Toledo Mayor's State of City address set for today

1/5/2009

Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner will deliver his 2009 State of the City address at noon today to members of the Toledo Rotary Club and the Toledo business community in the ballroom of the Park Inn hotel downtown.

Mr. Finkbeiner will repeat the speech - entitled "Transforming Toledo Together!" - tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Blessed Sacrament Church, 4227 Bellevue Rd. The public is invited to attend the event.

In his address, the mayor plans to provide an early look at several multimillion dollar economic development projects expected to be launched this year that will create hundreds of new jobs, and he will talk of several former vacant downtown Toledo buildings that are currently undergoing extensive redevelopment with an investment of more than $60 million.

The key message of Mr. Finkbeiner's speech will be his belief that Toledo has become one of the nation's most progressive and innovative alternative energy centers. To bolster his claim, the mayor will cite excerpts of reports from a variety of media, including CNN and the Wall Street Journal, and will also share what President-elect Barack Obama, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, and other elected leaders have said about Toledo's leadership role in the alternative energy industry.

Mr. Finkbeiner will also talk of his plans this year to continue the city's transformation into a leader of the green revolution, saying workers at the local General Motors and Jeep plants will be the leaders in alternative energy-based manufacturing.