Why go to China? Aid Toledo first

11/20/2012
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Once again, Toledo Mayor Mike Bell has headed to China in an ef­fort to at­tract jobs and in­ves­tors (“Bell, on 4th trip to China, vis­its trade area near Hong Kong,” Nov. 16). While his in­ten­tions are good, the eco­nomic im­pact of lo­cally owned small busi­nesses far ex­ceeds any pros­pect that may be at­tracted to our area from China.

Yet for all of the fan­fare sur­round­ing the mayor’s pe­ri­odic trips to China, the needs of small busi­ness in Toledo are largely ig­nored.

The mayor, City Coun­cil, eco­nomic de­vel­op­ment au­thor­i­ties, and the nu­mer­ous city de­part­ments that over­see zon­ing and con­struc­tion in the Toledo area are out of touch with the chal­lenges that face small busi­nesses.

There is no ad­vo­cate in city gov­ern­ment, no fo­rum for dis­cus­sion, no om­buds­man, and no clear chan­nel of com­mu­ni­ca­tion to as­sist with the needs of small busi­ness.

Mayor Bell should give con­sid­er­ation to the needs of lo­cal small busi­nesses. The glory of China is ap­peal­ing, but the guts of those al­ready here mat­ter most.

JOEL BEREN
Ot­tawa Hills
Edi­tor’s note: The writer is pres­i­dent of Cherry Picked Auto Parts in Toledo.

Late-night hoops not the solu­tion

I grew up in a neigh­bor­hood that pro­duced many fine ath­letes who sel­dom got into trou­ble with the law; the non-ath­lete got into trou­ble (“Pro­gram aims to keep youth from vi­o­lence; Late-night games to run nightly in city,” Nov. 1).

Late-night bas­ket­ball is wrong be­cause the non-ath­lete who is a po­ten­tial crim­i­nal will not be in­ter­ested in play­ing. There must be an­other way to at­tract the non-ath­lete.

LOUIS AGOSTON
Dover Place

‘Thank you’ must turn into help

I am a mil­i­tary vet­eran who did not cel­e­brate Veter­ans Day. A few years ago, like many other Amer­i­cans, I lost my job. I have been un­able to find em­ploy­ment.

Vi­et­nam vet­er­ans know that China helped the en­emy, and now we have sent China our jobs and bor­row their money.

I wish that a small amount of the “thanks for your ser­vice” ges­tures would de­velop into as­sis­tance for those vet­er­ans who are in need, be­fore they are broke and home­less.

JOHN WALLACE
Spring­field Town­ship

Other Vi­et­namfig­ure too busy?

Pres­i­dent Obama is con­sid­er­ing U.S. Sen. John Kerry as his new De­fense sec­re­tary (“Kerry eyed as next de­fense chief,” Nov. 13). Is Jane Fonda too busy?

DEBRA BOWSER
Swan­ton