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.