Still Building for Toledo: Carty Finkbeiner on Preservation, Connection, and the City’s Next Chapter

For Carty Finkbeiner, stepping away from the mayor’s office did not mean stepping away from Toledo.

The former three term Toledo mayor has spent decades involved in local government, civic organizations, neighborhood efforts, and public service. His connection to the city remains visible today through projects focused on historic preservation, regional collaboration, local journalism, transportation, and economic growth.

In this episode of Taylor Community Connection, Community Ambassador Tom Cole sits down with Finkbeiner for a wide ranging conversation about where his commitment to Toledo began and why, even now, he continues looking for ways to move the community forward.

The discussion moves from a historic South Toledo school building to the future of local news and an effort to create stronger connections between Toledo, Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Windsor.

Different projects, but one common idea ties them together.

Toledo’s next chapter will depend on people willing to see possibilities and do the work necessary to pursue them.

A Drive to Serve That Started Early

When Tom asks where his passion for the city came from, Carty points first to his parents and the values he learned growing up in Toledo.

He describes them as caring people who taught him that if he was going to become involved in something, he should give it everything he had.

Even as a child, Carty remembers organizing neighborhood football games.

That instinct to organize, lead, and bring people together continued through athletics, education, community work, and eventually politics.

His path ultimately included three terms as mayor of Toledo, with his first two terms beginning in the 1990s before he returned for another term beginning in 2006.

Today, at a point in life when many people might be content to slow down, Carty is still organizing.

One of the projects occupying his attention is an effort to find a new purpose for a building that has served generations of Toledo families.

Imagining a New Future for Harvard Elementary

Harvard Elementary School is more than a school building to the surrounding South Toledo neighborhood.

Its architecture, location, and history make it part of the identity of the area.

As Toledo Public Schools has considered the future of several buildings, district officials have publicly discussed repurposing Harvard rather than demolition, including possibilities connected to housing and other community uses.

Carty sees even broader potential.

During the conversation, he describes a vision that could include residential space, restaurants, recreation, and other uses inside the historic structure.

He points to the building’s gym as one possible future workout facility and imagines a development that functions almost like a community within the community.

A similar adaptive reuse project Carty learned about in Seattle helped reinforce what might be possible.

Instead of viewing an aging school as something that has outlived its usefulness, he sees it as an opportunity to create housing, amenities, and activity while preserving a piece of Toledo history.

The location adds to that potential.

Carty talks about views from the upper floors stretching toward the Maumee River and surrounding communities, along with the neighborhood businesses already nearby.

The larger idea is not simply to save an old building.

It is to make the building useful again.

Historic redevelopment can require multiple layers of ownership, financing, approvals, and preservation review. Toledo already uses historic review processes for qualifying redevelopment projects involving federal support, illustrating the kind of coordination that adaptive reuse can require.

For Carty, Harvard could become an anchor that helps generate new activity in South Toledo while keeping an important piece of the neighborhood standing.

Why Local News Still Matters

The conversation then turns to another longtime Toledo institution: The Blade.

Carty expresses concern about the pressures facing newspapers and what Toledo could lose if local journalism becomes weaker.

The newspaper industry has undergone major changes as audiences increasingly consume news digitally, and those pressures have affected publications across the country.

The Blade itself remains actively published online and continues operating in Toledo. Earlier in 2026, after its sister publication the Pittsburgh Post Gazette announced plans to cease operations, Blade management publicly stated that the company remained committed to publishing The Blade.

Carty’s comments focus less on predicting what will happen and more on what he believes a strong local newspaper provides.

A local newsroom documents city government, schools, neighborhoods, sports, businesses, community events, and the people whose stories might receive little attention elsewhere.

He also talks about the relationship between management and the newspaper’s guild and expresses hope that the different sides can find common ground.

For Carty, the issue goes beyond nostalgia for a printed newspaper.

It is about whether Northwest Ohio continues to have a strong institution dedicated specifically to covering Northwest Ohio.

Looking North for Regional Opportunity

Perhaps the most ambitious idea Carty discusses is an effort to strengthen economic connections between Toledo and communities to the north.

Instead of viewing Toledo only through its relationship with the rest of Ohio, the group is exploring stronger collaboration with Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Windsor.

The geography already creates opportunities.

Toledo sits near major interstate routes, rail lines, the Great Lakes, universities, manufacturing centers, and an international border.

Carty believes those assets become even more valuable when communities think regionally instead of individually.

The concept also fits with existing regional economic thinking. The Ann Arbor and Detroit Innovation Corridor, for example, is already organized around combining research, technology, manufacturing, talent, and other shared assets to improve regional competitiveness.

Carty describes bringing together people with backgrounds in transportation, business, education, government, and economic development to consider what a broader Toledo, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Windsor relationship could become.

Transportation is one major piece of the conversation.

He points to Toledo’s rail network, highway access, airports, shipping, and proximity to Detroit and Canada as assets that could help support additional investment and movement of people and goods.

But infrastructure is only part of the vision.

Universities as Part of the Regional Connection

Carty also sees higher education playing an important role.

In the interview, he identifies institutions including the University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University, University of Michigan, and Wayne State University as potential contributors to the research and planning necessary to support regional growth.

Universities bring expertise, research capacity, students, faculty, innovation, and workforce development.

Connecting those resources across state and national borders could help communities tackle challenges that are difficult for any one city to address alone.

That type of collaboration is already becoming more common in economic development.

Regional organizations around Detroit and Ann Arbor continue to emphasize the importance of innovation, transportation, manufacturing, infrastructure, education, and talent as interconnected parts of economic competitiveness.

Carty compares the idea to regions that have spent decades intentionally building connections among universities, businesses, and communities.

His point is not that such a transformation happens quickly.

In fact, he repeatedly acknowledges that it will take time.

The important part is beginning the conversation.

A City That Can Keep Reinventing Itself

From Harvard Elementary to local journalism to an international economic corridor, the topics in this conversation may seem very different.

But Carty approaches each one in much the same way.

Start by recognizing what already exists.

Then ask what else it could become.

An old school can become a new neighborhood asset.

A local newspaper can continue finding ways to serve a changing audience.

Neighboring cities, universities, businesses, and transportation systems can become partners rather than disconnected pieces on a map.

That outlook helps explain why Carty Finkbeiner remains engaged with Toledo decades after first entering public life.

Near the end of the conversation, he tells Tom that Toledo can become whatever it chooses to become, provided there is vision and a willingness to work.

That may be the clearest summary of the discussion.

Cities do not move forward simply because opportunities exist.

They move forward when people decide those opportunities are worth pursuing.

👉 Watch now to hear Carty Finkbeiner discuss the future of Harvard Elementary, the importance of local journalism, and why stronger connections with Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Windsor could help shape Toledo’s next chapter.