http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080816/NEWS16/808160...
OK, show of hands here - who still thinks the taxpayers WONT end up paying for this thing, despite Carty saying we wont?
Who thinks it'll "revitalize the down town area"??
We've been fed that pap for so long and nobody seems to see it - the Convention Center that we voted against twice (or was it three times?) but still got put up, we ended up footing the bill - Did it "revitalize the down town area"?? Hell, last I checked those hotels around it were still losing money.
The 5/3 Field - GORGEOUS new baseball field - Great place to watch a game! - But seriously. How many of you go there, watch the game, then go home. Is down town "revitalized" other than on game night?
Nah, we'll just get to pay for pet project after pet project the Mayoron wants to do. And most of toledo will just keep drinking the Kool aid and believe the lies that "private funding" will be who pays for it when in the end (which is where we keep taking it) it'll be us.
will be interesting to watch
to trod down this path.
shame the archives don't go that far back at the blade....
With the exception of the ocasional baseball game or other event which will bring in a limited supply of fans ONCE to watch the event.
Those jobs will be part time and temporary, selling peanuts.
Who said the arena and the baseball stadium was for the purpose of jobs? They are though quality of life issues, and they do add to the quality of life of Toledo, which play in some small part to keeping and attracting jobs and people here.
So what is YOUR administration doing to attract jobs back into the area?
Besides being a lapdog to the Unions, your mayor has done absolutely nothing to attract business. In fact, YOUR MAYOR has stood in the way of progress, stood in the way of investment, and also TAKEN JOBS from the private sector in order to pay for the lipstick on the pig.
Flowers, beer, concerts and paying for asbestos removal in a privately owned business with YOUR TAX DOLLARS does nothing to attract business and jobs.
All it does is line the pockets of a select group of the Mayors friends at your expense.
WHO said anything about agreeing with the mayor? Who said that I'm a union lover, when if ever in a discussion with me, you'll learn real quickly my distaste for unions.
However, regardless of your ill-informed diatribe, a stadium, a convention center, an arena, art galleries, a nightlife, bars, restaurants, etc. concentrated in a downtown environment DO add to the quality of life regardless of who fits the bill. Would it be wonderful if everything was paid for with private investment? Absolutely! Regardless of who fits the bill, they do add to the quality of life, which IS a selling point when trying to attract jobs. My point was not who pays for it, it was the concept behind it.
According to a poll conducted by:
THOMAS H. BRUSH, CATHERLNE A. MARITAN, AND ANEEL KARNANI
Krannert Graduate School of Management, Purdue University, West Lafayette,
Indiana 47907, USA
Krannert Graduate School of Management, Purdue University, West Lafayette,
Indiana 47907, USA
School of Business Administration, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
Michigan 48 104, USA
http://www.atypon-link.com/POMS/doi/pdf/10.5555/ijop.1999.8.2.109?cookie...
When looking for a location for a manufacturing plant, NOBODY cares about "quality of life" and "entertainment" for their employees.
What a company looks for is:
Proximity to Proximity to important 3.00 (2) 2.73 (3) 3.84 (1)
network nodes markets
Proximity to key customers 2.71 (7) 2.73 (3) 3.45 (3)
Proximity to key suppliers 2.77 (4) 2.37 (5) 2.52 (11)
Proximity to other facilities 2.74 (5) 2.35 (7) 2.00 (16)
Factor costs Access to raw materials 2.71 (7) 1.79 (10) 2.48 (12)
Access to low cost labor 2.66 (9) 2.15 (8) 2.87 (7)
Access to skilled labor 3.34 (1) 3.07 (1) 3.35 (4)
Access to energy 2.94 (3) 2.25 (6) 2.84 (8)
Access to capital 1.57 (14) 1.17 (14) 2.19 (13)
Access to local technology 1.60 (13) 1.65 (11) 1.90 (17)
National or regional Access to protected markets 1.17 (16) 0.68 (17) 1.48 (18)
characteristics Tax conditions 2.11 (11) 1.55 (12) 2.61 (9)
Regional trade barriers 0.63 (18) 0.65 (18) 1.42 (19)
Government subsidies 1.00 (17) 1.01 (16) 2.61 (9)
"Language, culture, politics " 1.46 (15) 1.08 (15) 3.06 (5)
Advanced infrastructure 2.74 (5) 2.83 (2) 3.55 (2)
Labor practices and regulation 2.31 (10) 2.15 (8) 2.97 (6)
Environmental regulation 1.86 (12) 1.52 (13) 2.06 (15)
Exchange rate risk 0.63 (18) 0.46 (19) 2.10 (14)
If you think trying to fetch big time manufacturing is the way to go, you are just as short-sighted as Mayor Finkbeiner. Long are the day's where economic development was trying to catch big time manufacturing.
Toledo's goal should be to foster and nurture the small businesses that are located in the city already, give them a good environment to expand, and yes, provide for quality of life issues -- some of which the city fails on such as street quality. Toledo has been ranked very high for the number of concentrated small businesses in the city/region that are seeing double digit growth each year. That is a good indicator for a potential future economic boom, pending the city and region learn to work together to advocate for those employers rather than placing their focus on outside-in.
Was 5/3 Field a bad investment?
If so, I'd love to hear why you think that way.
If not, then what makes you think the Arena project-- which is the spit-and-image of the Ballpark project -- will turn out to be a bad investment?
Of course the 5/3 Field was not paid for with tax dollars. No levy. No hotel tax. No sales tax.
"Politicians have called the location a loser. But stadium supporters may have gained something more important than a site. They may have discovered a way to pay for a ballpark without asking voters to pick up most of the tab. "This is a real shift to the private sector and away from tax dollars," said Ed Bergs mark, chairman of the Toledo Mud Hens board of directors.""
http://www.clipfile.org/clips/000257.php
If this "arena" is such a great idea, why did Lucas County need a hotel tax? Why is there any problem selling the naming rights?
Why are you happy to pay for this "arena" when you were not forced to pay for the ball park?
And why are you so eager to give up your money to what eventually will be a privately run and privately owned "arena"? That is if it truly were like 5/3 Field.
It's a proposal for a new stadium on the Acme site in East Toledo. That wasn't built.
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"Show me a man who lives alone and has a perpetually dirty kitchen, and
five times out of nine I'll show you an exceptional man." -Charles
Bukowski