Jacob Hoffner Park

Jacob Hoffner Park right in the heart of Northside, where everyone comes together throughout the year and busiest in the summer months for the weekly Farmer’s Market and you can’t miss the highlight of the summer the Rock n’ Roll Carnival around the 4^th of July.
Stop on by and you’ll always be in the middle of the Northside happenings in Hoffner Park.

Though not a huge park, Hoffner is functional and well-​maintained. I’ve yet to explore the extents of it, but I always see children in the playground and have frequented the Northside Farmer’s Market during warm weather.
The best feature of this park is its physical location: it’s in a prime spot, right smack dab in the Northside business district. There are festivals held in Hoffner Park when the weather permits and I’ve enjoyed a to-​go snack from PIcnic and Pantry while sitting on a park bench. It’s accessible to everyone and although it is far smaller than other Cincinnati parks, I think it is a little gem in this part of the city.

I didn’t even know this was a park until last year, when I went here for the Northside Rock n’ Roll Carnival. Honestly, I just thought it was a little outdoor civic patio where you could sit for a second if you needed to.
Jacob Hoffner actually goes back farther than I thought it would (it’s still not very big, but it’s bigger than it looks from the road) and is very pretty. Always well maintained and super green in the summer. As others have pointed out, though, usually empty. It’s not a park where you see kids playing Frisbee or people walking their dog. It’s just … there.
This is a shame, because it is a really nice spot on a day to day occasion, and then of course the Northside Rock n’ Roll Carnival is a monster! Tons of booths and people come through this space to hang out and do arts and crafts and eat and watch shows and music and all. It’s a great time and I wish this park could be that busy all the time. Ah well.
They also hold the Northside Farmers Market here, which is always a good time.
I love that there’s this wonderful green space in the middle of Northside’s busier buzzier business district. I’m going to do more to try to appreciate it whenever I come by.

Northside has plenty of ‘wild’ parks hemming its gown in nearly every direction, but located as its heart is an urban park, Jacob Hoffner Park.
And park is almost a misnomer. Its small size, manicured lawn with few trees, and central location to the Northside business district evoke a pint-​sized Boston Commons much more so than a similarly shrunken Golden Gate or Central Park.
This commons theme is taken up regularly by the successful Northside Farmers Market on Wednesday evenings and the popular annual Rock & Roll Carnival. Outside of those special occasions, the park is regularly but sparsely occupied by all types of people from rich to poor.
The lawn is large enough for some modest frisbee or catch, and children (and bored hipsters) commonly occupy the small playground.
The biggest change that I would like to see is to have it be even more full of people, all the time. Unfortunately this won’t happen until its’ dead bordering streets (basically all of them except Hamilton), are filled with places to live and work that produce a consistent pedestrian presence.
So I guess what i’m saying is that if you’re a business owner, why don’t you come and set up shop next to Jacob Hoffner Park?
heretoforth known as, the Northside Commons.

Hoffner park is most notable for hosting festivals during the Cincinnati Pride parade and the Northside 4h of July parade. The park is located in a space the size of a squared city block on Hamilton Avenue and has a brick gazebo, boring playground equipment and a few trees. This probably isn’t the safest place to cut through after dark but it’s a well known and passable city park.

Jacob Hoffner Park in Northside is small and doesn’t have much to offer, but it is nice little place in the heart of Northside, located at Blue Rock and Hamilton Avenues. The 31-​year-​old park, once known as the Northside Playground, was renovated in 2001 and it now has a playground area/​equipment for kids and a nice shelter.
Although just two acres big, there is plenty of green space inside the small walking path and the park is a good place to hold a picnic or bring kids if you live nearby. There are also plenty of benches, making it a much better place to sit and take in the scenery than from the doorsteps of the Hamilton Avenue buildings (like I saw a lot of on this day).

I walked around in this park today while working at the Pride Alive Festival. It’s a small park that doesn’t offer too much, but it’s still a really nice place to walk around. When you see the park from Hamilton Avenue there is a nice little brick wall around the entrance and small steps that lead you into the park.
It’s the perfect park for a festival such as Pride Alive. The circular walkway around the park is just perfect for setting up booths and allowing people to walk around all the booths while viewing performances and hanging out in the grassy center. There was a lot of sun today and the trees were really nice shade from the sun.
There is a small playground which seems decently new and a pavilion in the center where musicians were performing.