Painesville is a quaint place. You’ve still got brick roads. And you’ve got some areas where they’re trying to maintain the history of the city, like along the Route 20 corridor, where our fire station is. We did a new pad for our station, and they made us pour the end of it with the brick mold.
Where I live in the city, it’s a beautiful community. I’m in the Bank Street Historical District, with very nice old homes. Our house was built in 1920, a Victorian, three stories with a walk-in attic. It’s very roomy but cozy with the old workmanship. There’s built-in cabinetry in every square inch of the home.
I don’t have a neighbor across the street — I look over the Grand River. You can see all of the wildlife that is in the river corridor. And you’ll see the fisherman down there.
We’re within walking distance of downtown, where there are a lot of activities in the park. There’s the Painesville Farmers Market, where local growers do a flea market thing from 4 to 7 p.m. on Thursdays through the summer. That’s right along the block of Main Street where there’s a candle shop, a neat hardware store and two bakeries that have been there forever.
The response time for the fire department or police is like a minute or two.
The utility rates are substantially less, because the city owns the utility companies — electric, water, sewer. And if you have a problem, they’re there.
There are some areas of Painesville that aren’t the best, don’t get me wrong.
People travel from all over to eat at Silvestro’s Depot Cafe. Even people who may have lived in the city years ago come back to go there for dinner. I’m telling you, there are people who go there Friday nights for life! The Filet Silvestro is probably one of my favorite meals.
A grocery store would be attractive in Painesville. But where they would put it, I don’t know.
