I’d like to take a moment to share some personal observations and compare Toledo to other cities that may be comparable in proximity, traits and geography.
I sell wine for a living. My territory covers Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and Missouri. I have also spent quite a bit of time in Indiana and Wisconsin. I lived in southern California for about seven years. A large part of my day-to-day experience is interacting with restaurant owners in each of the cities within my markets. I have gained a fairly intimate understanding of the cities I cover. I see parallels on a daily basis. I also see some of what this city has done right and what this city has done wrong. I live in Springfield Township, which is about as far from Downtown as you can be. When we chose our area eight years ago, it was based on neighborhood and schools. If I didn’t have kids I would live in the city, and on some level, I regret not landing closer to the city center. I do however, spend tons of time Downtown and love to be down there.
There a few things we can all agree on: Toledo has a declining population, just like Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton and many more cities. Toledo’s economy is changing and has been struggling on some level comparable to, and in some cases, much more than the aforementioned cities. There has also been some degree of “white flight” in virtually every industrialized city in our part of the Midwest. This shift to the suburbs is pervasive; in fact, someone once told me the only city this never happened to is Portland, Ore. So let’s assume that the “downtown was once bustling and is now dead” phenomenon exists on some level in most major U.S. cities (please save the list of the exceptions, I’m sure there are several). Toledo, therefore, is not alone so far. So while declining, Toledo’s economy and population will always support some degree of entertainment (including dining, rinking, concerts, sporting events, etc.).
Practically every city I call on (Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, Detroit, Kansas City, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Toledo) has undergone some degree of a downtown revitalization. Downtowns emptied, turned to crap before groups of people decided to turn them around. All the while, the population lives outside the city. The exceptions to this are the college towns (Ann Arbor, Madison) and a handful of smaller communities (Grand Rapids, etc).
Why does anyone want to revitalize a downtown area? What is the benefit? The answer, as far as I can tell, is almost all emotion. Having a strong downtown creates civic pride. It is also an opportunity to reclaim our history and protect the city’s legacy. It helps us to collect our efforts and energies and centralize venues and resources. It is also, largely, an escape. These may not be very logical reasons to want to revive a downtown, but they are at the heart of why we like to live in any given place: the sense of community you can only get from centralizing and bringing people together.
A quick word about restaurants: Restaurants fail at a crazy high rate. We all know this. After working in and around the business for 20 years, I can tell you this — some people should be in the business and some people shouldn’t. Attrition eventually takes care of this. Unfortunately, they have become the “canary in a mine shaft” as to the overall health of the city and Downtown specifically. It’s a tough business and a very difficult one to observe anecdotally and draw any conclusions as to the health of an area. Being that I care so deeply about this industry and this city, I feel like I have a good perspective on where we stand relative to the other cities. Toledo’s restaurant scene right now is very dynamic. If you take a poll of the young people in this city and ask them to name their 10 favorite restaurants, I promise you, eight of them weren’t open three years ago. If you gave this same poll three years ago, it would have been filled with chains. This city has changed and is changing very quickly. I’ll also say this: I’ll take our top three or four restaurants and place them ahead of the best restaurants in Detroit, Columbus and Indianapolis. This may sound outrageous, but I’ll be happy to compare your list to mine.
Government-led revitalization rarely works as planned. Chaos theory tends to jump in and redefine areas. Cleveland and Cincinnati tried to establish areas within their downtown that would be filled with hot bars and restaurants. Both were right in their timing, but picked the wrong part of downtown. Capitalism ruled in each case. Michael Symon opened Lola downtown seven years ago, forever changing the entertainment scene in downtown Cleveland. No one predicted the most racially controversial neighborhood north of the Mason/Dixon Line would have become the hottest neighborhood in Ohio (Over the Rhine) but that has happened, in the last 18 months. It can happen fast, without government planning. However, red tape, old zoning and politics can really gum up the revitalization works. Cities need to have business friendly practices that generate revenue for the city as well as the businesses. This included being sensitive to the complexity of navigating old laws and zoning, being open to parking challenges and transportation as well as city maintenance, and construction.
You don’t need grocery stores. They are a luxury. There is no grocery store in downtown Cincinnati or Cleveland. Whole Foods just opened in Detroit; it is too soon to see how it will do. It’s really fairly low on the revitalization list. Instead, Cleveland, Detroit and Cincinnati all have great, year round farmer’s market. Toledo was right about this with Erie Street Market, but it failed for number of reasons, part could have been the models they were trying to match had been around for generations. There will be a time in the near future when this idea gets revived; hopefully next time it’s executed better.
We’ve had plenty of bad projects or projects that didn’t work for a number of reasons. This has happened everywhere. Monorail in Greektown? Tower City? The Flats? The Mall within the walkways in Cinci? Everyone fails. Rebuilding a downtown is hard. You can’t just act like a beaten dog. You need to keep hings in perspective.
So who has a fully revitalized downtown? So far — no one. Cleveland is probably the closest. But no one is really there yet. Downtowns, we assume, are a place where we should work, live and play. So far, most have achieved work and play on some level. Housing may not be critical to a downtown’s success. Living Downtown could instead just be a reflection of a successful revitalization. It’s really important that we keep an eye on our neighbors to see how they are doing it, warts and all. If we could do that more often, we’d see a pretty accurate reflection and perhaps a road map for overcoming some obstacles.
Our Downtown is slowly re-emerging. We, as a community, may not know what the next step is, but the best thing we can do is not be afraid of the extra 10 minutes it may take to get Downtown and do a little exploring and supporting. Who knows what will happen next?
