ANNOUNCEMENT: New Logo for Downtown Lakewood

[jennifer scott]

The "right" way?? Don't tell me....

[Jim O'Bryan]

The "right" way?? Don't tell me....

Sorry Kitten

I meant The Way.


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[sharon kinsella]

I think you're being shrill and out of control.

You can't do this. You're not the best that Lakewood deserves. Lakewood only deserves things that are from outside of Lakewood.

Because we're not smart enough, we're not good enough and gosh darn it, some people don't like us. (The reverse affirmation is courtesy of our new Senator from MN.)

[stephen davis]

Jim,

Those flowers are easily as nice as the ones in Independence...



...Crocker Park,...



...and Oberlin,...



...and you'll never have to do this to keep them looking good.



All that, combined with helping wayfaring strangers with wayfinding to navigate the complex Lakewood grid (Detroit Ave. can be so tricky.), and I think you're going to be looking at some more international awards.

Do we get to vote on the color of the flower on the bottom left of the sign?




Steve

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[dl meckes]

I see there is no love for the Hilliard/Franklin split...

[Gary Rice]

Gee,

We'd never have to sing "Where Have All The Flowers Gone" would we?

Ah, the inspiration of the Observation Deck....

Only thing is ?

Now we'll probably start debating the floral arrangement.

Let's see, daffodils and tulips?

or nasturtiums and peonies?

But WAIT! What about those of us with ALLERGIES??????

GEE, this thread could get as long as the front-yard trash issue's did!

PROTEST THE INSENSITIVITY OF THE CITY TO THOSE HAVING ALLERGIES!

SNIFFELERS AWAKE! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT YOUR HANKIES!

Kumbayah, my foot!

We have a new CAUSE before us!

[Dustin James]

I haven't felt this good, or committed for about 7 years.

Yikes!! Jim, were you committed? I knew you flew off the handle once in while, passionate, a little excitable - but jeez man, not the rubber house?

Just kidding, You mentioned a health issue and hope all is well. We're getting younger and all that, but some times the old bodies don't get the memo

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[Gary Rice]

Wow,

I needed to do the math before I posted.

I mean, this thread has almost as many peeks as BOTH the trash thread and that ubiquitous running urinal thread COMBINED...

All about signs, colors, and flowers....

and so much more BEHIND those signs, I suspect....

Little signs too...

Just imagine if we were discussing BILLBOARDS...

[Dustin James]

Is this a flower bong?

It's huge, but no doubt fragrant and smooth. The Electric Candle would be proud

.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Gee,

We'd never have to sing "Where Have All The Flowers Gone" would we?

Ah, the inspiration of the Observation Deck....

All sorry, I crashed pretty heavy, I was warned not to push it. The running
joke in the hospital was "stay away from stress." Hardly possibly for me.


Gary

the song by you old friend Pete Seeger is wonderful
especially in this day and age.

Indeed "When will we ever learn, When will we ever learn."

Maybe we could get a Rice-Rewrite

WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE
words and music by Pete Seeger
performed by Pete Seeger and Tao Rodriguez-Seeger

Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the flowers gone?
Girls have picked them every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the young girls gone?
Taken husbands every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the young men gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the young men gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the young men gone?
Gone for soldiers every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Covered with flowers every one
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?

©1961 (Renewed) Fall River Music Inc
All Rights Reserved.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Yikes!! Jim, were you committed? I knew you flew off the handle once in while, passionate, a little excitable - but jeez man, not the rubber house?

Just kidding, You mentioned a health issue and hope all is well. We're getting younger and all that, but some times the old bodies don't get the memo

.

Lakewood Hospital has promised me back to full health in 3-6 months if I listen.

The short story is pneumonia leading to congestive heart failure. Indeed we are not young anymore. The good news is a couple weeks ago one of my favorite shamans (sorry Gary you are #2 in this field) wanted me to go get twisted and abused by another Chinese shaman. I passed, but head my palm read and they said 80 years at least. Well after my tests, and heart cath, they said the heart of a 19 year-old, and were freaked over just how clean my artieries and veins were! To be honest with decades of abuse, so was I.

My wife asked if I should be on a special diet and the two doctors said, "I think we should all be on his diet." She assured them it would kill most people in the first two weeks." We all had a good laugh.

With that noted my second favorite shaman Gary Rice had a long talk with me about a second chance to do good. I took that very seriously and have a second chance with my life, my wife and my friends. And a chance to do good, so first we turn on the lights in Lakewood, then I am dedicating myself to help others, even more than I try now.

No worry, "I'm baaaaaaaaaaacccccccckkkkkkkk"

PS - No bongs in my life anymore. Between the paper, and other "pressures" to be a good boy, my life of legendary abuses are far, far, far behind me. That photo came from a series of field trips many of us had at how other cities handle flowers, wayfinding, and economic development. I did not have the 1 class in economic development education. I had to do it the hard way start a company sell it, start a business close it, start a business have it taken over. You know street education.


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[Gary Rice]

Pete Seeger loves to relate the parable by Jesus about the sower of seeds.

That's where the sower cast those seeds on the ground...
some of those seeds fell onto barren rocks, and could never grow...
some of the seeds fell upon the pathways, and were trampled on...
...but some fell on fertile ground.

These seeds grew and grew and grew, and multiplied...


So it is with our own lives...I guess,
We sowed our seeds with all whom we met, as did they, with us...
Some grew into beautiful things, and some bore poisonous fruit.

We must realize the types of seeds that we are sowing...
This, at least, we can, no, we MUST control.

Where possible, we have to weed out our own gardens..
probably never as well as we would like to...
some weeds can be difficult to eradicate...

But at least, and at the last, we CAN decide which seeds to sow in the future...
Beginning today...

Like the Native American tale of the kindly dog and the angry wolf at our door...
The one that remains with us, will be the one we feed.

So it will be with our seeds...the ones that we care for, will be the ones that grow.

Yes Pete, when will we ever learn?

Now you all know why I play the banjo.

Kumbayah indeed.

[Charlie Page]

Wow Jim – that was a zinger of a post! And how quickly the faithful piled on when they saw the green light!

I thought about staying on the sidelines to see what becomes of this discussion. But I can’t. I’m sure there’s more behind your post (history, frustration, etc). And I’m not asking you to divulge. I just think your message could have been conveyed in a more respectful manner.

It’s one thing to question and criticize and quite another to publicly ridicule and belittle LA and it’s efforts.

Like it or not YOU are one of Lakewood’s leaders

Way to lower the bar

[Jim O'Bryan]

It’s one thing to question and criticize and quite another to publicly ridicule and belittle LA and it’s efforts.

Like it or not YOU are one of Lakewood’s leaders

Way to lower the bar

Charlie

A couple quick things. To read that as a diatribe again Lakewoodalive would be to read the entire post wrong and out of context. I am sure they read it that way, but that would underline a certain narrow mindedness that should be addressed and infact it is time for all of us to say in the mirror "buck up little soldier."

Also I have never seen myself as a civic leader, nor moral leader, nor leader. If anything I would hope I have the ability to spot real leadership and help those rise to the occasion, even when their goals are very different from my own dreams and hopes.

As for frustrations, my god, it is there very deep in my mind, though through the decades of them building I am a little more direct than most. I am not seeing missteps I am seeing failure after failure after failure. If it was private money it would be laughable, but when they dive into the well of public money, it is a travesty. How many times do you let someone that knows no better to smash their heads into a brick wall before you offer to buy them a helmet, or at least warn them of serious brain damage?

You yourself now voice the very real frustrations of wayfinding, when the only ones that have seem to truly lost their way is a very select small group spending your tax dollars. Some within this group have describe themselves to me as "the gifted." Holy moly!

My dilemma, do I drop dime? Do I come out and say that the some of the builders of projects in this town have a very shady past? If that is the case? Or do I hope that some comes forward and speaks their mind and present more information than what I have gathered? But one small example.

I have gotten numerous letters and notes through the back channels that state, "Well at least XXXX is trying to do good." The problem is two fold. I know of drug dealers from my past life in the bar business that would tell me with a straight face that they were providing a service, involved in economic development, and even reaching out and helping those that might go somewhere else and get bad stuff. Everything can be spun, and most things are. And good for who? All or a few?

Mikelann Rensel(?) is an unbelievably talented human. She comes from to us being the Director of the Cleveland Neighborhood Development Committee. I have no doubt in her many years in the public sector she has never made anyone hunt for a number. Especially if that person is a taxpayer. I believe after looking at the law that is illegal, and could cost a 501C3 their status. I am sure she never then belittled that person(s) then ran and hid hoping it all goes away. when you and I both know, that is when the trouble grows and festers.

Charlie, again if they had chosen private funding for their follies, I, you, Steve, Gary, the mayor, the planning department would have ZERO to say. But that was not the case, instead they have chosen to build "their dream world" with our tax dollars. Completely different set of rules, as their should be.

Frustrated, yes, tired of seeing people hit their heads against the collective wall of nonsense that has no bearing in a city I love, and is in the middle of a true crisis, with $$$$$$ and businesses.

As always thanks for taking the high road and reaching out to me. But sometimes us Irish Kabuki Street Warriors have no choice but the land of muddy roads.


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[sharon kinsella]

Charlie - Sometimes, because an approach is different or plows right through the middle to the heart of the matter, it may seem to be confrontational or aggressive.

The reality is, there is work to be done. Obfusication keeps happening and as long as someone else controls the way we speak and think, we will never be heard.

We can't keep our mouths shut and settle. Drive down Detroit Ave. and Madision Ave. and look at the store fronts. If we ignore that it won't fix it self. Realistic solutions to real problems is a concept whose time is come.

People aren't always sweet, I may be shrill and out of control by some standards, by other standards I may be one who won't stand quiet and listen to the same old bs day after day.