It’s no question that Cincinnati’s landscape has seen its fair share of changes in recent years, but it’s easy to forget just how drastically different our city looked a mere decade ago.

Spend a single hour in Over-the-Rhine and you’ll be surrounded by shoppers on Vine and Main streets, lunch groups waiting for their tables at Bakersfield and bachelorette parties stepping out of Spruce with fresh mani-pedis. Kids and dogs hang out at Washington Park’s manicured playground and dog park, respectively — the fruits of the park’s $48 million makeover in 2012. Saturday night is for sipping craft cocktails at Longfellow or heading to MOTR Pub for cheap beer and free live music. All in all, it’s a different place from the one that was formerly named the most dangerous neighborhood in America.

Over-the-Rhine isn’t the only neighborhood that’s been transformed. The impact of just over a decade of development (and, if we’re being frank, gentrification and its associated issues) can be seen in other parts of the city, too. Brand new spots like 3 Points Urban Brewery and Boomtown Biscuits & Whiskey have sprung up in nearby Pendleton, as well as a newly renovated Ziegler Park. The Banks has been reinvented into its own destination, completed by the swings and interactive sculptures of Smale Riverfront Park and a glowing (albeit temporary) Ferris wheel. Findlay Market seems to expand with new additions and vendors on a practically daily basis.

Further uptown, Clifton has had its own revival. University of Cincinnati’s Calhoun Street border is now home to a shiny, tiny Target and the kind of student living apartment developments that come with matching furniture and parking garages. Northside has seen significant change, too, where boarded-up buildings have been refurbished to make room for restaurants and bars like The Littlefield.

From Freedom Way to Spring Grove Avenue, Cincinnati sure doesn’t look the same as it once did. It didn’t happen overnight, but when you look at these Google Street View photos from 2007 and 2018 side by side, it’s amazing to see just how much the city has changed in just over a decade.

| Photos by ©2018 Google Maps