Why We Love Living and Working in Northern Kentucky

Meg Erpenbeck is the Communications Manager for Kenton County.

I came to Cincinnati for two primary reasons. The first was professional. It gave me the opportunity to move up in my career and to take that next step. Personally, my husband is from Greater Cincinnati, and we decided it was time to be adults and start our own family.

We actually got married in Cincinnati. I’m from North Carolina. We decided we had the bulk of our family and guests in this area. So we decided we’re going to go ahead and get married in Cincinnati and make it easier for most people.

And my friends who are from out of town, first off, their comments were all the same. They’re like, “I had no idea there was so much to do.” Really, what I love is that this is such a historic area. And I think that that was what surprised so many people was that not only was there a lot more of an urban environment, but then looking at the Roebling and saying, “Oh my god, that looks like the Brooklyn Bridge.” I’m like, “No, we were first.”

The vibe that you get in Cincinnati and the vibe you get in Northern Kentucky, I truly just like walking around. I think it’s a truly walkable area, and we are often doing that. So, we are huge fans of Mainstrasse. There are—I mean, you can walk up and down and have totally different options, right? You could go there three nights in a row, and it would be different. So we love Frida’s and we love the new Hawaiian restaurant right there on the corner, and we also will make a jaunt over to Madison and Riverside Korean is 10 out of 10, recommend it.

So we are a sports theme in our house—like we are fanatics. And unapologetically, everything Cincinnati. My husband’s family—they got their Bengals season tickets in 1970, so like right after the team came to town. And the number of tickets has grown and grown and grown each year, and now we have our own two. And so Sundays in the fall, we pile up on our Bengals bus, and we are right outside Paycor ready to cheer.

Having CVG in our backyard gives us the connectivity to the entire country, which really does become a game-changer in terms of accessing people who don’t live here. So, for instance, my parents live on a small island in North Carolina, but CVG has an Allegiant flight that runs direct, and to discover that and to be able to access them and to go see them more, because now we can do it pretty easily and affordably.

There are so many major companies that give you the ability to have vertical mobility or even quite frankly, entrepreneurship opportunities to start your own business and to forge your own path. And for me, that is just so incredible because I want to balance my personal life with my professional success. I don’t want to have to sacrifice one to have the other. And in Cincinnati or in Northern Kentucky, more specifically, you don’t have to. You can have both.

As a community, I find that Northern Kentucky is a welcoming, happy, comfortable place. And that translates to the care that I see my child receive. In Northern Kentucky, you can have all the benefits of living in a major urban area, but also the comfort of a walkable, family-centric neighborhood. And what I love about this region is that you’re able to plant your roots here and your kids, that next generation, can come back and plant their roots here, too.