I was coming back from a hike at Fort Hill and decided to take SR 28 in to see some places that intrigued me on the map but I had never visited.

 

This was Blanchester.  I figured by coming in this way up to Goshen, then heding north to connect with SR 48, I could see where Cincy Sububria starts up (or ends).

 

I guess I was just suprised with Blanchester.  It looked like a largish country town on the map, but there is quite a bit of economic activity here, including new things like I think new retail stuff.  Yet I didnt see much subdivision action coming on or out of town. 

 

So, is Blanchester sort of a not-well-known outpost of Cincy suburbia, that suburbanites have sort of taken over this small town, or the places economy has shifted such that everyone who lives here commutes in to the Cincy area.

 

I guess another interesting aspect of this is that there used to be interurban service between here and Cincy, so already back in the early 20th century you must have had some commuting.  Maybe this habit or trend continued even after interurban service died.  Blanchester was just close enough to permit it to become a far flung commuter suburb, vs a declining country town.

 

For more convention suburbia, the north-south SR 48 axis certainly is the new frontier..the area between Goshen and the Little Miami.  I think the first subdivision I saw on SR28, however, was at or near the Warren County line, as well as some earlier ribbon development.  So the new-subdivision urban force field probaly extends out a bit from Goshen...small scale ribbon development...

Going back twenty years or so, Blanchester's private swim club competed against east side swim clubs in competitive swimming. They did a lot of driving (we mostly avoided trips out that far) - though the clubs in Clermont County were more willing than those of us in central Hamilton Cty. Mt. Orab and Blanchester seem to be home to true exurbanites rather than traditional suburbanites - also far eastern areas of the Greater Cincinnati have seemed to be a way for those from more rural areas to become a part of the urban economy w/out actually living in an urban area.

I guess another interesting aspect of this is that there used to be interurban service between here and Cincy, so already back in the early 20th century you must have had some commuting.  Maybe this habit or trend continued even after interurban service died.  Blanchester was just close enough to permit it to become a far flung commuter suburb, vs a declining country town.

 

Your mention of this brought my thought to the movie, "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry". In the background of their apartment, is a poster of an Interurban line, showing stops including Cincinnati and Blanchester (interestingly, Cincinnati is misspelled). I have looked everywhere on where to find a print of this. I'd love to get one, since I am originally from Wilmington.

It's an interesting thought, but Blanchester seems to be far enough away that it's sort of isolated.  At the very least, none of the streets to there are flanked by much suburban or exurban style development.  Maineville on the other hand is becoming quite suburban/exurban, at least between the old town center and to the north. 

 

It makes me think of the development along Ohio Pike, also served by two interurban lines.  The landscape doesn't become truly rural in character until you get past Bethel, though you can make the argument that exurban development ends around East Fork State Park.  It can be kind of tough sometimes to differentiate between exurban and simply a higher level of rural development.  More densely populated rural areas that have lots of small farms, many towns, and non-farming rural poor, etc., can take on a sort of pseudo-suburban feel at least along the main commercial corridor, even if they really aren't.  This sort of development is quite difficult to characterize, but it's interesting to ponder. 

Yeah, I was really looking for ribbon developement along country roads as a harbringer of suburbanization, but didnt see much of that around Blanchester.  (You see a lot of it in the "rural" areas around Dayton).

 

One really started seeing it when crossing into Warren county. 

 

And I think I recall driving that stretch of highway through Bethel and was suprised on how far that suburban stuff was strung out...

I think right now, Blanchester is just a notch too far to drive for most Cincinnati locals. And it has no "cachet" like Mason or Lebanon do. But I do agree, it's the eastern frontier of the burbs, and beyond Blanchester, you have "real" rural character and negligible commuting into Cincinnati.

 

I also agree that Rt 48 is a dividing line.