Considering moving to East Toledo. How it is there? (Navarre: apartments, rental homes)

[Hey_Hey]

Check back in a couple years.......someone is clearing the city of its dilapidated housing stock by way of arson. There have probably been close to two dozen in the last month.

[canudigit]

Give it a lot of thought, and check the websites of the local news stations frequently (WTOL-CBS and WTVG-ABC are the two most popular) as well as the Toledo Blade's (newspaper) site. Toledo is in a terrible state right now: the mayor just laid off about 150 police officers when Toledo didn't have enough before. The stats show that, as of May 1 when the layoffs take place, Toledo will have 1.5 police officers per 1,000 residents. Compare that to 3.9 police officers per 1,000 residents in Columbus. Pathetic. The mayor of Toledo is in the process of being recalled and is being asked to step down. The city council spends the dwindling taxpayer dollars having publicly-funded cat fights and pushing their own individual political agendas. There are no jobs in Toledo, none.

If you do decide that you still want to live in Toledo, I would avoid the East Side. I read in the Blade a few months ago that the median home price on the East Side is like $18,000. That is horrible, and the quality (well, what quality there was left over there) of the neighborhoods will go down even more and be less safe because of the decreased police presence. I don't know your budget, but I would look in one of the suburbs or West Toledo out by Westfield Shopping Towne Franklin Park.

[sugarbomb]

Yeah, don't do it. There's a reason why homes are so cheap there.

[Bubbiebaby]

I used to live in East Toledo (Valentine Street, Birmingham elementary, Waite high school) and recently went for a visit. Very sad to see my old house and the state of the neighborhood. Very sad indeed. I have to admit I'm glad I now live in Wyoming...

[OneMore]

The East Side isn't really horrible until you cross the tracks on Oakdale or under the viaduct on East Broadway toward Navarre. The best area is sandwiched between those areas, Northwood and Rossford. Not much crime at all except for the occasional theft.

But once you're in the bad side, things go down fast with a few exceptions. But as a whole it's a den of arsonists, (Any entrepreneur wanting to set up a bar there will find it in flames before they know it, although that seems to be a general trend now) drug peddlers, drunks and complete jerks.

Drunk drivers are a huge problem, even though bars can't seem to help but catch on fire, once saw a drunk try to drift around a corner and ended up spinning into some poor residents yard then whole-shotting back onto the street. I could write a book on all the drunk drivers I've seen/suspected.

Burglaries aren't really that big of a problem on the East Side, you'll get robbed on the street much more than you will in your home. Shootings are also pretty low compared to the other areas of town. (especially the Central area)

What is interesting is that the sub-culture of the East Side more involves just assaulting people than pulling guns and shooting. You'll see a lot more brawls than robberies or murders, the exception to this is the Wilers, which should be avoided at all costs and is a complete hole. (I can't say with any degree of certainty but I do have a feeling the Wilers account for the majority of the crime on the East Side)

Of course, the East Side is absolutely saturated in drugs. Mostly marijuana though, rarely much else, at least in my experience.

But even for the bad areas of the East Side, it isn't really as bad its nigh legendary reputation lets on. The North End is much worse for my money and the Central area is probably worse too.

EDIT: Not sure how true it is now, but back in the early-mid 2000s it wasn't very uncommon to see a train being robbed when it stopped on the tracks at a crossing. This also probably helped add to the reputation of the East Side being such a rough place.

[Orwelleaut]

The area at the base of the Anthony Wayne Hi-Level Bridge was sorta scary back in 2005. Not the worst area, but definitely an area with drugs and robberies.

[FleeTheRustBelt]

I think, as a general rule, the farther you are from the river, the better the East Side gets. I have friends who live between Navarre and Starr east of E. Broadway near Sun Oil, and while the area is polluted and ugly they've never had any trouble. But you couldn't pay me to live near the Weilers or in Hunkietown, Packo's or no Packo's. "Downtown" East Side near Main and Front is no picnic either.

As far as the level of drunk drivers, of course that's going to happen when there's a friggin' bar on every corner (or so it seems) and the police are as understaffed as they are in the city of Toledo. Oregon cops will pull you over in a heartbeat, but TPD is too busy fighting a losing battle with violent crime to really worry about DUIs. I like to have a few beers as much as anybody (you can tell that just by looking at me) but on the whole Toledo in general and the East Side in particular has a pretty severe drinking problem. I don't get east siders' obsession with ****ty dive bars when there are nicer places to eat and drink not far away.

I'd still take most of the East Side over the North or Central or Old South End any day of the week.

[Bubbiebaby]

Yes, I was married to a guy who actually moved here in 2004 for the event. He lived on the North side while growing up and when I was there with him, he showed me his old house. What a shame. Toledo is a cool place, or used to be. My grandparents live on Parker Avenue forever and where they lived is just horrifying. Sorry about all the drugs and drunks. I hate that too.

[amandak]

It would be better than living on N. Erie in the North end, or better than South Ave. off the Anthony Wayne Trail, and Earl is better than the Tony Packos part of East Toledo.....but if you REALLY want to live in East Toledo, buy my house instead, it is by the new Oakdale school and we've been here 10 years and NEVER had a crime committed on our block!

[lasvegasfanforever]

I grew up on on the east side even back then it was bad with gangs you could it even take a walk outside back then.There is way better places to live here then the east side not to friendly over there most of it is run down not to pretty to look at it's a eye sore.