Mayoral Debate...How it looks from here.....

I watched the debate last night between Carty Finkbeiner and Jack Ford. I looked forward to reading what the Blade said about the debate. The link in the title is to the Toledo Blade article and also has a link to download the debate. Once again alot of accusations were thrown, one in particular stuck with me.

It was a question about Southwyck Mall. I downloaded the video and watched it again. Here is the "Lisa unauthorized transcript" of that section of the debate:

Lee Conklin: (17:34) Mr. Finkbeiner, you said that Mayor Jack Ford had four years to get something done at the failing Southwyck Mall but it was clear long before he became Mayor during your tenure that things were rapidly deteriorating at Southwyck. What did you do at the time to prevent things from going downhill there and if you were elected Mayor would you keep the Dillin plan in place there or do you have a plan of your own to resurrect Southwyck?

Carty: (17:55) Southwyck Mall was going down no question about it and has been. It wasn't deteriorating to the degree it has the last four years but there is no question it was. Point number 1. Point number 2, my last year, 2001 Councilman Ludeman and myself had worked with the owner of the Mall and had a plan which was given to the Ford administration, a copy of which I have in the other room or I would have brought it out here had we been allowed to that called for 4 anchor malls (I'm assuming he means stores), a parking garage, and improved ingress and egress to that Mall. That was extremely exciting at the time it was handed off to the Ford administration nothing has happened. Last question? I have met with Mr. Dillin, I saw his plan, it has alot of exciting prospects, I wished him Godspeed as he gets on a plane in the next few days to travel and see if he can move a little more quickly to solidify that plan.

Jack: (19:05) Mr. Finkbeiner has said give him a year and he'll get it done. He had 8 years and he did nothing. What he did do was sell City land to a corporation to bring in General Growth and as a result that froze other folks looking at investing in Southwyck and he knows that. With respect to working with the owner there?I doubt he has ever talked with Bill Dillard in his life. I have. He wouldn't know Sherman probably if he walked in and kissed him. I have met with Sherman twice. (He is referring to Sherman Dreiseszun).

Granted the Toledo Blade archives are not the most reliable archives, however I became curious so I searched "Southwyck Mall" from 1996 to 2005. Eliminating articles that were related to an event at the mall or letter to the editor, I made an interesting discovery.

You can see the briefs from these articles here:

http://www.psyche777.net/Southwyck.hmtl

There are only four articles from 1996 to 2001. There are 13 from 2002 to 2005. It's pretty clear when the Mall really declined and the various plans that failed. It's also worth noting that Ray Kest when he campaigned against Jack Ford in 2001 supported the plan that Carty mentioned that Rob Ludeman and his office had worked on.

We also can discover that:

MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2004 Southwyck Shopping Center hangs like a political albatross around Toledo Mayor Jack Ford's neck. And he knows it. As leader of the financially troubled city, the mayor is charged with pumping economic lifeblood through the city.....

This was well after Carty left office, I realize it's popular for the current office holder to always blame the last one but eventually it has to come around to being their responsibility. In the end, those that strongly support Jack Ford will probably continue to do so, and those who strongly support Carty will also not change their feelings. However it's the rest of the Toledo voters who will decide this election. It's easy to understand why I've seen quite a few people who stated during the primaries that they would never vote for Carty have changed their mind. Should Jack Ford win re-election? One thing is certain. He will eventually have to take responsibility for what has happened during his term, not just learning how to "toot" his own horn for the successes but admit the failures as well. Considering I wrote early on that I did not want to see Carty enter the race again that I wanted someone like Keith Wilkowski that would be a new energy for Toledo? Carty's looking pretty good to me too.