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I hear good things about Cincinnati and I saw Toledo in the media. Would y’all do me the favor of compare and contrast of these two Ohio cities? Some of the categories you might include are but not limited to:
COL
Location
Weather
Amenities
Shopping
Culture
Beauty of city
Friendliness
Blue vs White Collar
Crime
Transportation (public and traffic)
I'll let someone who knows each city better to chime in but this honestly isn't even a close comparison. Cincinnati is better in literally every single metric that you listed outside of cost of living, but COL will naturally be cheaper in a worse city
I wouldn't say COL is better because Toledo is a "worse city." More that the lack of larger city amenities nearby (less you drive the hour to Detroit or more if you go to the northern, more amenity driven, big dollar suburbs) keeps costs down.
Cincinnati has more metros in an easy driving radius (2 hours or less to Louisville, Indy and Columbus, 4 or less hours to Nashville and Cleveland and Chicago is 4.5 to 6 depending on traffic and where in the Chicagoland area you are going). Chicago is a bit further but direct flights are plenty and usually cheap. Flight also is less than an hour. Toledo has a practically non-existent airport which only flies to Chicago but would likely have higher ticket costs due to the lack of options and competition. Most people in Toledo fly out of DTW anyways. Toledo does have decent drive times (sub 4-hours) to Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, Columbus, Indy, Pittsburgh and of course, Cincinnati. Though some of those are on toll roads and can add costs over long distances. On a more personal opinion, I like the hills and valleys in the Cincinnati area better than the rather flat topography of Toledo and most of NW Ohio.
Weather is hotter and humid in Cincinnati and allergies can be bad due to the nature of the air in the surrounding valleys. But more snow from the lake effect in Toledo. Personally, I think this is personal, individual preference and not a better or worse question.
Cincinnati has amenities hands down. From pro sport teams to college hoops and (hopefully) UC football, number of universities and colleges, types and amount of shopping options, neighborhoods and downtown activities, Cincinnati just out classes Toledo. But the same would be said if comparing Cincinnati to Chicago or San Francisco.
See above for shopping
Don't have enough knowledge of Toledo culture to say on their end. While Cincinnati is rather friendly, it can be somewhat provincial (my opinion) in its mindset. From the "Where did you go to school (high school)?" question to some of the more hillbilly nature of the poor white Appalachian transplants of multiple generations, Cincinnati just has a more "rooted" feel to its living standards. When I lived in Columbus, which was much more transplant and corporate oriented (versus rust belt oriented poor and the struggles that come with that), that mindset wasn't anywhere close to noticeable. But the flip side is Columbus almost felt Disney-esque in nature and development and had little history. So there are trade-offs. Toledo certainly shares the rust-belt mentality, but it might be different beyond that. Maybe similar to Dayton, where I grew up?
Cincinnati is just a more park and topograhy oriented city. Toledo isn't far from some good lake regions such as Put-in-Bay. Ever been to SW Michigan? South Haven and other Lake Michigan shore towns. That is some beautiful areas. But, Toledo itself just doesn't have the same topography and park amenities that Cincinnati's metro provides. Toledo certainly has some nice parks, but I think the topography difference is the winner. But as noted earlier, that is my opinion versus a fact.
Friendliness: See culture section.
Blue Collar vs. White Collar is probably more prevalent in Cincinnati due to its former industrial base. Blue Collar jobs are also thriving more and more profitable in Toledo in large part due to FCA and the Jeep plant. So the Blue Collar worker is better off and doing better in Toledo. For Blue Collar workers that picked up a specified and in-demand skill, Cincinnati has plenty of those jobs. But the large, unskilled factory worker is gone from Cincinnati. So is that pay. I wouldn't be surprised if many people from those fields have moved into warehouse and logistical roles and large DCs and sorting centers, like DHL and Amazon at CVG. White Collar workers certainly have more opportunities and ways for advancement and places to jump between in Cincinnati. So White Collar opportunity is much heavier and more noticeable in the Cincinnati metro.
Cincinnati, just by being a larger city and metro, probably has more crime. I would have to do a per capita comparison though to be certain who has more crime and what the nature of those crimes are. But I am not going to do that now.
Cincinnati transportation is pretty bad. Especially its public transit options. Likely because the entire southern half of the metro is another state and thus another entity for transit management, it seems a bit disjointed. At least Cincy has a streetcar? Highways are also more clogged in Cincinnati due to volume and population. The problem with roads in Cincy is it isn't as easy to widen them. Not only is land more expensive, the hills and valleys make engineering logistics nearly impossible in some areas. And then there is the Brent Spence bridge. And when that finally gets a replacement in play? Well, enough said there.
For what reason are you comparing the two? Competing job offers? Or just curiosity?
I grew up in Toledo and still spend a ton of time there, but I've somehow managed to never visit Cincinnati, so I can't help much with direct comparisons.
It's true that Toledo Express Airport is lacking, but it's only a 43 minute drive from downtown Toledo to DTW. Toledo Express does have service to Chicago, Charlotte, and a few Florida cities. If you're fortunate enough to be going to one of those locations, it's very convenient and easy.
For the most part, Toledo has the things the bigger cities have, but it will just have fewer of them. For example there's only one major indoor mall, only two major "lifestyle" shopping centers, two live theaters, one ring of suburbs instead of two (it gets rural fast), one big museum, etc. It's a personal preference to decide if that matters or not.
The most glaring things Toledo lacks are pro sports and a destination walkable neighborhood. The minor league sports stadiums are actually pretty nice and still give you that sporting event vibe with lots of activity downtown on game days, but the fan base just isn't there. The city isn't going to be abuzz if the Mud Hens are in the play offs like Cincy would be if the Reds were. And there are a few semi-walkable areas, but there's no place like Ohio City, German Village, or Over The Rhine. Downtown and Uptown are starting to fill that void, but there's still no comparison.
For the average joe, I think Toledo is just fine -- how often are you really going to go to the opera or the Natural History Museum or whatever it is that only bigger cities offer? The hardest part would be finding a job; the cost of living is great, but that's because the local economy is lagging.
With Lake Erie and the remnants of the Great Black Swamp, Toledo citizens are afforded access to some excellent natural areas, arguably superior in their own way to anything in Cincinnati to my knowledge.
E.g., northwest Ohio contains globally acclaimed birding areas, such as the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge and the famed Magee Marsh.
Visiting Magee Marsh in early May is one of my favorite nature experiences in Ohio, and not just for the warblers on its famed boardwalk, but also for the long, beautiful natural beach a short walk north of the boardwalk. It's no surprise that it attracts birders annually from across North America and even globally.
The Toledo Museum of Art is excellent, and Toledo residents are just one hour from the Detroit Institute of Art and less than two hours from the Cleveland Museum of Art, considered two of the very best in the U.S.
The Toledo Museum of Art receives higher average ratings from TripAdvisor visitors than the Cincinnati Museum of Art. It also has one of the best glass collections in the world housed in the extraordinary Glass Pavilion.
The Toledo Museum of Art is superior to those found in many much larger U.S. cities.
Toledo also is one hour from Detroit's excellent pro sports scene, better than that of Cincinnati, and to Ann Arbor's University of Michigan, one of the top university sports meccas in the world. And the Univ. of Toledo offers very good MAC teams, as does Bowling Green, especially if interested in NCAA ice hockey.
Toledo is less than two hours to Cleveland's often excellent pro sports teams (Cavaliers and Indians in recent years).
Toledo is just over an hour from Cedar Point, the "roller coaster capital of the world," with its beautiful setting on a Lake Erie peninsula.
Cincinnati is less than an hour from the magnificent aviation history attractions of Dayton. Toledo is less than an hour from the exquisite The Henry Ford, with one of the best general history museums in the U.S. and other great experiences, especially for children.
I mostly grew up in Cincinnati then went to UT for undergrad so I think I have a fairly good grasp of both cities. Here are some standout differences to me.
-Cincinnati identifies more so with its individual neighborhoods (OTR, Clifton, Price Hill, Hyde Park, Northside, etc.) while Toledo identifies more so with its "sides" of town that are described as larger neighborhoods (West Toledo, East Toledo, North Toledo, South Toledo, Central Toledo).
-Despite the two city propers being similar in size and not too far off in density, large portions of Toledo (particularly the west and southwest parts) feel like they'd be inner-ring suburbs in Cincinnati.
-Toledo's proximity to Michigan is a huge asset. I personally enjoy the different "feel" I get traveling north on I-75 or US-23 crossing from Ohio into Michigan. Detroit and Ann Arbor are just an hour away and offer two distinct experiences with a lot to offer culturally. Growing up in Cincinnati, there was rarely reason to go to Kentucky unless it was for the airport.
Toledo is not as isolated as Cincinnati, culturally or geographically. It's one of the ring of cities around Detroit (Flint, Lansing, A2 and Toledo), so it draws a lot of culture and activity from greater Detroit, which has an energy and international feel that Cincinnati does not. I could see how people might be drawn to Cincinnati over Toledo, but I personally prefer Toledo because of its proximity to Detroit.
Toledo is not as isolated as Cincinnati, culturally or geographically. It's one of the ring of cities around Detroit (Flint, Lansing, A2 and Toledo), so it draws a lot of culture and activity from greater Detroit, which has an energy and international feel that Cincinnati does not...
Because Toledo is so near to Detroit, such a symbiotic perspective is understandable, but one that Cincinnati needn't share. While Toledo may feel a necessity to gravitate to all things Motor City to complement its own existence, Cincinnati shares in no such lack of culture or geography. The Queen City possesses a wealth of cultural assets and an orb of surrounding big cities all its own.
Because Toledo is so near to Detroit, such a symbiotic perspective is understandable, but one that Cincinnati needn't share. While Toledo may feel a necessity to gravitate to all things Motor City to complement its own existence, Cincinnati shares in no such lack of culture or geography. The Queen City possesses a wealth of cultural assets and an orb of surrounding big cities all its own.
If you want to experience the NHL (and ice hockey is big in Toledo) or the NBA, magnificent art museums, and a robust boating culture, these are significant advantages of Toledo over Cincinnati. Housing is relatively inexpensive in Toledo, offering the potential for a very high quality of life, especially more so if we ever elect politicians who will clean up the pollution of the Maumee River Basin by Ohio and Indiana ag businesses.
The negative is the overall heft of the immediate metro doesn't compare with a much larger metro like Cincinnati.
One thing not yet noted, Toledo, sitting on the western side of Lake Erie isn't subject to the larger snowfalls prevalent in the areas of more northeastern Ohio downwind of the Lake Erie snow machine. Toledo is downwind of the lesser Lake Michigan snow machine. Toledo still maintains robust snow removal capabilities.
I would go Cincinnati. Unless there is some specific characteristic you're looking for in those categories you listed, Cincinnati is just overall a much more complete city.
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