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Column
The Blade (Toledo, OH)
5-18-00
My mother-in-law, exceedingly wise in the ways of small children, looked on placidly as my then-toddler daughter threw an unholy temper tantrum.
"Well," this wise woman said, "looks like someone didn't get her nap."
Carty's Fallen Timbers stunt makes vivid for me all over again the memory of a cranky child in acute need of a nap.
The mayor - unhappy to be offered $700,000 less than the $6 million he demands for the battlefield site - is holding his breath till he turns blue.
Oh, and he's threatening city infrastructure improvements for the county's downtown Mud Hens stadium.
From Carty's perspective (and don't you wonder just what the view must be like from there?), the county's offer isn't enough. Hizzoner sent a prickly letter to that effect to County Commission President Sandy Isenberg .
"If the county is not willing to step up . . . ,'' snorted Hizzoner all over city stationery, "then not one penny of Toledo's taxpayer money will be spent for infrastructure improvements around the new Mud Hens stadium."
Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah.
If you don't play by my rules, then I'm gonna take my ball back and go home!
Sigh. Know what?
This city doesn't need a strong mayor.
It needs a preschool teacher.
Someone to make sure we keep our hands to ourselves and play nice with the other children.
Someone to put us in the time-out chair when we lose self-control. Someone to lovingly but firmly help us realize that, no, it isn't just all about us.
Poor Peter Ujvagi.
When I called the president of city council, the first thing out of his mouth was reluctance to fan the flames.
"I shouldn't even be talking to you. I made a commitment on this thing that I'm not getting into tit-for-tat with the mayor."
Having said that, he continued.
The mayor, Mr. Ujvagi said, "digs in like this any time he thinks he's being personally challenged.
And there are legions of - I could go through lists of projects where we bit our tongues and almost maneuvered the mayor to make him think it was his idea. "
Mr. Ujvagi has toyed with the idea of making lapel pins for his fellow councilmen: "A broom crossed with a shovel, because we've spent years cleaning up after this guy."
Besides, the business of government shouldn't be quite so entertaining.
"It's like a sport in Toledo," says Mr. Ujvagi. "Whenever one of these controversies happens, it's, 'Why is Carty doing this?' He's a favorite conversation of this city."
Such a waste.
"If nothing else," says the frustrated council prez, "just think of the amount of time everyone could have saved if we didn't have to talk about Carty's latest antics."
Ms. Isenberg had a similar take.
"I would hope council accepts the offer, and we move on to equally interesting and important issues, and those that are even more important. I was very taken aback [by Carty's threat], but after a while you get tired of these kinds of things going on on a day-to-day basis. . . . I can't judge
Carty's reasoning or rationale on this."
Teacher? Oh, teacher!
Is it naptime yet?
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