Weekend Walk

One of my favorite walks downtown is from my place down to the Purple People Bridge to head over the Ohio River and into Newport, Kentucky. I often take this walk mid-morning on weekends to catch the first showing of a movie at AMC. [The first show is less than six bucks, the next show is regular price. I’m cheap.]

On the way I stop at Cincinnati’s busiest local coffee shop Coffee Emporium, where it’s usually bustling pretty good by mid-morning. I grabbed a cold coffee brew and cranberry scone to work on as I continued my walk.

Tenth or so in line! Ugh! I mean, awesome that local business is thriving!

The best way to get to the Purple People Bridge from Coffee Emporium, per Google, is to get to Eggleson St. as quickly as possible, but I like the zig-zaggy route down 9th, and Reedy which takes me to Culvert, parallel to Eggelston. It’s wildly apocalyptic during off hours.

Part of the opening montage to my new zombie movie.

They put so much money into lamp posts, they couldn’t afford an awning.

This leads me under I-75 which provides a stretch of shade on a sunny day (cover if it’s raining) and spot where homeless people can tuck into the masses of concrete and get some rest.

Shade provided by I-71.

Homeless people sleep at the top of sloped concrete just under the highway and out of view unless you’re walking and looking for them.

Traffic zooms by overhead.

The desolation gives way to Pete Rose Way and the Riverfront Park system. The Newport Southbank Bridge is the only pedestrian-only bridge over the Ohio River in Cincinnati. The bridge has seen a lot of different types of transportation since it was completed in 1872, but most recent before its current use, the bridge was a railroad bridge. It opened as a pedestrian bridge in 2001, painted purple because that’s what focus groups like best. We call it the Purple People Bridge.

This picture looks like there’s not a lot of foot traffic, but several dozen Cubs fans staying in Northern Kentucky were making the walk toward Great American Ballpark to see the baseball game as I came across.

Purple People Bridge 2.jpeg — Cubs fans are just beyond the horizon of this picture heading to town.

I’m not going to lie about this, one of my favorite parts of this walk is getting to the other side and looking back toward home. I’m sentimental over Cincy!