It seemed like anytime the mayor left town something bad would happen.
When a street brawl went viralon the internet, disorder broke out on Opening Day and a historic flood swampedneighborhoods, Mayor Aftab Pureval was not here.
While Pureval faced public criticism and scrutiny on his travel schedule, many, including city council members, leapt to his defense. After all, you can't schedule disasters.
Still the question remained, how much does the mayor travel?
Through a public records request, The Enquirer obtained his schedule for the first eight months of 2026. The records show that travel represented a relatively small portion of the mayor's schedule, which was largely dominated by meetings with business leaders, government officials, community
groups and residents.
And there's the mundane mixed in.
"Clean your coffee mugs!!!!" was one reminder set for Feb. 17 at 1:15 p.m. on Pureval's calendar.
The Enquirer analyzed the schedule and interviewed the mayor. Here are six takeaways from what Pureval's schedule showed:
Pureval meets with mayors from around the country
Most of Pureval's travel involved conferences with other mayors. He took six official trips outside the Cincinnati region, accounting for about 20 days away from Cincinnati in total between Jan. 1 and early August. His personal travel, including a one-night appearance on "The Daily Show" in July, is not reflected in the schedule. So a complete list of his time out of the city wasn't possible.
But based on six official trips and three private trips that are known, Pureval made at least nine trips outside of the Cincinnati region this year as of August.
Three of the six official trips Pureval made were for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, an advocacy group founded during the Great Depressionfor mayors of cities with populations of 30,000 or more.
Pureval said taxpayers get a return on investment from these trips.
"The challenge that we have is that it's not that we have a bad reputation on the national stage," Pureval said. "It's that we have no reputation. And so, in order to change that, in order to actually put Cincinnati on the front of people's minds, whether they're investing or whether they're looking to bring a large event, it's important to be in those rooms cheerleading for Cincinnati."
Mayor said travel has helped attract investment
Pureval couldn't point to specific companies that have located here as a result of his diplomacy. But the money that Bloomberg Philanthropies has poured into the city came from his association in the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Pureval said.
That money has been used for a variety of green infrastructure projects, such as the Cincinnati Parks biochar project to create charcoal that is environmentally friendly and helps captures carbon in the atmosphere. It also pays for the city's Innovation Team, which has led a variety of initiatives, including distributing water misters in overheated neighborhoods, a program to give free e-bikes to residents, streamlining permits and eliminating Duke Energy late fees.
Pureval also credited his relationship with the U.S. Conference of Mayors with helping to convince the federal government to pay for the construction of the Brent Spence Bridge companion bridge.
Pureval took at least three additional personal trips that don't appear on the schedule: a vacation in March, a one-night trip to New York to film a guest spot on "The Daily Show" and a trip to a summit in Los Angeles for Asian American leaders.
Here's where Pureval went in the first half of 2026:
Meeting with P&G, Fifth Third execs to discuss safety
The schedule also offers a window into who bends the ear of the mayor on certain issues.
As concerns about Downtown crime simmered during the summer, Pureval in mid-July met with some of the region's most powerful business leaders to discuss public safety. Although the calendar provides little detail about the discussion, it shows Pureval hosted a July 13 meeting with Procter & Gamble CEO Shailesh Jejurikar, Fifth Third CEO Timothy Spence and Steve Leeper, the CEO of nonprofit developer Center City Development Corp. The meeting was simply labeled "safety meeting."
Earlier in the day, Pureval met in his office with the executives of two hotels, Corporex and Commonwealth, "to discuss crime and car break-ins" near their Downtown hotel properties.
Pureval said he couldn't recall exactly what was said in the meeting but he met with the police and "community partners" over the summer to talk about lowering Downtown crime.
"We've been grateful to receive consistent feedback from residents and businesses, and I'm extremely proud of the progress we made this summer in our urban core," Pureval said in an email to The Enquirer.
Business leaders also weighed in on income tax
Pureval met over Microsoft Teams with business leaders, including a Procter & Gamble executive, on April 23 to discuss the mayor's proposal to raise the income tax, according to the schedule. In the meeting with the mayor was Procter & Gamble state Government and Community Relations Director Brian Hodgett, Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber President Brendon Cull and Cincinnati Business Committee President Gary Lindgren.
A few months later in August, Pureval opted to postpone the income tax proposal until another year.
The rising cost of living along with two major tax levies on the ballot – Cincinnati Public Schools and Hamilton County children's services – convinced Pureval now isn't the time for an income tax hike.
Ambassadors seek meetings with Pureval
Meeting with ambassadors from around the world is a larger part of the mayoral job than Pureval anticipated when he became mayor in 2022. This doesn't require the mayor to travel. They usually come to him when they're visiting Cincinnati for various reasons. On May 8, New Zealand Ambassador Chris Seed met with the mayor in his office. A month later, a Guatemalan ambassador visited Pureval "to strengthen the relationship between the City of Cincinnati and the Consulate General of Guatemala."
"Whenever a consulate, I believe Zimbabwe was here recently, whenever they have reached out, I see it as part of my responsibility to welcome them to the city to offer any opportunities for cultural sharing," Pureval said.
The mayor wouldn't elaborate on what was discussed in these diplomatic meetings.
Cincinnati has nine sister cities around the world. Pureval and the mayor of Harare, Zimbabwe, signed a renewed agreement Aug. 14 to continue their sister city status.
City Hall is a cheap wedding venue
Weddings are expensive. But saying "I do" at City Hall with the mayor officiating is free.
He performed three marriages in the first eight months of 2026, including the July 29 nuptials of Ohio House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn. Isaacsohn and his wife exchanged their vows on the marble steps inside City Hall.
Often, couples will choose the mayor's office, saying their vows in front of the city and state flags. Pureval said he moved his desk to another part of the room to create an alcove for weddings. He's performed weddings elsewhere in the city, including one earlier this year in the rose garden of Ault Park.
"People reach out," Pureval said. "They ask me to marry them. Sometimes they come with a photographer in a dress and a tuxedo with a wedding party. Sometimes it's just two people. But in any instance, it's one of my favorite parts of the job."
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ambassadors, weddings, trips: What Aftab Pureval's calendar reveals
