Tt comment jul 19 2015 - a

Since this all began around 2000, the plan by Pizzuti Cos seemed to progress the furthest.

In June 2005, I attended the Marina District Neighborhood Charette that was held in East Toledo. It was an interesting day that lasted for several hours.

Sponsored by: City of Toledo, REERC, River East Associates, Pizzuti Corp., with the support of the American Institute of Architects Toledo Chapter.

My comment from that thread:

Peter Ujvagi organized the event, and he kept it moving on schedule. Each part started and stopped on time.

Attention to detail by PU. No wasted time that day.

Some of my other notes from that day 10 years ago.

I was in the breakout-group with George Sarantou, Pete Gerken, Mary Chris Skeldon, Don Monroe, the architect working with Pizzuti, and many others.

Peter Ujvagi organized the entire event, and he was in the other group. We all met together initially at the start of the morning, and then we split up into these two groups to brainstorm.

In our breakout group, one wall of the room held big sheets of paper that contained a list of all our wild ideas for the Marina District.

The other wall contained a map of the district, and anyone in the group was allowed to walk up and start drawing an idea.

The 2005 thread contains other info from that day.

Ujvagi would be a great person to ask about all of these Marina District plans that have been presented to the public since 2000. I wonder which plan he thinks would have been the best. Or which time did he think, "Yeah, this is going to happen now."?

I'm guessing it would be the Pizzuti activity in 2005, but I doubt that PU would give a straight answer.

Carty defeated Ford for mayor of Toledo in November 2005.

In 2006, it seemed that one of Carty's top priorities was to erase anything that Jack Ford started.

In the spring of 2006, Carty fired Pizzuti and brought in Dillin.

Bell gets elected mayor, and he attracts Dashing Pacific.

Collins defeats Bell, and in Collins's first year as mayor, he wants Dashing Pacific gone from the Marina District.

We'll probably have a mayoral change this November, and another mayoral change in November 2017.

It's not the economy because Toledo has been using that excuse since at least 2001.

For this fall's elections, it seems that every mayoral candidate and district council candidate have been talking about fixing our roads. That's nonsense, since it should be part of their job to ensure that our roads are in decent shape. It's a given. Fixing roads should not be a new idea.

Ujvagi could set himself apart from not just his District 3 opponents, but everyone else on council and even the mayoral candidates by discussing the Marina District.

In August 2005, Ujvagi published an opinion piece in the Toledo Blade about the Marina District.

The [marina] district, along with The Docks development in International Park, renovation of the King Bridge, Starboard Side condominiums, and construction of the Veterans Glass City Skyway, would strengthen the idea that the river unites Toledoans instead of dividing us.

We could finally break down the perceived barrier between the residents of the East Side and the rest of Toledo. As a bonus, we would be able to take advantage of this exciting project to continue the revitalization of East Toledo neighborhoods and the Main Street neighborhood commercial district.

After at least two false starts, and tough negotiations by Mayor Jack Ford, a developer [Pizzuti] with the commitment, capabilities, and vision to make the marina project a success has been selected. They are now working diligently, with the involvement of the community, to develop and implement a plan that is supported by market realities.

Ujvagi's opinion piece also discusses the arena issue, which was a fiery issue. Back in 2005, and actually all the way back to 1993, people advocated for building the arena on the west side of the river. Even Pizzuti felt that the east side of the river was the wrong location for an arena.

But some politicians and, of course, many East Siders felt that a new arena was promised for the east side.

From all the info that I had absorbed, building the arena on the west side of the river in the downtown area made the most sense. And that's what happened.

More from Ujvagi's August 2005 column:

In September, 2001, Toledoans cast their vote by a margin of nearly 68 percent to 32 percent to suspend the restrictions of Section 79 of the Toledo City Charter and enable the participation of the city in the construction of a new arena on the East Side.

However, over the last several years, a dedicated group of downtown investors, some elected officials and administrators, and others have advocated for the construction of the new arena on the other side of the river - near the existing convention center and Fifth Third Field. Except for the East Side advocates (and The Blade's editorial position), little effort was put into making the arena a reality in the Marina District.