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David, great comments from someone who wasn't born here. These days people can be negative so it was refreshing to read through your post.
While I was born here, I did spend quite a few years away from Toledo. Six years in the Navy, and after coming back for nine years moved and stayed away for about eight and a half years. Many times when I mentioned I was from Toledo people would get a smirk on their face, people who had never been here. I recall my father saying people who move away always seem to come back. Didn't think I would but here I am, back since 2007.
Some places you might consider if you're ever back and make a mini-vacation out of it:
The Toledo Zoo - I haven't been there in decades but it's supposed to still be a great zoo. You can take a virtual tour here: https://www.toledozoo.org/
Some of the theatres and even the Huntington Center (very close to where you took the pictures of downtown Toledo), offer plays and other entertainment. For example, Mannheimer Steamroller will be at the Stranahan Center on November 30th, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra will be at the Huntington Center December 1st. The Valentine Theatre is another one to consider.
Botanical Gardens is a place some people really enjoy. I've never been there. Looks like there site is down, but this is a short description of it by Toledo Metroparks: https://metroparkstoledo.com/explore...anical-garden/ Maybe you mentioned this one in your post I don't recall.
My impression is that Toledo didn't get a bad rap until at least the 1980's. I could be wrong. My impression also is that a lot of people from Cleveland like to put our city down. Might be because they want to deflect from the negative comments about their city from around the country? Guess they figure Toledo being less populated than Cleveland and being close to Michigan make us easy targets.
Wanted to note on the bold that my great grandmother said people thought low of Toledo because it was a pretty "rough and drunk" town in the early half of the 20th century lol. One of the first neighborhoods that saw a lot of "urban renewal" was the Canton district in Warren Sherman, mentioned above. The whole neighborhood was basically torn down and rebuilt. I have pictures of my dad's old neighborhood and some of relatives in the late 1890s/early1900s and it is totally different today, basically unrecognizable except for the large landmarks that are still there like the abandoned old German church on Canton and the old Toledo Day Nursery on Woodruff. My great grandmother grew up around State Street, which used to be a residential neighborhood and which was demolished and the city built all the Police buildings/lots over there.
My family has lived in Toledo since the 1850s and my great grandmother's side the longest and she told me a lot of great gems of stories about growing up in Toledo in the 1920s and 1930s. She said it was filled with "gangsters, prostitutes, and criminals" lol.
I also remember reading about one of our most famous natives - Gloria Steinem and her also sharing the sentiment that she wanted to get away from Toledo because it was a crappy city and she felt trapped with limited opportunities (plus she had a pretty bad family situation). FWIW she grew up in the neighborhood my family lived in from the late 19th century until the 1930s when she was born. It was in the Warren Sherman area, near Canton Ave and Bancroft/Cherry Street. There used to be a large Jewish population over there. Grandma said they ran all the stores but some of them were "gangsters." She often mentioned the Irish gangsters lol. And the Polish people who used to want to beat up blacks who went across Lagrange street. Evidently this was a fun thing to do as my dad also remembers this and he got a kick out of fighting Polish boys and they'd beat up Polish boys who came too close to their neighborhood too.
Toledo used to be considered one of the "drunkest" cities in America due to the amount of bars in the city. Cherry Street used to be the "skid row" basically of Toledo. My own 4th great grandfather was a saloonkeeper in the 19th century in Toledo and in Detroit (and FWIW I also prefer the Maumee scenery over the Detroit River, but both are beautiful. I mostly love the view of the Detroit River from the Ambassador Bridge to/from Canada).
Last edited by residinghere2007; 11-21-2017 at 08:24 AM..
FYI - I75 being widened is not something that is funded or managed by the City of Toledo. It is an ODOT/state project.
I used to be a project manager for roads/highways in another state and many people are unaware of the fact that cities really don't have anything to do with interstate highways, county, or state roads. The cities only control "city" streets/avenues/roads and no other. They can try to lobby the feds/state/counties to fix/repave certain roads, but it is not up to the city.
In regards to companies being low quality who are paving, I know that in the City of Toledo there are only a handful of asphalt paving companies. FWIW I always try to get young people interested in starting a paving company because there is a lack of them really all over the country. None of them in Toledo are paving streets out of their homes lol. Smaller companies do usually fill in pot holes because they are not anything all that technical, but for striping/repaving, those are big companies or subcontractors of big companies and none of them are run out of homes. Usually 2-4 companies in this area do all the paving in Toledo because local companies do get a preference in city bids and there just aren't that many companies in the city that can do large striping/repaving projects.
FWIW when I worked in Atlanta, there weren't even that many companies down that that were local who did street paving. Their interstates are great down there (again, federal or state road) but their inner city roads are crappy too.
I honestly don't think Toledo's are all that bad considering I've driven to every major city in Ohio over the past 3 years quite frequently for work and I've been to various large and small cities in MI and some in IN as well and all of them have bad roads within the city boundaries. Indianapolis was very surprising how crappy their streets were, worst than Toledo IMO. I also drove around Kent, OH for a business trip and MAN they had some craters in Kent. I had to do 15-20 mph down many of those streets for fear of damaging the rental car.
ETA: Wanted to note as well that cement is a good alternative to asphalt but there are lots of composites used as well in paving streets. Most agencies/cities don't use cement for roads because its more expensive than apshalt or composite materials. People already don't want to pay for streets to be repaired and the cost is pretty high for a concrete road. However, concrete does last longer so I do agree there should be more of a cost/benefit analysis at play and what the maintenance cost of the surface will be.
if you believe half the stuff you tell me, i have beach front property in north dakota to sell you.
ask who stripes the streets in toledo. its a findlay company without a building. so yes, operating out of their house.
toledo is the proverbial toothless drunk that likes to get punched in the face.
john denver even made a song about how bad toledo is. and that was in the 70's.
In my opinion, the primary roads in Toledo are for the most part, tolerable or fine. The problem as I see it is the main roads are always in a state of perpetual construction, making traffic annoying.....and local/residential streets don't get any attention.
Wanted to note on the bold that my great grandmother said people thought low of Toledo because it was a pretty "rough and drunk" town in the early half of the 20th century lol. One of the first neighborhoods that saw a lot of "urban renewal" was the Canton district in Warren Sherman, mentioned above. The whole neighborhood was basically torn down and rebuilt. I have pictures of my dad's old neighborhood and some of relatives in the late 1890s/early1900s and it is totally different today, basically unrecognizable except for the large landmarks that are still there like the abandoned old German church on Canton and the old Toledo Day Nursery on Woodruff. My great grandmother grew up around State Street, which used to be a residential neighborhood and which was demolished and the city built all the Police buildings/lots over there.
My family has lived in Toledo since the 1850s and my great grandmother's side the longest and she told me a lot of great gems of stories about growing up in Toledo in the 1920s and 1930s. She said it was filled with "gangsters, prostitutes, and criminals" lol.
I also remember reading about one of our most famous natives - Gloria Steinem and her also sharing the sentiment that she wanted to get away from Toledo because it was a crappy city and she felt trapped with limited opportunities (plus she had a pretty bad family situation). FWIW she grew up in the neighborhood my family lived in from the late 19th century until the 1930s when she was born. It was in the Warren Sherman area, near Canton Ave and Bancroft/Cherry Street. There used to be a large Jewish population over there. Grandma said they ran all the stores but some of them were "gangsters." She often mentioned the Irish gangsters lol. And the Polish people who used to want to beat up blacks who went across Lagrange street. Evidently this was a fun thing to do as my dad also remembers this and he got a kick out of fighting Polish boys and they'd beat up Polish boys who came too close to their neighborhood too.
Toledo used to be considered one of the "drunkest" cities in America due to the amount of bars in the city. Cherry Street used to be the "skid row" basically of Toledo. My own 4th great grandfather was a saloonkeeper in the 19th century in Toledo and in Detroit (and FWIW I also prefer the Maumee scenery over the Detroit River, but both are beautiful. I mostly love the view of the Detroit River from the Ambassador Bridge to/from Canada).
Interesting perspective and stories. On one of PBS' episodes of Toledo Stories they were talking to someone who was a kid during the WWII era. He mentioned how each neighborhood was ethnic and when you had to walk somewhere it meant walking through neighborhoods of kids of other ethnicity, and you were in danger of getting beat up. Honestly, it didn't sound that different from when I was a kid in the 70's and early 80's growing up on the East Side. I recall walking past Ravine Park Village (a housing project for those that don't know) while walking the train tracks, and through 'Hunky Town' (the neighborhoods in the area of Tony Packo's) and having some close calls. Ironically, when those kids came to my area (Waite High School area) they didn't get messed with much, if at all.
I will say I don't believe Toledo was filled with gangsters, prostitutes and criminals, but the city did have it's share like any city of decent size would. Something else I heard on Toledo Stories was that the phrase 'Holy Toledo' is likely to have come from one of three reasons: 1) The number of churches in the city, which I find hard to believe since most cities have a lot of churches; 2) The fact law enforcement wouldn't arrest gangsters when they were in town (even if they had warrants in other cities) as long as they didn't commit any crimes while here; and I don't recall the third reason.
LOL regarding Gloria Steinem. She left Toledo after her junior year at Waite High School. Her negative impression of Toledo stemmed more from her personal situation. Father moved out of state, she had to work multiple part-time jobs to help take care of her mentally unstable mother, and she lived in a house that had rats in it, one of which bit her. Certainly not a good time in her life, but I'm not surprised someone like Gloria would take that out on the whole city.
In my opinion, the primary roads in Toledo are for the most part, tolerable or fine. The problem as I see it is the main roads are always in a state of perpetual construction, making traffic annoying.....and local/residential streets don't get any attention.
A lady (don't remember her name) who has some high level position when it comes to maintaining roadways, said 20 years worth of construction was being done within a three year period on the highways in Toledo and the surrounding area. Nice to see upgrades being made, but squeezing it in like that doesn't sound wise. Very inconvenient for drivers.
if you believe half the stuff you tell me, i have beach front property in north dakota to sell you.
ask who stripes the streets in toledo. its a findlay company without a building. so yes, operating out of their house.
toledo is the proverbial toothless drunk that likes to get punched in the face.
john denver even made a song about how bad toledo is. and that was in the 70's.
Not even close. Are you from Cleveland??? Toledo's a much better city than given credit for.
John Denver didn't write the song (Randy Sparks did after spending a night in Toledo he didn't enjoy because he was too much of a loser to find a way to enjoy himself here), and when he had a concert in Toledo many years later he sang it in good fun, considering some of the heat he took for it when it first came out. If he thought Toledo was really such a bad place he wouldn't have stopped here for a concert. And btw, loser Randy Sparks and the city later made up. He visited and was given a key to the city.
In my opinion, the primary roads in Toledo are for the most part, tolerable or fine. The problem as I see it is the main roads are always in a state of perpetual construction, making traffic annoying.....and local/residential streets don't get any attention.
100% agreed! you just described how toledo paves the main streets and nothing else.
Interesting perspective and stories. On one of PBS' episodes of Toledo Stories they were talking to someone who was a kid during the WWII era. He mentioned how each neighborhood was ethnic and when you had to walk somewhere it meant walking through neighborhoods of kids of other ethnicity, and you were in danger of getting beat up. Honestly, it didn't sound that different from when I was a kid in the 70's and early 80's growing up on the East Side. I recall walking past Ravine Park Village (a housing project for those that don't know) while walking the train tracks, and through 'Hunky Town' (the neighborhoods in the area of Tony Packo's) and having some close calls. Ironically, when those kids came to my area (Waite High School area) they didn't get messed with much, if at all.
I will say I don't believe Toledo was filled with gangsters, prostitutes and criminals, but the city did have it's share like any city of decent size would. Something else I heard on Toledo Stories was that the phrase 'Holy Toledo' is likely to have come from one of three reasons: 1) The number of churches in the city, which I find hard to believe since most cities have a lot of churches; 2) The fact law enforcement wouldn't arrest gangsters when they were in town (even if they had warrants in other cities) as long as they didn't commit any crimes while here; and I don't recall the third reason.
LOL regarding Gloria Steinem. She left Toledo after her junior year at Waite High School. Her negative impression of Toledo stemmed more from her personal situation. Father moved out of state, she had to work multiple part-time jobs to help take care of her mentally unstable mother, and she lived in a house that had rats in it, one of which bit her. Certainly not a good time in her life, but I'm not surprised someone like Gloria would take that out on the whole city.
I like the Toledo Stories series but really hope that they will re-do some of them with more information. The one on African Americans in particular is very lacking IMO. I do a lot of local history research of black Toledoans in particular and a lot was left out of that program, probably because not much was known when it was produced.
I believe the one that mentioned the people beating up each other was the one on Polish Americans. That was one of my favorites - that and the one on the Germans.
I didn't believe my grandmother either in regards to the crime she experienced, but after doing a lot of digging into the neighborhood she lived in, I do believe her now. The area where she grew up was one of the roughest parts of Toledo and a lot of saloons and prostitution houses were in that area, so her experiences were unique to that area, which was heavily poverty stricken at the time. I found a lot of old newspaper articles about how it was declared a 'slum' and destroyed in order to curtail the "vice" of the area. My dad grew up in the same neighborhood and grandma said it was much better by the 1950s/1960s. Ironically she moved out of that neighborhood to the Brand Whitlock homes after getting married at age 17 (she wanted to escape the area). Public housing back then was considered top of the line. She said she's never had full indoor lights and a bathroom to herself until she moved to Brand Whitlock and she spoke of how the pastor's wife at Third Baptist Church would do "housekeeping" inpsections there with white gloves and if your children looked unkempt or they found any dust/dirt in your apartment, they could kick you out. The original public housing families also were not technically poor. My great grandfather was lucky to stay employed most of the Depression so they didn't suffer as much as some families. His income was higher than average, as were most everyone who stayed at Brand Whitlock back then. After they changed the income guidelines and let in poverty stricken people, my great grandparents left because grandma didn't want to live around gangsters and criminals ever again lol. And she never did.
- About the Mexican food....the majority of Mexican restaurants around here serve crappy cheap food and exist solely to sell mass amounts of margaritas. There is good, authentic places though if you know about them. Right now I would say Cocina de Carlos (in Perrysburg) and his downtown spot, Carlos' Poco Loco are probably the best around right now.
^^This
There's some truly terrific Mexican food in Toledo. Like, surprisingly good considering where Toledo is in the country.
Carolos' Poco Loco is a bit of a mix between Mexican and Cuban - but it's absolutely wonderful. Any time I'm making my way through Toledo I usually have to stop there.
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Very inconvenient for drivers.
