Query : Should the Deck Create a "Lakewood Hospital" Forum

[Matthew Lee]

I know this question may not be popular, but should the Observer Deck create a "Lakewood Hospital" forum where the Lakewood Hospital issues can be discussed and taken off of the "General Discussions" board?

In no way am I trying to say that the Lakewood Hospital issues are not important. They are. But the same 6 - 7 people post and reply to the same messages about the Hospital over and over again. Threads that aren't even posted with the Lakewood Hospital in mind become derailed into Lakewood Hospital discussions. This board has changed from a "General Discussion" to a "Lakewood Hospital Discussion" thread in the last year. I understand the importance of the Lakewood Hospital issue and, though not agreeing with many of the arguments put forward, appreciate the concern and interest in the issue. However, we are turning this forum into a discussion board about the Hospital and less about Lakewood in general.

If I am wrong, and people disagree, so be it. Just thought I would ask the question before the Observation Deck permanently becomes the "Lakewood Hospital" Deck.

[Bill Call]

It's probably a good idea.

[Bill Call]

It's a good idea.

[Gary Rice]

My goodness, I find myself in complete agreement here with Mr. Call.

Don't get me wrong. I admire Bill tremendously for his wisdom, vision, and insight. I just have not always agreed with his conclusions.

Seriously though, yes. Perhaps it's time for the hospital issue to be compartmentalized. It would also be convenient if those hospital topics could be centrally stored for archival research and historic purposes.

I understand that the issue may not be over, but hospital discussions can certainly continue on their own thread. This whole thing has upset so many people, myself included, that I think it would be better for people to deliberately have to click on a section, so that they can continue to be upset if they want to.

Is it now a time for Lakewood to move on and heal? We've done it before. After the West End debacle, life got back to normal, but unfortunately, this time will be different, because medical care affects all of us. A good number of my friends and friends of friends have passed away recently, as often happens around the holidays. Lakewood also seems to have had some incidents of violent crime of late, and that can affect medical response time as well, particularly when hospital destinations are farther away. It is well to talk about ways to improve and implement health care lifestyle choices in Lakewood, but sooner or later, most of us will need to go to a hospital, and if the ambulances are too busy for you, good luck.

So no, healing this time will likely take much longer, both for our community and for us individually if we unexpectedly need acute medical care. A few more ambulances might help, but Lakewood needs more than ambulances. We need some real priority soul-searching at this point, because, in my opinion, we may be quickly becoming a much less attractive place to live, no matter where in the city we may happen to hang our hats.

Don't get me wrong here. I'm not going to dwell on the past, or engage in braying nay saying. Lakewood continues to have terrific schools, libraries, neighborhoods, and a thriving business district. Other great communities around us have no hospitals, and they do OK.

It's just that going forward, for us to "do OK", we all (and particularly, our local representatives) have a great deal of work to do mending fences and binding up wounds. (which might be sorta difficult to do without a community hospital)

IMHO


Back to the banjo...

[Michael Deneen]

I think the hospital threads should stay.

1. It's what the city is talking about.
2. It's the most important issue to impact the city in decades.

[Patrick Wadden]

Interesting topic. What's best for the total readership of the deck? I say make it a seperate Forum.

Although some will see that as a small admission of defeat. Putting it behind us and in it's own Forum is way of moving on.

So is the Hospital topic like anchor store that is pulling readers into the deck?

[Bridget Conant]

How do you "put behind" an issue that will greatly impact this city from this day forward and affect property values, safety, community values, desirability as a place to choose to live, and the economic health of the city?

No, it doesn't need to be compartmentalized or marginalized by putting it in its own forum. That's just a way to push it aside and pretend it's not THE major issue in this town.

It belongs right where it is. For those that do not want to read the posts, exercise self-control and do not click. It's pretty simple.

[Michael Deneen]

Bridget is 100 percent correct.

I hope the Observer resists any efforts to marginalize this topic.
A lot of people will want to downplay this issue in the future in order to avoid accountability.

[m buckley]

Bridgit is 100% right.
This issue is as much about honest, inclusive, transparent government as it is about anything else. By marginalizing this thread, by in effect putting it in it's own" Executive Session" you'll just be relegating that very important discussion to the trash bin.

[Ryan Salo]

It's probably a good idea.

I agree. While the hospital conversation is important, I think it will be easier for readers and posters if it is in it's own section.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Matthew, All

This has happened many times to the Observer and the Deck. We were called a bunch of liberal jerks, with no Republicans, it was said that we would never give conservatives a place to post, and a year later we became the place where only Conservatives posted, then back to liberals and on and on. To this day Conservatives rule the "Global Forum." Through it all, most Lakewoodites could separate the inanimate (Deck) from the living people posting. In other words, The Deck was not responsible for the post or poster. Now there is this tendency to lump everything together which is just crazy. Look at the posts, Observers have ZERO group agendas, except to talk about things. What normally happens, is exactly what happened during the election. People get others to join in and post, enlarging the conversation tilting the balance back and forth.

"The Deck" has no dog in the fight. The Deck is nothing more than a blank slate to write observations on. From there people kick it around or don't. People need to talk, and we as residents need to understand those around us, and what better way to define a person than allowing them to do it with their own words?

To all, and much to Mike Deneen's point, this is the biggest change to Lakewood in a long time. We are gambling our entire future on the fact that Mayor Mike Summers got it right. If you really care about Lakewood, if you really love Lakewood, we should not burn Lakewood down trying to save it. But, we have no idea of even the name of the group we just gave $24 million to. We do not even know what their purpose is, or who is on the board. We have no idea how the transformation happens or when it happens. I would hope that this information is important and will to be seen and understood by all. Correct?

Time heals, or gives others time to organize. We allow ourselves to become fixated or not. I am always amused when people say, "You are an idiot," "I hate Essi," "Corey is nothing but trouble," "Deneen is over the top," "Deck posters are all stupid with no value." Why not simply ignore it? Why read it? My favorite posts from other sites, to paraphrase, say "The Deck is stupid and negative." I smile every time I read it. A baseless over-the-top negative post, with zero facts, attacking and marginalizing free speech and civic discourse, or a group of people using their real names talking about the city they live and work in. This is evil or to be feared?

There is a button on everyone's profile page to ignore members you do not wish to read. They simply disappear from your view. No one has ever used it, and everyone has said, "NO! I want to see what they are writing."

What I would ask for those tired of Hospital conversation, let's bear with it a while longer, and possibly the new board will make a decision on what to do. Revisit it then. To those that wish to keep the conversation going, let's work to keep it to facts, new facts, new understandings and try to keep the personal aspects to a minimum.

There are residents looking at revamping the Deck, and the hospital certainly deserves to be archived in its own Forum, but to move it right now in the middle of the revamping, the changes, and when we really need to get it out of our systems, seems a bit premature.

What I would like to ask all, is continue on as we have, and let the new board understand where we are at, and where they might see all of us going. Let's give them a chance.

.

[Lori Allen _]

I would agree with Ryan, Matthew, Bill, and others. I have been thinking for a while that topics relating to the Lakewood Hospital issue should be put into a sub-forum. In a way, it seems that the "Lakewood General Discussions" forum has become somewhat of a private chat room for SLH. Very rarely will anyone engage with anyone that posts non-hospital-related topics. On the rare occasion that someone does reply to a non-hospital-related post, it often turns into a form of bullying and chauvinism.

It appears that numerous people that used to regularly post on the Deck no longer post. Lots of different issues around Lakewood used to be discussed. Now, it is a rarity. I feel as if this is no longer the Lakewood Observer. I feel that it is now the Lakewood Hospital Observer. I have spoken to several of my neighbors and friends that used to post on or read the Deck. The majority of them told me that they no longer post and/or read because it is the same information posted over and over again, and only about the hospital. It also appears that in the past couple of months, SLH postings are now becoming political. When the closure of a hospital is imminent, people from all walks of life may want to help with the cause. It is my general opinion that political discussions belong in the "Global Discussion" forum.

I really miss the days of the Lakewood Observer before it became the SLH Observer. Even people that did not agree with the majority of posters used to be able to post and get along with others. Now, I don't feel that they feel welcome. I myself have considered several times whether or not I should continue to post here, as it seems futile and nobody appears to care about anything other than the hospital.

I don't mean any disrespect to anyone that reads or posts here. I am not angry at anyone. It is my general opinion that Lakewood Hospital discussions should be moved to a separate area.

[Jim O'Bryan]

I really miss the days of the Lakewood Observer before it became the SLH Observer. Even people that did not agree with the majority of posters used to be able to post and get along with others. Now, I don't feel that they feel welcome. I myself have considered several times whether or not I should continue to post here, as it seems futile and nobody appears to care about anything other than the hospital.

I don't mean any disrespect to anyone that reads or posts here. I am not angry at anyone. It is my general opinion that Lakewood Hospital discussions should be moved to a separate area.

Lori, All

With over 100,000 posts, and another 50,000 in archives over 12 years, we are looking at ways to catalog our posts. While our search option is extremely powerful for finding posts, posters and topics, they are not available to non members, so how we archive the threads for all to enjoy is a valuable topic worth talking about.

However, there is a new board of members, and non members, looking at making the project better for all. Let's see what they come up with.

As Mike Deneen can attest to, we debated the format of the Deck for a long time before we realized, to let people define themselves is often more valuable than the discussion.

There are 30 posts on the front page of the Deck, 23 of them have nothing to do with the Clinic. Just saying...

.

[Alex Belisle]

I'm trying to shine positive "light" on Lakewood in my Catching the Light in Lakewood but maybe since I'm a Lakewood newbie, I haven't become jaded yet? For sure, my photoblog is a happy place. Go there and check out all the happy faces

[Dan Alaimo]

While the hospital issue has been going for a long time, and has awhile left to run, it's a probably matter of months at this point. If the discussion were to go on as it is now for a year or more, then separating it might be a good idea, but I don't see that being the case. Depending on referendum in March, see how it goes after that.

And this may only pertain to me, but I stopped using the Buzz regularly when they separated national and local. There aren't so many new posts that they overwhelm one list, and I want to be able to look quickly, see if anything is of interest, and then move on. If I have to click on separate lists, I probably won't.