$tark'$ Dream$ Come$ True

[Jim O'Bryan]

Bob Stark's dreams become closer to reality.

Last week the Westlaker News Paper became "The Crocker Park Press." filled with photos and excitement generated in Crocker Park, and even had one mention of Westlake in it. So as the local paper is grabbed and used to generate "lifestyle" in Crocker Park, Westlake looses another identity generater.

The Westlake 4th of July parade has been taken from Cahoun Park where families used to watch the parade, picnic, and later watch the fireworks, much like our Lakewood Park. It has all been moved to the "city in the field of dreams," to create a proper 4th of July feel for Crocker Park and the businesses.

It seems that offers were made, and things were moved. More than one resident was quoted as saying, that it was crazy, why not just change the name of Westlake to Crocker Park. Another mother asked where can she picnic on the concrete streets. Residents were assured to not worry, all the restaurants would be opened for food, and all of the stores will be open between the parade and the fireworks for a festive day of shopping.

The paper mentions our hospital execs, an art fest that looks just like Lakewood's, our own North Union Famer's Market which we were outbid on, and a full concert schedule. Didn't see any mention of the drug bust or rape and kidnapping. Also noticed they can refuse ads for any reason, and stories are not solicted from residents, oh that's right, no residents, sorry.

Hey Bob, when are you going to buy your city a church? or your fair share of Section 8?

While many say that regionalism will stop the poaching between cities, will it stop it between developers? I think not.

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[ryan costa]

Donald Trump could not have done it better. All they are missing now is an Erik Estrada infomercial.

[Joan Roberts]

And how was Lakewood built? By pioneers in wagon trains?

No, Lakewood was started by people who owned big chunks of land and sold or leased it to others in smaller chunks. In other words, developers. The Kirtlands and Nickel Plate Railroads were the Bob Starks of their day,

If you drive through some suburbs, you'll see streets obviously named after the daughters and wives of developers (Cindy Lane, etc.) In Lakewood, you see apartment buildings like the "Pearlerma". Same thing.
Who were "Rosalie" and "Victoria" and "Hilda"?

There is nothing new under the sun. The difference now is that Lakewoods are the "poachees" rather than the poachers. The process has been going on since time immemoral.

PS: Many major housing developments today include churches

One more PS: I wouldn't worry at all about what the Westlaker Times is or does.

[ryan costa]

think of it in non-absolute terms. Like Manners, Make Up, language, or violence, there are ways to use it that are sensible or tasteful or even pleasant, and ways that are tacky or snobbish or mindless or thuggish or whory.

After two resource wars in 15 years you would expect an intelligently educated population to realize the big box retail model of society isn't compatible with not-having resource wars. Now...where do the most educated people flock to? What do they invest in and promote?

[Jim O'Bryan]

Joan

I understand how cities were built, especially Lakewood and Cuyahoga County. My two uncles were in the building business and Clark Powney and Phil Ziegan helped build Bay Village and Westlake in the 50s and 60s both did very well. The Ziegans' still live in Westlake, where the Powneys took their money and built out in Florida finally retiring in the 80s on the Crystal River. The bought huge plots of land and subdivided, then many of those lots subdivided.

Here in Lakewood we have an excellent example of this recently. Captains Cove was built on one of the last big mansions in Lakewood. A glorious huge house that I am sure had the Historical Society in an uproar. Rockport, Rosewood and The Cliffs would be the same.

What I find fascinating in this whole deal posted in this thread is that a sub-city within another city is now poaching from the host city. Almost like a tapeworm or a tick feeding off the host.

I would think that a natural expansion for Crocker Park would be to grab a church or two. These too will have to be bought, and brought in, as I still know of not residents in any lofts in the "City in the field of dreams."

Joan don't you find it fascinating, that Westlake paid big money to have this built, and now it sets the tone and is surely running the show in Westlake? When will Westlake become the next Belden Village?

I also am watching that it is developers not cities that poach. A developer goes to a city, and sells the project then builds the project. If you read the literature of Regionalists they make it seem like the cities are poaching from each other when it fact it is developers that poach.

I do not fault developers, they business is to develop. If they are not developing they are not making money or working. But that does not make it right, sane or positive. It just means they are working.

On a separate note you have given me an ever growing list of things I should not think about, talk about or worry about. I find this fascinating.

Hope you got out yesterday and away from the computer. Had a blast in the parade, best year yet. The Jill/Ruthie picnic was fun. Many politicals stopping by including Jennifer Bruenner who is running for Sec. of State. Another very interesting walk and drill down with Ken Warren when we went picnic to picnic to see where people were from what they were eating and how they love the wood. We found that Lakewood is a vacation land of dreams for people from Parma, Westpark, Fairview and elsewhere.

peace

[Shawn Juris]

To each their own. I've never thought highly of the new urbanism concept but each time I hear comments like these I think about it more and more. It's not like "developers poaching" is something that only happens in the land of the wicked west. People in Lakewood get all excited about Rockport and Rosewood and the Cliffs projects and vote with their wallets when an IHOP or Winking Lizard opens leaving the mom and pop shops trying to catch up. This campaign to bash Crocker Park is getting tiresome. It's a different situation in Westlake and can't be compared fairly to Lakewood. Given the opportunity, I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing would happen in the "utopia" off the Lake.
I've picked up the Westlaker and if anyone gets fooled thinking that is the pinnacle of media integrity then I've got a $500,000 double for sale.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Shawn

My comments on the Westlake and Crocker Park are some times taken out of context or the way in which I meant them. This is because of my poor writing style. Why I mentioned the Westlaker which is no more I believe and the parade is that Crocker Park has now started to feed off it's host. Is that evil? No. But I find it fascinating. I also find that the "City in the Field of Dreams" is now having crime problems fascinating for a variety of reasons. One is how did Walt Disney feel when people were pick pocketed, or molested at Disneyland? Had he thought to build Goofy's Jail, or was it left out of the planning? While many speak of the great value of malls, rarely do they mention the crime that comes with them.

Side note - Rosewood, and The Cliffs are being built in the builder's home towns. I do not see that as poaching. Rockport could be construed as poaching. But if my kids do it it is because they are gifted, not bad.


FWIW


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[Sharon O'Donnell]

I have found this thread fascinating. I don't doubt that Crocker Park is trying to subsume Westlake. Or at least define it. And by acquiring the Westlaker they have made the classic move of taking over the press, such as it is. Control the media and you control the message. Although, there's always WestLife...

When cities like Lakewood were being developed there was no such thing as a 'lifestyle development'. The people who owned the land were trying to make a buck, but they weren't trying to assimilate everyone into a homogenized community. This kind of development is indicative of what's happening on a larger scale nationally as far as I'm concerned. As things get more polarized socially, and especially politically, people group together in their own cliques and try and exclude those who aren't like them. You can say a lot of good things about Westlake and it's amenities, but 'diverse' is not a word that springs to mind. There is no Dollar Tree at Crocker Park. There are no Section 8 apartments in amongst the 'Lofts'. That's not what they're selling.

Planned communities are not organic. They decide who they want. In a few years when long-time Westlake residents are waxing nostalgic about the old days when there were orchards and Westlake fireworks and the Westlaker and corner stores things will swing back. Maybe they'll start their own Observer. And everything old will be new again.

In the meantime... maybe they'll get a megachurch.

[john crino]

Could have chosen almost any thread to stick this onto but this is close enough...





July 7 2006: 2:50 PM EDT
SAN FRANCISCO (Business 2.0 Magazine) -- Picture the scene: it's 2025, and you and your family are living in a beautiful, leafy-green village that seems more 19th century than 21st, even though it has only been in existence for ten years and is just 20 miles from a major American city.

You know all of the 150 or so souls in the village; you see them at the market where you pick up a box of locally-grown produce once a week. You see half of them in the morning as they board the commuter train for school or work in the city; the other half are the network warriors who work from home or, on warm days, use the free Wi-Fi in the village square.

It all seems a world away from the crumbling old 20th-century suburbs people used to live in, if you could call it living. You shudder to think you could still be living there. Oh, and you see that really nice house just down the bicycle lane? That's yours, the fruits of your smart move to plunk down a payment on a piece of the hottest new trend in real estate.

Streetcar stops desired
Sounds like a far-off future? You can already see such a development opening up in Hercules, Calif., 20 miles northeast of San Francisco. And you can bet on seeing many more across the country if changing consumer desires and economic trends dictate the direction of the housing market.

"New Villages," as community planner Robert McIntyre dubs them in the latest issue of The Futurist magazine, are compact, pleasantly urban settlements located well away from city centers. They share some of the charms and amenities of cities, thanks to their density, but have the mostly rural surroundings that originally drew people out to the suburbs, as well as the friendly feel of a small town where you know your neighbors.

The concept of New Villages shares some similarities with the so-called "transit villages" you can already see around the country. Starting in the mid-'90s, when architects and local planners became more interested in more pedestrian-friendly, urban developments, transit villages started to spring up outside cities along revitalized rail lines, from Mission Valley near San Diego, to Ballston and Bethesda outside Washington, D.C.

They were very attractive to young city workers and empty-nest parents. Their defining characteristics: They were eminently walkable, densely constructed without feeling overcrowded, and offered a real community feeling with plenty of common spaces.

The difference between transit villages and New Villages is location: While transit villages mostly reinvented older suburbs that are close to cities, New Villages promise to reinvent the sprawl further out.

The demand for such developments is real, and it's only going to get greater as consumer preferences rapidly shift away from the McMansions preferred by boomers. According to a study by the nonprofit Congress for New Urbanism, while less than 25 percent of middle-aged Americans are interested in living in dense areas, 53 percent of 24-34 year olds would choose to live in transit-rich, walkable neighborhoods, if they had the choice.

Demand for housing within walking distance of transit will more than double by 2025, according to another nonprofit, the Center for Transit-Oriented Development. Even now, properties within a 5- or 10-minute walk to a train stop are selling for 20 to 25 percent more than comparable properties further away - a price premium that's likely to increase as traffic jams worsen.

And as the effects of the Internet continue to kick in, it won't be so necessary to be in the big city - you'll just want access to it every once in a while, for the occasional business meeting or nightclub outing. But as social animals we'll still want to cluster together for face-to-face contact, local food and local culture.

The payoff
All of these consumer trends suggest that New Villages just may be the future. But there are also compelling economic arguments for developers to build and sell such properties, as well as for consumers to buy them.

Rising oil prices notwithstanding, sprawling car-culture cities and vast suburbs simply do not make economic sense in the long run. As much as 50 percent of the land surface area in any given city or subdivision - we're talking prime real estate - is taken up by roadways. For developers, less space given over to roads means more space for housing.

Not only are roads a drain on landlords' potential income, they're a turnoff for residents -- and are only going to become more so as gridlock, road repairs and air pollution increase.

While you might assume that a higher density community would have more traffic, you'd be wrong. When neighborhoods are dense and walkable, studies show, people make fewer car trips. And some may even forgo owning a second car, especially as families realize that living with one less car can save them $6,000 a year on average (and again, that's not counting price rises at the pump).

And then there's simple math. While standard subdivisions have five units per acre, transit villages tend to pack in 20 to 25 per acre - still mostly single-family dwellings or townhomes, but without the vast lawns and backyards of suburbia. And with transit village homes selling for more than similar houses in traditional, sprawling suburbs, developers will make considerably more per acre, while fostering community and being kinder to the environment.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Could have chosen almost any thread to stick this onto but this is close enough....

John


Where did you find that?

Reads just like an ad I had from the sixties for Blue Plaid Polyester Leisure Suits. "We make millions of them because people are demanding them. We believe they will never go out of style."



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[c. dawson]

ah yes, lovely ... people want walkable communities, front porches, etc. Of course, they want it all NEW, out in the far-out exurbs. Doesn't anyone see that? It's so ironic! Instead of developers coming into the inner-ring older suburbs and urban neighborhoods that ALREADY HAVE that, and sprucing them up and redeveloping, they're going out into the far exurbs. And while they'll have their little Disney-like New Urban villages, they will have an even farther commute to the central city, wasting more gas. I mean, I like the New Urbanism concept, but why can't it be applied to the Old Urban areas? Why does it only seem to translate into copying the Lakewood experience out in some formerly-rural village now turning into a bustling suburb (which doesn't have the infrastructure to handle rapid development)?

[Shawn Juris]

Fascinating book that I browsed through recently called "How Cities Work". It discusses this concept of new urbanism and uses the example of Celebration, FL (the Disney owned community).
At any rate, there is a counter to C.D's question about the distance to the old city centers. First, I don't think that all that many people work in the old city centers. There are offices and such downtown but it's not the employment destination that it once was, just as likely that people are driving to Independence or Solon or Westlake. Second, while construction quality is rarely as good as it was 70 years ago it is far more attractive to build new than rehab the old.
It's great to discuss this topic and how it effets Lakewood. We have many points in our favor but there are some obstacles that we as a city will have to overcome to compete with the trends to move further out. It's an entire system (including transportation, green areas, industry, infrastructure, etc) that we face, not a simple matter of preference.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Shawn

I think Joan Roberts has said it best. We can not be every thing to everyone. So we must look at what were are best at/for and see the market. Right now I am pretty impressed with stores moving in and young couples buying homes in Birdtown, while the Emerald Canyon/Scenic Park area has become a hot bed for renters that love to drink.

This could allow us to hold our own. Maybe like with motor scooters. If you cannot afford a new Korean knock off of an old Vespa, that's cool you can afford a "real" old Vespa.

I would like to discuss new versus old, better versus worse, but this is speculation.


peace