My city wasn’t gone…

Well folks, I’ve returned after four days of almost-complete absence from the blogosphere, since I did moderate comments twice during my leave from the state of Maryland. Since Sunday morning I hadn’t even looked on the internet until I came home from the Shorebirds game tonight, which explained the pile of e-mails I sifted through.

Adding in the fact that I prewrote the preceding four posts last week prior to leaving and it’s been six days where I managed to let this website go for the most part and recharge my batteries for the critical 10 weeks ahead leading up to the November elections. I have to tell you that it was wonderful to spend time with members of my immediate and extended families over the last four days.

During the midday part of Monday, I took the opportunity to spend some time walking through the neighborhood I spent part of my childhood in, a period that spanned 2nd to 6th grade. I noticed there were quite a few folks out at that time of day, which isn’t unusual in a lot of Midwestern city neighborhoods. When my brothers and I were growing up there, we walked about six blocks to the neighborhood school. Because of declining enrollment, that school closed over a decade ago and is now a part of the University of Toledo as a daycare center.

At least it’s still standing, though – I found out driving later that evening on my way downtown through the neighborhood my ex and I bought our first house in that my daughter’s grade school was demolished and a new school is being built on the site to replace it. (In fact, within the next half-decade the state of Ohio will have replaced all of the schools my daughter – who isn’t even 25 yet – attended, with two of them I saw already demolished for new buildings and a third slated to be – the new high school is being built on an adjacent block.) I contend that, regardless of the newness of the physical plant, the quality of education a student receives there isn’t going to be any better without some serious education reform. Hopefully you’ll pardon the little aside, now back to the main path.

The point I’m making is that the typical urban Rust Belt resident is getting older. As that happens and industry is driven out by a variety of market and non-market factors, the chances of a city to reinvent itself become less and less and local governments find themselves increasingly looking for handouts from the state and federal governments. In Toledo’s case, development seems to be concentrated in two areas – downtown (where a new hockey arena is being built close by the 6 year old Fifth Third Field) and south of the city, on the outskirts of suburban cities Maumee and Perrysburg. Those residential neighborhoods in the middle like the one I grew up in continue to age and eventually will depreciate into less-desirable areas, something not even brand-new schools can help.

It’s even worse when areas once vibrant with retail see themselves supplanted by newer and trendier stores farther out in the suburbs. I recall the former Southwyck Mall opening when I was a kid, 35 years later it’s vacant and so are a number of other nearby buildings that together used to comprise a thriving retail area along Reynolds Road. Certainly soon to follow into a decrepit state are the neighborhoods that surround the former mall, much of that area already rental property to begin with. Seemingly the area would almost be better suited returning to the cornfield that it once was not even 40 years ago.

In some ways my former hometown is a case study for what not to do to grow an urban area. (As a start, electing some Republicans would help.) For decades plan after plan was made to revitalize downtown but little materialized. It’s a story repeated with many cities in the region, with much work wasted in planning and not enough attention devoted to the principle of just getting out of the way as much as possible. It seems to me that, in order to feel like something is being done, those politicians who govern big cities like to create panels who either dream up their own grandiose plans or hire someone to do so – the trick is always in how to have their own palms greased as part of the process. That’s not to say planning doesn’t have its place, but there needs to be plenty of flexibility built in. What may seem like a perfect retail area now may be better as an office park when a new highway bypass is built, for example.

I think this is a subject I may touch on again; not necessarily in looking at my hometown but as part of planning for my adopted one. Obviously the problems aren’t the same, but I think many of the solutions would include a great deal of commonality.

I’m not sure when I’ll be heading that way next. Unfortunately it slipped my mind to check on those little oil wells, so it’s still a mystery to me whether we’re drilling here and now on that particular plot of northern Ohio. However, you can be sure I’ve returned and will get back to more regular posting again.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

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