Coalition for Peaceful Toledo Neighborhoods releases proposal to reduce violence
Coalition members have turned their frustration into action.
TOLEDO, Ohio — Their message was the need for collaboration between the current administration and the past administrations. And today, the Coalition for Peaceful Toledo Neighborhoods released their proposal to address violence.
“These were the 12 most important points that Toledoans felt needed to be addressed,” explained former mayor Carty Finkbeiner.
The proposal was developed following weeks of meetings in various parts of the community, which helped the former mayors leading the initiative, Carty Finkbeiner, Mike Bell, and Donna Ownes, come up with a plan to submit to members of Toledo City Council.
The 12 points addressed in the plan include youth programming, neighborhood support and community building resources, increased police presence; a more accountable judicial, probation and parole system; support for parents and parenting classes, revitalization and cleanup of neighborhoods, mental health resources, renewal and strengthening of community block watch programs, strengthening of gun laws, safe methods of reporting crime, cameras in neighborhoods, and the enforcement of curfews.
Some of these things, however, the current administration has already taken action on — youth programming, especially. In 2021, the city spent over $1 million on youth programming, and is slated to spend $2 million this year. But former mayor and current State Senator Paula Hicks-Hudson says her concern is that youth that should have been involved in these programs didn’t have the adequate support to make it to them.
“I prefer seeing a better connection between those programs to the youth in the communities because there were a lot of programs that were out there, but I’m not sure how many actually got connected to the kids that live wherever they live,” said the Toledo Democrat.
Maumee Mayor Rich Carr was among those in attendance of today’s announcement, standing in solidarity with the group of passionate Toledoans.
“Toledo’s issue is not limited by their border. The citizens of Maumee support what is being done by the city of Toledo and their residents to address violence, and we believe the entire region should come together to address this and not make it just a city of Toledo issue,” said Carr.
The passion on display during today’s meeting did at one point boil over, when Shawn Mahone Sr., the executive director of Young Men and Women For Change, criticized the former mayors for what he says was their lack of follow-up in bringing his program to the youth who needed it most. Here’s what he said during part of his minutes-long exchange with former mayor Donna Owens, who said she appreciates his passion, but wished he’d “tone it down.”
“May 15th, 2017, my son turned 23-years-old. May 24, 2017, I got that call that he was shot and killed in Louisville, Kentucky, so don’t ever tell me to ‘tone it down.’ With all due respect, I’m good at what I do, I’m passionate about what I do, and that’s the problem: people are telling me ‘tone it down’- Why should I ‘tone it down’ when we are losing our babies?” Mahone said.
“I understand,” responded Owens.
Bell tells me the coalition is still working to figure out which medium works best to get the proposal to council, whether that be during a council meeting or written proposal.
