The city has a lot challenges, as we all know, and it is important to recognize the good work the city is doing inspite of these many challenges:
http://blog.cleveland.com/lakewoodsunpost/2009/06/lakewood_receives_economic_dev.html
Hopefully, they can get this up and running before the end of the summer.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Welcome
I'm not sure where this blog will take us. As a Lakewood resident, I'm having a hard time "drinking the koolaid" lately. There are a lot of policy issues not being addressed. We are on the clock. Budget crisis or not, we are looking at our last best chance to make significant and drastic changes concerning the direction our city is headed.
This blog is not meant to be a platform for hate language and ignorance. There is already too much of that. We all know, or we may be, people that use the example of Section 8, increasing minority populations, increased crime, high taxes, etc. as a crutch to keep us from really looking at what needs to be done.
This blog is meant as a sort of therapy for myself. I walk or drive the streets and neighborhoods of Lakewood and a lot of thoughts run through my head. I wonder what happened to make some streets so appealling and well kept and others so barren and foreboding. I try to imagine a time when all of Lakewood's doubles and apartment buildings were well-kept, in-demand and respectable.
That time is well past, and...it is not coming back. Ever. Period.
Let's all count to 10, take a deep breath and get ready for what is next.
We have all seen what has happened to Cleveland by simply trying to hold on to what they once had. You end up holding your breath that the Ohio Supreme Court doesn't cut your last livable neighborhoods off at the knees.
If we are not moving forward, we are moving backward. The status quo of throwing some new paint on a crumbling double or rigging a bathroom in the basement so we can list our house as 1.5 bathrooms is over.
The bottomline is that there are large, fundamental problems with the housing infrastructure of this city. As it is currently comprised, Lakewood can't be a preferred city of residence. That is the conclusion I have come to over the last five plus years of living here and years of academic and professional work in the areas of ecnomic and community development.
All of the city's problems (crime, schools, lower tax revenue, relatively high tax rates, etc.) are a result of housing. If your housing isn't at a level to attract and retain middle and upper-middle income families, you will decline. I don't want Lakewood to go completely in the direction of gentrification, but the pendulum in the housing arena has swung for too much in the direction of lower and lower-middle income housing.
I don't have the easy answers, but I do know this is likely our last best chance. There are, and will continue to be, large amounts of resources available in the coming years for cities and counties to invest in themselves and plot a new course. (BTW, speaking of a new course can somebody tell me how Lorain County was able to get wind turbines up and running on the lake before a Lakewood or Cleveland. I mean, Lorain? Really?)
The question and discussion I've heard bantied about in the few years I've been has been "how do we fix Lakewood" or even "how do we save Lakewood from going downhill." Well, I've got news for you: it's time for a total paradigm shift. There is no fixing or saving Lakewood as we once knew it.
It is time to throw out everything we think we know and go big and bold. Small painting and home improvement programs work for post-WWII neighborhoods. They aren't gonig to do a thing for 100 plus year old neighborhoods with far too many doubles. Everything needs to be put on the table and a lot of uncomfortable conversations need to be had (sorry Birdtown, your Bohemian, historic, folksy, whatever you wanna call it charm aren't doing us any favors). That includes putting eminent domain back on the table.
Like I said, we'll see where this takes us. If you have comments or suggestions, please leave your thoughts. All the cards need to be on the table. It's time to go all in.
This blog is not meant to be a platform for hate language and ignorance. There is already too much of that. We all know, or we may be, people that use the example of Section 8, increasing minority populations, increased crime, high taxes, etc. as a crutch to keep us from really looking at what needs to be done.
This blog is meant as a sort of therapy for myself. I walk or drive the streets and neighborhoods of Lakewood and a lot of thoughts run through my head. I wonder what happened to make some streets so appealling and well kept and others so barren and foreboding. I try to imagine a time when all of Lakewood's doubles and apartment buildings were well-kept, in-demand and respectable.
That time is well past, and...it is not coming back. Ever. Period.
Let's all count to 10, take a deep breath and get ready for what is next.
We have all seen what has happened to Cleveland by simply trying to hold on to what they once had. You end up holding your breath that the Ohio Supreme Court doesn't cut your last livable neighborhoods off at the knees.
If we are not moving forward, we are moving backward. The status quo of throwing some new paint on a crumbling double or rigging a bathroom in the basement so we can list our house as 1.5 bathrooms is over.
The bottomline is that there are large, fundamental problems with the housing infrastructure of this city. As it is currently comprised, Lakewood can't be a preferred city of residence. That is the conclusion I have come to over the last five plus years of living here and years of academic and professional work in the areas of ecnomic and community development.
All of the city's problems (crime, schools, lower tax revenue, relatively high tax rates, etc.) are a result of housing. If your housing isn't at a level to attract and retain middle and upper-middle income families, you will decline. I don't want Lakewood to go completely in the direction of gentrification, but the pendulum in the housing arena has swung for too much in the direction of lower and lower-middle income housing.
I don't have the easy answers, but I do know this is likely our last best chance. There are, and will continue to be, large amounts of resources available in the coming years for cities and counties to invest in themselves and plot a new course. (BTW, speaking of a new course can somebody tell me how Lorain County was able to get wind turbines up and running on the lake before a Lakewood or Cleveland. I mean, Lorain? Really?)
The question and discussion I've heard bantied about in the few years I've been has been "how do we fix Lakewood" or even "how do we save Lakewood from going downhill." Well, I've got news for you: it's time for a total paradigm shift. There is no fixing or saving Lakewood as we once knew it.
It is time to throw out everything we think we know and go big and bold. Small painting and home improvement programs work for post-WWII neighborhoods. They aren't gonig to do a thing for 100 plus year old neighborhoods with far too many doubles. Everything needs to be put on the table and a lot of uncomfortable conversations need to be had (sorry Birdtown, your Bohemian, historic, folksy, whatever you wanna call it charm aren't doing us any favors). That includes putting eminent domain back on the table.
Like I said, we'll see where this takes us. If you have comments or suggestions, please leave your thoughts. All the cards need to be on the table. It's time to go all in.
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