In several conversations online recently I’ve run across an interesting attitude amongst some of the Cincy based blogger community. It happens to be one I cannot agree with at all, namely that we should only focus on the positive in our blogs. What a wonderful, positive thought that is. Its also enthusiastically wrong.
The idea that one can be a part of a community by overlooking that community’s flaws is complete BS. If you care about your neighborhood/city/area then you should get off your behind and get involved. Be part of the solution, not part of the problem. (Whatever those problems may be.) If you simply sit and parrot the stories of the positive then you are doing a disservice to yourself and those around you.
Think about it. What truly kills corruption? What reveals issues that need to be addressed? What generates dialogue? People who are not afraid to face the ills of their community and talk about them, that’s what.
Cincinnati is my home now, and I intend to be a good member of the community here. That means that I will not hold my tongue as I discover negatives. Doing so would only enable their persistence. This is our home, let us all have the courage to keep trying to better it.
So what do you think? Should Cincy Bloggers only focus on the positive, and if so why? For myself I cannot see anything good coming of willfully ignoring the negative. Self Deception is never a good thing IMHO..
-Loki, CincyVoices Founder
Additional: I hope to be blogging on a more regular basis now that I cam starting to recover. I got pneumonia during our trip to New Orleans and have been fairly beat down for the past few weeks
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
I see your point. The only thing is that for years all anyone ever heard was negative info about Northside. What a great “Urban community it is”. What potential it has! I beg your pardon, but people who are cheerleaders for Northside are not doing a disservice but are really helping project a positive image for everyone to see!.
No begging of pardons needed my friend. I was speaking of Cincy in general, but as a Northside home owner I’ll chime in on your neighborhood specific slant on things.
I was not denigrating the “cheerleaders” but rather stating that cheering the good stuff is one thing, and willfully ignoring important negatives is another.
My wife and I spent a lot of time doing research on CIncy neighborhoods before we chose Northside as the place we wished to purchase. It’s my favorite neighborhood up here for many reasons. That does not mean I’m going to be quiet about the gunshots I periodically hear, or about any thing that needs to be addressed.
Look at it this way, which looks worse: a community addressing its problems and trying to work past them or a community that seems to avoid any mention of negatives at all? Does not the latter indicate fear, lack of confidence and deeper issues?
Thanks for joining the conversation Clarence, I’d love to hear more f your thoughts!
I agree that bloggers should blog whatever they want!
I also think that negative “comments” made by someone that disagrees with an opinion which are unnecessarily hostile, slanderous, and aim to hurt or defame are unacceptable. A little bit of praise goes a long way, but insults go on forever. The pen – and the tongue – are mightier than the sword! Why must we cut each other down to make a point?
That said, seeing both sides of a situation always makes for a better formed opinion. Blog away!
I thoroughly agree, Loki. So often, people avoid talking about the negative, but I feel that it is the only way to get the less-than-rosy bits addressed. I think many of us have been conditioned to avoid conflict, to turn the other way or go inside when we witness a drug deal going down on the corner. It takes a little extra chutzpah to stand up and shine a light on the unsavory, but I feel like a million bucks every time I do it!
A blogger after my own heart.
Welcome to the conversation.
Cincinnati Art Snob
As someone who also owns property in Northside, I agree with the opinion that the less then savory bits need to be openly talked about, if only briefly acknowledged (obviously, I believe the same to be true in relation to other topics, not just Northside). Something that I love about blogging is the idea that youre getting a little insight into someone else’s reality, and (as I am) are often times inspired by someone else’s reality. Reality involves both good and bad, and everything in between. I think that real life is more interesting then fiction, so I want to hear about the good, bad, and everything in between because thats just what real life is about . To bring it back to Northside, the good, bad, and in between’s are inseperable, its all part of the reality of living there. I really get behind people who are confident enough to “bring the reals”, in their blogging and elsewhere.
Thank you. I’ve been accused of ruining business because I’ve said negative things about restaurants. I was accused of “not supporting Cincinnati” by not wanting to go to a particular bar because they serve high fructose corn syrup laden drinks at a steep price tag, just because it’s in the CBD. I can still support the city, and I think criticism can make a place better, not kill it.
Great post.
@Julie the people who want you to only write good reviews are usually the ones least deserving of one. I used to do food and music reviews years ago and it was like that then. It’s one reason yours was the first food blog up here I subscribed to when we moved to Cincy.
@Dark Martha @Northside Kitchen It is reflexive for me at this point. As a Katrina blogger for the past five years I’ve been obliged to help shine a light where I can and ferret out the corrupt and the insane. After having my style tempered in post levee failure New Orleans I will not hold my tongue on the subject of injustices.
@Kathy You are too kind! I was very flattered by your tweet earlier today as well! Thanks for welcoming me to the virtual table.
I was raised in Northside. I know it is a little different now that it was 60 years ago. But I must say it took just as much chutzpah to survive then as it does now! At times it felt like I had to come out swinging every time I left the house on Mad Anthony Street. It was a different set of demographics but was all too real then. I guess that is why I like to point out the good things I see now. I have the best set of neighbors now than I have had anyplace I have ever lived. I am older now and can’t do a lot of the things I use to do. . My neighbor shoveled my snow for me without me asking him to. How cool is that? There is no place that I have lived that is quieter or where I felt safer. I was robbed twice in West Chester Ohio and once in Arizona. I don’t worry here!
While I cannot but agree with you with cutting the BS when it comes to Blogging Cincy, I have to point that in some cases it is important.
I have lived in Cincinnati for a bit over two years now, and never thought of it as my home, in fact I pretty much hated it and couldn’t wait till I am free from my educational shackles so that I can move out to somewhere more like “home”. Only recently have I become aware of Cincinnati based blogging (as a non blogger it doesn’t just occur to me to go out and look for blogs) and blogging the positive has made me love this city more and more. It’s still not home, however slowly but surely it is becoming so. I am learning the nuances of the city and it being mostly positive has made me see the positive side.
I do agree though that blogs shouldn’t be a tourism infomercial, and I would love to read more “real” blogs. But what can I say, this “everything is AWESOME” atmosphere has drawn me in, or maybe i’m just shallow like that!
I’m not sure I read Loki as suggesting to eliminate the positive, but to take up the moral responsibility to recognize that deal with the negative as well.
As an art writer/critic, i remain very conscious of this. I often quote an art professor I had for an introduction to art history. She said, “if you like nothing, you have no taste, but if you like everything you have no taste.”
It’s about integrity.
It is about respecting the discourse
@kathy I’m so glad that you got that. The good stuff needs to be blogged about, hell yeah! As a relative newcomer to the city I want people blogging about good stuff so that I have an easier time finding it.
Integrity is the bottom line and you cannot have integrity if you are simply a cheerleader. By the same token those who are 100% negative are equally useless. It is from those ranks that the trolls who haunt the comments sections are drawn. You have to face reality and not shy away from the facts. An important corollary to this is that not shying away from the facts also means publicly taking responsibility and apologizing when you yourself are in the wrong.
Agreed with Loki and Kathy– you can be negative while being constructive. You can be positive without being a cheerleader who likes everything. You can also be negative while being polite.
Great post!
I think one of the best personal souvenirs to have survived my Nixon-era coming-of-age is a pin-on button that reads “Question Authority”.
We really must ask questions. Mediocrity and blind acceptance create more mediocrity and blind acceptance.
Thanks! What a great post. About the only time negative posts annoy me is when they are personal, mean-spirited, or misinformed. Frankly, if all people hear is cheerleading, how will they know what needs to change?
Balance is important. The strength to me about blogs are the diversity of opinion. I have had times when people posted something negative, explained why they didn’t like it, and it actually ended up being something that made me look more positively on the object of their negativity.
Speaking as a New Orleanian, we’re never hesitant over here to talk about the things that bother us. It adds to discourse, gets us talking about the city we care about deeply and how to make it better, and it generally brings out our best…and it pulls others from out of town into the dialogue as well. My mother-in-law took a gander at some of what the NOLA blogging community was talking about and wanted me to help her find something similar in the Silicon Valley area of No-Cal where she lives, as she craves that kind of give-and-take. I couldn’t find it there, and it left me wondering a lot about how ideal her area really was. It’s important to question the status quo – where you live isn’t a vacuum. Stuff happens. It’s not a crime to ask why and to dig a little deeper, even if it doesn’t please everyone.
It’s nice to see it happening elsewhere, and it’s great to see it in places like Cincinnati. Don’t discount talking about what bothers you about where you live just because it might cast a negative light. If you post about it honestly and well, the fact that you care and you’re not out to flame anyone unnecessarily will show.
If you ARE out to kick someone’s ass, though, back it up with solid proof and watch your own behind. The world just keeps getting smaller. Be careful.
Hey Liprap! Great to see you on here! For those unaware Liprap is one of the bloggers on CincyVoices sister site: HumidCity.com.
Good to see some cross pollination going on here!
Thats true for someone trying to be a journalist.
I’m just a blogger impossing his will on Cincinnati.
And it’s slowly working.