Fractured Fairy Tales - The Boy Who Cried Potential

Yes boys and girls, no matter how much we try to avoid it, it's time once again for another of those wonderful stories that you have all come to know and love. (Hey, no complaints. You just have to read them. I'm the one that has to to write them.) Today's tale is another of those cautionary tales about a magical land that we have come to know and love as "Toodledeedoo". But let's not waste any more time in idle chit-chat and get right to our story. 


Once upon a time their lived a man (well, more of a boy actually), who lived in the magical land of Toodledeedoo. This man/boy was a civil servant, in a position of some authority, and had been given direct responsibility for the economic development of the land. Now this was something that is very important to any community, and unfortunately something that he knew absolutely nothing about. But such was the makeup of this over-age child that this lack of knowledge or skills in no way prevented him from blundering forward at his assigned duties. Time passed, and little of this responsibility was actually accomplished.


Toodledeedo's situation in fact got progressively worse under his stewardship. Soon even blissful ignorance made it impossible for him to ignore the fact that he was failing miserably at this given task, but being the creature he was he decided that if he couldn't fulfill his obligations he would ignore his failures and attempt to draw attention to himself and his supposed efforts anyway. 


So one day, he simply went to one of his failed ventures (in this case the downtown Erie Street Market), and cried, "This building has potential!" Everyone came running to see what all of the fuss was about, but when they came, all that they saw was a sad little man in a sad little place. If once the Erie Street Market had potential, it had long since passed. It was little more these days than an eyesore and a drain on Toodledeedoo's scant resources, and a source of embarrassment to it's citizens. Disgusted at being pulled away from their own lives (and with this tired little performance), they shook their heads and sadly walked away. 


Determined to gain praise when he had failed before, he chose another site. This time standing in front of the closed COSI facility (Center of Science and Industry), and again he shouted, "This building has potential!" Once again everyone came running to see what all the excitement was about. Once again they were disappointed. This time the citizens were being presented with a project whose potential, if it ever had any, had long since passed under intellectual laziness, operational neglect, and poor fiscal management. Once more disgusted with a fuss being made over nothing, they sadly shook their heads and walked away, this time mumbling as they left. Infuriated now over his lack of success in drawing the praise he felt he so richly deserved, and undaunted by his continuing failure to garner the proper attention, our subject tried a third time. 


Standing in front of the United Way building this time, he once again shouted, "This building has potential!" Once more, everyone came running (well actually more like trotting this time, but at least they showed up again). One glance at where he was standing was enough for the crowd this time however. The United Way building had been written off by the very people that it was built for as a white elephant, and merited little more than the demolition the owners already had planned for it. The tired efforts or our sorry little civil servant, having passed mere annoyance by this time, were really beginning to aggravate the populace however. They left again, but not without a few angry shouts about bad judgment, abuse of power, and sheer bull-headed ignorance this time. 


Surprised over his complete failure to garner the praise and attention that he felt he so richly deserved, he finally gave up and began to make his way slowly back to his office. It was while make this somber journey however that it occurred to him that the answer to economic development he was looking for had been right before his eyes all the time. It was something that many had been telling him about for years, but which he pointedly ignored because he hadn't come up with the idea first. Toodledeedoo was on a really big lake (some might even call it great) so it could handle shipping by water, was in the middle of a bunch of great 4-lane roads that could be equally helpful, had an airport that nobody was using for much of anything these days, and was surrounded by rail lines to add to the mix. 


If all of these things could be combined (Can you say intermodal facility?), he could turn Toodledeedoo into a commercial hub for the transportation of goods from one end of the country to the other. This realization struck him so strongly that it was all that he could do to continue walking. Almost in spite of himself, he had finally found the answer he was looking for. (After everyone else of course, but that's beside the point.) "This has potential!" he cried, but this time nobody came. "No, this time I really mean it. This has potential!" he screamed again even more loudly, but again no one came. He screamed and screamed again. He screamed until he finally made himself hoarse, but no one ever came to see what the fuss was about. 


You see, when you abuse the power of your position and falsely claim successes that don't really exist, eventually everyone stops listening. Fed up with the natural fertilizer and noise that you have generated in the past, people eventually wise up, tune you out, and in the end ignore you completely. Even if you come up with a great idea after that, no one will show up to hear you; and it is highly unlikely that any good idea that you come up with will ever be realized as a consequence.

THE END

Let us hope that this is a fate that those of us not living in a fairy tale can yet avoid. Real opportunities don't come very around often, and if you continually pass them up, eventually they stop coming at all. Perhaps such cautionary tales will help to curb the noise and nonsense that some of our civic leaders generate in their need for self-aggrandizement, focus our attention on real opportunities, and give good ideas a chance to yet succeed.

Erie Street Market & Memories Of My Youth

Now that you've read the title and become completely confused (and especially for those of you reading this and not residing in Toledo), let me attempt to explain. An article in the Toledo Blade on 7/31 points out what many of us have recently suspected, that the improvements of the Erie Street Market have been made in a rather questionable manner. Now I have spoken on the ESM before, but the Mayor appears to want to take the situation to the next level by secretly funneling money into the facility in order to find new uses for it.

I say secretly because these improvements were not included in budget numbers released as recently as a week ago, showing that the ESM has made a profit for the 1st six months of the year. (This subject is probably covered and more fully by Maggie Thurber here.) These improvements were broken into 13 separate contracts of less than $10,000 in order to allow the mayor to proceed without city council notice and approval. Further, these improvements were performed on the ESM in order to allow the city to compete with private businesses as a concert venue, something the building was not designed for and which appears to be contrary to the "business friendly" environment that the city of Toledo advertises.

But what could all of this possibly have with the memories of my youth ...

This is where I finally have to admit that I am recovering from a serious childhood addiction to television. It is not something that I am proud of, but must cop to if you are to understand my thinking (yeah I know this is dangerous, but read on...). This was especially true when it came to cartoons. From "Rocky and Bullwinkle" to "Woody Woodpecker", from "Space Ghost" to "Yogi Bear", it was a constant battle for my parents to drag me away from the idiot box long enough to perform necessary functions like eating, bathing, or occasionally exposing my body to sunlight. (This may account in some part for how thin I was then as opposed to ... oh, never mind.) Two of the cartoons that I watched in those days were "Popeye" and "Spy vs Spy".

Setting aside the title character in this first example, with his mutant forearms and his anorexic girlfriend, one of my favorite characters was Wimpy. Now Wimpy was a mooch and a panhandler whose only seeming line was, "I will gladly pay you Tuesday, for a Hamburger today". This appears to be the philosophy of Mayor Carlton S. Finkbeiner (for those of you non-locals, yes that is his real name). Having worked his way around the charter limitations of $10K for non-reviewed contracts, he justified the use of over $80,000 in city money (during a $2.5 million budget shortfall) by saying that the money would be paid back by concerts yet to be held in the facility. Now businesses often make investments to gain future profits; but if this was the case, why hide it? If this is the key to making the ESM profitable, why not trumpet the investment as a step forward instead of a pattern of skullduggery and secrecy until it was finally exposed in the media too late to stop anyway?

In the second example of "Spy vs. Spy", this simply points to the relationship that the city has with business in Toledo. The only difference is that in this case, the city is the only one with access to explosives. Taxation, regulation, and competition are the weapons of choice in this battle, with a 2.25% total city income tax leading the charge, and a list of levies longer than my arm following closely behind to make this an unfriendly neighborhood for businesses to play in.

As for regulation, one merely needs to see the recent restrictions that the city has placed on locations, numbers, and method of operation of convenience stores and day care centers to begin to comprehend the city's attitude to the business community. It appears that the city only wants certain businesses in certain numbers, and wants to strictly regulate how they do their business. I don't know about you, but my experience with a government control of markets quickly leads to the term "socialism". 

This brings us to the final leg of the tripod, the competition of city owned business. Toledo has recently gotten into the ambulance and towing businesses, and most if not all of the private companies have either laid off staff or closed. Now the city wants to run a music venue, in competition with privately owned, non-taxpayer funded facilities. (Doesn't seem quite fair, does it?) Now governments are not normally known for their business acumen, but with taxpayers undoubtedly on the hook for utilities and security, my suspicion is that this venture can't help but succeed. The questions however, are what the costs are to privately owned, tax paying operations and at what costs to taxpayers? Additionally, we should ask what business would consider coming to Toledo know that this is the environment that they would have to look forward to?

I loved those cartoons in my youth, and with the relationship now established between the the present and the past now, they may well now be ruined for me. While it may help in the continued control of my former addiction, a little part of my treasured childhood has now been destroyed. Say, now that I think about it, the mayor kind of reminds me of the "Fearless Leader" character from "Rocky and Bullwinkle" with the never-ending series of misguided and failed plots against society. Damn, that ruins another one...

Erie St and The Blade

Well here we are folks, two weekend papers, two misguided efforts ... The Sunday Toledo Blade carried the following editorial: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080106/OPINION02/801060307 

And rather, it appears, than cogently arguing the logic of keeping the Erie St Market as a city owned property, the Blade chooses to use paper to make this a personal issue for the mayor and to defend his position on the market. Since the Blade seems to be unable to properly define the argument, let me try to. 

Is this issue about the Mayor? - Yes, but only because he has made it so. The Mayor was the biggest supporter of buying the Market, signed the contract with Citifest to run it, and has defended its ability to make a profit relentlessly. It has not however. 

Is the Market currently making a profit? - Well I guess it's how you look at the numbers. The Blade claims that since the Market was taken over by the city on Nov 12th, that it has made $40,000 (the fact that this is the busiest part of the shopping year probably has nothing to do with this); and that the Market "projects" to make a profit of $300,000 by the end of 2008. It then lists separately that the city is paying $300,000 in utility bills each and every year. Now forgive my simple math, but $300k minus $300k equals $0. The last time that I looked, a profit of $0 dollars is not a profit. 

It should also be noted that the opportunity to break even here is only a projection, not a certainty. In addition, these numbers do not take into account the lost tax revenues, as I am sure that the city is not paying itself property taxes on this so-called lucrative downtown property. 

Is City Council stalling on this? - Of course they are! This was the first meeting of the new council, with three new members being sworn in, and the expectation that they would want to take on this political hot potato within the first hours of gathering would be unrealistic. If this was such a pressing issue for the city, why has it taken 7 weeks to bring it up? Why was it not handled by the previous council? Could it be that the Mayor found that bringing up the situation less favorable with the previous council? (I'm just asking) 

Should Council hold a public hearing? - Why not? It's not like the city seems to listen to the voice of the people when they think that they can get away with it (COSI), but listening to the voice of the voters is never a bad thing. With a little luck, the Council can hold the meeting at 4 PM on a weekday to assure proper attendance. 

Does Council need to fund the Market? - It undoubtedly does on a temporary basis. There is no reason to throw the baby out with the bath water and close the market rather than fund something to keep it open, but only until it can sell the Market. Council should predicate any funding on a demand that the city put the Market up for sale immediately. (Democrats seem to know how to place "pull out" provisions into funding measures, so this shouldn't be a problem.) This process should then be reviewed on a 90 - 180 day basis to assess the city's efforts to make this sale. 

Does Toledo need to sell the Erie Street Market? - Yes!!!! The proper marketing and operation of such a business requires an entrepreneurial spirit that no government entity can exhibit. The flexibility, creativity, and free thinking that have made such markets successful are anathema to governments, whose bureaucracy thrives on rigid adherence to the status quo. Kudos gentlemen, for at least trying to bring up the issues that matter to the city. (Maybe you read my post yesterday and are trying to change your ways. ... Nah) Shame on you for taking such a misguided and illogical position on the subject.