Cincy for new college grad (Jewish) (Cincinnati, Blue Ash: middle-class, apartments, rental)

[RE52]

My D is considering working at P&G. She is from Los Angeles, although at school in the midwest. She has hard a difficult time adjusting to midwest--people and weather--but it has gotten better. How easy is it for a young person to get integrated into a new city where they know no one? Where would be a good place to look for an apartment? Also, as I said, we are Jewish and, although, that doesn't make much difference to her, I would like her to have a chance at meeting and marrying a Jewish man. All thoughts are welcome.

[Wilson513]

Cincinnati has a very substantial and upscale Jewish community. Always has. P&G is a great place to work and itself has a large Jewish community within. P&G employees are respected in the community and she will be very welcome here. The geography will be a big adjustment for a girl from LA, but there are a lot of plusses.

[tntnb]

Amberley Village, Wyoming, and Sycamore/Blue Ash all have significant Jewish populations. She might also consider joining the Jewish Community Center, located in Amberley Village:

JCC: Home

Hope this helps.

[jon1987]

x2 on Amberley Village. Its a really nice area.

[mike1003]

Are there any apartments in Amberley other than the Amberley House with an average age of "near dead"

I'd look at Blue Ash or Wyoming.

[mike1003]

BTW, most of the Temples and Synagogues have migrated toward the Blue Ash/ Montgomery side of town

[RE52]

Thank you. That is encouraging. (If she settles in Cincinnati for the long-term, my husband and I may just have to retire there--at least it is more affordable than Southern CA!)

[goyguy]

Wyoming and Amberley are largely "family-oriented" types of places, though Wyoming does have some nice duplexes and brick box apartment buildings on/near the main drags. Montgomery and Blue Ash would be sure bets for both variety and quality of rental housing and for a Jewish presence. The JCC is now in Blue Ash (Cornell Rd's not within Amberley, sorry) as is Cincinnati's largest if not only Jewish funeral home. And - despite my background and my C-D name - I was born in Jewish Hospital, which these days is in a big new facility close by Amberley and "Jew Ash." Not only that, just yesterday in this forum came news of a newly opened ***deli*** in Blue Ash.
Historically, due both to preferences and to housing covenants in many areas, Jewish life in Cincinnati was centered around Reading Road, a key artery in pre-Interstate days and still a busy street. Jewish Hospital, the aforementioned funeral home, and numerous synagogues were located in Avondale and so, therefore, were most of their constituents. Adjacent Bond Hill was for quite some time an unusually ecumenical community; Catholics and Protestants and Jews each had places of worship there although most of the latter attended shul in Avondale. Farther north is Roselawn, which became a Jewish suburb of sorts when it was developed during the 1930's to '50s. A few temples were established there, numerous kosher grocers/delis set up shop, and families who'd "made it" had their pick of inviting Tudor + Cape Cod + Colonial + "contemporary" styles of homes to tack a mezuzah by the front door of. Those who'd REALLY made it had but a short drive along Section Rd or Galbraith to the sprawling ranch houses and huge yards that make up Amberley Village.
Then "The Sixties" (more accurately, 1967 and '68) happened. Avondale, already somewhat of a "changing" community in its southern districts, bore the brunt of the violence and destruction from rioting during the spring of both years. An enclave known by all - and officially as well - as North Avondale somewhat miraculously rode out the storm and is to this day a great place to live even though the funeral home is gone and the neighborhood pharmacies + deli + so on have also vanished. But the tidal wave of unease rolled up Reading Rd, where fearmongering and real-estate "blockbusting" transformed Bond Hill into a less-well-off and almost entirely AA community in a few short years. Roselawn persevered longer, as did its eastern neighbor Golf Manor which was the enclave of choice for blue-collar and some middle-class Jewish families. However, both of these areas started feeling the exodus to Wyoming and Amberley which had decimated the Jewish populations of Avondale and Bond Hill. By the turn of the century the last deli had relocated (and is now closed.) More importantly, save for a determined Orthodox congregation (perhaps more than one?) in Golf Manor - where there's even a yeruv (sp?) - to the best of my knowledge there are no longer any Jewish places of worship anywhere along the Reading Rd corridor. A few Jewish residents, most but by no means all elderly, have maintained residence in GM and Roselawn. But it's no longer someplace recommended for a young single person to rent in.
Maybe all this history was superfluous to include, but I thought I would anyways.
There has also - interestingly - been a reverse migration of sorts over the past couple of decades. A good number of my parents' Jewish friends and neighbors from Wyoming (many of them '60s and '70s "refugees" from the Reading Rd corridor) are leaving suburban lawns behind in favor of high-rise and other apartment/condo homes in Hyde Park and East Walnut Hills. But unless the OP's daughter is looking to be fussed over by surrogate grandparents she probably wouldn't want to join them.

DISCLAIMER: "Jew Ash" is in the Cincinnati vernacular as a nickname for Blue Ash, historically a non-Jewish White suburban town with a tiny AA section and now 1/3 Jewish at the very least. The town was of course named for a species of tree - must've been some woods full of them at one time. Knowing WWII history, and being the guilty liberal type that I am, it makes me squeamish to use that moniker and so I usually don't. But since it's out there its existence shouldn't be denied or covered up.

[tntnb]

Originally Posted by goyguy

The JCC is now in Blue Ash (Cornell Rd's not within Amberley, sorry)

Sorry, I was thinking of JCC on The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati Campus which is located at 8485 Ridge Road in Amberley.

If there's something similar on Cornell Road, then I apologize for the confusion.

[goyguy]

Notta problem!
Yet to be mentioned is the "Crest Club." In the days (not yet completely over) of "restricted" country clubs, the Eastern European and German Jewry of Cincinnati each had a place to call their own for golf and swimming and so on. Those with German backgrounds built the Crest Hills Country Club at Ridge and Galbraith Rd's, while the families who originated elsewhere in that part of the continent favored the Losantiville Country Club on the western edge of Pleasant Ridge.
Now that access is open 'most everywhere to places of this type, both of the clubs were contending with a steady decrease in membership. To make a loooooooooooooooooooong story short, the organizations merged and Crest Hills was sold to Amberley Village to maintain as open space in some form or other. The awning at Losantiville now reads "The Crest Club."
I thought I should throw this in, since a largely sectarian country club (though now "unrestricted" itself) would be a logical place to scout out spouse material. Even if that's not on the agenda, the OP's daughter would have a social-life option for meeting others like her whiich isn't tied in with a synagogue.