Ok I have read this several times now and I am just wondering where do the Toledo Blade editorial writers live? We know where the Publisher lives and Marilou Johanek lives in the suburbs (from an article during the 2004 campaign), so we have that. Anyone know how many other Blade editorial writers actually live in Toledo? In the editorial today about the next council president, the writer says:
Mayor Finkbeiner has challenged the recall petition, which we expect Toledo voters would in any case reject as unwanted outside interference from the suburbs and a waste of time.
Well it would seem if they were going to say we should not listen to Take Back Toledo, that they should verify that they live in Toledo, especially when providing advice on who the next Toledo council president should be. Anyone interested in asking the Ombudsman?
Read the rest:
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090617/OPINION02/906...
Chris,
You miss many points here.
A) The ombudsman is ethically challeneged and lives and works mostly in metro Detroit. He writes whatever JRB tells him to.
B) From my newsroom sources, the main editorial writer actually does reside in Toledo proper. That really is a moot point because he/she takes direction from his/her boss who is a suburbanite and has nary an independent editorial thought of his own, taking all his direction from JRB.
C) Even more than his driving of the news coverage to suit his misguided perceptions, JRB rules the editorial pages with a manic drive that eschews the concerns of the community and serves only to satisfy his dictatorial, self-serving desires to be a king maker and policy driver for a city that he feels hasn't treated him with proper respect.
D) In the family power struggle, JRB has been isolated by the other family members in his control of the paper, hence its layoffs and cutbacks in coverage. All the poor rich boy has left to play with is his editorial pages which explains why they get more cranked up than in days bygone.
E) The only media component more bereft in this town than the daily newspaper is the lack of cogent media criticism. TFP and bloggers aren't much of a solution given that their own axe grindings outweigh any disciplined analysis.
Would the correct answer be Moss Creek?
A professional earning over $40K had a lot of pushing to get our of Toledo. The banks were lending for houses and cars, gas was cheap enough at that income level, and Toledo's commutes are tolerable.
Don't 60% of the TPS teachers live outside the school district? Same issue.
This is how cities die off. Of course, we also let Toledo become such a dunghole that professionals would tend to crinkle their noses at it all. A lot of little things fell by the wayside, as professionalism left the body of government workers.