What keeps you up at night?
Is it anxiety over something personal, like marital problems or financial woes? Costs up, wages stagnant, one paycheck ahead of bankruptcy? Medical bills, rent due, and baby needs some brand new shoes?
Or perhaps you worry about the state of world affairs. Endless war in the Middle East, the suffering in Ukraine, saber rattling in Southeast Asia. Or maybe national crises, like abortion access and a Supreme Court straight out of the eighteen hundreds, have you uptight.
Admittedly there are plenty of worries to cause insomnia.
What if you were President of Toledo City Council? While you may face personal issues, and world affairs may give you pause, you are paid to protect the health and wellbeing of denizens of ol’ Froggy Bottom. What then might interrupt your slumber?
It takes a village
For current President Carrie Hartman, you might think nagging self-doubt would gnaw into your sleepy time. The least experienced member of the twelve on council, Hartman was inexplicably tapped to lead that once noble body. Then she also accepted the position of Executive Director of the local Democratic Party, responsible for daily operations.Â
Let us say, we continue to be unimpressed by her efforts. She has proven that experience in elected office does, in fact, matter. And humility in public officials is a very good thing.
Hartman appears to have neither, so of course self-doubt is off the table.
So what keeps her up at night? To cut to the chase, it’s a homeless man who died of hypothermia in March of this year that haunts Hartman’s dreams. Or so she said recently, at last finding her political cause célebre.
See, every newby pol needs their pet cause. Something to really get behind, to put their personal imprimatur on. For Hartman, it’s housing for the unhoused.
Maybe she needs guidance for the misguided.
Don’t get us wrong. Homelessness is a major issue, and one that must be addressed in a strategic, coordinated manner. It is often related to mental health or substance abuse problems, often both.Â
There are multiple local social service agencies that work on serving the unhoused on a daily basis. From the Cherry Street Mission to smaller shelters like St. Paul’s, from food kitchens to Tent City, from the Homelessness Board to Toledo Streets newspaper to crisis mental health services, T-Town is blessed with those prioritizing the problem.
Enter Hartman’s Big Idea. In response to the revelation that there are still folks sleeping in tents or bus stop shelters, Hartman proposes the City establish official encampments for the unhoused. That’s right, she believes it’s city government’s role to run a village of mini houses as a permanent encampment for the homeless.
No clue
Questions arise. Where would such a village be located? Who pays the construction cost? Who administers the village and how do folks get placed there, and for how long? Who pays for policing and ongoing maintenance as the joint turns into a gigantic garbage heap?     Â
And why the heck would the City get into this business in the first place?
It’s pretty clear Hartman has done exactly zero homework on this issue. She provides no evidence that her proposed solution would solve anything at all. She can’t even properly identify what the underlying problem is While meanwhile proposing a boondoggle that would necessitate a massive and cash-sucking new city bureaucracy that duplicates assistance provided by existing organizations to the detriment of basic city services.
Hey we get it, Carrie. You’re looking for your One Big Thing.Â
Keep looking. Do some research before you announce your next one. And please stop embarrassing yourself.
