Link: http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100131/ART16/100139983

"Next time you're on the Internet visit YouTube and search "Toledo,

Ohio."

The results, frankly, are embarrassing. In a city with a wealth of history and culture, the top three featured  videos on the site are of the Nazi rally that led to a race riot in 2005; former Toledo mayor Carty Finkbeiner insulting an overweight teenager...."

Now, wait a cotton picking cheer leading moment, the past administration is held in high esteem by many of the out of the loop political leaders.

Now, the antics are embarrassing? Someone pinch me, it seems reality has set in, finally.

For all the awards and trips and signs, reality is front and center, finally.

"Matt Donahue, an instructor in the department of popular culture at Bowling Green University, said the city still remains tethered to more PR-friendly imagery: the Toledo Mud Hens, Jeep, and a world-class art museum and zoo."

The museum and the zoo.

Mr. Donahue, needs to walk around the areas of both sites, and look around, and then tell us, why we have self esteem problem.

Now think for a minute. Two gems nestled in the middle of neighborhoods plagued with plywood, festering garbage, run down tired looking facades.

Yes, the museum is world class, but drive or walk a block or two and the area is anything but world class, but don't fret, we have two world class places to visit, people do and leave. What is there for the visitors in the immediate area of the zoo? A large vacant commerical lot, festering with debris and weeds.

And of the museum? Festering closed business, no attractions, roads that are in disrepair, tired looking facades, and the creeping plague of plywood.

The administration needs to step up, and quickly, the economic team and get on with it, so we can cleanse the city of the embarrassments of the past.