Ed FitzGerald wrote:Jim-
I posted in another thread some comments about Section 8 and crime- I really think the more data we have out in the public domain, the more rational our discussion will be.
Ed
Agreed. This is one reason we are trying to process as much as we can lay our hands on. In the LO Office, down the hall from the Owl Werks, home of the files for the Visionary Alignment for Lakewood(VAL) we are starting to process Raw police calls, as this will show more than anything else, where and why the police are called, and how thin they are stretched.
Your two safety meetings reassured me that my streets walks and scanner nights were correct. "Quality of Life" issues are hot, and they need to be addressed. It is a slippery slope for someone like Kathy Curran at Goddess Blessed, how long does she stay and put up with overturned newspaper boxes and broken planters, or move.
Safe and Clean or Clean and Safe are major issues for this city. Since the paper was founded, all we have asked is that the city concentrate on those two issues, and we can motivate the residents to worry about the fun side of life. In the end EVERYONE wants to live where it is clean and safe, and even fun.
Thanks again for stepping into the harsh light of the Observation Deck.
Don
The Peninsula has seen the eyes of more council people than the police levy has. We have been working the streets and backrooms to find out many of the numbers needed. Maybe we are following the lead of your daughter. Do the hard work, the years of info gathering, then present a plan to the people and see what they think, THEN ask city council to do the work of the people. We can only hope our hard work and vision reach the perfection of Savannah's. It was the single best idea I have ever seen submitted to this city. I still cannot believe it was shelved.
One of the amazing things about the process, as I am sure Savannah encountered with her amazing work on the peninsula, is that every time you talk to someone and ask for information or an opinion you end up with more information than wanted, but it takes you in a different direction then you might have wanted to go. Again this is the strength of the VAL, the ability to turn on a dime, or spring off other ideas and projects. With only one true agenda, "making Lakewood the best city in the region for the next 50 years" we have more agility than many groups that are looking to build consensus around a single thought or project. We have worked on things for three years to find one glitch near the end, and that glitch becomes a nightmare, and the whole thing is dropped or shelved until an answer can be found. As we witnessed with the number thingy, many times others will not slow or stop when those glitches are found, which creates a nightmare or potential black hole for funding and human hours.
I believe Kevin Butler was the only member of council to hear enough about the police levy to make any assessment. From the conversation, he seemed against it from a cost point of view. I think in a political season it is much easier for residents to talk of these things without politicians. Of course all members of the VAL are free to openly talk about 99% of what is going on, that is how we vet our ideas to the residents and public. In the end it is all residents and businesses that must be served by the findings and projects set out by the VAL. So others on council may have heard it from others members.
In the end, the brand I believe we all want starts with Clean and Safe followed by whatever.
FWIW
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