"...That Tuesday’s training sessions will occur just a day before the 50th anniversary of Reverend King’s assassination is not lost on local coordinators, said Sam Melden, who ran for Toledo City Council in 2017.
'We believe that people should not live in or die from poverty in the richest nation ever to exist,' reads one of the national campaign’s principles. 'Blaming the poor and claiming that the United States does not have an abundance of resources to overcome poverty are false narratives used to perpetuate economic exploitation, exclusion, and deep inequality.'
“...so would Sam Melden, also 33, who has been the most visible, imaginative, and articulate rising star in civic leadership for some years now.
Mr. Melden is a font of ideas. He also has the capacity to bring together people who don’t talk to each other much or don’t even know each other — from old labor leaders to CEOs.”
"Sam Melden. Another millennial who, since the beginning of his candidacy, has maintained that Toledo needs fresh energy and leaders who are more focused on looking forward rather than backward. Melden’s message of clean, safe and affordable drinking water should resonate with all of us."
"As city council hopeful Sam Melden recently pointed out, there is an uncomfortable distance between downtown dreams and neighborhood realities.
Mr. Melden has called for the city to develop a 20-year plan for neighborhoods, which is a solid idea: Copy the successful planning model that has helped revive Toledo’s business and entertainment districts to boost the parts of the city where most people actually live."
"...We saw a showcase of “talent,” including Jim Anderson singing about his prior career as a refuse and construction debris hauler and a tribute to Tom Petty, Sam Melden singing lullabies, and Gary Johnson’s complete assault of the mic. Man, that guy can rap."
"Sam Melden, an endorsed Democrat, called for a more uniform way of organizing neighborhoods to promote neighborliness, possibly through something he called a 'neighbor institute.'
'How do we begin to collaborate with all the neighbors to build up what I call the art of neighboring, get people on out their front porch and meeting their neighbors,' he said, adding that the revitalization of downtown is not being felt in the neighborhoods."
"'We have to do better for our young families in the city of Toledo. If we want to keep young families here in the city, we have to give them a reason to stay,' he said. 'Our city parks should be a safe place where kids can play and parents can know that they aren’t going to learn how to spell words they shouldn’t be spelling.'
Mr. Melden said city officials need to pay more attention to details and respond to community needs, something he said hasn’t happened when citizens called to complain about the profanity. He pledged to do better if elected."
"Sam Melden has set an aggressive agenda for himself if he's elected to Toledo City Council — including an initiative to train hundreds of Toledo residents to administer an overdose-reversal drug, moving the municipal salt piles, making the city more bike-friendly, and engaging young people more in decision-making – but he put drinking water safety at the top of his priority list.
'Water has been, and continues to be, the number one issue for our city and the region as a whole,' Mr. Melden, 33, said."
"'A clean Lake Erie is the foundation of our community,' Melden said. 'Toledo is a water community. It's not just Point Place, it's not just Oregon and East Toledo, it's not just people along the river, it's everyone in the city of Toledo.'"
"'We have families living near the water where the parents grew up playing in the water, enjoying the water all summer long, who now as parents won’t let their kids play in the water past July 4th,' Mr. Melden said.
He alluded to a report in The Blade Thursday in which local business leaders didn’t expect a big economic impact from the green slime that cover the water during the heat wave that ended this week.
'There is something else at risk, and that is our children’s childhood experience,' said Melden, who is the father of three small children."
"Endorsed Democrat Sam Melden, a challenger, warned of the loss of creative young business entrepreneurs if Toledo fails to adopt best practices.
'If we are afraid of taking best practices from other cities, other cities are going to take the best people from Toledo,' Mr. Melden said. 'If we don't give them a voice, what incentive do they have to stay here?'”
“'The next move for the development of our waterfront needs to be to move the city’s storage of road salt and find another place to store and distribute. I would want to suggest a more strategic approach to salt distribution that is based on data and use rather than ease and access,' Mr. Melden said."
"Toledo needs political leadership with imagination and commitment to public health and the cool factor. Bikes have to be a part of our future, and Mr. Melden has given us a good place to start."
"...After the speeches, Sam Melden, a Democrat seeking an at-large seat on Toledo City Council, said the local connection to the attack left him deeply saddened.
'This is the antidote,' Mr. Melden said, gesturing to the crowd still gathered behind him. 'This is who we are.'"
"Sam Melden, an endorsed Democrat who is running for one of six at-large council seats, wants to encourage biking on residential streets with low volumes of automobile traffic, and low speeds where bicycles and pedestrians 'are given priority.'"
"Two youthful candidates for at-large Toledo City Council seats want to engage 20 and 30-year-olds in the development of a long-range plan for Toledo.
Involving those who will be most affected by the city’s future will make them 'feel more involved, and have ownership in the plan,' Sam Melden, 34, said Tuesday after a brief news conference in the Brim House lobby at the Renaissance Hotel downtown."
"It seems like it's an older generation that's in charge of us right now," said Jim Schulty, a Toledo-native and student at UT. "Getting some fresh ideas in there would never hurt."
Melden says he knows one of those issues is a lack of young people in influential city government positions.
"Youth is missing from the 22nd floor, so we need more young people engaged in city hall," Melden said. "But we need more young people engaged all throughout the city."
"Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie (ACLE) announced its "Clean Slate for Clean Water" movement in support of local political candidates concerned about Lake Erie.
...'These are candidates who know what the issue is and they are not afraid to speak their mind," said ACLE Coordinator Mike Ferner. "We think that with them in office we'll be able to get Lake Erie cleaned up a lot faster than at the current rate.'"
Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie have endorsed Sam Melden.
"Toledo Council candidate Sam Melden called on city and school leaders Thursday to find solutions to the problem of homeless children.
Mr. Melden made the announcement in Historic Woodlawn Cemetery near the grave of Samuel 'Golden Rule' Jones, the mayor of Toledo from 1897 until his death in 1904.
Thursday was the 171st anniversary of Mayor Jones' birthday.
'Jones was known as Golden Rule because of his deeply held belief that leaders could lead effectively by adhering to the timeless principle by treating others as you want to be treated,' Mr. Melden said."