T-Town, The Glass City, The 419, Frog Town, The Mud, Little Detroit -- whatever nickname you give it, we all call it home. If you live in or around Toledo, Ohio, you have probably heard the city's slogan, "You Will Do Better In Toledo", but is Toledo really the place to be?
The slogan is over 100 years old. That was back when we had Toledo Scales, and Libbey Glass to put us on the map. We were essential to the war effort with the Willys Jeep, which used to provide the most jobs of any company in the city.
Today, though, much of car manufacturing has gone overseas. All of Libbey's "firsts" can now be accomplished by any competitor. Jeep seems to be drifting away from Toledo slowly, as there was a fight to keep wrangler manufacturing. We have more empty buildings than most cities I have ever seen.
While the reference to being "Little Detroit" once paid homage to great industrial success, now it only references the city's demise.
If you talk to many high school students, you will hear them talk about how they can't wait to get out of Toledo. Many of them leave for college -- I was excited to leave. I didn't even apply to UT during my college search.
Maybe you say that it doesn't matter what the teenagers and young adults have to say about their hometown. Maybe you think that their complaints should go in one ear and out the other. Maybe you think that they don't mean it. They do matter. "Millennials" have a large presence on social media and the internet, where information spreads like wildfire. What they have to say about their home becomes the first impression of many who have never seen or heard of little old Toledo, so it is important to showcase to those inside the city limits what we really have.
We have pride, and we should . I get so excited when there are pop culture references to Toledo. I tell all my friends at college about the Lucas County tag on the Ohio license plate on Dean's Impala on Supernatural . My professors mention M*A*S*H when I tell them where "home" is (and I want to shoot from the rooftops about how much better Tony Packo's is than the Skyline chili I am surrounded with), and despite having gone to the zoo on every field trip since first grade, I am always finding other zoos to fall short of "mine".
Those things, though, aren't enough to make a city a home. Toledo has character. I was in Germany and saw a WWII Jeep made at Willys. I was in Ireland, across the street from THE Waterford crystal factory, and I was drinking water from a Libbey glass. Our zoo wins awards, and our art museum has many famous works.
Toledo has opportunity. There are many places to start up: a family, a business, you name it. We have great schools and great higher education. Engineering, Law, Medicine, whatever career you want to hold, there is a path for you. The cost of living is reasonable and jobs are attainable.
Toledo has connections. I mean this one in the most literal of ways.We are minutes from Michigan, we have a lot of major interstates, and if we ever finish all this construction, we will have some damn good roads. We are on the Great Lakes, and, though we may lose perspective being so close, they are truly awe-inspiring. You can even drive to Canada if you wish.
You will do better in Toledo, if you want to. It's up to us to determine our on fates. If we want to talk smack and leave and never come back, then no one will do better in toledo. But if we choose Toledo, it will be better and we will be better for that choice. So believe them when they say, "You Will Do Better In Toledo."
