What Happened to Queen City Discovery?
Maybe you arrived at this particular spot of the internet because you were looking for QueenCityDiscovery.com, maybe you came here via one of the linked social media posts, or maybe you were redirected from Google. If you were looking for Queen City Discovery (QC/D) and its talk of ghost ships, abandoned subways, Waffle House conversations, forgotten amusement parks, 35mm film, and its many other subjects—it’s all still here. The site, however, has changed.
So, if you don’t mind, allow me to explain...
I’ve spent a lot of time at Mecklenburg Gardens in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Corryville. Starting in 2016, it was one of the main FC Cincinnati supporter bars. On match days, I loved spending time with friends in the historic biergarten. For four seasons, myself and many other fans kicked off the march to the stadium from the corner of University and Highland. We always passed a nearby coffee shop and while I’d always notice the place—I had never made the effort to stop by. Until life changed and I found myself there typing this: a post that explains the “disappearance” of QC/D. I realize, though (because I’ve done it a lot over the years in QC/D stories) that writing phrases such as “I could’ve never imagined...” is pointless. It’s useless to bargain with the past. While it’s true that I never envisioned what a labor of love QC/D would become (or how long it would last) when I started it in a dorm room back in 2007, I am grateful for where it has led me—to the conversations it allowed me to have, to the stories I was able to share.
The site turned ten years old in 2017, thirteen this past October. Like so much of QC/D’s subject matter over the years—I could’ve abandoned it, left it to be forgotten, just waiting around to be discovered only by those curious enough to still seek it out. There were times when I seriously considered that. Having to go back and gloss over all 600+ posts brought up a lot of good memories, but also quite a few tough ones. Some older posts were just plain awkward or cringe inducing to read (but then again, bargaining with the past is pointless, no matter how much 31 year old me wishes he could tell his 18 year old self to write something differently). Ultimately—I wanted to carry QC/D, and all of the work behind it, forward and with me. To do so, though, it had to change and there were two reasons behind the shift you now see on this post today.
1) Technical: In 2007, Google’s “Blogger” service was all the rage while Wordpress and similar services represented weak competition. The publishing platform from the search engine giant seemed like the best bet. And it was, for a little while anyways. If you read QC/D the last few years, you probably noticed that it looked awful on your phone, was hard to navigate, and unless you were on a desktop: you couldn’t even search the site. So, the website needed a new back end. One that would be easier to view, read, and for me: publish from.
2) Personal: QC/D has always been a reflection of myself. When it started, the primary subject matter was urban exploration (documenting abandoned locales) and local history. That’s what I was into then, but in the years since—my interests, career, and experiences with both visual and written work have dramatically evolved. I found myself wanting to share stories and content that weren’t just limited to a niche subject, but perhaps something that could potentially resonate on a more universal level. And, frankly, the things I began sharing more frequently (and ideas I was jotting in my notebook) were no longer limited solely to the borders of Cincinnati. As my life changed, so did my relationship to the city and the greater world around me.
In his 2018 book Adventures with the Mojave Phone Booth, Godfrey “Doc” Daniels recalled his reasoning for making a web page dedicated to a unique piece of telephone equipment: “...namely, that if it appealed to me, it might appeal to people similar to me.” There were a lot of reasons for starting QC/D, but the main one was that I hoped the stories I’d be sharing might resonate with someone else—maybe the site could have an effect on others in the ways I had been affected. It could show someone that there’s other people out there sharing similar experiences, having similar thoughts, and at times: struggling in the same vein.
QC/D now lives on as RonnySalerno.com with all of my work compiled in one place. I have a lot of posts lined up and ready to go, not to mention the film that still needs developed, the memory cards I still need to go through, and the drafts I need to finish writing. To those of you who have been reading all these years: thank you, it truly means more than you could know. I hope you’ll stick with me as I continue publishing content here. And, if you’d like to stay up on the latest, please consider following me on social media via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (EDIT: I figured out how to add an RSS feed too).
All the past QC/D stories can be found here and this new site has pages dedicated to…
Urban Exploration
Suburbia Lost
35mm Ohio
Kings Waffle
Views of Cincinnati
…additionally, there’s a few other series, my entire portfolio, some favorite written work, and more throughout this new site.
If you come across an error or see something missing, please reach out.
Here’s a look at some of the stories to come...
Special thanks to everyone (especially Nate Patrick and Travis Estell) who provided feedback and assistance as I got this new phase of work underway.
