Adios Toledo

This is officially my last day in Toledo (and broadly speaking, in Ohio). I filed a change of address with USPS. That means from today, my official address will no longer be in Ohio. Does it matter so much? Maybe.

When I landed after a 32 hour odyssey in my new hometown, apart from religious considerations explained in my first Ramadhan post, I felt at home since my first day. Really. I didn't have to try to feel so. I simply felt at home. And that despite the bias I'd been given before landing here (or even after that).

There are people who feel compelled to pass everything through their filter of negativism and cynicism. Most of the reviews I'd read about Toledo, projected it to be a boring depressing place that you have to endure for a while and want to run away from as soon as possible. And those gloomy views where not restricted to people who land from other states or countries in Glass City or Frog Town (or whatever nickname you want to give Toledo). Some native Toledoans join the chorus to spread the negative vibe to fellow citizens and guests alike. Maybe they feel disillusioned about a dream of "Toledo: Future City of the World". Read here, here and here for the history of Toledo, city profile, demographics and more.

And on top of all that, I had been told that people in Northern states are as cold as their weather and you cannot mix with them. I was already depressed (even before leaving Iran) by a feeling of imprisonment in the US on a single-entry visa. Having to endure it in such a place was too much. It didn't take me long to find that all those myths were just myths (well, except for the single-entry visa which is a bitter reality).

Early on, even when I was still in dorm looking for an apartment, I began my field research in churches. That would not only give me quite some insight as a sociologist, but also would alleviate my depression, being in the house of God among people who believe in God.

And after a short while, whenever people asked me how I felt here (and by here, they meant Toledo or the US in general), I realized that my instinctive reply was simply "I feel at home". And I didn't fake it as a compliment just to make them happy. That was how I really felt. That was the first thing that naturally came to my mind as an honest reply. Sometimes, some people (probably those who felt discontented about their life in their supposedly boring city) would give me a questioning look, finding it odd for an alien to feel at home in the US (or their city) just after a short time.

I would emphasize that I really felt at home and that my only major problem was the single-entry visa issued to Iranians. And when they realized what a single-entry visa meant, depriving me of my right to visit my family in Iran for the entire duration of my study (whatever it takes), they would be surprised of how their government could impose such an inhumane discriminatory policy on Iranian students. Well, we have the option of visiting Iran and going through the unpredictable visa application process all over again from scratch, risking a visa rejection for no specific reason and hence leaving our study unfinished. It has actually happened to some unlucky Iranian students.

But apart from being an academical prisoner, I really enjoyed my time. True, Toledo may not look like an ideal place for living. Compared to Tehran where I've lived almost all my life (and I resented that jungle of high rise buildings and crammed traffic all the time), Toledo is more like a village. Not just because the city doesn't look like a city and lacks urban structure and setting. Public transportation is virtually non-existent. And other urban services are not very nice. Even mid-size cities in Iran fare better. While in Tehran, it rarely occurred to me that I needed a car. I used my bike for recreation only.

Here, incapable of buying a car, I had to rely on my bike for everything. For transportation and for shopping. In snowy freezing winters and in hot muggy summers. Specifically, for my dental appointments at the Dental Center of Northwest Ohio, I had to ride my bike all the way downtown (sometimes amid windchill or snow or both). The bus system is totally unreliable here. Sometimes I would look back while riding and I could never spot a bus catching up behind me, even until I reached downtown. And that was while I couldn't ride very fast because of the wind or snow. And then, I would realize it had been a wise decision not to wait for the bus. Once, I waited for the bus on my way back to school and the bus didn't show up after half an hour and I had to ride my bike all the way back (other people didn't have the luxury of a bike and had to wait in the cold).

If you have a car, Toledo has basic amenities to enjoy your life with your family at an affordable price and raise your children in a pretty safe environment. And even if you don't have a car, there are many bike routes and trails around and at least students (or people living around campus and western parts of the city) can easily and safely get around with a bike. I used the University/Parks Trail to do my weekly shoppings and I not only saved money, but also enjoyed beautiful scenery of the Oak Opening Region. Click on this TMACOG page for bike maps, resources and more info.

And although there are many streets in Toledo where speed limits make it unsafe for bikes, Ohio Revised Code (clause 4511.711) does not prohibit bicycles from sidewalks and Toledo Municipal Code (clause 373.12) still allows for bicycles to ride on sidewalks wherever speed limit is 35 mph or higher. Well, maybe some people are unhappy about such allowances.

One of the major problems we have in this country is alcohol. And when people get overly happy with their booze, they feel like maximizing their merriment by smashing the bottle on the sidewalk. Maneuvering my bike through shards of glass was one of the challenges I faced in streets where speed limits forced me to use sidewalks. I don't want to sound cynic or paranoid, but I've observed a consistent pattern of glass decorated sidewalks over such streets and sometimes even over the bike lanes. Hey alcoholics, that's really mean.

Another pet peeve I had as a cyclist (and an animal lover) was the abundance of roadkill all over the city. Just like cats in Iran, squirrels here have a bad habit of waiting till the last moment to dart into the street. While I was in Iran, I had developed a technique which I referred to as cat-scare method (I love cats very much and hitting a cat is the last thing I want). Whenever I saw a cat ready to jump into the street (and in front of my bike), I would veer right toward it to make it back off to the safety of the sidewalk. And it worked most of the time.

As I'm not an expert on squirrels, I've rarely used my method on them. They're more volatile and unpredictable than cats. In one instance, I managed to dodge a suicidal squirrel who was jumping up and down to sprint into the street, but it was not lucky enough and the car overtaking me on my left hit it square, flung it into air and it landed on the ground motionless. Quite a nasty scene. I wish I could have tried my cat-scare method.

And it's not limited to squirrels. I've seen carcasses of rabbits, raccoons, badgers and sometimes even turtles or birds. And apparently, nobody assumes responsibility to remove them. City officials believe those stuff don't cause traffic problems and health officials don't consider them to be serious health hazard. In one instance, I remember a flattened squirrel remaining on Secor Rd all over winter, spring and summer.

Still, Toledo (and Northwest Ohio) has many things to enjoy, even if you don't have a car. The glass for the Glass City is more than half-full (and don't forget that I come from Tehran which is bigger than Chicago). Toledo may lack tall buildings and places like Michigan Avenue (and I guess such things are the main cause of envy for the people yearning for Chicago), but it has many things for anybody.

If you love nature (like me), you've got many nice metroparks in and around the city. And the Toledo Zoo is among the best in the nation (and they have web-cams too). And the zoo is free to Lucas County residents (showing State ID or Driver's License). If you're into arts, there's a great Museum of Art, an active Symphony Orchestra and also lots of concerts all around the city all over the year. If you're into reading, there's the nationally acclaimed Toledo Lucas County Public Library with its wide network and rich programs. If you're looking for amusement (adrenaline-releasing type), Cedar Point has been among the top-ten amusement parks in the world for several years. If you love dining and fine cuisine, there are all sorts of restaurants around (not many providing Halal food however). If you are into having fun (the sort that I don't approve), you've got lots of bars with booze and live music (and even night-clubs if you are into not-so-moral ways of having fun). If you want to show your patriotism by way of consumerism, there are decent shopping malls. Even for normal shopping, there are numerous branches of all major national and regional chains.

True, almost none of these are comparable to Chicago (which seems to be the utopia/paradise for those unhappy nagging souls). But if all people were to live in Chicago or those few cities with such luxuries, that would render them as unlivable as Tehran with its 12 million people (or more) and over 2 million cars crawling in its busy streets and highways. And these nagging people tend to overlook the stress of life in big cities and also higher living expenses; the price for everything here is low even compared to smaller towns in other states that I've visited.

All this should not mean that I had a completely rosy-shiny-fluffy experience. Here, just like anywhere, you can have some encounters with stupid, bigot, xenophobic people (or a combination of these). I remember when I had gone on a biking expedition into Henry County (to the Southwest of Lucas County, where Toledo is located). I was hanging around Mary Jane Thurston State Park and I could easily feel the unfriendly looks of some visitors. I will never forget the frightened wide-eyed gaze of a teenager who was probably thinking this bearded terrorist might blow off their park with his bulgy backpack stuffed with nuclear weapons. And the reactions I have received over my biking tours have sometimes been more than a frightened gaze by a poor ignorant teenager.

One night while I was riding my bike home from Meijer, I was pulled over by an Ottawa Hills police officer nearly a block from my home. Ottawa Hills is an affluent neighborhood adjacent to UT (and also very close to my home). They have their own police department and their police officers have made themselves a reputation of being mean (like lurking in the dark to issue tickets or pulling over people for no reason). So, I was not totally surprised for being pulled over. But the treatment I received was not something I’m used to. I had helmet, light, reflectors, wore a bright fluorescent colored shirt and was driving very carefully at a steady speed of less than 10 mph on the right lane (with all those grocery stuff hanging from my back, I couldn't have ridden faster even if I wanted).

I produced my Rocket ID card and was asked about my SSN. The police officer radioed my SSN and verified my identity. Still, I was asked questions like "where is your home", "why do you shop at Meijer at this hour", "what have you bought at Meijer", "let me see your shopping", etc (I hardly resisted the temptation to retort “would you like to see my receipts?” but I thought better of it).

After a few other stupid questions, the police officer finally gave up and in order not to make me feel totally innocent, advised me to buy an official light, something as bright as her big police flashlight (that illuminated all the way to the end of that street). I told her that I could clearly see my way with my light at that low speed and other people could see me as well. She didn't budge and insisted on an official light (if that was the real reason for stopping me, I guess I should have been told about it first, not at the end, after all those irrelevant questions). And then, she ordered me to go home, without even bothering to apologize. It was so kind of her! If I had not been stopped, I’d had been already at home, putting things in my fridge.

I guess simply seeing those nearly transparent Meijer plastic bags hanging from my back would had been enough evidence that I was really on my way back home from shopping at Meijer. And after checking my SSN with the station, it should had become clear that there was nothing wrong on my record and I was really who my student ID showed me to be. But being asked stupid questions or being told “put your hands where I can see them” sounded too much. Probably, letting me go simply after asking the first basic questions, must have been too hurtful to her ego.

I understand that we must cooperate with law enforcement officers who are doing their job and I completely complied. However, as a graduate student, I found it very embarrassing to be treated and talked to like a criminal or to be pulled over for no reason in the first place. I contacted UT Police Department Chief and complained about my encounter. He told me he would forward my Email to Ottawa Hills Police Department Chief. Nothing happened after that and my follow-up amounted to nothing.

I'm kinda used to the vast anti-Islamic propaganda of this ongoing War of Terror. But still, I sometimes feel dumbfounded by the abundance of ignorance and stupidity imposed on this great nation. The lords of this war on terrah, have sown terror into the hearts of American people, an accomplishment that could have been hardly achieved by some isolated mountaineer cavemen if they were to do it on their own.

But still, such sporadic unfriendly encounters wouldn't change my opinion about Toledo (and Northwest Ohio in general). Speaking in my old technical language, in a good system (maybe not ideal one though) signal-to-noise ratio is high enough to render the noise practically negligible. And it's impossible to have an ideal system, completely free of noise. You can just try to reduce or ignore the noise (stupidity or stupid people). And I have had my fair share of friendly encounters to feel at home.

Specifically, I must express my gratitude toward my professors at the Sociology Department of the University of Toledo. Most of them did their best not only to make me feel at home in a new environment cast away from my family by a single-entry visa, but also to make my transition from engineering to a different discipline (after being away from academia for such a long time) as smooth as possible. Especially, I must mention my Palestinian advisor and also one of my Jewish professors who surpassed stupid stereotypes (I must admit that I was somehow paranoid about working under a Jewish professor, given the widespread influence of Zionism in the US; although I've had a Jewish friend since my undergrad years in Iran and although I knew well enough that Zionists constitute a minority of Jews, but anyway).

And as a sociologist, one of the things that I'm already missing about Toledo is the variety and number of churches in this city. I regret that there are many many churches that I didn't find time to visit. You can find several places of worship for any religion and faith. If you want to conduct a field research on religious diversity and religion and cannot afford to live in Chicago or New York, Toledo could be an excellent alternative. You can find churches from the very far end of the spectrum to the other, from conservatism to liberalism.

And the same is true about Ohio. It's neither a very conservative nor a very liberal state. It's somewhere in between. And as a moderate conservative, I love it. There are many other things I love about the Buckeye state. But speaking of religion, there is one thing I love the most about Ohio; the state motto: With God, all things are possible.