On four separate occasions this past summer, I hosted in Cincinnati friends of mine who either live in or around New York City.  Like all New Yorkers, they are unabashed in their belief that their home turf is the center of the universe. None of the four had ever been to Cincinnati before.  Our humble corner of the country, as far as they were concerned, is fly-over country.

That, however, was before they came to the Queen City.

After a long weekend here, all four of them - each a discriminating critic of what constitutes a desirable community - confessed to being wow-ed.

Our itinerary was as follows:

We made ample use of our beautiful parks system: Saturday morning sand volleyball at Sawyer point; a visit to the beautiful Bengals-built tree house in Mt. Airy Forest; and a stroll at sunset around Ault Park.

To balance out all that recreation, we indulged in Cincinnati's culinary musts: My guests were intrigued by Cincinnati chili; charmed by the grazing options and ambience at Findlay Market; and became fast addicted to Graeters ice cream.  (If there's a rule that says you can only have Graeter's once a day, several of my visitors insisted on breaking it!) 

We explored our city's art - both old and new -  at the Taft Museum and Contemporary Art Center.  We glimpsed the architecture of historic buildings like Music Hall, the Museum Center, and Withrow High School.  We cheered our (1st place!) Reds on to victory.  And we took in the views - from both Price Hill and Mt. Adams - of our mighty river, our rolling hills, and our proud downtown skyline.  

Their 72 hours in Cincinnati left my guests breathless and impressed.  And just think how many of our City's gems and hidden treasurers there wasn't time to show them.

I love showing off Cincinnati to visitors because it lets me see the City anew through their eyes, and inevitably leaves me feeling lucky that I call this place home.

Being positive about where we live is easy in good times.  I would argue it's just as important that we promote a civic swagger in hard times, too.   And there's no doubt that these are hard times.

The City soon faces another daunting budget deficit that will demand difficult cuts.  We have a long way to go to make people feel safe in every neighborhood.  The City needs to attract new businesses and fresh young talent to our community.  Our race relations must continue to improve. 

These challenges are real and they will not be addressed overnight.  But we also know that solutions and progress will come not by complaining, not by criticizing, not by cutting down the very community we wish to build up, but instead by first believing that Cincinnati's brightest days remain ahead of us.

The best way to do that is to remind ourselves that we have much about which we can and should continue to feel good.  Indeed, Cincinnati is blessed with assets that would make it the envy of most cities.

I have not yet mentioned our greatest asset of all: the people who are this city.  I had the good fortune during the time in my life that I was away from Cincinnati to live and work in some of the most exciting cities on earth: Bangkok, London, and yes, New York City.  I admit that I might be a bit biased, but my unscientific observation suggests that the people in Cincinnati are as proud of their home, as friendly with their neighbors, and as dedicated to the future of their city as any people on the planet.

So let's start being our own best promoters.  Because a city's flaws and strengths need not be mutually exclusive.  We can confront our problems and still project a swagger. 

I spend my days thinking about - and doing my best to act on - ways in which our schools can be used to help revitalize neighborhoods, and, in turn, neighborhoods can be tapped to help strengthen schools.

Naturally, I was thrilled with the recent announcement that Cincinnati Public Schools advanced to the "Effective" category on the Ohio Report Card - the highest mark for the district since the state began its current ranking system a decade ago.

This is good news for all of us, whether we have children enrolled in CPS or not.  We know - both intuitively and from research - that a stronger school system translates into greater economic development, lower crime rates, higher property values, and a heightened level of civic participation. 

A weak school system, on the other hand, flips all of those trends in the wrong direction.  Personally, I know that every time young married friends of mine tell me that they're moving outside the City so they can send their kids to quality public schools, I sense a lost opportunity.

The important thing now is to build on our current momentum.  The biggest kudos for the recent progress belongs to the principals, teachers, and students who worked so hard all school year to boost academic achievement.

But there's another group deserving of acknowledgement and appreciation.  That would be you: the community.  Without the vast network of community partners - from funders to program providers to individual volunteers – the recent gains could never have been realized.

In recent years, Cincinnati has created a nationally recognized model for schools as community learning centers dedicated to serving as extended-hour neighborhood hubs open to both students and non-student residents in the surrounding community.  These community learning centers provide additional academic support, health resources, after-school activities, recreational opportunities, and venues for neighborhood events.

One of those community learning centers is Oyler School in Lower Price Hill, which in the last several years has risen from "Academic Emergency" up to "Continuous Improvement."

"Our success simply would not have been possible without our partners," Craig Hockenberry, Oyler's principal who was honored earlier this year with the Cincinnatus Association's James N. Jacobs Outstanding Administrator award, told me.  "We've developed our school as the pillar of the community in Lower Price Hill, and both the school and the neighborhood are better off for it.  We've learned from our partners how to effectively align our resources and demand accountability.  The way forward is for every school to be a true community learning center."

Whether it's the United Way and Greater Cincinnati Foundation helping pay for the critical position of school resource coordinators, the Freestore Foodbank providing meals through its "Kids Café," or individual volunteers like Rita Hudepohl who has been tutoring and mentoring 3rd graders at Oyler school for the last 15 years, the clear takeaway is that only the whole community working together can help lift up the young people who are the future of our city.

So what can you do?

Every one of us has a talent and a small amount of time each week to share it.  In my case, I've been told my singing voice and my yoga poses are nothing anyone should be taught to emulate, so I'm sticking with what I know: This fall at CPS' Quebec Heights Elementary School, I'll be piloting a citizen journalism workshop that I'm calling "Neighborhood News Crews."  For an hour and a half each week, students, parents, and community members will spend a portion of each session reading and discussing current newspaper articles and then spend the rest of the time brainstorming, researching, and writing stories about their own neighborhoods.  The goal is to practice literacy skills while also boosting civic awareness so that publications like this one have readers and writers a generation from now.  I encourage others to share their passions with students eager to discover a passion of their own.

In his keynote address at the UC Economics Center award luncheon last spring, former Procter & Gamble CEO John Pepper said continued progress "will take the community - and by 'community,' I mean all of us - believing and acting on the conviction that the development of the children in our community is our highest priority."

For the more than 33,000 public school students in our city, their future is clearly a brighter one when all of us walk by their side.

After last week's good news, the community should give itself a well-deserved pat on the back.  And then it's time to refocus our efforts and to do even more.