Each day I drive down Airport Highway going to and from downtown. I have lived here since last summer, but I would like to understand the city in all of its idiosyncrasies. One thing I have noticed is the appearance of the people walking the streets to and fro. Please don't take this as an insult, but the majority of them have the appearance of tiredness, scruffy, the working poor or handyman generation type. How long have the people, in the city particularly, worn this appearance? I'm not expecting people here to be Barbies and Kens, but rather am inquisitive as to why some have just let their health (physical at least) go as such.
Toledo Folk Part Two
Comments ... #
djimpelr...
Just wondering... where did you live before moving to the Toledo area?
posted by braincramp on Feb 06, 2008 at 11:05:01 pm #
Lived in Charleston, SC (with occasional trips to the Caribbean).
Toledo is a working class, blue-collar town - always has been. And it's been down on it's luck lately. But I don't think Toledo is all that different than other towns of it's size - as far as the appearance of it's base population. Every town has it's rich & poor -it's attractive & not so much. I imagine if you go into a restaurant or club - or even the mall, you'll find people a bit more attractive & presentable - less jarring to your sensibilites. But I also imagine that if you are referring to people you see walking, that they are either heading somewhere specific (work?) or just have no place to go or be - a common consequence of a town going through hard times. I've been in several cities & towns & don't see Toledo as all that different as far as population attractivness or unkemptness. God knows, even N.Y.C. has it's share of street people. I've been to Jamaica & there's an awful lot of very poor people there as well, who don't dress 'up' to walk down the street.
posted by starling02 on Feb 06, 2008 at 11:40:55 pm #
I tell my son this , he thinks he has it bad when he whines about material things, try being a kid in parts of Haiti, Jamaica, or Colombia. So in that respect our working class, or working poor are still well off in comparison.
djimpelr, people usually don't look at other cultures to determine whether they are poor or not. They look within their own. If everyone about you lives in a house with three bedrooms, a basement, and an attice, has two cars, and never has to hesitate when buying some electronic marvel, and you don't have these things you would (rightly) consider yourself "poor". We wish our kids had more "spiritual" values, but we really don't raise them to be that way. Our culture is about consumption, and if you can't participate you are "poor". Could we even imagine living in a society were the "potlatch" was the measure of a man's wealth?
posted by oldsendbrdy on Feb 07, 2008 at 01:10:26 am #
Speaking for myself, it's part of my job. At dusk, I sneak into the city and take the bags of life blood, initiative, and common business sense that Carty leaves in back of his office. On my way out, I take the same thing from the Erie Street Market. It is such a demanding job that by the time morning rolls around, I'm beat and don't look all that great. You only see me at my worst. I'll try to smile tomorrow for you.
The problem here is that the poster is taking the wrong route to work. Following Airport Highway into downtown is dangerous, pal - the depths to which these degraded souls have sunk is downright frightening, and you are liable to catch a case of the mange just looking at such groveling, dirt-eating Neanderthals.
I suggest a more amenable route, one in which the dregs of society are not trying to smear your windshield with a greasy newspaper and one which offers opportunities for a fresh Starbucks latte at any of the convenient freeway exits:
The best part about this route is that you can hold your breath on I-75 from the Maumee River north into downtown, as long as there are no jack-knifed trailers slowing down the suburban convoys into the rusted remnants of a formerly-healthy metropolis.
Avoid a straight shot on Airport Highway into Toledo like you would avoid picking up a heroin-addicted hooker at an AIDS Walk, unless - of course - you are into that kind of wild living.
posted by Subcomandante_bob on Feb 07, 2008 at 08:51:31 am #
posted by Subcomandante_bob- The best part about this route is that you can hold your breath on I-75 from the Maumee River north into downtown, as long as there are no jack-knifed trailers slowing down the suburban convoys into the rusted remnants of a formerly-healthy metropolis. Avoid a straight shot on Airport Highway into Toledo like you would avoid picking up a heroin-addicted hooker at an AIDS Walk, unless - of course - you are into that kind of wild living.
I chuckle as I can hear Dennis Miller saying those words. Well, I was informed that if I do take the highway to avoid those grimey areas that I should take the 23N to 475 because the map that you have tends to have more construction and delays. I'll give it a go today and see how much longer it takes.
posted by Offshore- Toledo-Love it or leave it.I'm only here for four years so I have no choice but to love it right? We're still searching for that perfect diner, drive-in, or dive, and one that isn't a chain.
"Lived in Charleston, SC"
Sorry, meant to say love it or leave it ya'll!
Since the move, I'd occasionally slip off into slight twang thanks to living in the south. I have referred back to pop drinks as 'pop' not just soda, at least that's how we called them in Cincinnati.
djimpelr, that would be gus' yum yum on the way to point place.
posted by jhostetler on Feb 07, 2008 at 12:10:17 pm #
That would be across from the Farr park right? Or those silos? I'm looking at it I guess at live.maps.com
I pass that place almost every day yet have never eaten there.
I am skeered.
Yeah so I called the place asking general questions and the one lady sounded in quite hissy. My wife told me pissy waitress = pissy food shrugs. I'll roll on by there at some point.
Toledo is certainly no haute culture hip address but I think part of the appeal is its typical Midwestern existence.
From these forums alone we see divergent and informed points of view from diverse and educated Toledoans. We tend to like what we get used to, so maybe Toledo will become a warm and welcome place within you.
Offshore, that's what my wife and I always aim for, the best in ANY situation or always looking at the bright side of life to outweigh the realities. But my stubborn self, I tend to overanalyze things in search for various answers. I'm curious about the various ethnic immigrant enclaves of the city, their histories, how and when they've changed, for the better or worst.
Nice. I did a couple of stints away (Northern California and Montana) but this is where home and hearth lies.
I’m about as WASPish as one can be but the diversity and adversity of this area has kicked my lilly white ass into, among other things, a bit of an advocate for many of the inner city’s youth.
One regret I have is over the employment future for these and my own children. At any rate, welcome to my home town.
Good point about the inner city that you've reminded me of and that's the diversity. Unlike my "hometown" down in Cincinnati, the inner city seems to have a more open-minded view to diversity and living together. I see people of all cultures aiming to survive together in the plight to live a decent respectable life, by whatever means. Especially when it comes to black/white, there seems to be more harmony than what I've seen/lived through in Cincinnati.
I'm from CT originally, went to highschool in Sarasota, FL. College in Miami. Lived on South Beach, in San Fran, NYC and for a short 3 years in Minneapolis before moving here (married a Toledoan). I've been here about 4 years now and really love it. Of course I've already gotten my fix of living in great cities... I just really love how cheap it is to live in Toledo. I love how much of a small town it is... it blows my mind that I actually know the mailman! I adore my friends here and the art scene... the local restaurants... the fact there is a river going through downtown...
and it's just a short plane ride away from New York or wherever I need to go for work (I don't have local clients) or shopping or whenever I just need a new view.
posted by jhostetler on Feb 07, 2008 at 04:16:53 pm #
We’re not always fly-over country but often fly-out-of. I get to Miami Beach and San Francisco quite a bit both contributing to my watery handle which I think should be changed to Constant Craving.
Art scene: I took art lessons at the museum every Saturday morning for five years as a kid, was an art major in high school and freshman year in college until they described my style as a cross between Grandma Moses and Congo the chimpanzee. Maybe I should change my name to “Envious”.
It's my fault I didn't apply skin-so-soft and pitch the lighting to give that effervescent glow.
Or maybe they're the underside of the Rustbelt Recession. It's hard to get decent eats without money. Visit a homeless shelter sometime soon.
Or maybe Jean-Paul Satre put them there to remind you what hell is?
posted by charlatan on Feb 06, 2008 at 09:48:46 pm #