Toledo Talk "Babbling bridge talk" id 1384

Toledo celebrated the opening of the new Michigander-And-Truck-Driver-Toledo-Bypass bridge even though the bridge won't be officially open until June 24.

What's noteworthy in the Blade story are the asinine statements from politicians.

State Sen. Teresa Fedor (D., Toledo) said the bridge will put Toledo on the map, and it will be part of the city’s culture and a symbol of Toledo’s pride.

Empty rhetoric. What map? What does Fedor mean? I've got maps, and Toledo is already on them.

Lucas County Commissioner Tina Skeldon Wozniak said motorists will recognize the bridge when they visit, much like visitors recognize landmark bridges in major cities including San Francisco and New York.

Following the bridge’s profile ever upward, Toledo could become truly one of the great cities of the world, Mayor Carty Finkbeiner remarked.

Never mind the absurd policies implemented by local bonehead politicians over the years that have resulted in a continual loss of businesses and population. All is well now because somehow a concrete and steel structure is going to magically transform Toledo into a great city. These politicians are living in a fantasy world.

I'd like to know how many Toledoans have taken a vacation to see a bridge? No doubt some freakish bridge nerds will visit Toledo to see the new bridge. That will probably mean about seven people.

What about the MLK/Cherry St bridge? Despite the accidents and delays in the new I-280 bridge, it will take less time to build this brand new hulking structure than it will take to complete renovation work on the puny but locally important MLK/Cherry St bridge, which is now a cafe, by the way.

The new I-280 bridge is important to Michiganders and truck drivers who want to easily get around Toledo. Heck, Michigan probably chipped in some money to help build the bridge.

As a West Toledo resident, I welcome the new bridge too. It will make it easier for me to travel east to Magee Marsh. For me, I take I-475 east to I-75 north then I-280 south to Rt 2 in Oregon. The new bridge will make it a little easier.

But I also like driving under the new bridge. That is one thing that may make the new I-280 bridge unique: You can drive under most of it, getting a good view of the bridge's underbelly. Like driving under a monstrous, concrete centipede.

I've always been amazed at how they could build a bridge over a heavily-traveled roadway and an area populated with houses and buildings. It's not like they built the bridge in open country. Truly amazing from a project management and engineering standpoint. But hardly the thing that will put Toledo on the map and make Toledo like San Francisco or New York.

New bridge opens

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, speaking about the bridge as a symbol for Toledo, Lucas County, and northwest Ohio, said: "This wonderful city that we look out upon, in this wonderful region, in the great state of Ohio, is central to all that we try to do to make Ohio move forward to create opportunities for all of Ohio’s citizens."

"And I say to the congresswoman [Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo)] and to the [Toledo] mayor [Carty Finkbeiner], and to all of the political leaders, state and local, that there is no more ‘The Other Ohio.’ This part of Ohio is central to what is Ohio," Mr. Strickland said, using the term used to describe parts of the state that don’t wield the same political clout as the Three Cs — Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus.

But just as important as those numbers are the economic numbers we are confident will come. The bridge should help open development of eastern Lucas County, plus Ottawa, Wood, and Sandusky counties. Companies that over the years have stayed away from the Toledo area because of the inadequacy of the Craig bridge should now find investment and job opportunities, as well as transportation efficiency, more appealing.

Warehousing, light manufacturing, trucking, and other industrial uses could conservatively add 1,000 jobs a year or more for 50 years in the metropolitan area. The Walgreen's Distribution Center in Perrysburg Township is a good example of the sort of investment the region could gain.

Mr. Mifsud had come to understand that The Blade, and all of Toledo and northwest Ohio, made a good case that this corner of the state had been hurt over the years by the disproportionate allocation of state resources and tax dollars to the I-71 corridor: the Three Cs of Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati.

Certainly, the Veterans' Glass City Skyway is a significant step in rectifying that long-standing disregard for northwest Ohio. But so much more needs to be done.

We still believe that Ohio State University is too large and that it could be reduced in size and some of its funding shared with other state institutions such as the University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University. And although it hasn't happened, the decentralization of state government, and the shift of thousands of jobs from Columbus and Franklin County to the Other Ohio remains as sound an idea as when we first proposed it 17 years ago.

Speaker after speaker tried to describe the massive concrete and steel structure, variously as “a testament to human ingenuity,” “a modern engineering marvel,” and as “Toledo’s new crown jewel,” but one theme recurred more than the rest: a bridge to Toledo’s future.

“This great bridge belongs to all of northwest Ohio, and it will carry northwest Ohio into a future of new opportunity,” James Beasley, director of the Ohio Department of Transportation, said early during the 90-minute event that included remarks from more than a dozen speakers.

Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner yesterday noted the support of The Blade and John Robinson Block, co-publisher and editor-in-chief of the newspaper, and credited both The Blade and Mr. Mifsud with securing state-level commitments to the project, then forecast to cost $200 million. The Blade, Mr. Finkbeiner said, “was out front on this before practically anybody I know of” and pushed with characteristic vigor.

The bridge pylon’s internal lighting system is a towering example of “highly efficient LED technology,” Miss Kaptur said before calling on public leaders to make the system a further showcase of “green energy” by developing a solar-cell array nearby to power it.