me on the street in downtown Cincy -- without exception -- wants my money for nothing, which is incredibly aggravating, as it prevents me from being the friendly, open-minded, helpful person that I am when I'm indoors. I'm long past the pleasantries of "I'm sorry, can't help today," and try to make it clear that I am cold and they needn't bother again.

The sad part about panhandling is, if someone really needs money for a bus or train or gas, I'm never going to give it to them, because the beggars have cried wolf too many times.