Belvedere St, Mount Adams

Belvedere Street is at the top of the highest hill in Mt. Adams, a suburb of Cincinnati. It's a good location, as there are restaurants, bars, hair salons, and parks nearby. During the week, it's pretty quiet. The area is mainly full of young professionals, most without children (yet). There are also some retirees and other older adults in the area that don't seem to mind it too much. On the weekends, it gets loud, but that doesn't bother me unless there's a really crappy cover band playing at one of the nearby bars.

While the location is great, the actual street itself an be frustrating. It's a one-way and it's narrow. Most of us have off-street parking and it can be very difficult to find a spot, especially in the evening. If you're not home from work by 5, you may end up having to park on a neighboring street. It's good exercise though, because you are either always walking up or down a hill. Sometimes, the people who have driveways park on the street, taking up the spaces the rest of us need. Since there are bars and hangouts people enjoy, a lot of visitors park on the street instead of paying for spots in the parking garages. And since the street is really narrow, most of us push in our side mirrors so they don't get rammed in to while people fly down the street.

Even though Mt. Adams is one of the nicer areas in Cincinnati, many residents don't seem to care about how it looks. People throw their cigarette butts and empty beer bottles on the ground. Everyone in the area has a dog, but some of them don't like to pick up after them. Watch your feet as you walk down the sidewalks or you could end up stepping in one of the dog's messes.

Most people that live here are pretty nice. So are the dogs! It's a cool area, this just isn't the most fun street to drive on. It is really nice to live on for the most part. It's within walking distance of Great American Ball Park (from our house, it's about a 15-minute walk). I've never felt unsafe or threatened there. Most of the people that live there are in pretty good shape, whether they try or not...since it's all hills and people walk everywhere, it's hard not to stay in decent shape.

Oh, and cell phone reception is terrible.