Press Release: McNamara Proposes “Toledo Heritage Initiative”

Latest press release from the Joe McNamara for Toledo City Council campaign:

McNamara Proposes “Toledo Heritage Initiative” To Lure Back Native Toledoans
Central to marketing push would be annual “Toledo Heritage Festival”

Toledo, OH – Toledo has experienced detrimental population depletion.

According to a recent survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, the City of Toledo’s population has dropped below 300,000 for the first time in sixty years. City council candidate Joe McNamara thinks the city should reach out to former Toledoans and entice them to come home.

McNamara will hold a press conference on Thursday, August 24, at 10 AM on the steps of Sacred Heart to announce his Toledo Heritage Initiative. McNamara is proposing the establishment of an annual “Toledo Heritage Festival” and a marketing campaign urging Toledo “expatriates” to move back. Sacred Heart is McNamara’s grade school alma mater.

“Toledo is a great American city with big city amenities and a small town quality of life,” McNamara said, who attended school in Ann Arbor and New York City and also lived and worked in Chicago. “We have safe and friendly neighborhoods, a rich cultural life, very affordable housing, and short commutes.”

The Toledo Heritage Festival would feature a job and educational opportunities fair as well as downtown and neighborhood housing tours. Events like concerts, pub crawls, art gallery tours, a Zoo Day and Mud Hens Baseball and Storm Hockey Fantasy Camps would highlight the city’s first-rate cultural amenities. McNamara said he and other “repatriates” could act as volunteer ambassadors, talking up the city to natives and other visitors during festival week.

Additional marketing efforts could include direct mail, web site advertising and outreach through University of Toledo Alumni clubs in major cities.

Similar efforts are currently being pursued in cities around the country, including Buffalo, New York and Omaha, Nebraska.



Paid for by Friends of Joe McNamara
4619 Cranbrook Drive, Toledo,
OH 43615, Kevin Pirozek CPA, Treasurer


UPDATE Friday:

Toledo Blade has more as well as the response from the other City Council Candidates.