Anyone watch Econcat88's Youtube's videos about Toledo?

[residinghere2007]

I haven't seen vidoes of the guy, but there are plenty of places around the country that have woes in regards to urban planning and implantation of strategic improvements.

Toledo is in much better shape than a lot of other localities, but that doesn't mean that there is not room for improvement and I agree that downtown should be the primary focus.

In regards to the "white flight" stuff mentioned above, I don't think that that issue is as widespread in Toledo as it has been in year's pass in other cities. Toledo is a pretty diverse city even today and not only white people move away from Toledo. A large amount of my close high school classmates moved away from Toledo, not just white ones either. In general, I would say, from living in other locations across the country, that Toledo hasn't experienced the level of "white flight" versus other places and race relations in general are good and have been good for many years.

Of course there are majority black or white areas but on the whole Toledo is not a majority black city. If you want to see true "white flight" then you can even look 50 miles to the north and see Detroit which used to be diverse like Toledo but now over 90% black. I could never imagine anything like that happening in Toledo, people moving based primarily on race. The move to the burbs and to Columbus where a lot of people I know moved to, are primarily driven by economics, job opportunities, safety or education issues, and not by race. There are lower income levels across all racial boundaries in Toledo so "white flight" is not a true description of what is occurring in regards to people leaving the city.

That said, and like I said in response to another negative comment posted earlier, people's views of the city do make a difference. I personally feel that transit would be a great place to start in regards to doing some major improvements in Toledo especially in regards to rail service but that is extremely expensive and not something that hardly any municipality would undertake. Many studies have shown that people in general would rather take a train than a bus and I am black and know a lot of black people in Toledo who would never take TARTA mostly due to the cost and the fact that it is slow and not efficient anymore so it doesn't have much to do with race.

[EconCat88]

Toledo suffers from having too many residents believing things that really aren't so.

The roads here are horrendous, but the council and many citizens support wasting money for murals and repairing the deadzone aka Erie Street Market.

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by EconCat88

Toledo suffers from having too many residents believing things that really aren't so.

The roads here are horrendous, but the council and many citizens support wasting money for murals and repairing the deadzone aka Erie Street Market.

Do you have an example of the city wasting money on murals? Usually those are funded by private non-profit foundations or community groups. In any case, I don't think they have to be mutually exclusive. A few thousand to put a mural on a blighted building isn't the reason that roads are going unpaved.

[Buckeye Burgher]

I know someone with a Toledo-based business. This guy's videos have definitely NOT been helpful to his recruiting efforts.

[rrtechno]

I haven't seen the video. I'm curious as to how long it is. To give a true picture of an area the size of Toledo by showing everything, it would need to be at least several hours long. Otherwise it is going to just focus on the good or the bad, whichever opinion you are trying to portray.

And since lately it seems like more people are out to portray the bad, that is what will most likely get the greatest response.

[residinghere2007]

Wanted to say I watched a few of your videos EconCat and thought they were interesting and kind of funny considering you didn't go to many of the nicer parts of Toledo and focused primarily on blighted areas.

Also, since I recently moved back from Atlanta, even the blighted neighborhoods here in Toledo look great compared to blight in Atlanta where there is feet of trash and dumped garbage all over the place in many of their lower income neighborhoods so I think I just have a different perspective than most in that regard here because I have seen more blight than I care to acknowledge over the years I lived in other cities. Toledo, is pretty clean in comparison.

I do think roads need to be improved, but I am also very shocked at how quickly the city responds to request to fills pot holes and the fact that the city will actually board up an abandoned house and cut its grass. In Atlanta they won't board up vacant houses or cut grass and so some houses have grass as tall as the house in lower income neighborhoods. My relatives think I am crazy because I am always excited at how many new potholes have been filled over the past few weeks or days here.

But I do think they need to strip and re-pave quite a few roads in Toledo. I know a portion of Nebraska is being re-paved and Alexis is being re-paved. They were done shockingly fast too IMO.

[maxmodder]

Originally Posted by GuestZero

Really I've got to ask, why does anyone believe Toledo is being badly represented by Econcat's video camera? It's like saying your eyes lie to you when you look around your city. He does enough panning to show his viewpoint isn't narrow at all. If anything, the camera lens is pointed at the downtown, but Toledo's "homers" keep claiming everything is so vibrant and prosperous there. If anything, what's going on is Econcat's camera is point out the Big Lie about Toledo's downtown.

Toledo is really a White Flight tragedy in action. Businesses with sustainable jobs and particular good-paying jobs are invariably found outside the city limits. Basically, if you want to find a good job, you're not going to find one along the city's bus lines. And we all know why that is, since we all know who rides those buses.

City homers will do a anything to try and sugarcoat an area, when all they are really doing is ruining the lives of people by flat out lying to them. "You will do better in Toledo...right.....".

Misery loves company and those who are afraid of change or unwilling to relocate due to some limiting factor will do anything to promote their city, even if it means flat out lying. I find it to be rather pathetic. Bunch of homers trying to drag others down with them...

And then to report false attendance numbers at 5/3rd field?! 10,000 showed up! (When there is only 1000 people in the stands.)