Montana by Katie Daisy Lombardo

Katie Daisy Lombardo is an illustrator from rural Illinois who now lives in Minneapolis, creating really lovely images, including this set of state paintings. See more in her Etsy shop and Flickr stream.

Alaska by Katie Daisy Lombardo

Wisconsin by Katie Daisy Lombardo

Minnesota by Katie Daisy Lombardo

Illinois by Katie Daisy Lombardo

I’ve been thinking about downtown Cincinnati skywalks as sites for public art, and I just came across a project entitled Speaking of Home by Nancy Ann Coyne. Installed last year in IDS Center /Macy’s Skyway in Minneapolis, the project featured large-scale portraits of new Minnesotans, along with their countries of origin, definitions of “home,” and the word “home” in each native language.

For more information, see the project site and Steven Heller’s thorough interview with the artist.

According to a recent Pew Research Trust survey, 84% of the people surveyed who do not live in Cincinnati would not like to live here. Cincinnati is marginally more popular than Cleveland and Detroit. But, only 23% of the respondents even claim cities as “their favorite community type.”

From the full report, some statements that reference Cincinnati:

A new national survey by the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project finds that nearly half (46%) of the public would rather live in a different type of community from the one they’re living in now—a sentiment that is most prevalent among city dwellers. When asked about specific metropolitan areas where they would like to live, respondents rank Denver, San Diego and Seattle at the top of a list of 30 cities, and Detroit, Cleveland and Cincinnati at the bottom.

The five least popular big cities—Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Kansas City and Minneapolis—are all in the Midwest.

When it comes to the nation’s 30 biggest metropolitan areas, Americans have a wide range of likes and dislikes. Denver, San Diego and Seattle top the list of favorites, while Detroit, Cleveland and Cincinnati anchor the bottom.

Rust Belt cities of the Midwest and East receive the lowest ratings. Overwhelming majorities of Americans would prefer not to live in Detroit (90%), Cleveland (88%) or Cincinnati (84%). Nearly as many give a thumbs down to Minneapolis (82%), Kansas City (81%) and Pittsburgh (80%); fewer than one-in-five would like to make their home in any of these cities.

College graduates seemingly can’t wait to move to Denver, San Diego or Boston. More than half of adults with a college degree or more say they would like to live in these cities. But Detroit, Cleveland and Cincinnati hold no such attraction, ranking at the bottom of desirable places to live for better educated Americans—and for less well educated adults as well.

If you care about Cincinnati, read the synopsis of the survey findings, or the full report [PDF]. Take the brief community satisfaction quiz [my results are above -- I must have been in a generous mood]. If you care about urban communities, read about the mixed response to cities in general, versus what people say they want out of their community. I wonder if the over all mismatch recorded in these results wasn’t due to the timing of the survey in the first half of October, when people were first beginning to seriously panic about the economy. Might the results be a product of our general malaise?

I’m a bit surprised that Chicago didn’t rank higher, as it definitely seems to be on the up and up. I would also expect Minneapolis to rank higher than it did [barely above Cincinnati, or 4th from the bottom]. And where is Portland, OR, that hipster mecca and posterchild for all that is good about urban life? Ha, it’s barely a step above Sacramento, a.k.a. The Sac, a.k.a. California’s armpit. So, how much stock should you put into these results? Maybe 2,200 people wasn’t a large enough polling sample, or maybe October really wasn’t the best time for big questions.

From my own perspective, I rather like living in a place that’s a bit off the map. It gives me some breathing room to live and make artifacts that feel genuine to my own experiences here. There is no compelling myth of Cincinnati, which enables creative people like myself to construct our own myths. I rather like being able to have this kind of ownership over this city.

So, Cincinnati is not an aspirational place, just a normal city in which normal people live. I’ve moved around quite a bit over the years, but I only ever aspired to live in one city — Boston. It was a goal, and I achieved it. But, my four years there left me broke, bored and bitter. So much for aspirations.

Check out the NYT’s own interpretation of the results. Urban Cincy and Cincinnati Imports have also weighed in on the findings.

Sure, reading over these survey results is a bit of an eye-opener, but I’m not entirely surprised, and not entirely disappointed either.

Forgotten Cincinnati: from abandoned amusement parks and crumbling breweries to forgotten neighborhoods and other derelict structures and locales, Sherman Cahal and Ronny Salerno present photographs of a deserted Queen City; opening tonight at Park+Vine.

Vacant Cities and Rubber Wheeled Vehicles: “People have been trying to make OTR an easy to drive and park neighborhood. They think that this is necessary for its survival, but they are really destroying it.”

Astroland Rocket Update: Staten Island Exile Looms for a While: Brooklyn Borough president Marty Markowitz uses the term “freakishness” in a press release.

Skyway for Sale on Craigslist: in Minneapolis, a vintage, 280,000-lb. skywalk can be yours for 79k.

Counter/Culture – The Disappearing Face of Brooklyn’s Storefronts: a photography exhibit by James and Karla Murray at the Brooklyn Historical Society, up through the end of March.

Art in Train Stations: the talented Camilla Engman has art installed in a Göteborg, Sweden train station, which spawns an impassioned plea for more art in public places.

Jan Kaplicky, Audacious Czech Architect, Is Dead at 71: the architect whose structures are undulating organic forms, asked “Where is it written that buildings have to be boxes?”

Closing Toilets on FS Huge Mistake: CityKin states the obvious, but will management listen?

A Minor Cause…: my biggest complaint about basin life, as voiced by Stop Working, Start Living.

Trading New York for Midwest Grit: the Escape from New York continues, much to my ongoing satisfaction.

5 Insanely Small And Inhabited Private Islands: Just Enough Room is my favorite.

San Francisco Zombie Walk 2008: hmm, I think I went to school with one of those guys…

Shorpy: the 100-Year-Old Photo Blog: “Shorpy is a blog about old photos and what life a hundred years ago was like: How people looked and what they did for a living, back when not having a job usually meant not eating.”

Chris Stain, Street Artist: the Baltimore transplant, now based in Brooklyn, discusses his work, inspiration, and direction.

Jennifer Davis is a mixed-media painter based in Minneapolis, whose work is both twee and bizarre. Her work can be purchased via Etsy, The Beholder, and as Giclee prints through British site Fine Grime.

From the top: Transit, Edge, and Perch.