Bear Up North
Cyburbian Emeritus
- Messages
- 9,329
- Points
- 31
This old Bear is not an official planner, but I can tell you things about Ohio's 4th largest city (6th largest metro).....
In the early part of the 20th Century Toledo was in the Top 20 in population. It was growing fast. Automobile manufacturing and automobile parts manufacturing were natural follow-ups to Toledo's 19th Century position of "Wagon Capitol Of The World".
But, something happened. A lot of the jobs.....and the people.....flocked to Detroit or Chicago. Toledo stopped growing.
In the 1960's T-Town took on an aggressive annexation policy. Township after township was grabbed and Toledo's population started to shoot toward the 400,000 mark. The 1970's started a long demise in manufacturing jobs, which continues today.
Toledo was the smallest city with the most Fortune 500 Headquarters. It had about seven (7).....but most of those are gone. Champion Spark Plug, gobbled by Cooper Industries. Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Company grabbed by England's Pilkington. Owens-Illinois grabbed by KKR, then sold back. Questor Corp. bought by who-the-heck remembers.
Owens-Corning is still here, bankrupt filings and all. Toledo Scale is now in Columbus. Toledo still makes Jeeps.....for the Germans.
Many Toledo residents moved on, mostly to those places that a lot of "rust belt America" moved to.....south and southwest.
Those that stayed enjoyed the best and put-up-with the worst that a small metro can provide:
Toledo residents have very little sprawl to deal with. Central Avenue in west Toledo (and Sylvania Township), the south suburb of Perrysburg, Monroe Street at the area's only super regional mall. Thus, getting around is pretty quick and easy.
(Toledo has it's share of expressways that allow the residents relatively easy movement. Of course, they were designed with 1960's traffic projections and even a non-growing town has increasing vehicle traffic.)
There actually are some interesting things to do in T-Town, including one (1) of the Top 10 at museums in the U.S., the most-complete zoo in America, visiting Tony Packo's restaurant (you had to watch multiple episodes of Mash to understand).
Crime is consistent with a city of this size. A high percentage of folks own their own homes. Many areas of the actual city are very nice residential areas.
Probably the toughest issue that Toledo folks deal with is the image of the city: Nowhere-Ville. And people like me perpetuate that line with long, rambling internet posts.
More later about the (heh heh) "Glass Capitol Of The World".
Bear
In the early part of the 20th Century Toledo was in the Top 20 in population. It was growing fast. Automobile manufacturing and automobile parts manufacturing were natural follow-ups to Toledo's 19th Century position of "Wagon Capitol Of The World".
But, something happened. A lot of the jobs.....and the people.....flocked to Detroit or Chicago. Toledo stopped growing.
In the 1960's T-Town took on an aggressive annexation policy. Township after township was grabbed and Toledo's population started to shoot toward the 400,000 mark. The 1970's started a long demise in manufacturing jobs, which continues today.
Toledo was the smallest city with the most Fortune 500 Headquarters. It had about seven (7).....but most of those are gone. Champion Spark Plug, gobbled by Cooper Industries. Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Company grabbed by England's Pilkington. Owens-Illinois grabbed by KKR, then sold back. Questor Corp. bought by who-the-heck remembers.
Owens-Corning is still here, bankrupt filings and all. Toledo Scale is now in Columbus. Toledo still makes Jeeps.....for the Germans.
Many Toledo residents moved on, mostly to those places that a lot of "rust belt America" moved to.....south and southwest.
Those that stayed enjoyed the best and put-up-with the worst that a small metro can provide:
Toledo residents have very little sprawl to deal with. Central Avenue in west Toledo (and Sylvania Township), the south suburb of Perrysburg, Monroe Street at the area's only super regional mall. Thus, getting around is pretty quick and easy.
(Toledo has it's share of expressways that allow the residents relatively easy movement. Of course, they were designed with 1960's traffic projections and even a non-growing town has increasing vehicle traffic.)
There actually are some interesting things to do in T-Town, including one (1) of the Top 10 at museums in the U.S., the most-complete zoo in America, visiting Tony Packo's restaurant (you had to watch multiple episodes of Mash to understand).
Crime is consistent with a city of this size. A high percentage of folks own their own homes. Many areas of the actual city are very nice residential areas.
Probably the toughest issue that Toledo folks deal with is the image of the city: Nowhere-Ville. And people like me perpetuate that line with long, rambling internet posts.
More later about the (heh heh) "Glass Capitol Of The World".
Bear