The Erie Street Market circa 2001-2002

I started personal blogging in August 2001. At that time, I installed a blog tool called greymatter on a free Web hosting site. When Toledo Talk began in January 2003, I stopped using the personal blog site. In 2003 or 2004, the free hosting site announced they would no longer be free, so I downloaded my blog postings.

Here are a couple postings I made related to the Erie Street Market back in 2001 and 2002. These are unedited except for one spot where I added a Web link within brackets. These postings contain numerous spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors.

---- start old blog postings ----

Sep 8, 2001

09/08/2001 Archived Entry: "Daze: Shopping downtown Toledo at the markets"

This afternoon I, along with my wife and stepdaughter, went to downtown Toledo to the Farmer's Market to get some produce. We also purchased some freshly made Italian bread from the Massina's located in the Erie Street Market.

Both places, located next to each other, are excellent places to vist. The Farmer's Market is outdoors, but with a roof over the tables of produce brought in by local farmers. It's only opened on the weekends.

The Erie Street Market is indoors in an old renuvated warehouse. There are all kinds of little businesses located here. Some are only open on the weekends and others everyday. I really enjoy going downtown and shopping at these places.

Downtown Toledo has really changed a lot in recent years and it's all for the better. More restaurants and businesses are taking up residence in old, remodeled buildings. It's good to see these great looking pieces of architecture being preserved.

The new Toledo Mud Hens baseball stadium, nearing completion, is only a block or so away from the markets and it will be open for baseball next year.

We visited the Toledo library, also located downtown, last weekend. A new building was added to the existing structure and it had its grand opening just recently. It's a really nice libary. I plan to spend a lot time there this winter.

I love going downtown. I keep trying to talk my wife into moving into one of the new condos or apartment buildings that have opened within the past couple of years. I also think it would be great to be a computer programmer in a business located in one of those cool old five or six story buildings located on one of the side streets, but downtown Toledo is not noted as a high place for high tech.

This fact, however, may change as a local group is trying to attract more high tech businesses to move downtown. The organization, known as ITANO, holds informal gatherings at a bar/restaurant once a month for high tech individuals to network with each other and to bring attention to Toledo and hopefully, get more companies to locate downtown.

It's fun to watch the transformation of the city.

Aug 22, 2002

08/22/2002 Archived Entry: "Owning my own cafe or pizzaria"

Last year, while Deb and I were wondering around the Erie Street Market, we thought that opening a small something or other in that building. But we realized there was no room for any new businesses. It was a nice problem to see, actually, that all available space in the market was being used. That was last year.

Before discovering the little coffee place [ My Daily Grind ] in Perrysburg, my midday retreats were at the Erie Street Market. I visited the Market this past Sunday. It was the first time I had been there in about two months. I was shocked at what I saw.

There is a lot of empty space in the Erie Street Market now. A year ago, the ends of the aisles and every corner had some kind of little business. It was cool. Now, it's about as empty as it was when I first visited the place, shortly after it opened. The Italian and Mediterranean places are still there. That's good. The guy who owns the Bronze Boar closed up shop in the Market.

The Market losing businesses hasn't been an overnight thing. I noticed businesses disappearing at the beginning of this year. It used to be, when a business left, another one filled its spot right away. I don't consider the Market a good place to open a shop now. Last year, I heard that the lease rates for space at the Erie Street Market were raised a lot, and I wonder if that's forced people out?

I think a cafe downtown Toledo, catering to the business crowd, might be okay. I love the cafe scene in downtown Ann Arbor.

---- end old blog postings ----