sandwalk

I currently live in Rockford, Illinois and although not nearly as influential as Cleveland, the "Forest City" nickname is used quite a bit around here. You'll hear it in the names of businesses, referenced on the local newscasts, etc. Rockford is consistently touted for it's fantastic park system and the "Forest City" nickname gives this decayed industrial city a glimmer of hope.

I banged a bowl of cereal because I'm a pimp. Word.

Wow. My home county of Erie is split between 3 congressional districts. That's pretty absurd since there's only 75,000 people and it's the smallest county in Ohio by land area.

And I totally forgot about Mona Pizza! Downtown at 135 Columbus Avenue and they sell pizza by the slice (not common in the Sandusky area LOL)

Sandusky has some nice local eateries to give the chain restaurants on Route 250 a run for their money. Jo Wok - best Thai and Laotian food I've ever had (better than anything I've tried in Chicago or California) 709 West Perkins Avenue http://www.jowok.com/ Berardi's - Homemade/American and Italian; lots of older residents go there, but the food is still good 1019 West Perkins Avenue (they have location in Huron and Norwalk too, but the menus differ) http://sanduskyberardis.com/ Danny Boys - pizza/pasta/ribs/salads/sandwiches (had a pizza with toasted ravioli - crazy good) 6207 Milan Road (Rt 250) http://www.dannyboysitalianeatery.net/ .....and the joys of being on Lake Erie: New Sandusky Fish Company - fried perch sandwich, yum! 235 East Shoreline Drive (downtown) DeMore's Fish Den 302 West Perkins Avenue -during Catholic Lent, the police must manually direct traffic on Perkins Ave coming in and out of this restaurant :)

Sandusky is an affordable and attractive place to live; if you can find a job :(

Retail is fun (LOL). I usually do a 9a-5:30p or a 1:30p-10p and it changes everyday. I can't wait to get back to a (semi-) set schedule. I loved my 7a-4:30p daily work shifts at my old job, just didn't care for the job LOL.

I like the "city" avenues of the Rye Beach neighborhood in the city of Huron: *Cincinnati, Dayton, Marion, Pittsburgh, Sandusky, Columbus, Mansfield, Canton, Findlay, Fremont, Lima, Bucyrus, Toledo, Cleveland Also, the "Alaska" avenues of west Akron: * Nome, Seward, Valdez, Juneau, and Yukon

I've always been a fan of the Lake Erie road references around the Sandusky area. * Shoreline Drive along Sandusky Bay in downtown Sandusky. * Erie Boulevard in east Sandusky * Lake Shore Avenue (not located by the lake, but rather the old Lake Shore railroad) * Bayshore Road on the Marblehead Peninsula * Rye Beach Road in Huron * Cedar Point Chaussee (the old way to CP) Then of course there are some rural roads in the Firelands with odd/interesting names. * Gore Orphanage Road * Lovers Lane Road * Ransom Road * Medusa Road * Halfway Road (the longitude line halfway between the Indiana and Pennsylvania state lines)

*sigh* I wish I wasn't so far from home! Summertime is pretty much amazing around Sandusky. Say what you will but north central Ohio won't keep you bored :)

Great photos of an amazing city! Thanks!

Like!

Sounds like northern Illinois! LOL

Just saw with the new census figures that little ol' Leipsic has the largest Hispanic population proportion in Ohio at 31.3%. I love the census; numbers and data oh my! :)

Interesting to note: * Lorain (pop. 64,097) is now very close to Youngstown (pop. 66,982) * Findlay (pop. 41,202) now has a larger population than Lima (pop. 38,771) I'm also happy that the towns in and around where I grew up didn't do so bad. * Sandusky (pop. 25,793) only saw about a 7% drop since the 2000 census (the local newspapers thought it was going to be much worse) * Norwalk (pop. 17,012) actually grew by about 5% since the 2000 census and is now larger than Fremont

Uh-Oh. I saw a "Pittsburgh Street."

Greyhound to open new Sandusky location Tom Jackson, Sandusky Register, 21 Jan 2010 http://www.sanduskyregister.com/sandusky/2011/jan/21/greyhound-open-new-sandusky-location SANDUSKY - Life is about to get better for people riding the bus to or from Sandusky. Greyhound announced Friday that it has a new location for Sandusky, which has been without a bus station since the last one closed in November. The new bus station is the Friendship Food Store, 3515 Tiffin Ave. Greyhound will begin service at the new location on Tuesday. The phone number is 419-609-9378. ------------------------------------------ The new location is near the Route 2 exit to Route 101 (Tiffin Avenue) in southwest Sandusky; close to the Quarry Lakes Industrial Park and Visteon (formerly Ford) factory.

*Apparently in Erie County, if you live south of Bogart Road (suburban Sandusky's southern boundary) you are a hillbilly. *US Route 224 from Seneca County to the Pennsylvania State Line is basically the southern boundary of the Connecticut Western Reserve. The dividing line between reason and thoughtlessness (LOL j/k).

Depressing stuff.

Coldstone is overrated and overpriced. Give me a local place like Toft's in Sandusky or Chilly Willy's in bustling North Monroeville, Ohio. :D

Another perspective: I've always considered Cleveland & Akron close neighbors, each with their own economic center. Northeast Ohio is Cleveland-centric (which makes sense, obviously). But there is overlap in the general area; and it appears to be spreading (becoming more regionalized). For instance, I've noticed that Cleveland's University Hospital has facilities/doctors from Sandusky to Youngstown. Akron Children's Hospital's facilities/doctors reach from Norwalk & Mansfield to Youngstown. Even the ClevNET library system overlaps from Fremont (not far from Toledo) to Barberton & Hudson, to Geauga County. To me, it seems like the "divide" is not very prevalent. And whatever divide there may be is dissolving.

The chip-seal approach to maintaining roads is popular when my parents live.....and it isn't as expensive. Granted it's a rural/sub-rural area so the traffic is mainly farm vehicles and road residents. There are a couple of gravel roads and one dirt road (which has been completely closed to through traffic) near Monroeville, Ohio. In Illinois....different story. Gravel/crushed limestone/dirt roads are very abundant; including a few in the Chicago metro area.

Yes! I think the fact that the town is built following the lay of the land (not to mention that only one of the shops is a national chain) really adds to the Old-world/mountain town/European village charm.

Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to check out the historic residential districts.....spent most of the time downtown (dodging the rain). But I could only imagine that it's as impressive as the business district!

Gotta love Chicago!