letter from TOLEDO, OHIO
To make downtown even more dysfunctional, planners cleared two of the few remaining lively commercial blocks to build the SeaGate Convention Centre, hindering traffic and daunting pedestrians with its blank four-story brick facade. (SeaGate worked well for Jehovah’s Witness conventions. They weren’t disgruntled by the dearth of local bars.) Perhaps we hit the bottom in 1994 when mayor Carty Finkbeiner made the New York Times with his proposal for developing the land around Toledo’s airport as a great housing site for deaf people. My mother, who theoretically might have qualified for that housing, called me from Florida after seeing the story on CNN. She didn’t quite catch it and wondered why Finkbeiner wanted move dead people to the airport. The 180th Air National Guard took residence instead – making lots of noise. As a lifelong resident, I’ve seen several tries at downtown redevelopment leaving us with a shuttered Orvis store and numerous other misguided attempts at shopping and entertainment. Overenthusiastic banks and a Baltimore developer believed that if they loaded up the hard-to-get-to riverfront with retail and restaurants, people would flock downtown for fun. They heard someplace that “if we build it, they will come.” They came, but they didn’t come back. Fortunately, there’s the cultural legacy that Toledo’s industrial titans left behind. Some of
the city’s economic underpinnings may be gone, but the munificence of their founders remains. The Libbey family created one of America’s great art museums, and any Toledoan will tell you that we also have a zoo, a symphony orchestra, and park system at the same level. These and other institutions are significantly better than you would expect in a city with the size and economic vitality of Toledo. Perhaps we hit the bottom in 1994 when mayor Carty Finkbeiner made the New York Times with his proposal for developing the land around Toledo’s airport as a great housing site for deaf people. And we owe Jamie Farr, too. Corporal Klinger, played by Toledoan Jamie Farr on M*A*S*H , loved his Tony Packo’s hot dogs and Mud Hens baseball. Is it a coincidence that today AAA baseball teams compete to come up with even goofier names? Consider: Savannah Bananas , Lehigh Valley IronPigs , Normal CornBelters , Topeka Train Robbers, or Albuquerque’s famous fighting Isotopes . Thanks for that, Muddy! One thing for sure is that the Mud Hens hit it out of the park with their new stadium downtown.
American Consequences 37
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