Located just across the river south of Cincinnati is the beginning of Northern Kentucky. Small cities such as Covington and Newport border the Ohio River on the Northern side of Kentucky. All of my life it has been a sad fact that the area I live in has been considered a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Furthermore this fact has been backed up time and again with such things as The Greater Cincinnati Airport being located in Kentucky. It is because of these disillusions that I believe images of the backwoods hillbilly residents of Kentucky, has persisted so long. In truth many of these jokes are funny but they have very little truth.
Northern Kentucky is beautiful, with rolling hills, wonderful meadows and some of the nicest people you will find anywhere. Northern Kentucky University is one of the major colleges. Many wonderful attractions are spread throughout the area. Great Parks and landmarks are sprinkled all over the place. The Industry in Northern Kentucky has grown rapidly in the last twenty years. Many major companies have opened divisions in this area, including Mazak, Toyota, and Citibank.
In our modern day the cities and towns of Northern Kentucky have grown by leaps and bounds. One reason for this is because people wishing to remove themselves from the overgrown Cincinnati Metropolitan area have moved south. The irony that always follows is the quite area they have moved too slowly outgrows itself. Once this begins, it also becomes a metropolitan area.
In the past few years, Northern Kentucky went through an evolution that has begun to shed the image of our area being part of Ohio. Newport Kentucky used to be known as being owned and ran by the Mafia. The seventies brought an era of change to the Newport. With the fire of the Beverly Hills Supper Club, it almost could be seen as marking the end of a period in time. Newport went into a dormant state, and frankly spent most of the late eighties and early nineties with a reputation of a slum. Developers began opening attractions that would attract people.
The debut of the World Peace Bell, The Newport Aquarium and the overall development of Newport on the Levy have all had there part in cleaning up the reputation of Newport. At the same time the impact to Northern Kentucky has been finally we are beginning to shed the reputation as only being a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio. Similar development projects began in Covington, Kentucky.
Many of the communities and towns in Kentucky have grown dramatically in the last ten years. Alexandria, Independence, and Hebron Kentucky have virtually come from small towns that have now become major suburbs of surrounding areas. Since 1969 development in Florence, Kentucky has continued. As Florence grows, the areas around it are either growing themselves or are being consumed. Development has also affected the border of the Northern Kentucky area to the south. Dry Ridge Kentucky has also been growing rapidly.
There is an unpleasant side effect of all this development. As Northern Kentucky slowly becomes a metropolitan area of its own, the expansion is not always pleasing. Certainly Northern Kentucky has gone through many steps to shed its bumpkin image. It is hard to believe what Northern Kentucky will be like in another twenty years.
