It’s no secret that we love Toledo. Hey, we’re kind of obsessed. But it’s not just infatuation— it’s real love. Deep love. Which means we see our city for what it is— potholes and all. Communication is key for an open, honest relationship. So, once a year, we take off our rose-colored glasses and ask our readers to rant about what they think dirties the glass, pointing out the problems, concerns, and the just plain annoying issues Toledoans puts up with. From money problems, to rants about resources, and cultural complaints, we’re showing off some of the dirt that our readers pointed out.
Bored? Try branching out
The fact that it’s a blue collar town with little to do, and yet most of the folks from the suburbs seem to hang with their own socioeconomic strata. People could learn a lot more from others if they didn’t just hang out with people like themselves.
—Ryan Gebers
Resourceless resources
A few questions for our city
- Why is the Hollywood Casino not located downtown?
- Why doesn’t the Hollywood Casino have marina access on the river?
- Why is the best outdoor venue, Promenade Park, being converted into a parking structure on RIVER FRONT PROPERTY?
- Why is the city not developing incentives for the area across the access road from the docks where there is vacant space, a street, and parking with night lighting.
- What is the city doing to incentivize renovating the abandoned buildings downtown?
- Incentives for entertainment, other than bars downtown at night?
—Matthew Benedict
Tuition is just one of the many college costs
College students are eligible for government assistance when it comes to paying for school tuition. But they don’t help pay for other things like housing, food or textbooks (unless you have money left over from tuition— but even that won’t cover it). Most, if not all students, are forced to get loans, which leaves them in debt for years after graduation. And unless the student is working 20 hours a week or is working at school under the federal work study program, they can’t even get food stamps.
— Julie Wuertz, Owens Community College Student
Water you going to do about it?
I get very upset when we live in this beautiful community on this beautiful Lake Erie shore and people don’t utilize our waterfront. For example, Maumee Bay is often practically empty. It’s gorgeous. I would love to see people utilize what we have here in the summertime. It’s hard to match in any other community.
—Randi Damman​
Complaining doesn’t change anything
I can’t take people who bitch about our city but don’t do anything to help change it.
—Angela Conley
Pedal and pedestrian friendliness, please
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Roads need to be more walkable! (For example, you can’t walk to the main entrance of the zoo on the Anthony Wayne Trail). And more bike lanes are needed!
—Nailya Weber
Where’s that money going?
How about the fact that the city generated significant revenue with traffic radar guns and can’t fix the streets, or better yet, they hide in places to clock speeders but apparently have no access to particular areas if there was, let’s say, an emergency or needed to pursue a criminal.
—Bryce Kennedy
A couple of concerns…
How about the city not making Costco pay ANY taxes? How about the polling places in the South End that are two miles away from where people live, while others can walk two blocks to a polling station in a neighboring district? Why can’t UT name a building after GLORIA STEINEM and blow up the women’s studies department? Why are the people in Old Orchard so damned uptight? Every time a black person in a tracksuit JOGS past my window, people blow up the Old Orchard blockwatch and describe a black man jogging down the road who is probably casing our houses. NO. He’s JOGGING. Why do so many people here hate on Toledo so much and then tell anyone else who complains about Toledo to move? Why don’t YOU move?
—Beth Powder
Senseless officials for a sensible issue
When we were petitioning for the Sensible Marihuana Ordinance last year, none of the elected officials (besides Theresa Gabriel) would back us. All the other members of council as well as the Mayor gave us the same lip service— they personally support it, but wouldn’t back it publicly. They either thought it would be too controversial, or that it couldn’t be enforced. So, we moved ahead without them, and it ended up passing with 70% approval (hardly controversial) and being enforced (according to the Blade and numerous anecdotes we’ve heard since its passage). It’s amazing how spineless and out of touch our local elected officials are.
—Sean Nestor
Are you Toledo enough?
“Toledoans” love to live in suburbs, for some awful reason, and are always referring to places like Sylvania and Maumee as “Toledo.” If you don’t pay taxes in Toledo, you’re not a Toledoan. Plain and simple. Go back to your strip mall.
—Collin Stegeman
Trashing our city’s pride
What about trash being all over the city? When I go other places I don’t see tampons, used condoms, condom wrappers, pop bottles, bags and wrappers all over town. I wish this city would take some pride in itself.
—Destiny Marie
Why are we ignoring the opiate crisis?
The city needs to crack down on the war on drugs. Make stricter laws and open more places for rehab. Instead of allowing people to destroy themselves and their families, why can’t Toledo open cool, safe places for addicts to get help? Like a Dave and Buster’s for opiate abusers— filled with professional support and recreational games instead of alcohol. Maybe then it’ll be “cool” to get clean?
—Scott Helppie
Are you trying to get hit?
I’m angry that people jaywalk. They can be ten feet from the intersection and they just walk in-between cars that are stopped when they could take ten steps and cross the street.
—Beth Myers
You’re not fooling tax paying voters
Unfortunately it is getting to be the time of year again when fixed income, tax paying voters are asked to approve painful new taxes. It irks me that the bureaucrats in charge of selling these taxes to the public would stoop to the slight-of-hand-snake-oil-salesman-tactic of putting a new tax under an old tax shell and moving them around real quick hoping that we won’t be able to remember which tax is where. Do the tax bureaucrats really think that we are so stupid that we can’t figure out that renewing an expired tax, no matter how well-meaning, is a new tax— pure and simple.
—Rick Davis
Where are the police?
Why isn’t there a greater police presence near the Government Center area downtown? What happened to the community policing program that had the Toledo Police Department and Sheriff’s Dept. patrolling downtown? We have an extreme problem with two carry outs— City Grill and Jennifer’s Snack— that attract less than desirable individuals who party the day away in front of those stores. People have been knocked down, had their cell phones/purses/bags and even their lunch stolen! People are followed to their cars at 5pm by people wanting “bus money”. TPD knowsabout this but nothing happens. WTH?
—Victoria Case
Let’s not get carried away…
Delusional positivism about Toledo. Let’s admit that it has very real problems, so we can fix it: obesity, infant mortality, health care costs, opioids, food system, land and water management, unemployment, archaic political inertia, and general apathy.
—Scott Delaney
