Toledo Talk "Jack-ass Ford's racial addiction" id 1988

The former clown mayor of Toledo writes a column for The Sojourner's Truth. In his May 24, 2007 column, Ford continues to show his inability to look past skin color. Why some people are so stuck on skin color is truly amazing in an ignorant way.

No-talent comedic

There is so much going on with the Toledo Public Schools that I feel like the mosquito at the nudist convention – I don’t know where to start.

Okay, that opening sentence should tell you that his column is going to be senseless. It's not an original piece of humor. Who hasn't heard of the mosquito at the nudist colony joke?

Rainbow coalition

Can Toledo elect two Hispanics to the school board? I can see Vasquez slide by Richard Brown and Toledo Police Department Detective Harold Mosley, who may declare this week, if they split the black vote. Point Place activist Lisa Sobecki is in a great position. She is a smart, Democratic white female with the Party’s endorsement.

Disturbing. What do race and gender have to do with the qualifications of being on the public school board? And what do political party affiliations have to do with being on a public school board? I don't understand political party endorsements for school board candidates. It should not be political.

Vote by moving

It's this kind of whacked mentality that makes it so I can't wait until we have moved out of Toledo and Lucas County, so our tax dollars don't support TPS and other failed entities like Toledo and Lucas County government, which are ruled by the likes of Ford.

Problem is, it's not a seller's market in Toledo. We live three blocks off Douglas. In those three blocks, 10 houses are currently for sale. Some have been for sale for well over a year. It had been eight houses, but two more went up for sale this week. I've never seen so many houses for sale on our street in the five-and-a-half years that I've lived here.

For kicks, we drove around downtown Perrysburg a few weeks ago. Within a several block radius of downtown P-burg, it was hard to find a total of 10 houses for sale. Yet 10 houses are for sale on a two hundred yard stretch of one street in West Toledo. Buyer's market in Toledo, a seller's market in P-burg.

Burbs are whiter

When we do move out of Lucas County, probably next year, Ford would say it's because our new community is white. In the summer of 2006 in one of his columns, Ford gave reasons why Toledoans flee for the burbs:

It's greener, it appears newer and we think it is safer. And, for those of us who really are honest, it's whiter!

I'd say escaping the homeland of small-minded public leaders like Ford is one big reason for leaving Toledo. City and county government are infested with similar lame-brained pests. Their actions are proof. Just follow what Toledo and Lucas County public officials say and do. It's a comedy of errors, along with being a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Bow down to Malcolm

Mayor Jack Ford said black businessmen should remember that smiling faces sometimes pretend to be their friends. Mayor Ford, addressing about 35 members of the Minority Contractors Group on Saturday morning, March 19, pledged that he will continue to insist on diversity in the awarding of government contracts if he is re-elected this November.

He said some white business people smile and say they also embrace diversity, but really are upset that they’re not raking in as much government money as they used to.

[Ford] said that no matter which part of town he’s in, he always reminds groups that minorities strongly support public works and other levies, and that they should have a fair chance to compete for contracts.

[Ford said,] "Some of the school levies would never pass if it wasn’t for the black and Latino vote. I point that out all over town. Folks nod their heads in the majority community but I have the sense sometimes when I walk out the door that they say ‘Yeah, that’s true, but we want it all.’ Affirmative action really has no teeth to it anymore. So the only teeth you can put into it is what the mayor and the council say that they want to see happen."

The mayor also got laughs when he talked about some white businessmen’s reactions to artwork in his office on the 22nd floor of Government Center. One is a picture of Muhammad Ali. The other is of Malcolm X, the more militant Civil Rights Movement peer of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "That’s so when folks come in there, I want them to see instantly what time of day it is. Literally, business guys have come in there and their legs buckle. They come in and say ‘Oh my gosh, the mayor’s got Malcolm X on his wall.’ That means we’re going to do the right thing; that’s why that picture’s up there," Mayor Ford said.

Candidate for school board

Jul 10, 2007 Toledo Journal story (that will disappear from its site in a week or two for some idiotic technical reasons associated with the Journal's lame content management system. Irresponsible journalism, so get the story while it's alive.)

Don’t be surprised to hear a “Jack Ford for School Board” announcement in the near future.
Mr. Ford, reacting to an off-the-cuff comment from Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, said Monday, July 9, said he is seriously considering running for the school board seat he was apppointed to June 5.

Also of concern, [Ford] said, is a very real prospect that the TPS board might not have an African American member after the November election in a school district that is composed mostly of black students and other minorities.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ford said he has not been impressed with the campaigns of two declared African American candidates, Richard Brown and Harold Mosley. Both should be making policy announcements, taking their campaigns into the white community and generally trying to create interest in their campaigns, he said. “If I have a sense that I would have the best chance of winning and they don’t have a chance, that might be a positive for me to run,” Mr. Ford said.

Toledo needs more white folk

Last Saturday night, while eating at Ruby’s on Dorr Street, another patron, an African-American man whom I did not know, said he liked my column because I said exactly what he would say if he had the chance. That was a real compliment.

We have seen several stories on population decline. Again our die was cast in the 1960’s when we sold Toledo water too cheaply to points north, west and south of Toledo. Nor did we engage in a program of aggressive annexation. And, why are there two separate public school systems in Toledo?

The report cards for the school districts are released in August. Here's the report card for the 2005-2006 school year:

From an irrelevant curiosity standpoint, I'd like to know why two school districts exist in Toledo. But a more intelligent question to ask, assuming the issue is education, is why does Washington Local consistently do so much better than TPS on these tests? Has anyone in TPS, including new board member Ford, looked into why Washington Local does pretty good and TPS fails?

Toledo has two public schools systems -- Toledo and Washington Local. The Washington Local School District offers a startling contrast when compared to Toledo Public Schools. In state proficiency ratings, Washington Local meets 13 out of 23 state indicators while TPS meets only 4. In addition, Washington Local's Performance Index ranks 92 out of 120 while TPS lags behind at 76. We need to indentify the factors behind Washington Local's successes and replicate them throughout the Toledo Public School System.

Maybe Carty can counsel Ford on the issue of two school systems in Toledo. Carty asked the proper questions almost two years ago, but Ford has not done that yet. Would be a good question for Ford now that he plans to run for school board seat.

Neither Mayor Carty Finkbeiner nor Lucas County Commissioner are coming up with fix-its for “brain drain.” We might look to Boston where the city fathers have increased part of their population by catering to immigrants from South America. Columbus is growing because of its aggressive annexation policy – and it caters to Somalians.

Years ago, my Toledo area friends moved to Columbus not because my friends were Somalians but because Columbus offered a lot more jobs in the computer field. Population-wise, Columbus is more than twice the size of Toledo. But the number of IT jobs is not twice as many in Columbus compared to Toledo. Columbus has several times the number of IT opportunities compared to Toledo.

Recently a report made it appear as if housing in Toledo is on the increase. No, no, no. Figures lie and liars can figure. The increase in housing inside of Toledo is almost totally in black and low-income neighborhoods. We need more white folks with middle-class paychecks. Maybe it’s time to stop finding only in the inner city and start building upscale housing on the west side of the Maumee by Riverside Park and east of Detwiler Park and north of Alexis. Maybe we should take part of the parks north of Alexis and turn it into middle class housing for both whites and blacks.