"A fact-checking effort by The Blade found that
the community described by Mr. Finkbeiner and his staff in its
hour-long presentation in London was indeed the greater Toledo area -
or maybe an idealized version of it.
Katerina Bekyarska, a spokesman for the mayor who helped assemble the presentation, said they did not mislead the judges."
The city's application portrayed Toledo as heavily committed to "green"
building design, with rain gardens and community vegetable gardens, a
health program in the mayor's office helping children slim down,
"exciting water sports" on our riverfront, and community observances
honoring "significant Native American leaders."
Toledo's flora and fauna, according to the presentation, can be found
in "deep streams" and "prairie grasses," "rustic roads," and deer,
foxes, and bald eagles.
The presentation said the city even had four wind turbines (they're
near Bowling Green), demonstrating growing prowess in alternative
energy.
Among the many scenes contained in a 12-minute video are people
shopping in the Erie Street Market, parts of which were shut down for
most of 2006, and which continues to have vacant stalls."
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071204/NEWS16/712040331
except in the USA. The rest of the world thinks in terms of regions. Therefore, we had to make a presentation that was regional in scope to have any chance of winning. (Check out the winners regional approach).
It is a sad commentary that at this late date we only have two identifyable regions in the USA doing business on a global basis(Silicon Valley & The Research Triangle). What is even sadder,is that we have all the tools to compete globally as a region,(www.lakeeriewest.org), but we refuse to seriously consider the macro view.
...is not the regional approach but the lack of explaining that it was a regional approach in the presentation - and the failure of involving the other communities responsible for the specific items PRIOR to making the presentation.
NOTE - this is not a negative on Toledo - but it certainly is a criticism of the way the Mayor does things.
"Metro is the directly elected regional government that serves more than 1.4 million residents in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties, and the 25 cities in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area. The Metro Council includes a council president elected regionwide and six councilors elected by district. Metro also has an auditor who is elected regionwide."
http://www.metro-region.org
Our paragon of truth and justice, Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, S-T-R-E-T-C-H-E-D the truth? I am shocked and appalled! ...Not!
...that Carty didn't try to use Cedar Point as a venue for family activities....
Carty, if you're going to reach, try to reach big.
What else has he stretched the truth about?
I find it interesting that Carty cries and screams PIRATING INDUSTRY towards Wood County, yet invokes Wood County's success in his London debacle, behind the embellishments of "what would be going on in Toledo if I paid more attention to what's going on around me instead of imposing my views down everyone's throat".
I haven't listened to Fred enough to have an opinion (inconvenient time for me). My first listen to Wilson made me angry - in all fairness it was only about 10 minutes & was taking comments I'd heard out of context. Since then, I listen to Wilson a lot (in bits & pieces in the car), and have to say that I think he's one of the smartest, on the mark speakers I've heard. He calls em as he sees em - like it or not. I have to disagree that wspd brainwashes or similar - I think that just because people quote things said on wspd, does not mean they've been spoon fed swill by wspd - I think it is more that people already think these things, but Wilson (et al) just says it better, more clearly, and they provide missing pieces which is very helpful. I also listen to Beck's show now & then, and agree with a lot of what he says, & disagree with a lot of what he says. One of my gripes with Beck is that he drags religion in too often - I am not a believer. I can honestly say, that Wilson has never said anything I disagree with. He's one of the more insightful people in Toledo - maybe because he sees this town with fresh eyes, warts & all. Maybe because I am a Libertarian like Wilson is, I agree so much with what he says. At any rate - people listen to all kinds of stuff on the radio & tv, but in the end, they have minds of their own. I don't believe for one minute that anybody copies & pastes any of Wilson's thoughts into their own brains, unless those thoughts were already there to begin with. IF they do, then Toledo has bigger concerns - a public that is too empty minded & educated to form their own thoughts. Nit pick Beck & Wilson all you want - but Beck is the 3rd most listened to show in the country. My guess is, Wilson's show is doing fine.
The only thing that makes Toledo committed to "green" buildings is the advanced state of decay in too many of them.
No one can sanely look at the waterfront areas of Toledo and think "exciting water sports".
And where are all these "deep streams", "prairie grasses" and "rustic roads"?
When I was growin' up, this sort of presentation would have been called a "bare-faced lie". If the presentation were about Tolkien's Rivendell, then I'd believe it. But Toledo? Give me a break!
Alas, Czarty will survive all this, despite blatantly lying. (Hint: Saying you "have windmills", when they're really out on Rt.6 near Bowling Green, is a LIE.) Czarty gets away with it all since there aren't enough angry and watchful and motivated people left to counter him.
That's what Malmo did, and they won! When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Since the rest of the world has gone regional, why do we insist on being hemmed in by artificial political boundaries of cities and counties?(Europeans don't even know what counties are.)
As long as we decided to compete, and we knew that the competition would be presenting regional profiles,competing as a city would have guaranteed last place.
Therein lies the rub.
The other cities had much more to offer than we.
So the Mayor went to the region instead of the city to make up for the short falls.
Someone sees the competition results and visits and does not see the sames things touted, that would make quite an impression also.
http://toledoohioneighborhoodconcerns.com/blog
It's just going to be a matter of time before a CREDIBLE INFLUENCE inquires into the community and that Shiny Trinket® and calls Carty and his convoy of Embellishing Gypsies and his 100 mile radius of what Toledo is in his mind onto the carpet.
Then what?
Your are right, Brian, then what.? We tried to recall him and that didn't work. We can stop him from getting elected again. We all know he won't win if he runs for mayor again. CF wants to leave a legacy that he's the one who saved Toledo. He won't get that either.
There's no way Czarty would have won THIS term, with Toledoans knowing full well he was a crazy piece of shit. Yet he DID win. And so there's no reason why he wouldn't win again.
I mean, Ford could run again, and no matter who wins, the working class is going to lose. So it also doesn't matter if Czarty actually loses, since his political machine retains 100% control and will never lose, at this rate.