"Why couldn't we have Detroit-Toledo?"

Who the hell in their right mind would want to be tethered to that pit? It is literally the worst city I have ever seen or been to!

same way the 'burbs feel when similar ideas come up about the greater toledo area

Detroit can have Ottawa Hills

Is a 25% unemployment rate enticing?

I live in Toledo and work for a company in Detroit that handles a lot of "city business", please for the love of all that is somewhat holy... please do not tie us to this financial / political hell hole. 10 years from now Detroit is going to be NY from "Escape from New York". Our office can't even get people to cut the grass out front because the last 3 companies who did it have been robbed at knife or gun point. Detroit is corrupt and rotten to the core.

I see zero benefit in partnering with Detroit in any way, shape or form. That city has nothing to offer us.

The Greater Toledo Area is already a "region" unto its own. And I've read a lot about "Lake Erie West" regionalism here at Toledo Talk.

I doubt anyone in the nation has a favorable view of Detroit right now. From a PR standpoint I think the more we psychologically and economically distance ourselves from Detroit, the better.

Why doesn't Toledo partner with a city that is doing it right?

roflmfao upso!

Regionalism like "Detroit-Toledo" and even that "Lake Erie West" nonsense is just an attempt by Liberals to capture more tax base to continue their loathsomely huge government spending.

Although it might seem unfair that a city worker or other Toledo direct beneficiary can just move to outside the city limits to have their cake and eat it too, it's still a strict question of jurisdiction and in fact sovereignty, which actually isn't in question. Those who make use of Toledo's benefits are also perfectly free to escape Toledo's horrors to the best of their ability.

In addition, that process is necessary, since the more it happens, the more the politicians would be put on notice for screwing up their management task. That people continue to flee Toledo (which by the perfectly-valid American Community Survey, is at the 1944 level of population) is bold evidence that Toledo politicians are failing to govern.

And, Corky: What allegedly prosperous city would want to be associated with Toledo? We're in an economic freefall, and the delusion over that topic is the dominant political force in our city. Would you form a partnership with some nutcase who shouts gibberish from a streetcorner or who barks like a dog in business meetings? Of course not.

Who indeed that is sane, would partner with the losers that we elect into the mayor's office?

(And YES, I just called Bell an effin' loser. That he even suggested tax increases, more than demonstrates that he merits the title.)

yikes!!!

It is appropriate to view this from Detroit's standpoint. Detroit may see a Detroit-Toledo partnership as giving a sinking ship an anchor.

billy is correct about the surrounding local communities' distrust of Toledo when Toledoans talk unigov or regionalism.

Jul 27, 2007 opinion by Thomas F. Pounds, President and Publisher of the Toledo Free Press

I think that "logic" extends well beyond CF.

"Why doesn't Toledo partner with a city that is doing it right?"

Name a city "doing it right."

"Detroit can have Ottawa Hills"

Detroit's public school system would improve dramatically because Detroit would get one of the top public high schools in the state of Ohio.

"I doubt anyone in the nation has a favorable view of Detroit right now."

And how much better does the nation view Toledo right now? That's one reason for calling this area GZ's favorite branding initiative Lake Erie West, since the words "Toledo" and "Detroit" are missing from the term.

Definitions:

• unigov - county wide
• regionalism - involves multiple counties, including crossing state lines.

Metro Toledo includes the counties of Fulton, Lucas, Ottawa, and Wood.

Automation Alley is defined by:

"City of Detroit and counties of Genesee, Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, St. Clair, Washtenaw, and Wayne."

Stops at the state line, which apparently is an impenetrable, invisible wall. I think Metro Toledo is still involved in the auto industry, which will continue to be an important industry to this area.

Biotech Boulevard

Other regionalism areas:

Local solar power related companies that I'm aware of. Info may need updated.

• Advanced Distributed Generation - Toledo
• Buckeye Silicon - Toledo
• Calyxo USA - Perrysburg
• First Solar - Perrysburg
• Glasstech - Perrysburg
• Innovative Thin Films - Toledo
• Willard and Kelsey Solar Group - Perrysburg
• Xunlight - Toledo

I assume southeast Michigan is doing something in the "green" area.

The auto industry, agriculture, transportation hub, water recreation, and more apply to the larger region and not just Metro Toledo.

Certainly, Cleveland isn't doing it right. But as jr mentions Cincinnati seems to have a handle on regional economic development that "Lake Erie West" could learn from. They capitalize on their location on a waterway and their proximity to another state line. We've got those elements: location on not 1 but 2 waterways and our proximity to Michigan and with a stretch even Indiana.

My point is more from a perspective of facilitating change. If I've got marriage problems, I'm certainly not going to Tiger Woods for advice. He's in the middle of his own problems. I'm going to look to someone who is doing it right.

To answer my own question . . . Why don't we partner with a city that is doing it right? Maybe no one will have us.

I don't think Bell literally meant Toledo and Detroit and no other communities. If he did, then that's the wrong approach. I don't see this as consisting of only Toledo and Detroit. Obviously, Toledo and Detroit are the largest communities in their respective state areas of northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan, which involves dozens of communities.

I cannot find the full text of Bell's state of the city speech. I'm only finding videos of the entire speech, which I don't want. In the past, at least one of the local news sources published the full text of the speeches from Ford and then Carty. The Blade has a PDF of Mayor Bell's talking points, but I don't think that's the full speech.

And naturally, the city of Toledo Web site does not have the full text of Bell's speech. So I don't know exactly what Bell said and the context he said it, regarding Toledo and Detroit.

The city's Web site lists the full text of Carty's 2009 speech. Here's what the city's Web site currently says for the Mayor's Office :

I guess it's small moves for Toledo government. Maybe this week's speech is on the city's Web site, and I overlooked it. If city government cannot post on its Web site the full text of something as important as the state of the city speech like Carty's administration did last year, I don't see how anything complicated will get accomplished.

I checked the city's social media areas for a link to the full speech, but I found nothing.

• blog : http://futureoftoledo.tumblr.com - last post on Feb 18
• Facebook fan page : http://www.facebook.com/pages/Toledo-OH/Future-of-Toledo/418541495713 - Wall area last updated on Feb 16
• Twitter : http://twitter.com/futureoftoledo - last updated on Feb 18

jr - What does Mike Bell say about the Intermodal? Did he mention it in his speech?

I don't know. I have not read the entire speech because I cannot find the entire speech. I suppose watching 25 minutes of raw video of the speech wouldn't be that painful, but I prefer to read it and archive the text for excerpting.

"I don't think Bell literally meant Toledo and Detroit and no other communities. If he did, then that's the wrong approach."
He did...it is.

Well then how about a partnership between Toledo and East Toledo? Close the gap between those two "cities" first, and then think about creating partnerships with other areas.

Jr, I think it's more likely that Toledo would disincorporate from East Toledo just to get away from the overhead costs of sending emergency services into the area all the time.

The distance from Toledo to Detroit, is quite a bit further than the examples Mike Bell provided:

1. Tampa Bay ---- St. Petersburg

2. Minneapolis --- St. Paul

3. Dallas ------ Fort Worth

"The distance from Toledo to Detroit, is quite a bit further than the examples Mike Bell provided:"

Which is why I assumed Bell's idea involved all the area communities and not just two. But if Bell only meant two communities, and based upon Bell's examples, that's why I suggested Toledo-East Toledo.

Jr, I'm still confused about the East Toledo thing. Why partner with someone who's in even worse shape than you? East Toledo is poor and can only get poorer. Until companies relocate here to take advantage of its cheap labor poor, it has precisely zero advantages.

We must always remember that nothing happens without the use of productive capital (money, goods, services). Government slogans and programs and meetings and all that garbage have nothing to do with making use of productive capital. Where's the productive capital in the GT+ET equation?

The only thing that can do ET any good is to be cut loose form Toledo's taxing and service authority. East Toledoans can then live the modest lifestyles that poor people should have lived all along ... which means no garbage pickup, no road plowing, no police and fire response ... but it also includes being completely untaxed.