The comeback city

CINCINNATI (AP) -- Cincinnati is getting a flood of recognition from national travel and arts publications for the first time since it started trying to improve its image after the 2001 race riots.
In the past few months, the Zagat Survey, AmericanStyle magazine, the American Automobile Association and other groups have cited the quality and affordability of Cincinnati's arts, entertainment, shopping, dining and lodging and its success as a family-friendly tourist destination.
Several attractions received high marks in the recent U.S. Family Travel Guide published by Zagat Survey in association with Parenting magazine. The ratings resulted from a poll of more than 11,000 travelers who were asked to rate family-oriented attractions on child appeal, adult appeal, public facilities, service and cost.
New recognition
"Cincinnati has received recognition from us for some of its restaurants and hotels in the past, but it has never received this type of recognition as a destination city," said Zagat spokeswoman Alexa Rudin.
The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden was rated 13th overall in Zagat's top 50 national attractions, and the Newport Aquarium -- just across the Ohio River in Newport, Ky. -- was No. 25.
The nearby Newport on the Levee -- a shopping, dining and entertainment complex -- topped the list of family-friendly shopping centers and malls.
The Cincinnati Art Museum tied with four museums -- including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago -- for best art museum. The museum's expansion, free admission and an education center devoted to family activities were cited as some of the reasons for its appeal.
AmericanStyle magazine, a bimonthly national publication, rated Cincinnati as the No. 5 arts destination in the country in an annual survey published in its latest edition. Magazine spokeswoman Kristi Halford said Cincinnati had never been included in the top 25 in the annual reader survey's seven years.
"Our magazine is targeted to art enthusiasts and collectors, and 96 percent of our readers base their travel around the arts," said Halford.
Promoting the city
Tourism officials and directors of many of the Cincinnati-area attractions say the increasing recognition demonstrates the success of their efforts to work together to promote the region.
"This cooperation has demonstrated to people outside Cincinnati that the area is more than a one-event or one-attraction destination," said Stephen Bonadies, deputy director of the Cincinnati Art Museum.
"What's happening in Cincinnati is that we have learned to collaborate and cooperate with one another in a way that we never had to do before," said Julie Calvert, vice president of the Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau. "The landscape of the city changed so much from Sept. 11 to the boycott to the race riots that we had to come together on every front."
The city had three nights of riots in 2001 after a white officer shot to death an unarmed black man wanted on misdemeanor charges when he ran from police. The officer was cleared of charges at trial.
Continuing boycott
Juleana Frierson, a member of the Cincinnati Black United Front, which has supported the continuing economic boycott of the city, said she doesn't object to people coming to attractions outside the boycotted downtown area.
"I do think some of the millions of dollars spent on improving Cincinnati's image should have been spent on improving economic development in our neighborhoods," she said.
The latest recognition of Cincinnati by the travel industry came June 10, when the American Automobile Association announced that three downtown hotels had received the travel group's four-diamond rating. Only 3.25 percent of an estimated 31,000 AAA-rated lodgings earn that rating each year.
The national nonprofit organization Partners for Livable Communities announced in April that Cincinnati was one of only nine "large" cities to receive the 2004 rating of Most Livable Community. The designation puts Cincinnati among the nation's top destinations for travel, business investment, relocation, learning, retiring and living.
Raymond Buse, a spokesman for the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, thinks Cincinnati has "turned the corner" and is being regarded as a comeback city.