TT comment Jun 18, 2014

No shock that Burris is fawning over Jack Ford's alleged ideas to help Toledo.

Jack Ford got elected to Toledo City Council in 1993. He has been elected/appointed to:

• state government
• mayor of Toledo
• Toledo Public School Board
• Toledo City Council again in 2013
• and he's planning to run for some state position this November

And now Ford has a plan for Toledo. But his 2014 plan differs from his idea back in 2007 when Jack Ford said about Toledo:

We need more white folks with middle-class paychecks.

On this blight issue, it seems that Mayor Collins and Jack Ford disagree on what to do next. Maybe Ford can break out his Malcolm X poster to intimidate Collins.

From a 2005 story

The mayor also got laughs when he talked about some white businessmen’s reactions to artwork in his office on the 22nd floor of Government Center. One is a picture of Muhammad Ali. The other is of Malcolm X, the more militant Civil Rights Movement peer of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"That’s so when folks come in there, I want them to see instantly what time of day it is. Literally, business guys have come in there and their legs buckle. They come in and say ‘Oh my gosh, the mayor’s got Malcolm X on his wall.’ That means we’re going to do the right thing; that’s why that picture’s up there," Mayor Ford said.

In June 2007, the Toledo Public School board chose Jack Ford to fill a vacant spot on the board. A handful of people applied for the position.

My June 2007 comment

Yeah, the vote by the board members went as expected.

The level of political inbreeding that exists in Toledo is staggering, and it's a major reason for the problems in the city and the school system.

Current mayor recommends a former mayor. The daily paper endorses the same candidate and practically threatens the other board members to vote for Ford. Status quo. Failure.

And so it goes for Toledo and TPS. Three-term Carty, Ford, Foley. It's amazing, yet it should no longer be surprising.

And I don't how someone gets serious consideration for the school board when he expresses his half-ass interest by scribbling on a teacher's application like Ford did.

The other candidates for that open school board position in 2007 submitted formal resumes and cover letters, but Ford did not. In my opinion, Ford felt that since he was Jack Ford, former mayor of Toledo, that he was exempt from properly applying for the school board position. But Ford had to submit something, so he hand-scribbled ineligibly on a teacher's application.

Ford's blighted application for the 2007 school board position, which apparently contained an incorrect home address and a phone number that did not work.

In my opinion, during the application process for that 2007 school board position, Ford showed a lack of respect for the job, no attention to detail, and unprofessional behavior. And we're suppose to take Ford seriously in June 2014??

Just because Ford continues to get elected/appointed to government positions, that does not mean he is worth listening to. The Collins administration should simply ignore Ford. What qualifies Ford to know what's best for Toledo in 2014 after being in the political game for at least 20 years?

And besides, Ford will probably defeat Edna Brown for the state government position this November, so he's a short-timer on city council. In my opinion, Ford is placating the Blade in order to win the Blade's endorsement for the November election.

Carty is not worth listening to either. The Blade continues to seek feedback from Carty and Ford on Toledo's problems, and the irony of that is lost on those two dunderheads.

Detroitification - It's an old term with multiple definitions.

The Urban Dictionary definition :

Detroitification refers to the destruction of a city, state or nation through draining money from hardworking individuals to pay for the cushy compensation and retirement of unproductive public "servants." When paired with corruption, Detroitification can skeletonize a city in just a few years.

Other ways to describe "Detroitification":

• Sprawl is caused by the decaying urban center, and that decay is caused by idiotic political decisions.
• High taxes drive away business, resulting in a higher burden on the remaining income-producers.
• Describes the downhill slide of a city, mostly due to bad political actions and a struggling public school system.

August 2013 blog posting about the term "Detroitification" :

The term “Detroitification” has been cited in print since at least 1997.

Mackinac Center for Public Policy Sept. 7, 2007. The “Detroitification” of Michigan has begun and won’t be reversed by tax increases whose outcome would be to establish the same dynamic that destroyed that city: Hollowing out the private economy to prop up unsustainable government establishments.

June 2006 blog posting

The Detroitification of Buffalo is well underway. First to go, of course, was the East Side; followed by the West Side and Black Rock. Lovejoy's fading around the edges and South Buffalo's not very far behind. Fortress Elmwood's turn will come -- it'll take longer but the signs are already there. Utica Street is oddly run-down all the way from Main to Delaware, across Elmwood and through to Richmond.

April 2008 blog posting

Will we see the Detroitification of Dayton, where large swaths of the city become mostly vacant, with occasional clusters of houses?

July 2004 Cincinnati Enquirer opinion

County levies. Move them back from ridiculous to affordable. Cincinnati is losing population faster than any city in the country, but we can't give all the credit for Detroitification to City Hall. The county is doing its share to drive people away.

Taxes, fees, assessments, cronyism, nepotism, malfeasance, over-regulation, false altruism, embarrassments, etc. That's what I think of when considering the Carty-Ford era. Those two share some of the blame for the Detroitification of Toledo.

It's a mystery to me why they get elected, but the non-voters get some of the blame too, possibly. Maybe qualified people don't run for local political office because they don't want to play the "game."

Looking to city government for help won't solve the problem if the citizens don't care. The solutions will have to come from caring citizens and business people. Government can help by not being a road block.