Matt A.
Matt A. and his girls, Thora and Margaret, are new(er) residents of Over-The-Rhine. Aside from visiting the Little Free Library, Findlay Market, Washington Park, and all of the other places you take your kids downtown, Matt is really intentional about using his background to make a difference in his neighborhood.
ON MOVING TO OVER-THE-RHINE
The girls have been in Over-The-Rhine their whole lives, but we moved over to Pleasant Street about 4 years ago. Their mom and I are separated now—but when we originally moved down, we were looking for a place to live. I had moved back to Cincinnati for grad school, and the opportunity came up for us to get more involved in the city. We wanted to reconnect and have an urban lifestyle. There was a lot of neighborhood development going on, and we moved close to the market [Findlay] so I started getting involved with food issues, helping start a Slow Food chapter in Cincinnati. It was nice to be plugged into all of these things within such a close radius.
I’m from Illinois, so I’m generally Midwestern. In some way deciding to stay in Cincinnati was a decision to make an impact in the Midwest as opposed to moving out to the coasts. I went to school for industrial design, and that’s typically what people tend to do since that’s where most of the jobs are.
Being in downtown Cincinnati, I think there’s a certain level of comradery between other parents. At the time that we moved down, it didn’t seem like there were very many other parents around. At the time It wasn’t typical for people who were having kids to move downtown, so it was refreshing when we found out there were groups of people who made a conscious choice to do that.
ON RAISING A FAMILY IN THE CITY
I don’t know what it’s like to be a parent anywhere else, so I can only compare it to my own childhood. Being in downtown Cincinnati, I think there’s a certain level of comradery between other parents. At the time that we moved down, it didn’t seem like there were very many other parents around. At the time It wasn’t typical for people who were having kids to move downtown, so it was refreshing when we found out there were groups of people who made a conscious choice to do that.
I think some of the nice things are being able to access a lot of resources and parks. I don’t remember being able to walk to that many parks as a kid—there was maybe one that you could get to but it was kind of a haul—so it’s been nice to have multiple choices:
Thora and Margaret: We like Washington Park, Coney Island, Stricker’s Grove, Findlay Market Playground, and the park by tuckers.
