Industrial and commercial center on the Ohio River, Cincinnati has long been characterized as a bastion of conservative Republican culture, with strong German, Irish and Catholic institutions, as well as a Protestant elite epitomized in the Republican Taft family. This conservatism, however, has been challenged by the city’s universities and artists, including a famous debate over the obscenity of a 1989 Robert Mapplethorpe exhibit at the Contemporary Arts Center. Cincinnati also hosts strong professional sports traditions, including football’s Bengals and baseball’s Reds, whose owner, Marge Schott, was censored for racist remarks. Hence the city of 345,818 people (metro 1,948,264), despite its placid, home-town image, entails continual complexities and contradictions—indeed, shock talk-show host Jerry Springer was once its mayor.