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I'm new to the forum, Ive been reading up on Ohio, the Wooster area, my husband and I are looking for a small town to live in, we live in a very big town in Chicago land as they call it, Arlington Heights. My husband is retired so work and traveling to work is not a problem. I am originally from Brooklyn believe it or not but I've been here in Illinois for 22 years and I like it well enough but Ohio is halfway to where my children are living, its a day trip which sounds great to me. Its either Ohio or Pa. and from what I am hearing I didn't pick out a great spot and pa is no bargain either. I have no idea what Ohio is like but when I read the stats and data on this site I almost died, Wooster is loaded with haszardous waste sites, what is that, what is hazardous waste? there must have been 30 HW sites on that little map, do they mean nuclear waste, sewerage?what? I was also dumbfounded by the amount of sex offenders, I had picked out houses in Orrville and wooster and Orville is even worse, 8,000 people and there were 9 rapes? an unusal amount of robberies and all this in a small town like that and that only goes up to 2005. Wooster is up there with the sex ooffenders too, whats up with that? now I have to find a new place to go and I have no idea where, any ideas? Any input will be appreciated.
Some realism needs to be infused into this talk about hazardous waste in Wooster. Wooster is surrounded by rolling, rich farm land and a very large Amish community. The Amish aren't walking around with 4 eyes and dying of cancer. Why is that? Because there are "Superfund Sites", and there are landfills and incinerators disposing of hazardous waste. What is a SUperfund SIte? SImply, an old gas station, industrial site, or other brown field that is no longer used, and needs cleaning up. This is what is probably in abundance around Wooster. The town in Ohio that has a hazardous waste issue is East Liverpool, an industrial town on the Ohio river not far from Pittsburgh. East Liverpool has an incinerator which disposes of things like medical waste from NYC. The cancer rate is quite elevated here.
As far as the sex crimes, Orrville and Wooster are safe, peaceful towns. In the year that Orrville had those rapes, there must have been some type of unusual event in town that I would try to get information on. There must have been a rash of rapes or something that year, and I would try to find out about that if you plan to move there. If those stats were normal, Orrville surely has a problem with rapes.
I live just south of the Oregon border, in California. (California in name only). The people here are very friendly and kind. Our weather is idealic. 'course we're about 100 miles inland from the Pacific. We don't have mosquitoes. We get a light snow, two or three times during the short winter, Usually gone in a day or two. Several inland lakes nearby and fishing is excellent for perch, bass, and crappie. The Klamath River is about a quarter mile away. Famous for Steelhead and salmon. Home heating is minimal. Most every one in the area has a monitor heater or uses a fireplace. I have a 2br, 2ba, fairly large house, and I burned 125 gallons of oil last winter. Being 45 miles south of Medford, Oregon, we do most of our major shopping there...There is no sales tax there. Gasoline has just recently gone up there, as elsewhere. It's now $3.25...$3.60 here.
Wife and I settled here after living the R.V. lifestyle for thirty years..."You name the place, we've been there" Born and raised in Michigan, lived in Florida 20 years before becoming RVers. I am former U.S. Marine Corps M.P. of W.W.2. and China civil war.
Questions???e/mail me...oldtimerdull@wmconnect.com
I've never found Ohio very appealing at all. I have relatives all over the state...and I am never excited to visit them. Columbus is boring and sprawly, suburban and auto-oriented...Cincinnati is the same. The economy isn't so great, except for the sprawling suburbs of Cincy and Columbus. The people are also much ruder then in PA. I did enjoy my trip to Cedar Point last summer and would like to go back. I think I like northern Ohio much more then any other part of the state. That being said, to the "paintballer" poster who was bashing PA...I'm sorry but PA offers much more then Ohio, and the economy is also much better.
Actually, I found the folks in Ohio kind of interesting. The outstanding characteristic that I saw was an extreme degree of passive aggressive. Although I know Wikipedia can be a bit dicey in their accuracy, I liked their definition of passive aggressive behavior:
"Passive-aggressive behavior refers to passive, sometimes obstructionist resistance to following authoritative instructions in interpersonal or occupational situations. It can manifest itself as resentment, stubbornness, procrastination, sullenness, or repeated failure to accomplish requested tasks for which one is assumed, often explicitly, to be responsible. It is a defensive posture and, more often than not, only partly conscious. For example, people who are passive-aggressive might take so long to get ready for a party they do not wish to attend, that the party is nearly over by the time they arrive."
In Pa, I found folks to be more inclined to say what they mean and mean what they say. Could be because my Pa experience is Philly, which is known for blunt dialogs.
If we are rednecks, then why do so many diverse peoples enjoy Toledo but avoid Cumberland? Why do we not need dialect coaching to obtain radio and television positions? Why, most of all, is the Toledo crime rate so much lower than Baltimore?
Thank you. Toledo is so far from redneck it's ridiculous. There is only ONE country music channel to be heard in the entire metropolitan area (that includes some Detroit and Windsor channels too). Most Ohio cities have anywhere from four to nearly a dozen country music channels. Toledo has by far the lowest number of country music fans in the state of Ohio and nearly all of the Midwest. Country radio has always struggled in the Toledo market, hence why there's only one channel left today. Are all country fans rednecks? Of course not. Do most rednecks listen to country? Yep.
A city with such a heavy Lebanese, Syrian, and Mexican influence just is not going to be very redneck, particularly by Midwestern standards. There is just too much variety in the "white" people (which counts all of the Arab population), and most Toledoans tend to be tolerant of others. There's a reason Toledo has the largest Islamic mosque in the country...
Toledo is "gritty liberal" more than anything else. That's by far the majority of the people. Toledo's accent is perferable to most of Maryland's (in terms of broadcast/radio), but it really is not entirely flat English. There is a Detroit, Ontario, and Great Lakes influence. It's subtle, but still noticeably different from the dialect in Tiffin and Findlay, which represent the closest thing to flat English in the country. The inland region of Northwest Ohio is where you'll actually find to flattest English. Toledo is influenced heavily by its Great Lakes location and culture.
While Toledo folks also have a regional accent ( I don't heeave an eeaccent is my favorite line of Toledo natives)
That's common Lake Erie nasal. You hear it in Detroit and Cleveland too.
There are beaches, though, on Lake Erie that are very nice. Luna Pier, MI, at exit 6 on I-75 North of Toledo, is very nice. The Western part of the Lake is quite shallow, with the shallest depths in the whole Great Lakes system. This means that, this time of year, the water near Toledo is warm enough for swimming sooner than the waters anywhere else in the whole Great Lakes system.
Absolutely. The water in Western Lake Erie is by far the warmest on the Great Lakes and the swimming season lasts four months. East Harbor (Ottawa County) is actually my favorite of all the beaches. It's incredibly clean, shallow, and has great sand. It's also one of the largest beaches on the Ohio side of Lake Erie.
Toledo is full of college grads from Appalachian places. All of the Ohio cities, in fact, are full of folks from WVA, the old industrial towns of Western PA and NY, etc.
Toledo not nearly as much as Columbus or Cincinnati. You rarely hear an Appalachian or Southern accent in Toledo. In Cincinnati, most white folks have a Southern or Appalachian accent. In Columbus and Dayton, a large number do too (though it's lighter). In Toledo and Cleveland, it's become very rare. Very few Appalachians are moving to the Lake Erie area today, and the original wave was smaller than elsewhere in Ohio. Most Appalachians today are moving to Columbus and Cincinnati, thus keeping the culture alive in those cities.
Columbus is boring and sprawly, suburban and auto-oriented...Cincinnati is the same. The economy isn't so great, except for the sprawling suburbs of Cincy and Columbus.
Pretty fair, though do understand that this is common all over the Midwest, South, and interior West (most of America is auto-oriented). Ohio is not exactly known for its great urban places (like NYC, San Francisco, Boston, etc.). Many urban areas in Ohio are dilapidated and/or economically weak. Redevelopment has been very slow, and a lot of buildings in the urban cores have been demolished. Surface parking lots are way too common in Ohio's downtown areas. There is no metro rail anywhere but Cleveland.
Urban sprawl is remarkably huge in Ohio despite the slow-growing population. It's disgusting and the state has a serious pro-suburban bias. A lot of Ohioans are scared of urban areas, though that varies greatly region to region. I don't think there are any other cities the size of Cincinnati that have produced as much sprawl. Ironically, Cincinnati still maintains the state's healthiest central business district. Talk about contrast!
There is Lake Erie... but whats there. Walleye fishing-- yes, thats fun... other than that, drinking, bars, the same old. They have an entire island--Put-in-Bay, devoted to drinking. There are some historic sites there, but the main attraction is the booze.
Look, you're in the Midwest. Midwesterners drink a lot of alcohol, plain and simple. Though you need to visit other parts of Ohio to see what real alcoholism is all about. I've been all around this state, and Toledo doesn't drink as much alcohol...it smokes more weed due to Detroit/Canada. Excluding Put-in-Bay and Bowling Green, Toledoans tend to drink more responsibly than elsewhere (though there's still a lot of problems). The things I've seen in Columbus and ATHENS (especially Athens) make Toledo look sober.
With that said, I like how metro Toledo's nightlife areas are heavily concentrated in just a few places. Other than Downtown, Bowling Green, and Put-in-Bay (summer), there aren't many nightlife districts. This makes bar hopping a lot easier than in some other Ohio metros I've seen. Toledo has some consolidation.
As far as Lake Erie goes, you just didn't go to the right places. East Harbor is the most popular state park in all of Ohio and has an outstanding beach. Luna Pier (just minutes north of the city) has a nice beach too. If you judge Lake Erie on just Maumee Bay, that judgment will be flawed. Hell, I'd actually rather swim in the river than the bay. The bay has concentrated pollution and is notoriously bad for swimming. It's used more for boating, sailing, and windsurfing.
And, if you never went to Oak Openings (just for the smell even), you didn't experience all of Toledo's outdoor/nature offerings. Like I said before, the metropark system is outstanding. The parks have good crowds every day the weather is nice.
It is a small, boring midwest city, with a deadly fixation on sports, restaurants, and drinking.
People like restaurants in Toledo because they're cheap and the quality of the ethnic food is outstanding. Most cities don't have anything on the level of Beirut, Byblos, Georgio's, or hell, even Tony Packo's. The Lebanese, Polish, and Hungarian food is not only top-notch, it's quite affordable. Toledo also has more restaurants per capita than any other large city in America. You've probably heard that one before.
As far as sports goes....yeah, people care too much about them. However, you obviously haven't spent much time in Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland if you think Toledo has a "deadly fixation on sports." Toledoans don't even approach what you see elsewhere in Ohio. They're more like Detroit fans (which includes Toledo). They support their teams and will sometimes watch them on TV, but it is not religion. In other parts of Ohio, sports have religious followings. Missing a Buckeyes game is unheard of in much of the state. Toledoans care far less...
Toledo is also a far more open-minded, welcoming city than either of these Maryland cities
-first major American city to elect an Arab mayor
-first Ohio city to elect an Hispanic head of city council
-first Ohio city to elect an openly gay man head of city council
-MARCY KAPTUR
Actually, I found the folks in Ohio kind of interesting. The outstanding characteristic that I saw was an extreme degree of passive aggressive. Although I know Wikipedia can be a bit dicey in their accuracy, I liked their definition of passive aggressive behavior:
"Passive-aggressive behavior refers to passive, sometimes obstructionist resistance to following authoritative instructions in interpersonal or occupational situations. It can manifest itself as resentment, stubbornness, procrastination, sullenness, or repeated failure to accomplish requested tasks for which one is assumed, often explicitly, to be responsible. It is a defensive posture and, more often than not, only partly conscious. For example, people who are passive-aggressive might take so long to get ready for a party they do not wish to attend, that the party is nearly over by the time they arrive."
In Pa, I found folks to be more inclined to say what they mean and mean what they say. Could be because my Pa experience is Philly, which is known for blunt dialogs.
Once again, that is chalked to perception. Are there rude, even passive-aggressive people in Ohio? Sure. I'll never say there are not. HOWEVER, are there rude, passive-aggressive people in Philly? Absolutely (despite the "blunt dialog" whitewash). Are there rude, passive-aggressive people in California? You can bet money on it.
Yes, I've been in Philly. Yes, I've engaged in "blunt dialogs." I don't particularly care for the severe lack of social grace, and we are talking about people who have the intelligence to conduct themselves better. I tend to find it an inconsiderate, disrespectful practice because you can communicate without being so boorish. Unfortunately, that's just the way they work, and have decided not to subject myself to such. If you'll pardon the grammar, it's a decision we both can live with.
A manifestation of resentment? A defensive posture? Assuming the Wikipedia definition is accurate, with other people giving residents of Ohio grief on and off the boards with broad-brush accusations (at best!), would it not be simple human nature to engender such traits? This would be similar to the brooding student who is the target of all the "cool kids" ridicule. I'm sure some of you have been there...
You do get back what you put out there, America, and from my recent musings it appears the rest of the continental 48 really could use a big hug.
I grew up in Ohio (born in Toledo raised in Waterville). I loved growing up there. We always found things to do.
"Pop" is said in other places too, not just Ohio.
Mosquito's in FL are MUCH worse & BIGGER.
Rednecks in Toledo?? NOT HARDLY! LOL that's really pretty funny.
There are all kinds of parks in the Toledo area. My brother was a park ranger there for 30 years.
There is fishing and boating in and near Toledo also, camping and hiking, etc.
There are winter activities (sledding, skating, etc) in Toledo and skiing not too far over Michigan's border.
I live in AZ now and love it here, because we don't get snow. But there are disadvantages here too. I miss the change of seasons. I miss the summers, camping, cooking out, laying in the grass, watching the star gazing, sleeping with the window open, drinking a lemonade on the front porch swing. You can't do any of that here in AZ in the sumer in 115 degree heat. And neighbors don't stay neighbors very long here for some reason. They move a lot. Not that people aren't friendly, because they are. It would take hours to drive from one side of Phoenix to the other; all of the towns around it just run into Phoenix and becoame part of it.
Where is this Mosque in Toledo ? I know there is a large Mosque in Perrysburg, near I-75 and I-475.
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Sad, Sad, Sad
