What do you think of Toledo?

 
Toledo is the area that I know the least about of the Ohio big cities. Driven near it a few times on the way to Michigan and stayed nearby about 15 years ago for a wedding. The one thing that I remembered about it was the number of hot dogs restaurants.
 
A former industrial/manufacturing center that has fallen on really, really bad economic times. As others have said, having lived there I can verify that huge sections of the core city have deteriorated significantly and are still getting worse. Violent crime is really bad in the areas immediately north and south of downtown. It's pretty much a toilet. The local eateries are pretty good though. Tony Packo's Cafe (the original eastside location) was by far my favorite. Their "Hungarian hot dogs" and chili are really, really good.

From what I've seen, by far the best area to live in the city proper is the Old Orchard neighborhood that's north of UT. The next best is probably Beverly, somewhat south/southwest of campus. Depending on the home/apartment the Old West End (mostly older Victorian style homes) and the Warehouse District could be pretty cool for younger people and the wealthy. Ottawa Hills, Perrysburg and Sylvania are the cream of the crop for the 'burbs.
 
For a big city, it's relatively safe. For a small city we have a lot of highly rated culture. The Museum and Zoo are nationally competitive. Orchestra, Ballet.... not at the level of the C's. Two mid-majors provide other sports and intellectual options.

Our minor league sports are top-notch and well supported.


Cleveland has great Metro-Parks but I have to believe per-person, not one city comes close to touching what we have within 15 minutes of most of the population. Between rivers and lake, we have a ton of water front with affordable housing. Pretty good for outdoors types. The smaller population, not so much competition for docks, fishing.... Unfortunately, the largest hill is the town dump.

Old West End is supposedly the largest concentration of Victorians between the east coast and St Louis. A couple miles square I would imagine with other similar but smaller neighborhoods nearby like those mentioned above.

Economically under-achieving for sure, compared to nearby cities like Grand Rapids, which has much less to work with.



Toledo is a great place to live to visit other neat places. :D
 
Valid point about the metroparks system. It's top-notch.

:laugh: It actually is a pretty good place to live to visit other places. Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, etc. are all within reasonable driving distance and are easy to get to.

Overall, the cultural options for food and activities are very good for a city of its size.
 
eastisbest said:
Unfortunately, the largest hill is the town dump.
Click to expand...

That was something else I noticed about the area. The landscape is very level throughout the region. Where would you go sledding during the winter? One thing that was cool about it is that I imagine some houses can see cars coming from miles away.
 
Was a fun place to live for 4 years of college. Moved to NYC upon graduation and would never consider Toledo (or anywhere else in Ohio) as a future home ever again.
 
they have a good pickle place i think....other than that, a step above cleveland, maybe, its really close to detroit!

jtk
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I LIKE Toledo. It's where I was born. Still have some relatives there that I visit. I like going to Mud Hens games. I like Tony Packos. I still like going to the zoo and hope to see the lights there this winter. Nice parks. Really glad I don't have to find a job there though-that might be tough.
 
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