What Toledo needs...my opinion

Date: Aug 25, 2004

What Toledo needs...my opinion

Date: Aug 26, 2004

SAVE TOLEDO JOBS!!

AMEND THE "TOLEDO SMOKING BAN" !!!!!!!!!!!!

www.savetoledojobs.com

Date: Aug 28, 2004

We need to preserve and attract more manufacturing jobs into the area. Growth in District 2 has been jump started

with Walmart. We need to find a way to create a youth center and possibly an ice arena inside of Toledo.

U.T. could help foster downtowns revitalization by perhaps building student housing there and expanding off campus class offerings downtown, in conjunction with shuttle service to the main campus.

Date: Aug 28, 2004

The city of Toledo first off needs a few major things. They are jobs, development, revitalization, and politicians with common sense along with some sort of a business mind. Elected officials in Toledo have neglected these items for years.

Jobs is the number one issue with Lucas county leading the State of Ohio in unemployment rates. Here we have a smoking ban that is causing people to lose their jobs along with a lack luster economy. With so much vacant office space in downtown buildings, the mayor and city council should be touring the country and region searching for business owners to fill these spots. Ohio is a self rule state meaning that we write our own charter. Make a revision in the city tax code that allows 5 year abatements to businesses who bring a cetain amount of jobs to the city. Toledo needs something to offer these large fortune 500 companies.

Developement and revitalization go hand in hand. The riverfront is on its way to being revitalized with the new town home west condos and small businesses that are popping up. The smoking ban needs to be revised in order to keep them here. Homes in older neighborhoods need to continue rebuilding them.

I agree, pot holes need to be repaired and infrastructure needs to be rebuilt. Building Inspection needs more money to go after slum lords who take advantage of the low income or college level citizens.

How do you fund this you ask? It is simple. First off, at least attempt to obtain a block grant from the national level government. This could be done with a simple phone call to Ms. Kaptur. The Erie St. Market and Promodade Park are revenue generating sources. The city has lacked any effort into the market. Why not hold an event there almost weekly, charge a small affordable admission fee. This fee would generate some revenue, but it is the effect of this cause that creates the larger base of revenue. You have several shops in the market. Increased traffic flow to the market means higher sales, this in return means a higher tax revenue back tot he city through income, profit/loss city form, or sales tax revenues. What happened to rally by the river? This is the same concept! Small admission fee, $1 or $2 to get in. This is one idea to bring people back to downtown and back to Toledo. Redirecting the 3/4% from capital improvements to general fund is a grave mistake. The city infrastructure is already in emergency. The bridge going to Erie St. in downtown is failing, Airport Hwy in the south end is falling apart, point place, west end, everywhere needs to be improved. There are still many unimproved streets in Toledo. Just because it is a low income neighborhood does not mean they can not have a curb and a storm sewer!

I can go on for hours about this city. These are just a small number of issues you or anyone else with a brain needs to address.

Date: Oct 17, 2004

Go to www.recallmayorford.com

See why J-fo needs to go and why people are apprehensive about Ludeman.

Date: Feb 27, 2005

Here's what Toledo needs:
1. Good leadership, for a change. The current leadership that Toledo has (both mayor and council) is poor at best. Most city councilpeople are corrupt, anti-business and are more obsessed with control over the people. Moreover, they ignore their constituents while going out of their way to please the Block Family (e.g. people want good jobs and a strong civic infrastructure...not a smoking ban).

2. A local newspaper that neither sets public policy nor get in the way of the local economy. The Blade has done both of these things. And look what the end results are.

3. The complete removal of the good ol' boy network that controls Toledo. This include politicians as well as specific business people and so called "civic leaders.' These people are feeding off the public trough. Since they have significant control over public opinion, the public is not well-informed and rather apathetic. For example, where was the public outcry when the public found out that Jack Ford gave prime real estate plus $300,000 to a washed-up NBA basketball player while simltaneously threating to cut police and fire protection because of a lack of revenue?

The bottom line is that these good ol' boys at One Government Center, at the Blade, and in the civic arena are destroying Toledo....and we've got to stop this before we can move forward and catch up with the rest of the United States. If the current treends continue, Toledo will die a slow painful death with an eroding tax base and a mass exodus of small businesses and citizenry.

Councilman Ludeman, that's what you'll need to do in order to revive Toledo's economy and renew my faith in Toledo's future.

Date: Jun 10, 2005

Odd how the steamplant scam was exposed for the fraud that it is way back in February.

Rob, here is your proof that Toledo is watching and keeping notes. I hope you step up soon. There is a difference between involved and committed.

Date: Jun 11, 2005

You're dang right we're watching and taking notes - and not just from the one sided newspaper we have. We pay closer attn than that. Some of us even come and sit quietly in council meetings.

We notice how back when Ray Kest was crucified we never got his side of things in the Blade, but via other sources how he addressed each of his charges honestly and in a way that made sense - AND we noticed when he pointed out how OTHER top politicians in the Toledo scene commit the same 'crimes' and they go unmentioned. We notice how Tom Noe gets a microscope enema but Bob McKloskey's kickback's are never mentioned.

We notice a lot of things.

Date: Jun 12, 2005

Some of us even come and sit quietly in council meetings.

You have to sit quietly at council meetings, they won't let you talk until they have been heard first, as if what us common folk has to say is unimportant. God forbid the people speak before they have to get to work. I was at that Steam Plant meeting and sat and listened quietly for 3 hours as each council person gave their opinion on the subject. Most of the PEOPLE that had an opinion had to leave, therefore not to be heard.

Date: Jun 12, 2005

You can't fix Toledo by refusing to tax the businesses that reside in it, no matter how many have left (or threaten to leave).

You can't fix Toledo by -- after refusing to tax the resident businesses -- trying to make up for revenue shortfall by constant assaults upon the property taxes of homeowners.

You can't fix Toledo by refusing to downsize the government to match reduced income.

You can't fix Toledo by being another Mayor that indulges in tax-and-spend, or borrow-and-spend, or funny-accounting-and-spend.

Look, folks ... Toledo is in an actual Depression. It's going to take 30 years of work to return the city to the sustainable culture of small businesses and middle class that were two of the pistons in its economic engine.

Despite common sentiment, tax abatements are an abomination since they have created a strong cultural mindset of corporate welfare. Businesses now refuse to make even a sensible investment unless they are bribed to do so. Furthermore, a government cannot survive if it has no capital authority but is constantly tapped to cover private business expenses. Toledo has landed in the position where it has no capital RIGHTS but has many capital RESPONSIBILITIES. This can only lead to what is clearly Toledo's current problem: shrinking income with ballooning expenses.

Look at the Convergys scam. Convergys took its abatement, then didn't deliver the 1000 jobs it promised, and also skipped town as soon as its secret plans matured. (Convergys had no intention of remaining in Toledo for the life of the abatement. They were arranging call center deals in India from the beginning, and once those plans came to fruition, they ditched Toledo like a pair of used underwear. The management jobs went to Canada, which the company was quite vocal about ... while the actual worker positions went to India, which Convergys was pretty quiet about.)