The Death Of Detroit Avenue Car Dealerships

[Bill Call]

America's last three auto companies are set to close down thousands of small dealerships. It seems likely that Lakewood's remaining dealerships will be bought out and closed by GM and Chrysler.

Is there a future for that land as used car lot or auto repair shop? Or is there a higher use that will benefit the community and the owners?

Since budget deficits no longer matter trillions of dollars will soon be available for millions of pet projects. The City should not be bashfull about asking for $300 million to convert the abandoned dealerships into something more usefull.

Such a deal would be beneficial to the owners as well. Instead of trying to unload property in a down market or trying to survive as used car salesmen they can sell to organizations financed with bailout money.

Since we have no congressional representation of our own, perhaps the Mayor or development director can approach a congressmen from another district with this proposal. Steve Lauterette comes to mind. He has done a great job of looking out after the interests of the Cleveland area even though it's not in his district.

Anyway, time is of the essence. While the feds might be printing money at a furious pace it won't last forever.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Since we have no congressional representation of our own, perhaps the Mayor or development director can approach a congressmen from another district with this proposal.

Bill

you break me up.

The mayor with the total backing of Congressman Kucinich just landed the largest building project for Lakewood since the schools.

You are getting more like Eisel everyday. Say anything, never look at any facts from the other side.

How does he do it?

.

[Stephen Eisel]

Since we have no congressional representation of our own, perhaps the Mayor or development director can approach a congressmen from another district with this proposal.

Bill

you break me up.

The mayor with the total backing of Congressman Kucinich just landed the largest building project for Lakewood since the schools.

You are getting more like Eisel everyday. Say anything, never look at any facts from the other side.

How does he do it?

.

lol look at the pot calling the kettle black

[Bill Call]

The mayor with the total backing of Congressman Kucinich just landed the largest building project for Lakewood since the schools.

Which project is that?

[Stephen Eisel]

The mayor with the total backing of Congressman Kucinich just landed the largest building project for Lakewood since the schools.

Which project is that?

The UFO port

[Bill Call]

The mayor with the total backing of Congressman Kucinich just landed the largest building project for Lakewood since the schools.

Which project is that?

The UFO port

Meanwhile, back on Urth:

The Lakewood car dealerships were destined to suffer a slow death. That process would be painful for the community and the ownership. But death is certain. Think of all those small dealerships as the family owned grocery store.

Trillions of dollars will be spent before the bailout mainia comes to and end. It will end not because people come to their senses but because you can only print so much money before you hollow out the entire economy.

The mission of our local leadership is to get a big a piece of the action as quickly as possible before this particular ponzie scheme comes to an end. The auto bailout offers the framework for a scheme to do just that.

How so?

The mom and pop dealerships will be left with very little unless they ally themselves with their local communities. The alliance should focus on getting a fair deal for the independent dealer and the communities they serve.

The dealerships can point out how they are important to the economy and civic life of the local community. The cities can point out the devestating impact the closures will have on property values, jobs, taxes, community life and the environment. (None of it has to be true to be effective although in this case of it is all true except the part about the environment. It is important include the environmental impact. Talk about economic devistation only gets you so far, just ask the City of Detroit).

Cities that will be affected by these closures first need to form a lobby group. They then need a plan of action to get the $300 billion that will be necessary to offset these closures. Deals are being made, money is being printed and promises are being made.

Cities and dealers need to act now to get their fair share.

(of course the dealers themselves are allready working to get a piece of the action. The local communities should oppose efforts to help the small dealer unless the small dealer insists on letting the cities get in on the action, heh, it ain't pretty but that's the world we live in.)

[Stephen Eisel]

Jim, do you remember when Barney and friends got involved in the mortgage business???

[Jim O'Bryan]

Bill

I think if you drive down Detroit you might see that a very large for sale sign is gone.

.

[Stephen Eisel]

The Wessex?

[Stephen Eisel]

or

http://www.loopnet.com/property/1468342 ... it-Avenue/

[Bill Call]

Bill

I think if you drive down Detroit you might see that a very large for sale sign is gone.

.

Every two years Kucinich announces he has "saved" Lakewood's Social Security Office.

[Charlie Page]

Is there a future for that land as used car lot or auto repair shop? Or is there a higher use that will benefit the community and the owners?

How about more retail or condos?

Or a brewery?

Maybe even a jail?

[ryan costa]

Pearl Road between the Zoo and Brookpark Road is well stocked with competent used car dealers. It is a solid place.

The failure of new car dealers would free up room for more auto repair garages. This will increase the odds of finding a good AMC Matador station wagon.

[Bill Call]

How about more retail or condos?

Or a brewery?

Maybe even a jail?

The first two work for me. Although any new jail would have to be built in someone elses neighborhood.

Since budget deficits no longer matter there will be trillions of dollars available for everyone's favorite projects:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/200901 ... xacuWyFz4D

The Mayor and Development Director used a reasoned and sensible approach when asking the State for money to deal with forclosures. That's the wrong approach for the next bailout opportunity.

First, any plans or ideas should be grandious and extravagent and on the wild side. Some cities are asking for schools and others are asking for federally financed dog parks.

Second, states like Ohio should ban together with other states to make sure NOTHING gets done unless we get a BIG piece of the action. Don't let California and New York get the biggest piece of the action. They only have four senators.

This fight should be soley about getting as big a piece of the action as possible. If you are financing public projects with newly printed money arguments about waste or affordablity are a waste of time because everything is affordable.

Lakewood's fair share is $1 billion dollars. Anything less is unacceptable.

[Charlie Page]

The condo and jail suggestions were in jest. The last thing Lakewood needs in this economy is more over priced housing and I don't want a bigger new jail in the residential part of Lakewood. I'd go for the brewery though.

It's good to see Strickland talking up Ohio's budgetary challenges to the media. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

California and New York will get the lions share. Those ‘lucky’ residents can thank Pelosi and Hillary for that.

A trillion dollars divided by the US population of roughly 300 million is $3,333/person. Multiply this by Lakewood’s 54,000 residents and you have $180 million. This is our fair share but is this really the right thing to do? This is sickens me to think about bailout after bailout followed by binge spending all in the name of kickstarting the economy.