Roads West

[Jim O'Bryan]

I will ask my distinguished colleague to jump in on this. Ken and I were in Huron today, heading home we stopped in Milan to check out what Main Street did for them. We stopped in Vermilion and spoke with locals and noticed that a large number of stores were empty or closing. We stopped at Linwood Village, Lorain, Sheffield Lake, Avon Lake, Avon, Bay Village, Rocky River.

All had a ton of homes for sale, many closed store fronts, bunches of unhappy people, and not a lot going on.

We rarely mentioned the wood, but when we did we always got a positive response.

As we drove into Lakewood we counted only 8 store fronts empty from River to Warren Road. We counted that many on a street in downtown Vermilion that was three blocks long!

If you don't like Lakewood, you probably should not look West. It gets ugly real fast unless you own a million dollar house on the lake. Then you have a nice house with nothing around it.

Huron was the best, but oddly enough they had their own civil war about two decades ago when they hired a city manager. He had them tear down the downtown areas promising them all sorts of development that to this day has never appeared.

It was a great day for the boys from the 'wood.


peace.

[Kenneth Warren]

It’s always good to do some traveling and talking to get a comparative sense of life outside the Wood. I always scamper home, feeling grateful and relieved at the compact beauty and vitality of the Wood.

The 'ugly' Jim mentions is the old and new that joins the siren song forces that drive people to squander the surplus value accumulating in the inner ring on lifestyles of the sprawlgeoisie.

The no center/no downtown problem hit Huron with the force a hurricane hit downtown Waco in the early fifties.

Only in Huron the force was, according to the locals we spoke to, the new city manager who deemed the old downtown too old in light of the sixties urban renewal strategies. We were struck with the synchronity of this disclosure, because friends often sing the praises of the City Manager form of government and trust the Messiah will someday come to relieve us of the burdens of local politics. My take away from Huron was even professional management can breed blunders across the built environment from which a place may never truly recover its bearings. Keep all eyes on the prize.

Perhaps this so called first act of the Huron City Manager - that built a marina and tore out the center - is an inquiry into truth or urban legend for Steve Davis to undertake after the white unicorn story is written.

How could something like this happen?

Today there is a marina and amphitheater, lots of parking for a suburban style office building, which our informants considered the center of town. All seemed to my Woodie view to be a tragic loss for real people. I remain unclear whether or not the boat people brand of economic development delivered a lick of the promised value those renewed urban values proposed with the downtown wipeout.

I am not a boat guy. So actually the empty amphitheater and marina, with two billowing lime factory smokestacks on the eastern vistas, made “Monkey Island,â€Â

[ryan costa]

in the last 15 years they've been building a lot of new shopping malls in Lorain county. The older shopping malls are usually already by the Lake. They end up half empty sooner. The newer ones are a little further south, in Avon/Amherst/Elyria and unzoned townships. Usually a few blocks from slightly older shopping centers which soon become half vacant.

Sheffield Lake and Avon Lake were nearly walkable communities. Then the Sparkles grocery store in Avon Lake Closed. Big Lots, DairyMart, and Convenient closed in Sheffield Lake: they were perhaps the spiritual centers of Sheffield Lake. An Earlier wave of closings also hit around 86: A Woolworths, an independent diner, an independent ice cream parlor, a radio shack, one or two sporting good stores, and some other stuff all left Sheffield Lake's Shoreway shopping center in a short period of time.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Suzanne

You do raise an interesting point, while the group we talked to were all too eager to blame the City Manager that came and left, no one seemed all that eager to blame themselves, or other locals for what had transpired. when Ken layed the Messiah arriving in the night talk on them, and that in fact no Messiah ever comes you could see them all look into themselves. They thought a community paper would be the Messiah, after two issues that folded and left in the night as well. This was a community in panic mode. Twice they had sold their cows for magic beans that never took or grew.

What I found interesting, was that it had given the sleepy little "bedroom" city of Huron their own civil war. The newer residents were desperate to bring malls and big box stores to downtown Huron, a group of older residents had wanted to build the "bedroom" brand. The group we talked to seemed evenly divided, though the mayor's wife never muttered a word. But took many notes. Maybe Bob Stark is not the only one that looks to Lakewood for inspiration.

So while the group seemed to universally ready to blame the City Manager from the past that was no longer around, who knows what the real story is. But what had really energized them was the level of civil civic discourse on the Observation Deck, and the energy of people from Lakewood. It was kind of cute as they asked opinions and thoughts, the boys from Lakewood let it flow, and I could tell by the looks they expected squirt guns not fire hoses we provided. In the end we might have found a "sister" city on the lake. I know we were able to put names on some of the lurkers on the board. We also found out that they have almost every copy of the paper, and that some would drive into Lakewood to get the new ones as they came out.

Biggest differences between us and them. They own their water supply, and they have a college in town.

The trip was very rewarding though. As Ken and I threw proper manners to the wind to engage citizens in conversations about their towns, their hopes and dreams and what people are willing to give up for a couple hundred dollars relief in taxes. The kids in Vermillion just want out, which was also reinforced by the Realtors we spoke with.

The Vermilion river is gone in the park that was built to celebrate the river the city got their name from. Instead, sitting in their town center park you looked at the dumpsters of the condos that lined the river. With no Cliffs to build on the wall of gray climbed high into the sky. So the park that took on all the ambiance of the back of the buildings at Crocker Park was as empty as the alleys behind CP.

Milan was interesting as we went through one of the crown jewels of the Mainstreet Program. They had their flowers up, as did Huron, Vermilion, Avon, Lorain, Sheffield Lake and every other city we drove through. While the flowers looked nice, well the ones that were watered. We wondered aloud if they were more for residents to feel better about themselves, than to make the city more attractive to others.

Also noticed bike racks, but most were simple portable units that would work for 5-10 bikes but could be easily moved by the city to a new location. I do not remember seeing any permanent bike stands.

Other observations would include that Lakewood it would seem has the cheapest Lakefront property from downtown Cleveland to Huron. A crappy tear down in Huron is $500,000. Which made me wonder if it is not Lakewood under valuing ourselves, or was it the Realtors that were selling us short. Every city we stopped it would seem thought they were alone in down turned economy. A gentleman that owned "many" Arby's had down and informal study mentioned it is the entire Midwest. Only the southwest and the coasts are doing well. Of course he never even thought of Huron, Vermilion, Lakewood, Cleveland as being "coastal cities" which seemed odd.

I wish I had video tapped the day. It was truly a day of "The grass is greener in Lakewood, or anywhere but where they lived." The stark contrast between these cute little ghost towns and the vibrant Lakewood streets was startling. Ken and I were very proud of Lakewood yesterday, and we both felt relief as we hit the boarder and headed to Ken's garden of hope and promise to eat some lettuce, look for blackberries, and thank neighbors for watching the homes.

I think my reading of Ken would be correct. Ken took a vacation day for the trip West, so we tried to make it business and vacation. In the end like with any good vacation, we were glad to get home. There is no place like home.



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[Stan Austin]

Jim and Ken---

Thanks for your recounting of your fieldtrip. I think it is particularly instructive to us because all to often we look to cities far away to serve as examples while overlooking nearby neighbors.
It sounds like you both have brought back some significant impressions and to use the new lingo "lessons learned" which we can apply here in Lakewood.

Stan

[c. dawson]

Just remember the old saying "the grass is always greener ... " and it continues to ring true ... people always have a perception that a particular city or suburb is better than theirs ... BUT ... don't forget that other people are also looking at your city or suburb and thinking that it's better than theirs. It's an endless cycle.

My recommendation is to look around you a bit more, and see what you've got, and while you'll see the flaws, don't overlook all the good things. Yes, look at other cities, to learn from their mistakes, and steal ideas from their successes. But in the end, what you do has to work for your city.

Lakewood's a darn good place ... and let's all keep working to keep it that way.

[Suzanne Metelko]

"Perhaps this so called first act of the Huron City Manager - that built a marina and tore out the center - is an inquiry into truth or urban legend for Steve Davis to undertake after the white unicorn story is written. "

City Managers are employees of the city. They don't just implement without oversight. And if they do then the residents of the city should take it up with those who hired the City Manager and whose responsibility it is to supervise the work of the manager. Regardless of how you feel about a chief administrator that is hired rather than elected there is no disputing the clear line of accountability that is created when the voters elect the council and the council hires the manager. Instead of finger pointing and opportunities lost to implementation issues, party politics and turf wars the resident knows exactly how to get satisfaction. The manager is hired to satisfy and implement the strategies and plans of the council, the council is elected to represent and execute the community's plan.

As for "lessons learned". I think our present circumstance speaks for itself.

[Kenneth Warren]

Suzanne:

As the first story heard on my vacation in Huron, I listened carefully for what it might portend through amplification and dialogue. Invited by Jim to put in my two cents I was unable resist injecting this local political narrative/urban legend of a downtown debacle blamed on the big idea of the City Manager into the critical process laboratory of the Observation Deck, hoping you, Steve Davis or Professor Larry Keller would enter into the dialogue and figure out what such a recollection and reflection could and couldn’t mean to engaged citizens interested in exploring the pros and cons of governance models.

Governance models need to be understood for what they are, how they have and have not worked in theory and in practice, how they are narrated, and how their effects are recollected in local memory, something I hope the Observation Deck can advance intelligently and critically.

In response to your post, I would say oversight and professional management might not be enough to spare a city from well executed plans that can spawn blunders. That was my take-away from Huron.

Theory always sounds great in theory. Principles will register with immutable force on the theoretical plane. However, accidents typically occur in political life when human agents begin their formulation and execution of plans.

It’s the human agents that are keys to the successful execution of any plan and yet they too must face life’s accidents and the unintended consequences of any action.

Some are lucky. Some are smart. Some are spared. Some are scapegoated.

There are always off-the-wall public policy ideas injected into professional cadres that don’t hold up the interests of the city. Urban Studies and management literature are filled with such cases.

So I like to converge around Jim’s realistic point about citizens searching for magic beans and placing blame on scapegoats for conditions that likely veered beyond the assumptions and control protocols of any plan.

All eyes must be attentive and focused through open source dialogue on matters of importance to the city.

Kenneth Warren

[Joan Roberts]

I've been scratching my head all day, wondering exactly how Vermilion and Huron are in any way relevant to Lakewood.

Has our sense of civic priggishness gotten so desperate that we will now pick on ANY community, even if, like those two cities, it has a totally different social and economic profile and history? If so, let's not fool with the small fry. Let's go big. Gary, IN and Newark, NJ REALLY suck. So does Warren, OH.

On the other hand, if relevance to Lakewood is not an issue, then let's stack ourselves up against Vancouver, San Diego, Venice, or Kauai? All have water, which is the only connection I can see between Lakewood and Vermilion.

Those places aren't "urban sprawl". They're honest, down-home, independent towns built on combinations of farming, Great Lakes commerce, and now, hoping for a little tourism.

Lorain has its own issues. Sheffield never really wanted to be part of the sprawl (ask 'em, the old timers hate it). If the French Creek District of Avon is "ugly" compared to Marc's plaza, well, I guess we have different definitions of the term.

I recall spending a nice afternoon in Vermilion several years ago and browsing the storefronts filled with NON-CHAIN businesses. If those storefronts are now empty, how am I to be encouraged about the same types of businesses in Lakewood?

The point is, while I know a few people who have retired on bought vacation homes on Marblehead, I know hardly anyone who "looks west" as far as Lorain.

One more thought. I would bet that if these comments were published in the local Vermilion or Huron papers, the 4th grade mafia of those towns would have some choice rejoinders about a place six miles from Downtown Gomorroah doncha think?,

Mr, O. I thought you had sworn off running down other people's hometowns. A momentary relapse? Or are we looking at a 12-step program?

[Kenneth Warren]

As the enabling comrade accompanying Mr. O on his “Uglyâ€Â

[Jim O'Bryan]

Joan

Every place we stopped at had more than one thing in common.

When we left for Huron it had nothing to do with Lakewood. We had been asked to address a group of people about a graphic project. I had asked Ken along as he gets out of Lakewood even less than I.

I do not see my comments as an attack on any city. More realistic view of the state of many cities in Northern, Ohio. Each place we stopped and had beautiful places to live, eat and work. Had we not taken 6 hours talking we might even have more or less to comment on.

All along the way we stopped. At one point Ken uttered that Lakewood seemed pretty healthy to this. So we took closer notice. I mentioned many positives in other cities. It would seem almost all homes along the lake have a higher resale value, although I was reminded today that is more market related than "value."

Most had Dollar General Stores, not Dollar Tree like we do. These cities had great pluses. Most seemed to suffer from the same self esteem many have here. This proved to me it is not Lakewood based.

Tonight at the First Annual Lakewood Observer Gourmet Food Security Harvest Soiree. I was asked where I would live if not Lakewood. I said Montreal, Chicago. But in truth any of the cities I drove through would have been nearly as good as Lakewood, for me. (6 out of 10 and the 'wood meter)

I really think had you been there, you might see Huron and Lakewood much closer and alike than different.

As far as the 12 step process, my friends will tell you, you will be lucky if it is not a 94 step process. However as my wife will attest to, I am trainable(barely). When I finally move ,in what the trainer percieves as the right direction, the glea of accomplishment from the person trying to teach me is worth every second it took. I have been told.


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