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Jun 15, 2014 tt post
"So when Econcat88 does it, it's negativism that will set this town back 100 years. When the Blade does it, it's journalism."
November 2013 Toledo Blade front page story.
June 2014 Toledo Blade front page story
That latter is a "Special Report."
I think the June 2014 story headline should read:
"Toledo Blade: Trashing Toledo one negative story at a time."
It appears that the Blade started the hashtag # UglyTruthToledo on Fri, Jun 13, 2014.
https://twitter.com/toledonews/status/477648438343901184
How have you witnessed # Toledo's decline? We give our account of urban blight in Sunday's paper. # UglyTruthToledo http://tol.bz/1llx3vd
Jun 13, 2014 tweet
Either it was OK for EconCat88 to point it out then or it's an outrage to point it out now, right? # confused # uglytruthtoledo
From the Jun 15, 2014 Blade story:
Fingers point to a passel of nincompoops.When shown photographs taken by The Blade of blighted areas of Toledo, Mr. Finkbeiner said such deplorable conditions would have been cleaned up under his administration, even if it took repeated efforts to get results.
Another former Toledo mayor, Jack Ford, now chairman of City Council’s neighborhoods committee, said the city should step up and take care of problems such as high grass or clearing trash.
For District 6 Councilman Lindsay Webb, who represents Point Place, this issue is personal.
Quoting directly from and paraphrasing some of the Blade's stories from Nov 2013, Dec 2013, and Jan 2014 that mentioned EconCat88, and adjusting the language, so that the stories apply to the Blade's June 2014 negative assault on Toledo.
- “I’m not sure what you gain from dumping on your city,” said Jeff Schaaf, brand manager for the Toledo Brand Initiative project.
- It’s unknown what impact stories such as the Toledo Blade's will have on the city’s economic development efforts, said city spokesman Jen Sorgenfrei, but they could have a negative impact on a family planning a trip to watch a baseball game in the Midwest that didn’t know much about Toledo. Maybe they’d go elsewhere after seeing and reading the Toledo Blade's work, she said.
- “That is an economic impact,” Ms. Sorgenfrei said. “They are also not going to spend money on a hotel or restaurant.”
- It’s also not exactly clear, Mr. Schaaf said, what the Toledo Blade hopes to gain from the stories. The Blade's posts are similar in some ways to ruin porn, a style of photography focused on urban decay. Some stories seem to point out poverty and businesses that have hit hard times.
- It could be argued that what The Blade does is not fundamentally different than traditional journalism. They document what they feel are things that should be changed in a community in order to create awareness. And, to be fair, it’s not the media’s job to make a city look good. The Blade was criticized by, among others, Mayor Mike Bell, for its gang series, which he said hurt the city’s reputation.
- It’s not easy to combat media posts that put a city down, said Mike Horning, an assistant professor of journalism and public relations at Bowling Green State University. “In one sense it is a positive thing, because it helps a person take an active role in their community,” Mr. Horning said.
- There’s not much Toledo officials can do about The Blade's stories. It’s free speech, and they have the right to post stories.
- What the city should do, Mr. Horning said, is push its own message. “You have to fight speech with more speech,” he said.
- That’s exactly what Mr. Schaaf said is the plan. He said he doesn’t want to get into a “pissing match” with negative commentators but instead would like to focus on the positive in the region. The Toledo Brand Initiative plans to do a video similar to one done by the Downtown Cleveland Alliance.
- And while the internet and a printing press make it easy for the media to trash a city, the internet also makes it easy for residents to post their own positive messages about a city they love. There are Instagram accounts devoted to photographing beautiful parts of the region, for instance.
- Toledo is a great place to live — not the urban wasteland portrayed on the internet and in print by the Toledo Blade — was the message from prominent Toledoans contacted Sunday after the Blade stories were published.
- As the Toledo Blade might well expect, their stories drew a lot of tut-tutting from local officials, many of whom have the job of trying to promote Toledo as a great place to live and do business in.
- “That’s one of the biggest issues our community has. We tend to focus on the negative and not on the positive,” [Former] councilman Adam Martinez said. “Blasting it to the rest of the world doesn’t say much for this paper — or the city of Toledo.”
- “Having said that, the pictures that were found in The Blade certainly have to be defined as accurate, and they do exist. However, I would take that in a different direction. Defining our problems is one thing, but it is shallow if there are no efforts to correct them,” Mr. Collins said.
- "And let’s only not correct what The Blade has defined as issues for Toledo, but let’s take on all the issues, and let’s make Toledo a city that is refreshingly clean and the city that engages problem-solving as opposed to the chronic answer, which is acceptance,” Mr. Collins said.
- Mr. Finkbeiner said he would like to issue to the author of the Blade stories a personal invitation to accompany him on a tour to point out the city’s “dynamic improvements,” including the campuses of the University of Toledo and University of Toledo Medical Center, which is the former Medical College of Ohio, the Jeep plant, the Museum of Art, and the many vibrant residential neighborhoods that dot the city.
- “If one is to be critical of that community that you are part of ... go roll up your sleeves and go out and improve the quality of the community or environment,” Mr. Finkbeiner said. “It is easy to fault, but sometimes it shows a lack of thorough knowledge of the entity you are criticizing.”
- “I don’t agree with the negative information about Toledo,” [Steel] said. “I can, as a council member and person who has lived in Toledo and intends to live the rest of my life here, say I want the best of Toledo to be put forward as much as we can. We have the same challenges as any aging industrial city in the Midwest. ... However, I have seen a lot of positive things.”
- As someone who moved to Toledo about 10 years ago, Mr. Burwell said he’s noticed that transplants seem to be bigger admirers of the city than are the people who grew up here, including, apparently, the Toledo Blade.
- “Talk to people who didn’t grow up here they’ll tell you it’s the best place to live. The Blade should go away and come back and see what they're missing,” Mr. Burwell said. However, he did not encourage further publicizing of The Blade as it just “gives them more credence.”
- I have some sympathy for The Blade's righteous anger. Why have we let our housing stock deteriorate so much? Why do we take such poor care of our parks? Why do we let ourselves be snookered and conned?
- Most of all, why is the Toledo Blade the first voice and image you hear of Toledo? Why is this paper introducing our city to the world and analyzing our problems on the internet and in print?
- The Blade is entitled, of course. They're exercising their right to free speech. But why aren’t our business and political and academic leaders showing the electronic world the positive side of our city?
- Where is the Chamber of Commerce? Where is the man who should be the city’s leading salesman — the mayor?
- This problem goes beyond branding or marketing. It’s more fundamental than that.
- The question is: Who will define Toledo? Will it be the critics, the cynics, and the nihilists? Or will it be the builders?
- I don’t know what has disappointed and embittered The Blade. I’d like to see the paper be part of the solution and not the problem.
- But I know we can’t let The Blade be the face of Toledo on the internet and in print.
- This city has so much more going for it than most cities this size — all the economic ingredients, including a skilled work force, plus location, and a citizenry that cares.
- Toledo Blade, come in out from the cold
- Toledo newspaper is negative, but appears to care
- So this is what I would say to the Toledo Blade: Let’s talk.
- I would like to see the Toledo Blade go to the next level: Don’t be a crank.
- Personally, I’d like to buy the Blade a cup of coffee and hear how the newspaper got into this.
- And maybe we could have a public forum — perhaps at the library. The Blade could read two or three of their stories and we could have an open discussion and let the public talk it out. What issues aren’t we facing? What practical, small steps can we take to improve life in Toledo now?
- Toledo Blade, it is incumbent upon you to step up. Let’s have a conversation.
(What if the Blade removed their negative stories about Toledo?)
- “I am pleased that they realized that there was no value added in what they were doing,” Mr. Collins said. “However, that doesn’t change the issues. I’d like The Blade to be a vehicle to move the city in a progressive direction, and I welcome their participation while I am in office."
- Former Mayor Carty Finkbeiner offered on Sunday to take The Blade on a tour of Toledo to show off its dynamic redevelopment.
- City Councilman Steven Steel has a solid idea: Encourage everyday people to create alternative stories that portray the positives of Toledo, and have them posted and viewed on a video-hosting Web site created by The Blade or another outlet.
- It’s also hard to tell whether The Blade is motivated by compassion for the poor, nostalgia for Toledo of a bygone day, or hostility toward “Toledo homers” who seek to conceal the seedier reality of Toledo.
- Toledo’s image shouldn’t be defined by stories of urban decay published by the Toledo Blade, or by snooty British journalists who rave about a major art exhibition in London but neglect to mention the Toledo Museum of Art’s role in mounting it.
- I don’t have the answer, but the people leading Toledo’s branding initiative need to dig deeper and wider into the community. They need a jolt. The published stories by the Toledo Blade, many of them portraying Toledo as a wasteland, probably did more to get people talking about the city’s image than a branding initiative that’s more than four years old.
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