CedarCreek currently operates churches in Perrysburg and Whitehouse. CedarCreek has been planning a Toledo church for the past year or two. I think CedarCreek had planned to open a church near the former FoodTown building along Secor, just north of Central. But they have chosen the DeVeaux Village Shopping Center, which has been a pretty dead area except for El Camino.

Cedar Creek Toledo Campus Blog - ( old Toledo blog )

Jul 10, 2007 posting

Jul 21, 2007 posting

Jul 25, 2007 posting

Revitalizing DeVeaux Village

The west side of the DeVeaux Village shopping center got a face lift last year and/or maybe early this year, but it's mostly vacant right now.

A new sports bar did open recently at the south edge of the shopping center, along Sylvania Ave.

The former Food Town building at the DeVeaux shopping center is still empty.

I recently heard that the Phoenix Food Co-op, which is my favorite Toledo store, would like to move into the DeVeaux shopping center, but funding for the co-op is a bit tight. So for now, the co-op remains in its current location, which is on Sylvania, east of Jackman. The co-op celebrated its 15th anniversary today, Jul 28, 2007.

Selfishly, I would like see the co-op move into DeVeaux, since I live nearby. And I do occasionally attend the Perrysburg CedarCreek church. It's nice to have things of interest within a reasonable walking distance. That's the problem with where we live now. Nothing is within a reasonable walking distance. I think the ideal place to live is where you can walk to the grocery store or to a little market to pick up a few items. It's rediculous that we have fire up the car and drive somewhere to get a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter.

I also like visiting coffee shops. The other evening, my wife and I power-walked to Brewed Awakenings, which is at Douglas and Central. We took the back streets, and it took us 37 minutes one way. Nice exercise, but it would also be nice to have something a little closer. I like the new little Beaner's located at Sylvania and Talmadge in the Wesfield Mall sprawl area. I wish one of those little Beaner's moved into DeVeaux. The Perrysburg CedarCreek has a nice coffee shop and a small Christian book store that is open during the week with limited ours. Not sure if something like that will go into the Toledo campus, but the coffee shop would be a nice addition to DeVeaux even if attending the church was not something of interest.

Anyway, I would say a CedarCreek campus is a positive addition to the DeVeaux Shopping Village. It's good to see new things opening along Sylvania east of Secor for a change.

More Toledo anti-business work

On Kevin Miliken's Jul 30, 2007 "Eye on Toledo" show, Kevin claimed that District 5 Council person Ellen Grachek said a family wants to open a meat market in the DeVeaux Village Shopping Center, but Toledo's one-year-old ban on new convenience stores/carry outs prevents the family from opening their business. I don't know if the meat market plans to sell alcohol or not.

I think the ban is mainly directed at new stores planning to sell alcohol, like convenience stores and carry outs. The ban was implemented because of crime that is apparently related to these stores selling alcohol. But I don't think carryout-crime is city wide, although the ban is. I guess the City could not ban new convenience stores/carry outs only in the high crime areas.

The problem with the ban is, new businesses that most likely would not contribute to crime cannot open. This is another example of Toledo buffoonery that is hurting small business people. The one-year moratorium expires in September 2007.