This weekend, I finally photographed several west side neighborhoods and suburbs.  Elmwood Place was the most requested business district on the Cincy Images poll so I made a point to photograph this inner ring suburb first.  The Elmwood Place business district is located along Vine Street and was quiet and gritty with a feeling of being stuck in time.  With the lack of investment in the business district, I am not sure what the future holds for this town.  Personally I would like to see it annexed by the city of Cincinnati along with St. Bernard and Norwood.  It is ridiculous that there are three suburbs that are surrounded by the city.  The beauty of Cincinnati is that even though they would be part of the city, they would still have their own identity.  City services could be consolidated and the city would benefit from an increase in population, land and taxes.  

After Elmwood Place, I made my way to Carthage with a business district similar to Elmwood Place, but half the size.  Carthage has a new housing development that is nearly complete.  It is located several streets away from the business district and has shot some new life into the community.  It is one example of a new urbanism development with garages that are detached and placed in an alley.  The tacky used car dealerships along Vine don’t help the visual appear of this neighborhood but once you explore the housing stock, you are left with a better impression.  

Hartwell was next and the most surprising neighborhood of all, while I have been through all these neighborhoods on numerous occasions, Hartwell is one of those neighborhoods that lacks a business district so it is easily missed.  Once I started exploring some of the housing stock I was impressed.  It is filled with gorgeous manicured homes that prove that a neighborhood doesn’t have to have large homes to be adorable and well maintained.  I can’t speak for the entire community but from what I saw, I was impressed.  I didn’t spend a lot of time walking in this neighborhood and it was my only drive by photo shoot.  

Lastly if you live in Cincinnati, you are well aware of the inner ring suburb of Wyoming from the renowned Stuckey’s Restaurant (now changing to Encore) to it’s perennial ranking as the #1 school district in the metropolitan area ahead of Indian Hill and Mariemont.  The suburb isn’t a secret to the residents of the region but because of the lack of interstate access, many people outside of Cincinnati more than likely never heard of it nor would they find it unless they happen to drive down/up Route 4.  It is also a safe guess to say that transplants don’t find out about it until after they settle down in another community in the area.  Amberly Village can also fall into this category.  To see each gallery, click on the hyperlinks above and I hope you enjoy.

As much as I love cities and all things urban, I have always enjoyed a nice Sunday drive.  Today we decided to drive our new 50 mpg vehicle up to Yellow Springs.  I had been their once before but this time I wanted to focus on John Bryan State Park and Clifton Gorge.  To get there you head northeast on I-71 and eventually exist on route 68 where the big RL Carriers trucking company is off the interstate.  Route 68 will run you through Xenia known as the Tornado capital of Ohio where you will see a depressing downtown that decided to rebuild in the form of strip malls after several tornados leveled the city.  If you stay on 68 past Xenia, it will run you through Yellow Springs and you will see signs for John Bryan State Park.  

I will start off by saying that I had no idea this park was this impressive.  From a topography standpoint, it is breathtaking.  Now I have heard from several coworkers and friends that it was a nice park but what continues to amaze me is that Ohio has all these fantastic treasures and yet the state does such a miserable job promoting them.  I have several photos in my private collection of my daughter where if you were to guess her location you would think it was somewhere in the Rocky Mountains and not in the Midwest.  

I will say that we hit the jackpot of Sunday drives.  The key is beautiful weather and it also helps when you are breaking in a new vehicle but overall this hike through John Bryan State Park was one of my favorite hikes.  I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t been.  The gorge was breathtaking and while it might not have been as stunning as the Partnach Gorge I visited in the Alps, it is definitely worthy in its own right.  After our nice but exhausting hike, we eventually made our way to Young’s Dairy.  While Graeters is legendary in Cincinnati, Young’s Dairy offers some of the best custard/ice cream in the Dayton region.  Coming from a custard city like St. Louis, I have had my fair share of custard and Young’s can hold their own with the best of them.  Young’s offers a great experience for children.  My daughter and her friend spent over an hour at the petting area of the farm.  I personally think the concept is brilliant.  Here you have a farm that you pay money (10 cents per handful) to feed their animals.  Overall it made for a great day with a nice range of activities.

To keep things simple I created a Yellow Springs gallery that includes the photos taken at Clifton Mill, Clifton Gorge and the rest of John Bryan State Park, Young’s Dairy and downtown Yellow Springs.

Yesterday I went to the Montgomery Cyclery in the Montgomery business district and eventually met some friends at the Montgomery Inn for dinner so I spent a good portion of the afternoon in the business district.  Since I had my camera on me, I thought this would be a good opportunity to update my Montgomery photo gallery that I last took with an old two-megapixel camera in hand about three years ago.  From an architectural standpoint, I think the Montgomery business district is one of the most attractive of Cincinnati suburbs and even though it feels pedestrian friendly, it seems to lack people and a nice mix of shops to make it interesting.  A great bike shop, coffee options, corner bar and a European Café are all great to have in a business district but with an upscale niche shopping experience bent on high end jewelry and furs, Montgomery lacks people.  I am happy to see that the business district is about to expand with a new development that will increase the retail square footage of the district.  You can view the photo gallery here.