Visionary Alingment: Question 1

[ryan costa]

Let us not forget school attendance is compulsary. The instruction is predetermined.

People with Initiative go to the libraries. The sky is the limit there.

[dl meckes]

Charyn-

Nice to see you back and nice to see your heartfelt reply. While it's lovely, not everyone has had children.

In my Lakewood, the schools are largely irrelevant although I understand their importance.

I don't go to the library often enough, either.

For me, the heart of Lakewood is its people and its vibe at any given time. It has never been like any other place.

Spending time looking at that big wet thing to our north is big for me, as is driving through the Emerald Canyon. All the shops on Detroit & Madison, as well as all the opportunities to visit bars and restaurants are far more the heart of Lakewood for me. Being part of a small city/suburb that is neither too city or too suburb is wonderful.

And I'm one of those people who doesn't care if I never visit iHop or Applebee's (not that there's anything wrong with those places) when I can go to the Shore or the Rush Inn.

I really like the fact that Lakewood can accomodate so many people and so many diverse interests. Maybe that's what I consider the best part of Lakewood.

[Dan Slife]

I also see the library as the heart and soul of Lakewood.

Which is intriquing, and laced with possibility, if true.

A wise man once told me

"During the industrial revolution, the people came together in America's public libraries to organize and resist exploitation by the industrial elites. It's happening again with globalization."

Of course, I'm biased; Lakewood-Centric and hyper-critical of unconscious capitulation to the mandates of global capital.

[ryan costa]

"During the industrial revolution, the people came together in America's public libraries to organize and resist exploitation by the industrial elites. It's happening again with globalization."

Of course, I'm biased; Lakewood-Centric and hyper-critical of unconscious capitulation to the mandates of global capital.

it is interesting you mention this: In Britain there seems to be bi-lateral movements amongst the myriad component sub-ethnicities of Britain to reject Globalism and the European Union(at least in some contexts). at least, some of the Cornish and the Scots are.

[Stan Austin]

Uh oh---- Charyn's back

[Charyn Compeau]

..

[Ivor Karabatkovic]

The heart of the city is the people.


I'm changing my first answer from park and library to people.

People in general, whether its the bumper to bumper driving on detroit or the joggers on lake to the shoppers at marc's and teens across from the office. The kids in schools and people using the library. The city workers, firemen, policemen and businesses. This is a laid back city with many hearts.. not just one.

[Phil Florian]

I like that people think the heart and soul of a city can be its children but it doesn't really reflect how the city is built, runs or looks. Children are told "two at a time!" in many smaller retail shops for fear that...I don't know, they will riot or something (just kidding; I know kids are horrible crooks; just kidding, seriously). Kids are told to "get off my lawn" and "you can't play there!" by as many folks as are kind or interested in what they do be it street corners, stair rails for their skateboards, etc.

The city doesn't act like children in their planning. Kids can be quick to think up ideas, wild in their proposals and passionate about their beliefs (even if they are daffy...I need not go back to my old high school journals to remember what I thought was "Important" and "Meaningful" to me then) The city as a whole is none of these things, neither quick, wild nor passionate about anything. Our city is more like an insecure middle-aged father like myself, unsure of how to spend what little money he has and too afraid to take the big risks for fear of how it will impact his family.

So while in form we put a lot of emphasis on children in the city when it comes to the Library and Schools, the reality outside their doors isn't always as universally accomodating. Sure, there are plenty of inviting folks who love the sounds of children at play but we also have that mother who posted on here a week ago that has had the police called on her children multiple times because they were "playing too loud" on a beautiful day.

So what does that make our heart and soul? If heart is the driving force and the soul is the motivation, the poetry, then the library still fits. While not everyone uses it, it still captures a larger swath of people that many institutions do not. It gets young and old, crosses cultural barriers and can host as silly a discussion of Harry Potter plot points or as serious as a discussion as mandatory school testing (or vice versa, depending on your obessions). It can entertain babies with their bedtime reading/motion classes (this was the first class we got involved with when we moved to the city nearly 7 years ago) or be a place for seniors to catch up on the newspaper or book and every age in between.

I could also argue in favor of the schools. While some without kids might think them irrelevant, Jim already pointed out the economic impact a school has on its homes (and vice versa) but it also is host to a TON of adult activities in the form of classes for all sorts of things such as arts, practical stuff like taxes or cooking, areas of interest like computers or writing or a new language to musical instruments or even sports like dance and martial arts. Again, not everyone uses it but a wide variety of people do.

If we go for things that the MOST people use at some point, I would have to point to maybe the parks but more likely Tops or Giant Eagle. Hardly a heart and soul but definitely a cross-representation of the denizens of the city. We all gotta eat.

Just my two pennies.


Phil

[Joan Roberts]

Any community will tell you its "heart and soul" is 'its people."

Heck, Best Buy and Wal-Mart will tell you that, too.

I understood the question to mean something more physical, tangible, in the sense of "what's the natural geographic/psychic center?'

In other words, where is the one place you can go where you're likely to meet the most people? What's the Times Square of Lakewood?

I guess the supermarkets would qualify, too, but I'll stick with the library.

Then again, maybe that wasnt the intent of the question.

[Ivor Karabatkovic]

Well I did stop by in the library this evening and man was it packed!

Anyways, the question is broad and whatever you think it means, go with it!

for the most part, Lakewood Park (to me) qualifies in what your idea of the question was, Joan.

But if people didn't behave the way they do here in Lakewood, and come out to the "Harry and the Potters" in thousands to support the library then this wouldn't feel like much of a community.

Would you really think Bay Village, Avon, or Westlake would produce such numbers on a hot summer day? I'll take my chances on saying no, they wouldn't.

[Joan Roberts]

Would you really think Bay Village, Avon, or Westlake would produce such numbers on a hot summer day? I'll take my chances on saying no, they wouldn't.

Actually, I can say first=hand that yes, yes they would and do.

But we've worked that issue to death. Beter to focus on Lakewood than get into the non-productive chauvinstic comparisons, 'k?

[Jim O'Bryan]

To be honest, maybe I should have framed it better and pulled some emotions out.

This came from a discussion that started three years ago for me. Ken Warren and I were just kicking it with some word jazz, and we started talking about Lakewood and it's "nozzle" for lack of a better term.

When you remove the physical aspect the center of the city, for most would be City Hall, The Library, The Market, Church, Coffee Shops whatever. Ken, director of the Library, seem to think it was The Library, how odd. I countered with it must be the designers and prints shops.

From there began a very interesting journey for me, and many others on this board.

In the end on this point, I side with Ken. Without prejudice, and dedicated to the education of all on everything. From that front door a person can make great things happen walking in either direction. While the computer has taken away some of the learning, there are the hands on activities, the personal help from others, and the physical nature of the product. As we have found with the hardcopy of the Observer, you can hold books, movies, cds, magazines and newspapers.

Random thoughts, thanks for jumping in, party on...

.

[Kenneth Warren]

Ms. Roberts:

I realize your rational circuits go pop when Lakewood homies begin to swagger under the chauvinstic counter-truth serum elixir known as Lakewood Kool-aid.

We sound turkey crazy when the effects of Lakewood Kool-aid start to pop.

You wisely resist us when we stagger away from our brothers and sisters in Bay, River and sprawls strewn across the Planet of the Apes.

You help keep us sane and connected to intelligent life forms beyond our immediate ken and kin.
.
Please indulge me here, all the same, so that the subtle evolutionary wave of our Lakewood brand contagion might be better understood in the bold and audacious light we claim as the salvation for our city.

As Mr. K has learned and is now professing by example, most recently with his inimitable presence at the Magic in the Wood Harry Potter event, Lakewood Kool-aid is simply a differentiation and defense strategy needed to produce the transpersonal values we imagine taking our civic character (i.e. our sense of belonging together through our engagements in community, neighborhood and institutions) up not out.

Lakewood Kool-aid is a function of imagination promoting a unique strand of evolution, connected particularly to the people living here now. Dr. Calhoun would call this "the culminating point of our lives."

By drinking Lakewood Kool-aid we heat up human relationship capital through love of the people and place. In the process we increase the velocity of good vibe exchange.

By doing so in the most densely populated place between New York and Chicago on a fresh water Lake, we are boldly attempting to pop transpersonal circuits with a fresh influx of emotional intelligence and DIY community artistry.

The pop is a kind of morphic resonance for the Hundredth Monkey (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundredth_Monkey).

Any homie seeking to qualify civic agency as the Hundredth Monkey must, of course, belong to and inform the actual magnetics of the place.

Drink up.

It’s closing time.


Kenneth Warren

[Tom Bullock]

I'm a (way) late-comer to this discussion, but here's my answer:

Lakewood's heart and soul is its exceptionally-high community spirit. Our spirit is embodied in our physical lay-out: walkable streets, front-porch neighborhoods.

I'm a new (two years now) resident. The second attracted me here; the first kept me here.