Mayor Kicks Marines Out of Toledo

[unhappycamper]

Mayor Kicks Marines Out of Toledo
Associated Press | February 11, 2008

They were gone but not forgotten.

A day after Mayor Carty Finkbeiner ordered 200 Marine Corps Reservists out of downtown Toledo, residents here and elsewhere expressed disappointment, disbelief, and even outrage.

His last-minute call Friday resulted in the unit canceling its planned training exercises and returning to Grand Rapids, Mich.

And by yesterday afternoon, the mayor's reaction had become a national news story picked up by Internet blogs along with the popular Web site, The Drudge Report. Media phone lines and e-mail boxes kept busy as keyboard-tapping critics sounded their opinions on what some have billed the "Carty vs. Marines" controversy.

Some compared the flap to the one Mr. Finkbeiner set off during his first term in 1994, with his proposal that the city move its deaf population to land near Toledo Express Airport.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,161799,00.html?wh=wh

[LiberalFighter]

1. The mayor was right about this. More of the story...

On Friday, a five-bus convoy carrying about 200 members of Company A, 1st Battalion, 24th Marines of Grand Rapids, was just minutes from Toledo. A city employee informed a unit leader that the mayor opposed their plans for another three-day urban patrol exercise on downtown streets, working from the Madison Building, a mostly vacant structure that is city-owned.

/snip/

"I saw the military with guns drawn emulating warfare, and I observed the expressions of citizens who happened to just be coming down the sidewalk that particular Saturday noon in wonderment, asking, 'What have I found myself in the middle of?'--" the mayor said. "There was a look of wonderment on some people's faces, and there was a look of fear on other people's faces."

* * * * * *

Key points

* It is city owned

* Apparently there was no request, discussion of using the property

* Why the hell didn't the mayor know about it?

* The mayor was willing to open two other vacant spots for their operation if he had known about it.

* Why couldn't those Marines from Grand Rapids, MICHIGAN perform their operation in MICHIGAN?