Why We Love Living and Working in Northern Kentucky

Meg Erpenbeck is the Communications Manager for Kenton County.

I’m from North Carolina. 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 have our own family. We knew we needed to come back here to be closer to his family, so we could have that environment.

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.” 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 the historic nature of Cincinnati. 

They loved hearing about Porkopolis and then looking at the Roebling and saying, “Oh my god, that looks like the Brooklyn Bridge.” I’m like, “No, we were first.”

We are huge fans of Mainstrasse. 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. But the hidden gem of Covington restaurants is, without a doubt, Riverside Korean on Madison. It has phenomenal food, and it is just such a fun vibe when you go in there for a Friday night. Their hot bowls, when you get one of those, and that fried egg gets nice and crispy in there. Mmm, so good!

My husband’s family—they got their Bengals season tickets in 1970, so like right after the team came to town. And so Sundays in the fall, we pile up on our Bengals bus, and we are right outside Paycor, ready to cheer.

One of the other things I love about living in Northern Kentucky is that having CVG in our backyard really does become a game-changer. For instance, my parents live on a small island in North Carolina, and driving-wise, it takes about 12 hours to get there. But CVG has an Allegiant flight that runs direct, and we are able to take that on a Thursday, and we are back home by Sunday, and now we can do it pretty easily and affordably.

Oftentimes, particularly early in your career, you are told that to move up, you have to be able to move out. It’s one of the reasons I came to Cincinnati. But now that I’m here, I’ve seen that I can move up and stay here. 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 Northern Kentucky more specifically, you don’t have to. You can have both.