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Out with the old, in with the new. The old year is gone. Twenny twenny six is looming over yon horizon. And what a year it appears to be.
In preparation, it’s time to make some City Politics New Year’s resolutions. Buckle up, buttercups. There are rough roads ahead.
Your lying eyes
Resolution número uno.
We hear there’s an affordability crisis in the you ess of ay. But don’t believe your lying bank account. Not here in the froggy bottom.
Nope. We’ve been repeatedly named one of the most affordable places to live in the entire country.
But are we?
That leads us to our first resolution. We think we’ve been spending too much time focusing on ridiculing public figures and not enough opining about the issues that fill your lying eyes. Or your lying checkbook.
Like the affordability crisis. Maybe it can happen here. Or maybe it already has. Maybe the gaslight really is a different brightness night by night.
Hmmm. Lessee.
Utility costs? Electricity, up dramatically. Thanks, data centers. Natural gas prices, up, and a cold winter ahead.
Gasoline prices, stable, for now.
Housing costs? Rents up by a lot, house prices up, and property taxes have ballooned. Likewise house insurance costs.
Grocery prices, up. And don’t get us started about health care. Up, up, up. Health insurance costs astronomical, with rising premiums, copays, and deductibles.
Looks like the rise in the cost of swampy living is for real.
What else should we resolve to cover? What other issues are swept under the proverbial froggy rug?
How about education? It looks like Toledo Public Schools is in financial crisis. Stingy state and federal funding cuts coupled with lack of school board planning means an emergency for the schools.
Welp, emergency is an overstatement. Seems like this fiscal cliff has been predictably in sight for months.
Only to be publicly ignored by school leadership.
Now an extreme plan to right the fiscal ship has been passed by the school board. Without public input, and with little public fanfare.
Yeah we gotta cover this shite.
Same for the fiscal cliff facing the City of Toledo. Wade lived fat off the COVID money windfall, and the bill has come due.
Meanwhile neighborhoods around the city continue to deteriorate. Economic development stagnates. Gun violence remains a scourge. Wade fiddles while froggy bottom burns.
Wade and City Council can’t event tax our way out of this.
So we at City Politics resolve to keep speaking truth to power, with emphasis on the critical issues facing us all.
Wouldn’t it be nice
We have one more resolution for the coming year. Being nicer.
We’ll cut the snark, stop the needles and digs, and act with more humility. Then again, New Year’s resolutions are made to be broken. Ergo, don’t count on it.
Merry New Year.
Batten down the hatches, ye powerful women and men.
It’s gonna be a long year.
