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Toledo general thread


patrickom

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This new thread covers urban issues in Toledo and Northwest Ohio. Includes Bowling Green, Toledo suburbs, and lower Monroe county in Michigan. I suppose you may post stuff from as far east as Sandusky and Cedar Point if you must. Please tell me if this thread is redundant.

Otherwise, Enjoy!

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And the first item is a clip from toledoblade.com (I request that anyone clipping to this forum give a reference to the actual source and not post the whole article):

Ford seeks cameras downtown for safety

Pilot program would focus on 6 sites

Mayor Jack Ford yesterday announced a pilot program to put surveillance cameras in areas of the downtown to improve safety for workers.

The mayor, who is seeking a second four-year term in the Nov. 8 election, said one of six likely locations would be in the block of 12th Street between the offices of the law firm Shumaker Loop & Kendrick and the environmental testing business, TTL Associates ...

Read more at www.toledoblade.com

What other cities have done this? The article mentions Chicago. Anyone know of other places?

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I'm glad to see a thread was made on Toledo. I live in a suburb of Detroit but have never been there, I would like to go someday though. My mother grew up near Toledo and I still have family down that way. Does anyone have any pictures from there? I would love to see what it looks like.

Mayor Jack Ford unveiled his plans for an ice rink and ampitheater in the Marina District.

Toledo Blade article: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...NEWS09/51012002

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Hmm...

How do people feel about this (the Marina district)?

It looks like it's not only another unfinanced pipe dream, but not particularly ... well ... urban.

There's little mixed-use property, with most of the retail in a mall-like strip. Furthermore, all the dining establishments seem to be clustered together, meaning less foot traffic in other areas.

Or maybe this is a good way to kickstart more mixed development. Perhaps I'm talking out of my butt.

Thoughts?

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I found this slightly enlightening. - http://www.toledofreepress.com/?id=1381

"A couple thousand"? That seems like a sort of low goal to me.

Especially with this much vacant office space. I imagine with a little tax incentive, a lot of that could be converted to residential. A stable population base would, in turn help the office market.

Not until at least a quarter of the downtown workers live within a mile or two of their offices should the city worry about attracting more office workers. The current imbalance is what makes the town so dead outside of business hours in the first place.

Again, perhaps I speak untruths. Feel free to shoot this stuff down.

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Overall, I've been quite impressed by the Blade's reporting on this issue. They've had several things correctly stated that the national coverage got wrong.

A couple interesting things that did not make it into the Blade article (these are secondhand, but are from two journalist friends):

-The police at least created the impression that they had real bullets. I am not necessarily negating what the Blade stated about wooden ammunition and such; merely saying that, when asked if "the bullets are real", one officer said "yeah, they are."

-The police initially did a horrible job of communication; when the march was cancelled, few people in the crowd knew about it. As a result, the crowd waited on a side street for Nazis to march by for dozens of minutes. As any crowd control officer knows, a large, ignorant, impatient crowd is a recipe for chaos, no matter what the race/age makeup may be.

-Some of the rock-throwing folks were actually college students from as far away as Bowling Green. These were children of privilege, not gang members.

-Several times when leaders got on megaphones, they were drowned out by a Lucas County helicopter circling overhead. Again, horrible communication.

-One of the biggest protests my friends kept hearing from neighborhood residents was "why didn't they hold this downtown?"

These were fairly minor omissions.

As I said, the Blade did an overall excellent job where others failed. Toledo is lucky to have such a resource.

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Today's BG News front and inside pages here.

Today's Blade front.

And on the inside ...

Finkbeiner's associates may gain political clout

'Kitchen cabinet' includes 'B-team' members

Rest of article at Toledoblade.com

----

Looking at the headshots of these guys, I was impressed with how old they are. Not one of them could be mistaken for being under 35 or 40. Meanwhile, as I walk around college campuses, I see the Republican party reaching out to youth very effectively. So my question is ... which strategy is more effective for controlling a city/metro like Toledo, where the population is definitely aging? And this is in hopes that someone who actually lives in Ohio might answer this (no offense intended, Zacharia -- it just seems like we're alone in here).

Do not post full articles. -Spartan

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  • 3 weeks later...

How do you think this will affect downtown Toledo? Other areas of the city? Will this create just one more set of re-evaluations, hedges and delays in the Marina District? Carty campaigned on a redevelopment platform. Can he hold up his end now that the voters have elected him? Just a few of the questions running through my head. Feel free to answer them or just add your own.

Carty scores landslide victory over Ford

By JIM TANKERSLEY

and TOM TROY

BLADE STAFF WRITERS

Carty Finkbeiner late this morning scored a landslide victory in the Toledo mayor’s race, ousting Mayor Jack Ford 62 percent to 38 percent.

Vote counting at a chaotic Lucas County board of elections did not finish until about 9 a.m., when the final vote tally was released.

Mr. Finkbeiner, 66, scored the biggest win of his five runs for mayor after a bitter fight with one-time ally Mayor Ford. He received 47,351 votes to 29,169 for Mr. Ford, in unofficial results with all 324 Toledo precincts reporting.

See the rest of the article at Toledoblade.com

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  • 4 weeks later...

Patrick, nice thread!

couple things,

I hope the new mayor of Toledo does live up to his promises of redevelopment, all too often this region is stuck with the erroneous "rust belt" label. I'd say focus on the "high impact" improvements first.

Second, it is a shame that the riots happened recently, I am interested in what is being done in a positive way since they occured. Just like the national media to show you in your worst light then forget any followup story, I hope the Dec. 10th rally goes more like Cicero Illinois then south central. MLK Jr. was about non-violent protest, I think that's why he was a truly great and remembered man unlike those that perpetuated the crisis most recently in Toledo.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks.

I'll leave it up to someone else to post the latest on the second coming of the Nazoids.

Meanwhile, that whole thing seems to be brushing aside one of the larger stories to hit the Maumee Bay / Great Black Swamp area in quite a while. UT and MUO may be merging to form something tentatively called "The University of Ohio at Toledo."

With the letters MUO, I can't say I blame them. Here's a bit from the UT student paper:

Talks of the possible UT and Medical University of Ohio merger moved forward to the state level on Tuesday when the boards of both institutions unanimously passed resolutions to support the move.

Some are worrying that things could be moving too quickly.

Debra Stoudt, professor of German and interim associate dean for arts and humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she doesn't understand the sudden urge to make the merger happen after 40 years of separation.

"Some people feel like it's now or never," Stoudt said. "But if it takes 41 years [instead of 40], it's not the end of the world."

Read the rest at the Independent Collegian website

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Those are very interesting links patrick, the combination of the two universities could do wonders for the metro . . . big universities have a way of bringing more prestige to an area then a half dozen smaller ones totalling the same #s as a big one. Hope that works out well for Toledo.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

It started with neo-Nazis, mushroomed into a riot, and left behind a community shaken and wounded.

Toledo Blade article: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...NEWS16/51016003

Actualy ghetto culture only gives people like the Klan a reason as they see it, to come down in places like that. The violence and social problems are proving what the Klan says about them. Neighborhoods like this were already scarred with problems caused by the folks that live there. Nobody tends to care about gang and drug problems, but let the Klan come down there one day and all of a sudden everything that goes down in a neighborhood like that before and after will get blamed on them. This country is based on freedom of speech, and as long as someone pays the price of a permit to stand on a soapbox, they have a right to voice their opinion wrong or right as long as they are not physicaly harming anyone, and anyone that disagrees with that but complains about civil libertys is a hypocrite. The people that rioted damaged property and hurt business in their own neighborhood. Until people take on some responsability, they will leave themselves open. I know I just did for voicing my opinion and calling it as I see it. I will probably get called a racist. That is exactly what is wrong with this country, too many keep pointing fingers rather than looking at themselves and asking what can I do to prove these "biggots" wrong and better my life, community, and world.
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Hmm...

How do people feel about this (the Marina district)?

It looks like it's not only another unfinanced pipe dream, but not particularly ... well ... urban.

There's little mixed-use property, with most of the retail in a mall-like strip. Furthermore, all the dining establishments seem to be clustered together, meaning less foot traffic in other areas.

Or maybe this is a good way to kickstart more mixed development. Perhaps I'm talking out of my butt.

Thoughts?

I think the Marina district is going to be the real deal this time, the reason I say this is because the area has just been cleared and major developers will be responding this month. The plans have changed dramatically from when Ford first introduced it, I think one of the major anchors is "Bass pro Outdoor World". The New Mayor (Carty) is now doing it the smart way by bringing in quality developers and demanding that they pay for add. city improvements if they want contracts. He's taking the slow and steady approach but he is doing it the smart way which few cities do. The city is aggressively tackling crime before it even starts and they have hired cleaning crews to keep the downtown area clean, downtown Toledo is actually one of the safest places in the city. Im sure if this plan is executed well this will kickstart more big buildings and such in the downtown area.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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