Whether you like this statement or not depends on how you feel about Columbus, which is apparently Cincinnati’s twin, according to this New York Times story. The piece examines job opportunities and needs and found that Cincinnati and Columbus rate an 82 out of 100 in terms of matching. Cincinnati also pairs closely with Louisville, Cleveland and Kansas City (tell that last one to our streetcar, though).
The article judged the similarity between cities based on "their job mix, which reflects both local advantages and history (coal, a port, great universities) and local demand (a young population that needs teachers, or an older population that needs nurses)."
"The most similar pairing of American metropolitan areas, based on all job postings on Indeed.com in 2017, is Dallas and Atlanta," the article reads. "On a 100-point scale, where zero would mean completely non-overlapping distributions of job postings and 100 would be identical ones, the similarity between Dallas and Atlanta is 85. Often, the highest-similarity pairings are nearby or even in the same state: Miami and Orlando; Los Angeles and San Diego; Columbus and Cincinnati; and New York and Boston."
The rankings between our two cities are based on jobs for state-tested nursing assistants, store clerks and intervention specialists. And while "store clerks" was a common job posting, the rating is not based on the amount of stores you can find in both Over-the-Rhine and Columbus. How has our cross-breeding manifested in each? Let us count the ways:
- Elm & Iron — This Columbus-based vintage-industrial furnishings store opened its flagship Cincinnati location in May 2015, followed quickly by Elm & Iron loft in December of the same year (and almost across the street).
- Homage — There are now Homage shops in cities across the U.S., but the Columbus-born vintage/sports/pop-culture apparel store opened its first location outside of Columbus in Cincinnati in 2014.
- Brezel — The North Market's Bavarian pretzel bakery opened in OTR in, you guessed it, 2014.
- 16-Bit Bar+Arcade — This throwback bar/arcade opened in Columbus in 2013 and spread into Cincinnati in 2015. It has a third location in Cleveland.
- Taste of Belgium — The Belgian waffle that spawned an empire expanded from Cincinnati into Columbus' North Market in 2009.
- Bakersfield — You can't stop the Thunderdome. OTR's craft taqueria opened its Short North location in Columbus in 2013.
Now, the real question is: When are we getting a Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream?
