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Welcome to the C-D Ohio Forum! I was quite surprised actually to hear all of this about little, old Wooster. I, myself, had only been there a couple of times and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Thus, I decided to go on a research trip! (Trumpet Fanfare)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Madeleine
Wooster is loaded with haszardous waste sites, what is that, what is hazardous waste? there must have been 30 HW sites on that little map, do they mean nuclear waste, sewerage?what?
Good Question! I really didn't know either. So, I did a little digging and this was the best I could find:
"Hazardous waste is a waste with properties that make it dangerous or potentially harmful to human health or the environment. The universe of hazardous wastes is large and diverse. Hazardous wastes can be liquids, solids, contained gases, or sludges. They can be the by-products of manufacturing processes or simply discarded commercial products, like cleaning fluids or pesticides."
This is a little broad (I think the EPA likes it that way), however there are those little bright green squares everywhere on the map, aren't there? Well, I decided to take a look at your neck of the woods to compare.
I stopped counting after 60. There's has to be 100+ "Hazardous Waste Sites" in your area as proclaimed by the EPA. What does this mean, exactly? Your guess is as good as mine. Now, I did notice three "Toxic Sites" on the Wooster/Orrville maps. This piqued my interest. Here's the EPA definition:
"Toxic wastes are harmful or fatal when ingested or absorbed (e.g., containing mercury, lead, etc.). When toxic wastes are land disposed, contaminated liquid may leach from the waste and pollute ground water. Toxicity is defined through a laboratory procedure called the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) (Method 1311) (PDF, 35 pp., 288 KB). The TCLP helps identify wastes likely to leach concentrations of contaminants that may be harmful to human health or the environment. For more details, see 40 CFR §261.24."
There may be a chemical plant in the area, which would be considered a "Toxic Site" by EPA standards. However, I really don't know much about the industry over there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Madeleine
I had picked out houses in Orrville and Wooster and Orville is even worse, 8,000 people and there were 9 rapes?
an unusal amount of robberies and all this in a small town like that and that only goes up to 2005.
It says 1 robbery occurred in Orrville in 2005. Again, I'm not sure what to say. I will say though, a crime index of 144.1 (US City Avg. of 325.2) isn't really all that bad.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Madeleine
I was also dumbfounded by the amount of sex offenders,... Wooster is up there with the sex offenders too, whats up with that?
You know, I thought the same thing when I saw Wooster's page (http://www.city-data.com/city/Wooster-Ohio.html). So much so that I spent 45 minutes trying to find out why it was so high. My research revealed an interesting hypothesis. Ohio may just be tougher on sex offenders than most states. Here's why: looking down the list of offenders, aside from four or five "out of state charges" headline, I kept seeing this "Gross Sexual Imposition" charge. The actual count was 16. I went to Chicago's (http://www.city-data.com/city/Chicago-Illinois.html) listing of registered sex offenders and not one was charged with such a crime. I was also reading how Ohio was "one of the eighteen states that restrict where sex offenders may reside in relation to schools."
(SOURCE:http://www.law.csuohio.edu/students/JLH/documents/gTroia_000.pdf (broken link), p.356).
There was also word on CNN a litte bit more than a month ago about how Ohio was seriously mulling over the possibility of sex offenders having a specialized lime green license plate for their car. This would be the first of its kind ever in the United States.
It makes me wonder how many sex offenders are in Arlington Heights as described by Ohio's sex offender laws.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Madeleine
Now I have to find a new place to go and I have no idea where, any ideas? Any input will be appreciated.
Honestly, Madeleine, all I can tell you is an addage my parents told me: "Believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear." I think that applies soundly here. Why not visit them both? Why not scope the areas out? Talk with the locals? Explore the space? I'm positive the data you collect yourself would be 100% better than any input we could give you. You know yourself better than anyone else here.
Aside from the research, I don't have much in the way of Eastern Ohio living experience. If you ask nicely, maybe MABCle, South Range Family, or Paintballer1708 would shed more light on other nice little towns in the area.
Why does everyone think that Oregon is overcast and rainy? There are two distinct climates there, western Oregon, or coastal, cities such as Portland or Eugene is rainy but absolutely spectacular, once you go accross the Cascade mountain range into Eastern Oregon you will find a semi-arid climate, snow covered rocky mountains that feed lush valleys with crystal clear water from melting snow fields. If you love the outdoors, go there because all the "friendly" people spend most of their time outside, mountain hiking, riding horses, skiiing, snowmobiling, swimming in crystal clear lakes, and fishing for trout in rocky clean streams. Lots of history, you can feel like you are back in time, breath excetionally clean air, and stop along the road to chat with a local rancher while his cows pass to another pature. I live in Ohio but lived in eastern Oregon for 12 years, only came back here because of an aging mother and to be with family. I always wished I had been born and raised in Oregon though. It is truely Gods country.
To:Art1979
This is the most helpful reply I have ever read and I thank you for the time you put in, I'm amazed, ashamed too, I should have done the research myself. I'm going to take a look at these two towns anyway, and I don't know why I'm worried about sex offenders, I have no small children at home. I think there are quite a few sex offenders here but they include peeping toms and people caught with Pornography, my town is 80.000 people so I expect to find more than in a town of 8,000. I was just surprised at the concentration in that small location. These seem like decent places so they are worth a look, also going to amish country in Indiana so I'm sure I'll find something. I really appreciate your efforts on my behalf, thank you very much.
Hey, no problem at all. I wanted to find out too. That's just the way I evaluate towns. It's methodical, detailed, and tedious, but I think my synopses are fair. As far as the sex offenders go, I would be just as concerned as you were.
I can't believe that someone from Maryland, of all places, would be so rancorous and ignorant about Toledo. I could take such comments from someone from Brookline, MA, or Greenwich, CT, or even the Chicago area. But Maryland? Get real!! Some of us are not fooled by such ignorance.
I have lived in both Toledo and Cumberland, MD, and cannot believe that any Marylander would have the audacity to make fun of the speech pattern in Toledo. Marylanders have probably the worst regional accent I have ever encountered. They speak with horrible grammar and dipthonged vowels. Their accent is a mixture of Philly, PA Dutch, and Southern. They pronounce cow "ceahow", and go sounds like "gew". To an educated person, Marylanders absolutely murder the English language. Their accent is worse than Jersey or Brooklynese. Baltimoreans can't even enunciate the name of their city, calling in "Bawlamore", and Cumberlanders call their home town "Cumlin"....Toledoans say Toledo or sometimes "Tuhleda", but usually just Toledo. Few say "Ahia" like most Marylanders do, and we know that Bill is short for "William", not the ridiculous sounding "Wee-uhm" I hear in Maryland. Anyone who lives in a town named Williamsport but pronounces this "Wee-ums-port" and feels good about this needs to leave Toledo alone, and visit a speech therapist.
While Toledo folks also have a regional accent ( I don't heeave an eeaccent is my favorite line of Toledo natives), their accent is far closer to general American. They tend to speak with better diction than Marylanders, and most folks do not speak like they are going to a fire like folks from Jersey and NYC. Vowels are nicely rounded like in Michigan. Any Maryland native in Toledo who is an educated person should notice the preferable regional dialect of the natives, and strive to lose the Maryland Bawlamoron accent. This should be an issue of pride for an educated person, as the Maryland accent makes one sound uneducated.
Western Marylanders have the accent of WVA without the friendliness of West Virginians. They have a chip on the shoulder attitude to anyone from anywhere but Western Maryland, and a really bad attitude toward Pennsylvanians. They think Pittsburghers are hillbillies, which demonstrates an extreme level of provincial ignorance. Folks from Northern WVA have the common sense to respect the culture of Pittsburgh, and to enjoy visiting what is a unique and vibrant city. The ignorant locals of Cumberland could learn a lot from MOrgantown and Fairmont in this area.
Toledo, Ohio, is certainly not perfect, but it is a far more cultured place than Cumberland, MD, and far safer than Baltimore or the D.C. burbs. Toledo is also a far more open-minded, welcoming city than either of these Maryland cities. Cumberland is a citadel of provincial, ignorant hillbillies, and Baltimore has the typical East Coast attitude. I know that Marylanders think they are better than Ohioans and that we are rednecks. If we are rednecks, then why do so many diverse peoples enjoy Toledo but avoid Cumberland? Why do we not need dialect coaching to obtain radio and television positions? Why, most of all, is the Toledo crime rate so much lower than Baltimore? Flint and Detroit were mentioned in this thread earlier as hotbeds of crime. Baltimore is as bad or worse in this than those two cities, but does not have the economic issues of Flint or Detroit, cuasing one to wonder just what is wrong with Baltimore. For a taste of Baltimore attitude, one only need look at how they avoided electing a black mayor for a couple of decades after midwestern cities like Cleveland, Gary, Detroit, Flint and Saginaw had paved the way in this. Instead, a city which bordered on being a majority black held out with their William Donald Schaefer. And why was this? Because Baltimore is provincial. They don't like change. IF they did, they would have gotten rid of their moronic regional accent decades ago, and learned to at least speak as well as folks from Pennsylvania.
A final comment on Maryland: These Marylanders who feel so superior because their state is fourth in income need to thank the folks from Massachusetts, NYC, Jersey and COnnecticut who have moved to their state, and transformed it from a backward place along the lines of Kentucky or Missouri to a place wealthier than PA or Ohio. Without this influx, Maryland would still be quite a backwater.
wish i had such big problems,as POP,sweeper<<,,really get a life!!
Jeesh, I never thought I'd get so much flak for the pop sweeper thing!!--- oh well, it really was not the main subject of my post! It was mostly part of my original "rant".
Its been a while! I got an email from city-data today saying my thread had a new post. More like 50 new posts! I am amazed that this thread is still alive!
To Orwelleaut,
The speech thing really does not bother me. I agree with some of the things that you say about Maryland, but certainly not all. We have our sayings and various accents here in AZ too, oh well. Baltimore is a "crime hole", ask anyone who lives in the metro area. I think western Maryland is beautiful country. I used to do all kinds of outdoor activities in the Cumberland and Frederick areas. Beautiful.
As for Toledo, I will be frank. Toledo sucks. It is not for me, in any way shape or form. Simply put, for someone like me, there is nothing to do there, besides work, and stick to that daily old routine. It is a small, boring midwest city, with a deadly fixation on sports, restaurants, and drinking. Interesting activites there involve advanced planning, travel, time off work, and quite a bit of money. In Maryland I could drive 2 hours on a Saturday morning, and spend the day, or the weekend at the ocean, with hundreds of activities readily available. If I wanted some culture, I could spend a Saturday night in DC's Chinatown, with less than an hour drive. Toledo? Well... the ocean? 12 Hour drive. There is Lake Erie... but whats there. Walleye fishing-- yes, thats fun... other than that, drinking, bars, the same old. They have an entire island--Put-in-Bay, devoted to drinking. There are some historic sites there, but the main attraction is the booze. What else? Not much. Downtown Toledo is in a huge state of urban decay. Of course, the club/bar district is alive everynight--and the restaurants are packed throuought the city--every other building is a restaurant--or sportsbar, centered around getting drunk, and getting fat.
Bottom line is, there is no way you can say Toledo is a "nice city" if you have visited or lived in "real" cities throuought the country.
I live in the Phoenix area now, and here, I have every option available to me. I have a 10 day ATV trip coming up in northern AZ. Do that in Toledo? Not. I enjoy being able to drive 15 minutes and hike up a mountain for hours. There is a huge variety of activities here, just like there was in MD. Yes, MD and AZ both have their troubles, but overall, the good far outweighs the bad in those places compared to Toledo.
Thats just me. If you like Toledo, more power. To me its like being in a prison cell.
I lived in Toledo for nine years, now live near Ashtabula which is between Cleveland and Erie, PA. I love the Ashtabula area. We have gorgeous, clean Lake Erie beaches, and many small waterfalls in the countryside as the many creeks flow down to Lake Erie. For culture, Cleveland is 50 miles away, and has a lot.
While I definitely enjoy the Ashtabula area more than Toledo in terms of outdoor recreation, I honestly think you didn't give Toledo a fair chance. The terrain around there is extremely flat, yes, and there are certainly no waterfalls. There are beaches, though, on Lake Erie that are very nice. Luna Pier, MI, at exit 6 on I-75 North of Toledo, is very nice. The Western part of the Lake is quite shallow, with the shallest depths in the whole Great Lakes system. This means that, this time of year, the water near Toledo is warm enough for swimming sooner than the waters anywhere else in the whole Great Lakes system. I swam in 65 degree, refreshing water just after Memorial Day many times when the waters of the Central and Eastern basins were still like 50 degrees.
Luna Pier has a gorgeous beach, as does Crane Creek State Park on Route 2 just East of Toledo. Maumee Bay is usually too dirty for swimming. Port Clinton also has a great beach in town just across the road from a very sylvan town park. In short, any beach fan who does not have plenty of fun in the summer only has themselves to blame. I always had a blast in the summers in NW Ohio going to the beach.
As far as Western MD, there is no doubt about the beauty of the mountains. Swallow Falls State Park, in Garrett County, is awesome for hiking, and the Yough is cool for swimming after a few weeks of heat get the waters warmed a little. For anyone not from the area, though, Western MD should be treated strictly as a vacation spot. The locals are good people, just hopelessly provincial. This is Appalachia, plain and simple. Few folks have a college degree. I believe that stats are along the lines of 6% of Allegany and Garrett counties holding degrees. Considering the presence of Frostburg State Univ., this is very, very low. Locals mean well, but the don't trust "flatlanders" from "downstate", "up 'ere in Ahia", or "up 'ere in Penns-uh-vania". They look down on West Virginia folks, I think, out of a desire to not feel like they wrote the book on what it means to be a hillbilly.
Lucas County has a rate of around 14% College Grads, and is a centrally located, cosmopolitan large city with much opportunity for those willing to work hard. Newcomers are well accepted unless they act like idiots. At the same time, the mentality is down to earth, unpretentious, call a spade a spade Midwestern. Because folks here are accepting and tolerant, Toledo is full of college grads from Appalachian places. All of the Ohio cities, in fact, are full of folks from WVA, the old industrial towns of Western PA and NY, etc.
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