Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Playbook: Downtown Bound

So, you’re going to do it. You’re going to move downtown. You’re going to join Toledo’s urban renewal. You’re going to live in a “loft,” even though you aren’t really sure what that means. You will walk to baseball games, hockey games and bars with TV’s showing all the games. You will bike to work. You will finally leave the green grasses of suburbia and the comfort of street names that sound like made-up English Dukes, such as “Stonebrook.” You are ready to leave the Toledo you have always known. You are ready to move downtown.

The building you will live in will be in its afterlife. It will have been built 100 years ago to be used as a factory for sorting almonds into retail packaging, or as a luxury hotel where business moguls went to relax after a long day of trading furs on the Erie Canal, or perhaps, it was a department store that brought in the latest men’s fashions from Pittsburgh. Toledo’s industrial boom left beautiful, earnest buildings in its wake. They were forgotten as urban sprawl moved communities farther away. Then a few people realized that seasoned brick, tall ceilings, and original hardwood would provide amazing layouts for apartments, restaurants, and offices.

Revitalization revelation

Groups of people, like The Toledo Warehouse District Association, have promoted and revitalized the hell out of these buildings, and the results are there: The Bartley Lofts (it has its own swimming pool), The Commodore Perry, The LaSalle Building, the Standart Lofts, 100 South Huron (also has a pool),  and Grumpy’s—assuming you ever look up from your Garbage Salad. And there are many more.

According to last year’s Warehouse District Association report: in 1990, there were only 6 people living in the Warehouse District, and only 7 residential units available in all. In 2012, there were 520 people living in 357 units. Now you can add one more person to that list, because I just moved in a month ago.

Comparatively, the living situation downtown is still on a small scale. But this has its advantages. Have you been to other cities? Toledo is clean. Garbage is rare, and typically entertaining: I’ve walked past a gently-used toothbrush that was abandoned on the sidewalk with no other clues left nearby, and someone recently left behind a clear garbage bag stuffed full of Hanes briefs, seemingly free for the taking.

Spacious and stylish

Downtown Toledo is quiet. Weeknights provide a reprieve from the endless shoulder-smashing and parking-lot-jamming that occurs at the strip malls everywhere else in town. And it is safe. Seriously. Check a crime report. According to The Blade’s Crime Tracker, of the 54 homicides that occurred in Toledo during 2012, none occurred downtown.

The weekends? Yes, minor league hockey and baseball are the bread and butter of downtown entertainment. And you’ll probably hear clanged glass mugs filled with Miller Light while listening to a Sublime cover band at Cock N’ Bull or The Blarney. But have you been upstairs at Homeslice Pizza where local DJ’s like Ben Cohen spin vinyl soul albums, and good Kentucky bourbon is served for only five bucks? Have you sung karaoke in the enclosed patio at the Oliver House while the bartenders at Mutz pour freshly-made, Toledo beers? Have you tried to eat more than two slices of deep-dish pizza at Pizzapapalis? San Marcos serves hot tacos and salted margaritas on Broadway until 9pm every night. And—here’s the kicker—have you ever done any of these things, and then walked a couple blocks back to your very own downtown abode? Think about it. Because I think you’re ready.

Dorian Slaybod is 27, a local attorney, single,and happily living in Toledo.

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