ThisIsOTR Instagrams Over-the-Rhine

"What's it really like?" That single question sparked a new photo-streaming website, ThisisOtr.com. 

 

The site automatically aggregates photos from Instagram if they are tagged with the hashtag #ThisIsOtr. The simple website was brought to life by two Urban Sites employees, Mia Carruthers and Michael Chewning. Carruthers, an OTR resident, says she was tired of answering questions from people who hadn't visited the neighborhood recently.

 

"I wanted a way to show people that don't live here and maybe don't know what is going on in OTR right now what this place really is," Carruthers says. "You can say it to anyone, but until they see it from people who enjoy OTR, they're not going to get it."

 

With that in mind, the two asked a friend if making the website was possible. Soon after, it was up and running. After posting the website on their Facebook pages, it quickly gained traction on social media. After launching last week, the website already has dozens of photos of the buildings, people and art in Over-the-Rhine. 

 

Urban Sites manages properties for more than 500 residents and will be opening up 23 new apartments on Walnut Street in the coming months. Chewning says they also thought of making the website as a way to give all of Urban Sites' residents a way to connect. With it already in the public domain, though, it can connect the entire community.

 

"We've seen pictures from a lot of people we didn't even know lived in OTR," Carruthers says. "Now I want to meet them all. I think it will be a great way for people to network, and it really showed us that there are people who feel the same way we do about OTR and want others to see that, too."