Seven molasses-coated Lemmon Drops to get you through the Star Wars hype:
Should the new arena be built in East Toledo or near Fifth Third Field?
Until that question is answered, definitively, one of the most important projects in Toledo's short-term future will remain rudderless.
If the project is privately financed, then the location should be left up to the developer. A more likely scenario, I contend, would have Lucas County trying to duplicate the success of financing Fifth Third Field, which, in retrospect, was a $39.2 million no-brainer.
Yes, Toledoans voted overwhelmingly in 2001 to give the green light to an arena on the East Side. But, a developer pushed for the measure. That developer, Frank Kass, bowed out long ago. Had Mr. Kass' project been on the west side of the Maumee River, near the baseball stadium, it's not a stretch to assume voters would have overwhelmingly approved that measure too.
There has got to be a way for this paralysis-inducing issue -- East Toledo or near Fifth Third Field? -- to make the ballot.
And keep putting it on the ballot until one side receives 60 percent of the vote. Or, better yet, make it a best-of-3 series of elections.
Only after reaching a community consensus regarding the arena's location will we be able to focus on actually getting the job done.
Loyal reader Bob, who lives in Sylvania, says suburban communities are parasitic toward Toledo.
"This is the Toledo area," he said, "not the Maumee area, Perrysburg area, or even the Ottawa Hills area. As goes Toledo, so go we all."
Mr. Odesky said that before he retires, he would like to do a follow-up to the questions he asked 45 years ago.