Typical American city - devoid of people. Only occasional cars passing by.
When I was in England and told people there how amazed I was at how vibrant their cities were I don't think they quite understood. If they could see this thread, or even better go to an American city like this, I think they'd understand.
BTW, any pictures of the Jeep factory? I'd love to see some.
^^ I followed your thread, you seemed pretty surprised yourself. I can tell you that you'll find that vibrance across Europe even in cities of only 70.000 people.
Toledo is a nice city so it seems, nice architecture, nice streets, but where the hell is everyone?! Overhere those old buildings would all house little shops, cafés, restaurants ect...People would sit on small terraces next to the street, take a walk, shop...I've seen pics of Houston by a Dutch forumer in the Dutch subsection. Streets completely empty. I understand the climate plays a role in Houston but still for a city of 2.5 million inhabitants, that's a disaster!
Looks early morning and on week end. i grew up in Toledo, and the suburbs killed the downtown area. it is much busier during the week. I have been gone for over 10 years and miss it more each day
This is definitely an extreme example but in general Americans are much more laid back than Europeans are. After a long work day Americans would much rather go home, relax and watch some TV than go clubbing and drinking all night. During the day, we drive around in cars instead of walk because are cities are so sprawled out.
The reason is mainly the sprawled cities and the malls that comes with it. Instead of walking around Downtown, and eat at restaurants in the city, they take their car to Steak N Shake, McDonald's etc in the suburbs, because thats where everyone lives. As a consequense there are almost nothing to do Downtown and it creates a bad cycle were no one open any shops, restaurants, etc.
As much as I love America it always make me sad when I see how so many cities here are like this. Just visited Cincinnati which is another example. So much potential but totally empty due to the suburban sprawl. Another example is Dayton, OH. 850K metro area but you are lucky if you see one single person walking when you drive around exploring the city. I hope this will change.
It reminds me of other would-be-cities that never made it like: Cincinnati, Birmingham, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, parts of New Jersey near NYC, Saint Louis, etc
Nice architecture, but looks really abandoned compared to Toledo, Spain that I visited last year! In Toledo, Spain there is a street named after Toledo, Ohio.
The twisting sculpture to the left looks like Turning Torso, the tallest building in my city!
These shots were taken at about 2-3pm on December 24th. Downtown Toledo looks to be mostly office buildings, with very little retail and almost no residential nearby. I think that explains the lack of pedestrians.
Not all of them, in fact I doubt if any of them were taken on a Christmas Eve in Toledo, OH. Fact: Toledo is located on Lake Erie and adjacent to the Michigan state line. As anyone who knows anything about US climate, especially that of the Midwest-Great Lakes area, will readily see that there is no snow on the ground, some of the trees have foliage and the sky in a number of shots is different, all, yes ALL, deciduous trees shed their foliage in the fall of every Great Lakes located states.. Even if there had not been a snow storm in upper Ohio, prior to late December 2011, there is always what is known as Lake effect snow. There was snow on the ground of Toledo during the week preceding Christmas 2011.
this is seemingly a nice city but looks depressing.
can't help but to have a wishful thinking to repopulate the city
to once again makes it a lively and vibrant one.
Somewhere around the middle of the 20th century American cities took a wrong turn. We can thank white flight, suburban explosion and neglect of inner cities for that. The result is the depressing urban lanscapes such as what you see in these pictures. A once thriving city that now looks like a ghost town. And this is a city of almost 300k in the city limits and 650k in the metro. About the same size as Alicante which is showcased a couple of threads below. Sad.
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