From more upscale coffee houses to a booming downtown scene built up around its once-decrepit warehouse district, Toledo continues to show signs of becoming more cool, hip, and attractive to college-educated young people.
But statistics show the rebranding effort isn’t generating results as quickly as people want.
In a recent study of U.S. Census data commissioned by The Pew Charitable Trusts, Toledo ranked only 455th out of 521 U.S. cities for percentage growth of degree-holding Millennials between 2000 and 2014. Millennials are generally defined as people between 18 and 34 who were born in 1982 or later.
Toledo had a modest dip of 0.69 percent in that category — less than a 1 percent decline — although that occurred during a time in which the Census also estimated Toledo’s overall population decreased about 10 percent.
Experts believe results for some cities might have been skewed by lingering effects of the global economy’s 2008 crash. Yet nationally, the percentage of young college graduates has grown 36 percent since 2000.
Other cities gain faster
Several traditional Rust Belt cities, however, including Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis, made impressive gains.
A Pew publication article noted several Rust Belt cities have become attractive to Millennials because of their affordable housing and proximity to other big cities. Jersey City, for example, is close to New York.
Another big factor: Tech opportunities. Baltimore has become attractive to developers in the hot gaming and software industries, according to the article. It also offers many other opportunities, such as medical research, at its 13 colleges and universities.
“St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore are former Rust Belt cities that were given up for dead but are making a comeback because their universities were able to remain world-class centers of research,” Antoine van Agtmael, a Brookings Institution trustee and author of a book on the subject, told the website curbed.com.
In the Toledo area, though, higher-education institutions have struggled to gain some of the same esteem. The University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University, for example, do not have members in the prestigious Academy of Arts in Sciences or other such national academies. They have fallen lower on national rankings for higher-education institutions.
An article in The Blade’s sister newspaper, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, shows museums, bike trails, and social and artistic events, as well as affordable housing carved out of former industrial buildings, are amenities to young people that go beyond the core of business and educational opportunities.
Rebecca Bagley, University of Pittsburgh vice chancellor for economic partnerships, used the term “Rust Belt chic” to describe the popularity of repurposing old buildings with character.
A lot of that is under way in Toledo.
There’s the recently premiered sports-entertainment complex called Hensville that sits between Field Third Field and the Huntington Center.
The Metroparks of the Toledo Area plans to build a downtown metropark along the Maumee River on vacant Marina District land.
There is Toledo’s $2.8 million sale of the massive, 58.5-acre former Southwyck Shopping Center site along Reynolds Road in South Toledo to a developer who plans to build a mix of office space, retail, “flex” buildings for high tech or distribution uses, and perhaps apartments.
‘Selling coolness’
But nearly 10 years after the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce launched a campaign to halt the so-called “brain drain” Toledo and other Rust Belt cities were experiencing, the city is finding that retaining and attracting more college-educated Millennials require more than just a good coffeehouse.
Jeff Schaaf, 40, a chamber official who focuses on helping the city rebrand its image, is one of many people in the community trying to recruit young talent to the region.
“People graduate, and they go to a place before they go to a job,” Mr. Schaaf said.
Although Toledo does not realistically compete with the likes of Los Angeles or New York, he said, the city has worked hard to compete with the likes of Boise, Louisville, and Charleston.
Northwest Ohio has 16,000 open jobs. But jobs alone aren’t always enough to attract young people.
A 2010 report by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education estimated more than two-thirds of Ohio college graduates leave the state.
“Now, we’re selling coolness. We can promote jobs and the quality of life,” Mr. Schaaf said, referring to the Toledo area’s low cost of living, its proximity to transportation, and its amenities.
One encouraging sign arose on a recent Friday afternoon when 25 college students gathered at the Toledo Museum of Art for a glass-blowing demonstration that had more of the feel of a summer camp than a professional networking event.
Instead of a camp counselor, Mr. Schaaf was in charge.
The demonstration was hosted by Summer in the City, a chamber-sponsored program trying to convince 177 interns from 32 companies this year that Toledo has remade itself into a hip, cutting-edge city of opportunity.
Now in its second year, Summer in the City is modeled after similar programs in Cleveland and Cincinnati.
“This program has been fantastic, and it’s opened a lot of opportunities,” said Sam Schuver, 21, an Ohio State junior and an Owens-Illinois intern who does glass-science research.
Amanda Kelly, 21, a Kentucky native and an intern at Towlift Inc., said she had no expectations when she began attending Summer in the City events.
But after several weeks of getting to know Toledo, she said she’d “like to show others how great this city is.”
William Frey, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, said cities need to do more than distribute flashy brochures depicting reimagined cities.
“Educated people are disproportionately more likely to move,” Mr. Frey, a renowned scholar and author, said. “It is harder to rebuild the reputation of having jobs.”
Sara Swisher is the director of EPIC Toledo, which seeks to draw young professionals to the region and retain them.
Ms. Swisher, 28, who was born and raised in Bowling Green, did not plan to return to northwest Ohio after graduation.
Before moving to Toledo four years ago, though, wanderlust got the best of her, and she lived briefly in Nashville.
“When I graduated high school 10 years ago, the mentality was, ‘You’ve gotta get out,’” Ms. Swisher said. “Now, it’s a place you want to be, and a great option.”
‘EPIC’ task
EPIC began in 2007 as Toledo’s first attempt to address brain drain. It now boasts 1,600 members. About half of EPIC’s members are not from the region. According to Ms. Swisher, they are “our biggest advocates.”
“They stand strong and tell the locals, ‘You don’t know what you have here.’ ” Ms. Swisher said.
By contrast, Cleveland’s Summer on the Cuyahoga program matches students with paid internships and provides free housing downtown. It only accepts interns from eight universities, each of which have alumni in the city who provide opportunities for mentoring and networking.
“The housing is key, because it allows interns to see Cleveland through a different lens,” Jean Koehler, the program’s executive director, said. “No one wants to go home to an empty apartment.”
Equally as important is changing the perception of people who grew up in the area.
Cousins Nate and Rob Steingass, both 22 and recent college graduates, agree Toledo is totally different.
“Coming downtown as a kid — it was a dump,” Rob Steingass, who lives in Sylvania, said.
His cousin moved into a downtown apartment.
Both are looking for jobs in this area.
“Columbus was always the cool, hip place for young people,” Nate Steingass said. He said he took a step back and “noticed more, realized what I’ve been missing” upon graduating from Ohio State.
Neil Reid, director of the Jack Ford Urban Affairs Center at the University of Toledo, does research on residential and financial preferences of Millennials — educated young adults who seek “opportunities for social interaction” in downtown areas with vibrant arts and entertainment scenes.
Toledo needs to show young people who grew up here it’s worth staying, he said.
“Young people who are educated always have opportunities,” Mr. Reid said. “But lots of young people are driven by a desire to have Toledo be a vibrant place — they don’t want to leave.”
Contact Tom Henry at: thenry@theblade.com, 419-724-6079, or via Twitter @ecowriterohio.
First Published August 21, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
