It's about time

I listened as Tom Schlacter announced the Take Back Toledo PAC on WSPD. In case you missed it, you can listen to it on podcast here. Off the jump, it seems to be an interesting movement, but the jury on this blog is still out as to how good it is.
Their first effort is going to be a recall movement against Mayor Carty Finkbeiner. Good start. As long as it's just that. A good start. Being that this is a young blog, I haven't addressed my opinion about the mayor a lot, but I do think the mayor is one of the big things that is holding this city back. Time and space is prohibitive of going deep into that now. I have other fish to fry in this blog. You'll read more as this effort goes, but Schlacter is right in what he said on WSPD yesterday, the mayor has a little over a year to go in his term, and he does damage to this city every day he's in office -- another year of his administration will just leave a bigger mess to clean. They have my support in this effort.
Now, having said that about the mayor, I have a couple of concerns. First, I don't want this to be simply a get rid of Carty effort. Certainly Carty is a part of the mess, but there are so many others in this mix that their efforts cannot stop at the 22nd floor. Schlacter outlined some broad strokes of a plan beyond a change at the 22nd floor. I hope he and his people follow through on this.
Second, I noticed an article on their webpage titled "A Pantload of Negativity." Anyone who has listened to WSPD knows that the word pantload is a favorite word of Brian Wilson when talking about the mayor. WSPD and Brian Wilson in particular, have a bit of tunnel vision where the mayor is concerned and I think that they spend a fair amount of time just baiting the mayor for the purpose of getting rating boosting sound bites. Certainly, they are a sympathetic medium for an effort such as this, so I see why the announcement was made on WSPD, but my concern is how much involvement WSPD has at the top of this movement. As a business in Toledo, WSPD and Clear Channel can have a place at the table if they want, but I want to see someone besides them running the show.
Those are my concerns. Toledo is a great town, it has a lot of potential, but currently, we have roads that drive like bombed out airstrips, the school system is on academic watch and the police have a one to three day response time to any call that doesn't involve shooting at the time. The city leaders over the past years have allowed this city to slide, and a movement like this is certainly a breath of fresh air. I have a few suggestions as the project continues and I'll be listing them in future entires, and I'll be watching closely as the Take Back Toledo effort continues.