Of the twenty-five largest metropolitan regions in the country, this region has the second highest disparity, second only to St. Louis. This strains the roads and makes it more difficult for the poor to find transportation to these centers. Cincinnati's central business district remains the largest employment center. Increasingly, however, jobs in the region are concentrated in areas such as Sharonville, Springdale, Evendale, the cluster having a greater number of jobs than residents. Communities in Northern Kentucky and inner suburban Cincinnati areas have far fewer jobs compared to the number of residents in places such as Silverton, Villa Hills, Mount Healthy.
Policies shaping public and private investments are at the heart of the problems.
Ohio's taxing and development policies encourage growth at the urban edge. The communities don't generate enough revenue to support themselves in the long term. Competition for tax base and jobs creates winners and losers among local communities. Temporary, because as the entire region falls into decline, other regional economies will draw Cincinnati's resources away. Other regions have found answers to these problems by reforms which shift the financing of local governments away from dependence on local fiscal resources and land-use decisions towards a more equitable distribution of costs and benefits of regional growth.