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I'm sorry to hear and see this. My husband grew up in this area, and it was the suburbs. No significant crime. But that was 50+ years ago. We were back for awhile a couple of years ago and were sad to see the decline.
That said, though, out of the city and in surrounding areas is still pretty safe, even though it's been hit by poverty, too. The farmers who used to be prosperous are looking marginal now.
Toledo has a lot more to do than some smaller cities- more stores, more entertainment, spread out over a larger area. There are a lot of metroparks in the area, and many of them are still safe and well used. Oak Openings, Wildwood, Mary Jane Thurston...
I know a lot of people still in the Toledo area (fewer in the city proper) and none of them have been victims of serious crime. Everyone I know goes to most areas in the city, without problems. When we were there, I sure did. A friend lives in the Old West End, no problems. We still have family in the old south end, and they were getting a little nervous, but we visited without incident.
Unfortunately, Toledo is also cursed with some of the yuckiest weather around
As far as food- El Camino Real is good is you like Mexican, is Eddie Lee's still there in Sylvania? That used to be good. My husband likes the Old Spaghetti Warehouse... more than I do. I love Carrabba's, but it's chain. Still, yum! Oh, and don't forget Mancy's and their Bluewater Grill, isn't it? Pricey, but good.
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Originally Posted by ToledoBoi4Life
i have also been to major cities throughout the country nd to say toledo is not bad is false information i have lived here all my life and statistics dont mean anythin. sure there are good areas but the area i currently live on hawley and colburn off of south ave. and the anthony wayne trail, which is the heart of the old south end/south central, maybe one of the worst areas ive seen in any major city including detroit, atlanta, miami, brooklyn, pittsburgh, DC, baltimore, ive been to all and they all are known for crime and i have to say my neighborhood is right inline with some of the worst neighborhoods there. if u want to dispute me then i will invite u over and we can take a walk around the block (in broad daylight mind u) and we will count the amount of drug deals and prostitutes and the occasonal trap(crack house) soo if u have anythin else to say about statistics that mean absolutly nothing come here o and do u think the cops in that jurisdiction would arrest these people? no b.c. they are in on it too. dont believe me i will prove it i kno a few dirty cops myself
Obviously you havent been to the bad areas in those cities you mentioned. I have. Areas of North Philly, East Detroit, West Baltimore, and DC, make the worst areas of Toledo look nice.
Toledo is not that nice and does have bad areas, also nice areas, but saying its among the worst in the country is a ridiculous exaggeration.
HAHAHAHA how can u tell me i havent been there i have been too all of thos places i actually have family in most of them but to tell me its an exaggeration obviously u hav never been to my neighborhood i invite u over to my house i live at 1052 colburn come ova nd i bet u wont say that to anybody there just b.c. our murders are low doesnt mean our other crime isnt. it compares to all of thos citys maybe not the whole city or the part u obviously visit but my neighborhood does ha i even dare u to say bloods suck over here nd somethin really bad might happen to ur house. ive seen it soo dont come tell me ha
Toledo is not those places by far, but dont go by statistics... I lived in Toledo and seen similar problems, Ive seen an AK-47 Assault rifle pulled on two people that same year at Big Shots bar and grill off Albion.... I hear gunshots quite frequently in Toledo as I did in other places.... Not trying to make Toledo sound hard or anything, just trying to make a point.... I've lived in Toledo most of my life and I remember Toledo in the 90s when it did have a high murder rate, I remember back in the 90s when I saw three people get gunned-down in a drive-by.... This is not from no news sources, this is from my eyes.... And what is making alot of Toledoens concerned right now is the bad economy, which is causing people to wonder if Toledo is going back to the 90s, when it was one of the top 20 highest murder rated cities in America....
I agree with u fully i remember seeing an EMT in an ambulance gunned down in 97 by an AK-47 b.c. it was an innitiation to a common gang around here to kill a servicemen (police, firefighters, EMTs). In '00 a hooker on broadway and south ave. was murdered and decapitated(they found the head in the alley behind my house) I have also had a few of my best friends killed or shot including myself. Including the most recent my friends little brother was just killed on south ave. and airport, his name was Louis Reese R.I.P. he was 16 years old and shot and killed by a 30year old man. Drug deal gone bad.
HAHAHAHA how can u tell me i havent been there i have been too all of thos places i actually have family in most of them but to tell me its an exaggeration obviously u hav never been to my neighborhood i invite u over to my house i live at 1052 colburn come ova nd i bet u wont say that to anybody there just b.c. our murders are low doesnt mean our other crime isnt. it compares to all of thos citys maybe not the whole city or the part u obviously visit but my neighborhood does ha i even dare u to say bloods suck over here nd somethin really bad might happen to ur house. ive seen it soo dont come tell me ha
I'm sorry that your neighborhood is that bad, but the entire city is not riddled with crime as you portray. I grew up in Toledo and my entire family still lives there. Not every neighborhood is as you describe. I have a cousin who lives off of Broadway by the zoo, not too far from you and her neighborhood is not gang infested. I have family that live by Rogers high school and their neighborhoods are not gang infested yet... I have family that live by the University of Toledo in safe areas and I have family that actually live in lofts downtown.
Yes crime is up, that is to be expected when unemployment rises. If you want to do something about it start talking to your councilman for your area, start a neighborhood watch. Get a coalition with your neighbors going to clean up your neighborhood. Try to do some good instead of complaining.
New stats say crime is down in Toledo, but reaction to the numbers is mixed.
New stats say crime is down in Toledo, but reaction to the numbers is mixed. City leaders are pleased with the numbers, but TPD's union president says the numbers don't mean a lot.
The statistics show that crime dropped 4.5 percent in Toledo last year. Toledo's police chief says our streets are pretty safe. But, the figures show the number of murders jumped from 13 to 18. That's a 38.5 percent increase.
Cases of manslaughter were up 150 percent. In all, robbery was up moderately.
The president of the Toledo Police Patrolman's Association has mixed emotions about the stats. He says, "The chief has said himself you can get these numbers to say whatever you want. And we've always known that some of the crimes have been adjusted down, that they are not the same level. What you got to look at is our felonious assault rate.
Definitely Check This Out
We are higher than the city of Columbus and the city of Cleveland. We were 600 more than Columbus, but 300 more than Cleveland. You know we talked about our murder rate being so low. Its just our guys aren't as efficient in killing, but they're trying to kill people more often than in Cleveland and Columbus."
That came from 13 ABC.... I can explain that for you....
Those who know about Toledo know about the history and politics of the city. If you read alot of the threads on here you see alot of people who say they remember a different Toledo, back in the 60s and early 70s Toledo was one of the better cities to live in, that changed during the 80s and early 90s when factories started to relocate to other places. In the mid 90s Carty got elected and shut alot of the drug and gang activity totally. In 95 or 96 local gang members had plotted to assassinate him, but that got foiled after most of them got locked up. In 1999 and 2000, Toledo had the lowest murder rate ever, even lower than 2007 along with one of the lowest crime rates ever.... There was literally no real gang violence goin on like now and people were actually working... Times changed, Toledo has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state at 14.3%, with Youngstown the only one higher at 14.4%....
Theres a shooting almost every other week in here, but the murder rate is low because Toledo police have one of the most successful conviction rates in the country. Almost all of Toledo's murders get solved every year and no one has a chance of being a repeat offender, like in New Orleans with the 61 day rule.... Its all about politics...... Cities with high murder rates is bad for business, no company wants to relocate to a city with a high murder rate or crime rate. In order for Toledo to grow, law enforcement is vital....
I'm sorry that your neighborhood is that bad, but the entire city is not riddled with crime as you portray. I grew up in Toledo and my entire family still lives there. Not every neighborhood is as you describe. I have a cousin who lives off of Broadway by the zoo, not too far from you and her neighborhood is not gang infested. I have family that live by Rogers high school and their neighborhoods are not gang infested yet... I have family that live by the University of Toledo in safe areas and I have family that actually live in lofts downtown.
Yes crime is up, that is to be expected when unemployment rises. If you want to do something about it start talking to your councilman for your area, start a neighborhood watch. Get a coalition with your neighbors going to clean up your neighborhood. Try to do some good instead of complaining.
Wow u seem to name nice parts but i didnt say all of toledo was bad soo get ur facts straight. and get a coalition with my neighbors ha ya thats a good one like i said dont talk about things u kno nothing of and u kno nothing of my neighborhood. no body here would b down for that they like it how it is unfortunatly all i can do is deal with it im not complaining im telling it like it is good for u that u love ur neighborhood but i dont nd cant afford to move. I also dont recall saying every neighborhood is as i describe but what i am saying is there are parts of toledo that are gang infested and drug infested i kno where u speak of by the zoo if u go toward downtown it get bad but if u head away from downtown it does get very nice, but as i said their are places in this city that are bad. Ive been too nice neighborhoods and have not recalled any of the people i have meet there ever had friends and family lost to gang and drug violence.
I'm sorry that your neighborhood is that bad, but the entire city is not riddled with crime as you portray. I grew up in Toledo and my entire family still lives there. Not every neighborhood is as you describe. I have a cousin who lives off of Broadway by the zoo, not too far from you and her neighborhood is not gang infested. I have family that live by Rogers high school and their neighborhoods are not gang infested yet... I have family that live by the University of Toledo in safe areas and I have family that actually live in lofts downtown.
Yes crime is up, that is to be expected when unemployment rises. If you want to do something about it start talking to your councilman for your area, start a neighborhood watch. Get a coalition with your neighbors going to clean up your neighborhood. Try to do some good instead of complaining.
I'm pretty sure the government would object to such a thing. They'd call it a vigilante mob and they'd call the "clean up" work "multiple homicides."
If I was to go downtown with a coalition of my neighbors and start shooting everybody who was openly dealing drugs or flashing gang signs, I might be hard-pressed to find a jury who agreed that it was a necessary neighborhood revival clean-up situation.
You talk about cleaning up a neighborhood? So what do you do when you have fifty or sixty different street gangs, each with anywhere from say ten to thirty members, trolling around a particular block or group of city blocks? Do you ask them to leave? Do you repeatedly repaint the sides of walls and buildings to cover up the graffiti that pops up every night after it has been removed earlier in the day? How do you clean up a neighborhood unless you permanently get rid of the trash?
A neighborhood watch?
Most places already have that-
Everybody watches while the drug deals go down...
Everybody watches while women are dragged into alleys...
Everybody watches as a car speeds by and the passenger opens fire on a crowd.
The problem is that everybody watches, nobody does anything. Instead of a neighborhood watch program it might be better to try a neighborhood KICK BUTT program. If you see somebody dealing drugs on your street corner, they get run down with a car, tasered, pepper sprayed, cracked on the skull with a bat. If they don't get the message after a while, then you give him a 5.56 NATO dirt nap.
People don't really want to reclaim neighborhoods from gangs, they want to groan about it, do a few feel-good things, and just hope/pray no gang-violence ever personally impacts them. They're content to see the city fall to heck just as long as they can stay safe in their own little bubble.
When you have a city as bad as say Cleveland, New Orleans, Detroit, etc, you don't need a Ghandi with a pair of binoculars and a cellphone, you need The Punisher with his M-16.
Note that I'm not actually advocating you go out and start taking the law into your hands by mowing down drug dealers and gang-bangers. I'm just telling you that your ideas have been tried and they really don't work.
There were some groups in Sierra Leone during the civil war years, the RUF (Revolutionary United Front) and the West Side Boys (assorted street gangsters, rebels, thugs, etc- splinter group from the RUF), there were multiple tens of thousands of these thugs (at the least about thirty thousand), and the government obviously didn't like them, but they really didn't care. The UN didn't like them, they slapped embargoes against the rebel groups, no weapons shipments into Sierra Leone, so said the law anyway... No exporting diamonds out of Sierra Leone, so the law said anyway...
Enter Executive Outcomes, a private military firm from South Africa. They put a few hundred former SADF commandos and infantrymen into Sierra Leone, with minimal air support, and in a few months they killed upwards of 20,000 rebels. The UN then went ballistic, screaming about White mercenaries, racism, private armies, etc, so out went Executive Outcomes and there several hundred private soldiers, in came nearly TWENTY THOUSAND UN peacekeepers. The rebels regrouped and resumed business as usual. Mainly chopping off the arms/hands of people who supported the government, raping women, enslaving children (frequently as soldiers and/or prostitutes), killing government soldiers, etc.
The UN spent multiple billions of dollars but failed to make a dent against the rebels because they simply sat back and watched, they had a nice watch program, but they never did anything.
The services of the South Africans cost Sierra Leone multiple tens of millions of dollars but for those several months the rebels were thoroughly crushed and the entire rebellion was on the verge of total collapse.
See, there's a difference between watching something bad happen and making sure something bad doesn't happen by taking the initiative and taking the fight to those who would seek to have the bad things happen.
ohiouberallies, since you decry vigilantism, am i correct to read that you see the hiring of private armies as the solution to solve urban decay?
I don't decry vigilantism; I am merely speaking about what is legal and what is not legal. Morally speaking vigilante efforts are justified, but I cannot and will not encourage anybody to actively break the law.
Speaking in a purely hypothetical sense, if a half-dozen concerned neighbors were to band together, take their AR-15s, and proceed to mow down a trio of drug-dealing gang-bangers lurking on the street corner, I would say they are morally justified and should be congratulated. The law says something different and you're legally obligated to obey the law. Although the law puts nothing into existence in regards to morality, indeed sometimes laws are morally neutral or outright wrong in regards to morality.
I don't decry vigilantism; I am merely speaking about what is legal and what is not legal. Morally speaking vigilante efforts are justified, but I cannot and will not encourage anybody to actively break the law.
Speaking in a purely hypothetical sense, if a half-dozen concerned neighbors were to band together, take their AR-15s, and proceed to mow down a trio of drug-dealing gang-bangers lurking on the street corner, I would say they are morally justified and should be congratulated. The law says something different and you're legally obligated to obey the law. Although the law puts nothing into existence in regards to morality, indeed sometimes laws are morally neutral or outright wrong in regards to morality.
Food for thought...
No where did I equate a neighborhood coalition with a vigalante mob. Give me a break. This is the stupidity that brings Toledo down. Change starts at home. Take care of your own property make your house nice. If it gets tagged yes paint over it.
Get your neighbors together and go together to talk to the local government. Perhaps if they see you are serious about cleaning up your own neighborhood they will step up police involvement and have more of a presence in your neighborhood. These are just places to start.
While I don't live their anymore I still have mine and my husband's entire family still there. For them I would love to see Toledo become great like it once was but people who aren't willing to work to do that just bring the city down. If you hate your neighborhood so much, don't want to try to change,the best thing you could do in that instance is to try to move.
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