hey Mayor! How does this process work?

[Shawn Juris]

Here's a thought Jim. Maybe those three groups learned from their parents that when someone decides to start calling names and arguing nonsense it's better to ignore them.
I would hope that Bret's question could get an honest answer but now that there have been some snappy little jabs thrown in I doubt I would feel welcomed to the discussion if I were them.
Have a great weekend. I'm off to contribute to the economy of others'. Couldn't find any clothes that met my lofty standards in Lakewood (fit, were appropriate for my age and purpose, reasonably priced, weren't worn by someone else). I've got the Shawn Juris, Seal Of Approval ready if there are other suggestions.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Shawn


Calling names?

Nonsense?


.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Since I see that the mayor and several Mayoral hopefulls are reading these posts, I thought I would drop this in here...
Bret

Bret

First let me say I think it is criminal no one has answered. I fear you might have stumbled on a crack in the armor.

I have a couple BIG chain clients, and I can assure you they are spending many $$$$ looking for places. But you letter did no harm. I know of a energetic woman that nearly brought a University to Lakewood. Started with a phone call I believe. I am sure you might have at least raised awareness. Next time you try stop by. We have extra editions of the Observer designed just for this purpose. Our development, Library, and City Council editions we had a couple thousand extra printed to send to businesses, libraries, colleges, and residents. I couldn't hurt to throw a couple in, like I said the paper was designed to fill this role.

But I have questions for you?

1) Are you ready to pay a 7.5% raise in taxes?

2) Are you ready to give these large companies tax breaks?

3) Which means more in the long run, a pants store? Or finding a way for the city, police, firemen, teachers, or residents to buy abandoned homes for living, redevelopment or marrying lots?

All three questions are related.

Should Lakewood spend limited resources going store to store, or trying to get the 75% of Lakewood's Fire, Police, City Workers and School Teachers to move back into the city?

The reason I ask this way is I think the surplus in the city budget next year is $23,000. I've spent that much printing brochures.

Bret I think you might be about 7 houses off a major street. How many of these homes do you let go to the wrecker ball to build that store next to your home? At what point do you think you might be too close to the retail/bar?

When you bought your house. What were the top 5 reasons in order, and be honest.

Mine
1) Affordability - can I afford to live there for ? years
2) Safe - Will my family be safe?
3) Location, Location, Location - Some say it should be number 1, makes it easy to get liquidate.
4) Schools - I do not have kids, but good schools mean better property value. (See above)
5) Convenience
a) Hospital
b) Food
c) Entertainment
d) Recreation
e) Shopping - Finally! With Legacy Village only 20 minutes away I have to think within 20 minutes we have over 50 clothing stores. (they all share sales tax with Lakewood and other cities in the county).

Is Lakewood life really that bad?

.

[Charyn Compeau]

Jim:

Do you really not see how you affect others?

Can you really not anticipate the effect that you will have when writing aggressive/confrontational/debate-like posts?

How many more have to stop trying before your realize that loosing our voices will not benefit Lakewood? Maybe you win the debate, Jim, but at what cost?

It seems like you are so intent on the debate and who is right or wrong that we continue to miss the opportunity for true and productive dialog and compromise. Right or wrong, this is my perception and it shared by many. And as a member of the wonderful world of marketing I am all too aware that perceptions will trump reality any day.

You make it sound like it has to be one or the other (little guy or chain); however, is there really no way the two can co-exist? Do you have to be all for one or all for the other? Personally, I really dont think thats true!

Just some food for thought as I see another great potential conversation die....

Oh and for the record (and to keep somme of this post on topic) - I think retail is the absolute WRONG way to go.

Poor pay rates, increased traffic and congestion. Increased crime & litter. Low return on our investment.

Restaurants are only marginally better.

My suggestion would be light manufacturing and/or office parks. Better pay - brings people from surrounding areas in to work (and increases the job base within the city) and then sends them back home at night. More return on our dollar as we gather their local taxes to use for our city (or keep local taxes in the city).

And yes - I think we should reduce the housing stock to do so.... and no - I dont think we should use eminent domain so it wont happen tomorrow. And.... just to be sire I can be thoroughly flames... if I had to pick the areas for redevelopment it would be west end and east end.

FWIW
Charyn

[ryan costa]

The East and South ends have way more potential for re-development: There are way more empty buildings and under-used buildings. These are suitable for light industry or excavation and rebuilding.

To this end it is in Lakewood's interest to attract industry and office parks to these areas between West 117th, Berea road, Triskett, Madison and Lorain. This is contingent on attracting higher income workers to the area, who would live in Lakewood even if their place of work is in the immediately adjacent Cleveland area. Even going so far east as the old Walford building would be an improvement. I wandered around these areas last week after some business on West 117th: Many of the larger roads were nearly empty of traffic and and ran along giant masses of vacant or nearly vacant buildings. Many of them were even aesthetically pleasing office-type buildings, even if they were mildly dilapidated.

When there are more professionals and skilled laborers living in Lakewood and working near or in Lakewood, there will be a larger pool of people with influence jockying to get their favorite retail nearby. This will take the form of Innovative or original retail. Or it may even take the more expensive and subsidized form of inserting cookie-cutter suburban-scale retail into Lakewood and the immediately adjacent areas.

This will generate a market for more small scale business services to fill up the smaller spaces of the West End. The remaining spaces of the West End can be filled by Barbers, Pilates Instructors, laundromats, craftsman-type businesses, and diners.

The Euclid Corridor Project has temporarily shut down a lot of foot and automobile traffic on Euclid. This has aggravated stresses to small business owners caused by the general deterioration of the near East Side over the last few decades. Some of them have closed down. It may be a good opportunity to attract them to re-open in Lakewood.

The more business activity there is in lakewood, the more activity can be drawn to or near lakewood.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Charyn/All

For some reason I am not allowed to speak my mind, or go through the history of failures. For some reason I am always the one that is too rough, and I must temper my opinion. So be it.

I get very frustrated when people find so much fault with a city that many if not most from outside find to be healthier than it should be. There is an ever growing group of people that do not see Lakewood so far off the mark, that it is in perfect place to make gains over loses. I agree.

When I challenge anyone over their ideas I am trying to help them sort out is it just something they want, or is it something that truly adds to a city. Applebees was tough to swallow, but a pants store! At least Bret mentioned clothing. I find it very frustrating. Sure a clothing store would be great, but what is the impact on Geiger's? Turnstyle? etc.

The simple fact is, rarely if ever does a "mall/chain" store move into anything but a mall. The reason is they cannot generate the traffic themselves to sustain business. This should be a clue to the value of "a" chain store. So it would appear to be a very hard road to walk down.

As we found out in the WestEnd "small mall" with Tax Abutments needed, and all the other things put forward in the contracts, as of right now, today. the city would be between $7 million or $15 million dollars in debt, or Bankrupt. these numbers come from a person that would know more than any other, and he was PRO-WestEnd.

So if single BIG BOX stores are nearly impossible to attract by themselves, and malls would bankrupt us, it would seem to be a huge waste of time even going down that road. On top of all of this, retail stores are in decline, internet shopping continues to grow at about 300% a year, cost of oil, etc.

Another problem that I just cannot understand is this reluctance to try to brand Lakewood. It would seem to me, and I am no genius, but it only makes sense to make Lakewood very different from all the other cities in the area. That way when someone comes to the region they could pick one of 20 cities that are nearly the same, or one or two that is very, very different. From a marketing point this only makes sense. In the end the city needs to develop a "brand" if for no other reason to attract business and residents.

I cannot as was suggested to me jump on bandwagon I do not believe in. Though it was suggested that I should try. I do not expect you, Shawn, Bret or anyone to do things they do not believe in. But I believe so much in the power of the discussion that all of this is open for discussion and I as you know encourage vetting all ideas. I have never thought it was my way or the highway, to be honest just the opposite. I fought eminent domain on the West End. I saw it as criminal. Since then members of LakewoodAlive had been able to make me realize that in RARE circumstances it might be needed. When something is started, the table must be filled with ALL the told available. I have the ability to change my mind when a good argument or reason is put forward.

So what is the good reason for economic development in the form of retail? Convenience? Lower taxes? Attracting more residents or business? I do not see it doing any of those. To be honest I see it as a very slippery slope, that could be the end of Lakewood. The Lakewood that many of us fell in love with when we moved here or move back here.

Which brings me to another gripe. People that move here and their first thought is to change it into the city they could not afford to move into. I mentioned this as a friend that is working very hard to turn Lakewood into a Tremont type area said to me, "I wish I lived in Tremont, but we cold not afford it." While I like Tremont, with the exception of the crime, and the dirt. If I wanted to live in Tremont I would have moved there. I would not try to change the city 50,000 people had chosen as their home, to my ideal. For all we know 49,000 might hate Tremont.

I have never been against retail, development, chain stores, etc. I am just against development that is not responsible, serves just a few, becomes mandatory in everyone's life, and is 50/50 or less chance of actually working. Lakewood for some strange reason, is staying above all the other inner ring suburbs, not just here, but almost everywhere. Lakewood is in a very precarious balancing act. Every move has to be thought out. Right now we have people moving back into Lakewood. Right now we have businesses moving into Lakewood. It does not take much to turn it either way.

Now I know you like to chastise me because I am the unlucky soul that pays the bills at the Observer. For some reason you and maybe others believe my words, thoughts, questions carry more weight than yours. But we both know this is not true. You are more active then I. Shawn heads the Jaycees and is part of the Youth Master Plan. I would think both of your voices carry more weight than mine. The secret to all of this is the discussion. As you know and have told me many many times. No one is always right, my Utopia is not yours, Shawn's is not mine. somewhere in the middle we form a city we can all live in and with. If an idea does not hold up to the questioning, than it is flawed and should be fine tuned or discarded.

Thanks for taking me to the woodshed again. I will continue to shop Lakewood when I can, and be happy at the short distances I have to travel when I must leave the wood for whatever is missing.

Now my dear for you. Why on earth would you reduce housing? Rentals are starting to fill again as rates climb and the money supply tightens. Lakewood is perfectly positioned to cash in on this and the oil crunch. If anything I would increase housing. A couple more Gold Coast Condos, tear down the first 4 condos and rebuild them twice as high. Look at what Lakewood offers; walking, parks, schools, golf, fishing, boating, YMCA, Library, convienence, etc. This seems like a place people would go to live not shop.

[Kenneth Warren]

Ms. Compeau:

I don’t think it’s quite sensible to grant Mr. O’Bryan the power, despite affects, effects, inflations and passions that drive his high stakes argumentation style over economic development, to cause the loss of any voices on the LO Deck, much less the official agents of the various economic development enterprises whose ostrich acts in the face of Mr. Callentine’s sincere inquiry on a public forum with real names raise serious questions about their capacity and interest to perform with the community in mind.

If somebody finds arguing with Mr. O’Bryan pointless and frustrating, and decides to bail, that’s a choice that person makes.

Come out the woodshed Mr. O’Bryan! Your bad civic self with your real name commands a voice and perspective on economic development that the community deserves to experience and contest full strength.

Kenneth Warren

[Charyn Compeau]

To whom...

It is not the vetting of ideas that I find objectionable - it is when the vetting of ideas becomes a personal attack. As Jim feels when i "take him to the woodshed" is how many feel when he gets out his wide brush to paint those of us who would try to identify critical issues as anti-Lakewood or anti-big business, or to insinuate what we do or do not care about, or how moral we are or are not, etc.

As for calling a spade a spade... I can find at least two other people that stopped posting specifically because they felt attacked - NOT including myself (considering I just to damn dense to realize that I could avoid the hurt feelings by simply keeping my fingers quiet). And there are others that just faded away that I would suspect as well - but to be fair their reasons for leaving were never outlined.

Jim:

I do think that you voice is important and I do think that you have every right to voice your opinion and hope that you would continue to do so. My only wish is that you think about the fact that there are people on the other end of that computer screen with real feelings... feelings that CAN be hurt by mischaracterizations and inflammatory speech.

To answer your questions - I would land bank areas where there is a high concentration of doubles or run down apartments. On the whole there are a great many older homes with significant foundation issues due the area in which we live (love that lake but... there is a price to pay). The lions share of homes with significant issues are the doubles - largely because there is not a significant enough return on investment for the owner of a double to redo the foundation and waterproof.

A very few of these buildings were ever built to last forever and at this point is Lakewood's life is makes more sense to me to take this opportunity to reduce the stock and replace it with places for the residents to work. There are only a few ways to raise income - real estate taxes, income taxes, real estate tax base, income tax base are the biggies.

Raising taxes is not likely to pass.

We are built out so there is no adding to the real estate base (and no I do not support looking out at a peninsula of condos on the lake - I like our lake just the way it is thank you very much!)

That leaves increasing the income tax base. Considering we offer a credit to people that work outside of Lakewood to offset taxes paid to other communities, the best solution (in my opinion mind you) is a to create additional jobs within the city that are attractive to the residents of the city.

Residents dont have to leave the community to work (increasing the chance they might choose to move closer to said work)... lunchtime business activity & shopping increases as people dont shop outside the community on their lunch hour or way home from work. And best of all we keep all of the collected tax. Win, win, winners all around in my book.

Here's in interesting challenge to demonstrate my point:

Suppose you are a middle aged man with two kids and a wife. You just bought your home in Lakewood and are looking for a job to pay the mortgage on you 150K house - preferably one hat will allow your wife to remain home to tend to your children.

Other than working for the city (which some would say is overstaffed as it is <g>) - how many professional jobs of suitable income are available?

Check the job boards, newspapers, recruiters, etc. , and you will see why I vote no for retail and yes for office park light industry. Of course expanding the gold coast has potential too - but while it is technically not reducing the housing stock - it does change the housing mix significantly - which is certainly an option to explore.

[Charyn Compeau]

As for branding - the word has been horribly misused and misunderstood since you first brought it out, Jim.

What you seem to be trying to accomplish falls more in the line of positioning rather than branding per se. While it may seem like a matter of semantics it is a critical distinction.

One of the issue with branding the city is that you have a variety of different audiences to address and only a single product. And while Gillette may package the same razor six ways to Sunday to sell to a variety of audiences - the nature of a city as a collective of people makes repackaging the same product to different audiences extremely difficult.

For example - if we position the brand as pro-business we look anti-resident. If we position the brand as pro-resident we look anti-business. The core problem is that we need both.

The basic process is typically:

1. Define the target audience
2. Define the product attributes
3. Develop the product positioning statement
4. Develop the key messaging strategy

I could go on... but there is no sense until we have done the above. And from I see we are still on step number one by most accounts because the one thing that we all agree on is that no two people see Lakewood the same.

This is where strong, visionary, charismatic leadership comes in.

FWIW
Charyn

[Jim O'Bryan]

Charyn

I will skip most of the stuff about myself.

Branding - I see branding as taking what we have, what we offer, and wrapping it around a short, to the point, description of what Lakewood is all about.

While many, yourself included, think/thought that it was something the "Observer" crew would do to make the city into a Utopia we all dreamed about, I do not think that is the case. Look at the Mission Statement. "The city that knew itself better than any other city ever did." This means we must all bring it to the table, with respect, and with hard skin. If you read the threads, in the entirety rarely am I the first one to bring the heat. Although some of this does get tiresome, and I am a bit cranky with a bad cold.

The single concept of the Observation Deck from day one is to get as many voices to one table as possible. In an open honest discussion about this city and where it is headed and what can be done to help it on it's journey. To have this serious discussion, we have always thought that true ownership of an idea is paramount. This is for a variety of reasons. One, if it is an idea worth pursing, the Observer wants to empower that person/group to explore the possibilities and hopefully carry out that idea to completion.

I am not against Shawn's ideas, and I have to say I appreciate every minute Shawn spends making this city better. But I want to know the affect and effect it will have on the city. Will it help the city, hurt the city, or have no impact. This is what I have asked Shawn, Bret, Joan, yourself and others. This is incredibly important in a built out city like Lakewood. In the past 6 years I have witnessed two plans that would have changed the city and my neighborhood. The WestEnd, and Cecil Yates' plan to move the Beck Center back 500', build a strip mall and Applebees(no kidding). Both would have had huge impacts on surrounding neighborhoods. In the end, neither would have truly added anything to the city. Both would have caused a massive exodus from the surrounding area. Both would have changed the flavor of Lakewood FOREVER. One would have bankrupted us.

Which brings us to taxes. They will be three tax raises on the next three elections. To be honest all three must pass, non will be easy to swallow. Two school levies, and one city tax raise. Now if we look back, I fought for the last tax raise even though many called for a complete accounting. I thought it was unfair to ask the city for a full accounting a month before the vote. Well, now it is more than fair to ask for that complete accounting, and EXACTLY what the money will be used for. It will be up to the city and residents if we want to pass the smallest levy possible and keep things the same, or increase it by as much a 7.5 mil, and give the city money to do grander things. The school levy will be part two and three to get the schools finished and operating.

For there to be a serious impact on our taxes, we would have to build out a 1/4 of the city with retail or manufacturing. Even then, our taxes would rise, and I never see them falling. This is another reason why I ask for the impact of any retail, manufacturing etc. To get this influx we would have to use tax abatements to attract retail and manufacturing. Tax abatement almost never pay off, and it would crush the infrastructure we currently have. Certainly bankrupting us.

But we are lucky, though some refuse to believe it. The city had a population of 70,000. This means we have room to grow back with almost no extra expense. We are perfectly situated with parks, malls all around us, the airport, downtown. WE also have a large amount of people like yourself that works out of their house as designers, marketers, manufacturers, lawyers, consultants, etc.. All of these things should give us a clue to where we should head with the city. Or at least the lowest hanging fruit to help the city.

Which brings me back to my age old question. What is so bad about being the best place to raise a family, start a business, and be conveniently located to everything around us?

This is why I ask people to rate why they moved here. This is why I continue to point out, the city is not as far out of whack as some would have you believe. Lakewood has the ability almost over night to be "German Village," or "Olde Town." If only the residents would drop the low self esteem and wake up and smell the Phoenix Coffee brewing.

If none of this makes sense I will blame the medication and the 20 hours of sleeping that proceeded it.

Charyn, as always thanks for the kind and tough words. I practice what I preach and I know you do the same. We have come to the table as advocates for our families and our cities. Together we can possibly chart a course that makes sense for all.

One final point. Those that do not come to the table to ask questions, answer questions, take part in the conversation, or to vet ideas are people with weak ideas, that have the potential to be very wrong, right out of the box. However those that take the time to engage the residents have a chance to build consensus, get questioned answered, fine tune ideas, and to make monumental strides in helping this city to be better. While some plan in closets, and run from the civic discourse, other have jumped in, claimed it and ride it for all it is worth. It is those riders that will win in the end.

.

[Charyn Compeau]

Branding - I see branding as taking what we have, what we offer, and wrapping it around a short, to the point, description of what Lakewood is all about

True; however, this cannot be accomplished effectively until we have properly positioned ourselves by identifying our audience, key attributes, etc. We can then create the positioning statement that would guide the branding process as a part of the overall key messaging strategy.

Think of it as the prep work that needs to be done to actually create a brand.

While many, yourself included, think/thought that it was something the "Observer" crew would do to make the city into a Utopia we all dreamed about

Untrue, untrue, untrue!!! This is what becomes the frustration. You have decided what my opinion/thoughts were for me - and you are just plain wrong! I looked forward to the Observer moving ahead BECAUSE I felt it was a way for a collective of people to contribute to the process NOT because I somehow thought you were going to come in like Mary Poppins and make everything come up daises.

One, if it is an idea worth pursing

Who decides this? Who decides if it is an idea worth pursuing, assisting or financially backing?

For there to be a serious impact on our taxes, we would have to build out a 1/4 of the city with retail or manufacturing

1) There is always the idea to build up and not out - particularly for offices.
2) I have not (yet) worked any numbers on this so if you could provide the backing for your statement it would be appreciated.

What is so bad about being the best place to raise a family, start a business, and be conveniently located to everything around us?

Who said it is so bad? Not I at least. As for going g back to what we were. That is not likely happen because the world is not what it was. Between rising costs, rising expectations, different work habits, spending habits, different tax laws and treatments... etc etc etc.

The world isnt what it was and while I loved the Lakewood of old dearly - I look forward to the Lakewood of new that is perfectly suited to the families of today.

But I wax philosophical there, I suppose and that vision is one that can be quite different for many people - thus the difficulty positioning the city to meet the desires and needs of the majority of residents.

If only the residents would drop the low self esteem and wake up and smell the Phoenix Coffee brewing.

I, personally, dont have low self esteem about this city at all, but I do t hink that this city - like EVERY single city on Earth - has its share of issues and concerns to deal with. Those are the things I look at discuss here. As for Phoenix Coffee - sorry - but no thanks. Like many things - Phoenix is not for everyone.

Get better (rest and chicken soup )

Kind Regards,
Charyn

[Jim O'Bryan]

Charyn

I will try without quotes.

Barnding - Going back to Joan Roberts comments, and yours at one point, I believe it is artificial, and the hard way to go to "create" a brand as opposed to defining one. Creating a brand, especially to attract any one group, or business would seem artificial. At the same time various points of Lakewood could be amplified to appeal to various groups.

Observer Utopia - go back and look at your comments about the VAL, and the Observer. At one point you expressed concerns, that some of us were trying to move the city one way or the other to create "our" Utopia. That it was being done without the input of many. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Maybe you have eased these fears but at one time they were real, and justifiably so. Right now I worry of the same thing.

Ideas worth pursuing - As this is an open forum, I would imagine anyone could decide. If you remember there was an effort to start a bookstore in Lakewood. A small group of Observers liked the idea and we pursued it. We found that it wasn't that practical, from our point of view. Since then others have thought it might be worth pursuing. Our leg work is available to them, in an effort to help or save them effort. Again because of this open forum anything is possible, anyone can seize an idea, see who came up with it and form their own work group. Another reason we put value on names. Even if myself or others do not see it as practial the Deck and the Paper is open to all to help them achieve their ideas, at no point do any member of the board see ourselves as "The Star Chamber."

Up not out - I was not specifically speaking of acres, but of volume. To offset our tax burden to any extent worth talking about you would need a bunch of development. With most large development projects comes abatement, as the number of cities whoring themselves out increases. This just became harder, as if the business were to come from one of 10 cities we would actually have to split taxes, while not getting any relief in the abatement.

These numbers are available to all. Just use the Westend numbers, and extrapolate them out. While as you grow the variables increase, but you will get a good feel. Then ask yourself one simple question. Do you want to live next to the mall, the office, the traffic, etc. I would expect the answer is no. This would be true to most that have chosen the sleepy little hollar known as Lakewood. I know of one project that has been put on hold because some did not want additional traffic in their neighborhood. Some of those fighting it are very pro economic development. This means to me it could be a problem anywhere in this city. So we must also face the fact that any large development would change the flavor of the city for ever with traffic, crime, etc. It could cause an exodus from the city. Add abatement with less residents and it gets very ugly very quickly.

When residents look at what THEY need, or what the city needs as opposed to how we can make what we have even better seems to me a self esteem issue. When one neighbor is ready to ask other neighbors to move to make THEIR city better is borders on selfishness. The key as you have always said is "better for a majority."

The city does have some very serious issues. Lakewood could be perceived as at a crossroads. Do we chuck in the past, and build out? Do we sacrifice the peace and quit for the hustle and bustle of offices, retail, etc. However a simple look at our neighbors, the markets, and the future should be extremely helpful in charting this future, and making Lakewood the best it can be for a majority of the residents and/or businesses.

As for Phoenix, I have to admit I am a sucker for businesses that give back a ton to the community as opposed to Caribou that takes their money out of the city. But alas, each to their own.

As always, I love kicking it with you.

.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Brett

I have been slight disingenuous with my answers, hoping someone else would jump in.

Recently I have been working on getting a large electronics chain to move in Lakewood. As they are clients I drove around with them, and we located a couple buildings. At that point it should be turned over to the Planning Department because they have the BIG PICTURE of what is going on in the city, TIFFs available, etc.

I would imagine this is true for the Chamber that receives money from the Planning Department.

I am not sure anyone is actually trolling for businesses to bring in. But i can assure you if you get even a hint of someone interested they will do everything possible to put what they can in front of them.


.

[Kenneth Warren]

Ms Compeau:

Lakewood is something of a muddle forever on the cusp (of what?). Maybe nothing much but just enough. Which is why the experts remain mystified, as to how the Wood still hangs on without spiralling down.

I like very much your sense of “the Lakewood of new that is perfectly suited to the families of today.â€Â

[Bret Callentine]

All,

Wow, who knew taking a few days off from the net would lead to this? My original post was simply a call to our local politicians to try to get their thoughts on a touchy issue. Who knew the same people who were so bold with their self congratulatory rhetoric in other threads would wither so publicly from an honest question with what should be a simple answer.

Would we have two pages in this thread if someone, anyone from city hall would have stepped forward and just said, "Bret, you raise a good question, unfortunately, no one has really focused on that issue in the past, but here's what I think we should do in the future."

To those that think a major retailer would be some sort of plague on our society. I humbly disagree. As my only source of reference, I offer my home town of Oakwood, Ohio (just south of Dayton). It's a first ring suburb that while being more affluent than Lakewood, does utilize a handful of chain style shops (Gap, Ethan Allen, etc) to draw people in to their sidewalk style shopping district. It looks a lot like Detroit with the shops on the end of the block and houses right up behind.

Now, I realize that there are many other issues at play there, however, I'm merely proposing the possibility, not proclaiming it's feasibility.

To the side issue that this thread has become, that of trying to identify (if not brand) Lakewood as a community. I will fill you in on a little secret...

About ten years ago, my wife and I were living in Louisville, Kentucky. We weren't particularly happy, and needed a change. With neither of us to far into a given career, we decided that location, not jobs, would be the major factor in finding a new place to live. We started with a globe (not just focusing on living in the U.S.) The process was long and tedious and each potential location went through a detailed examination to determine it's benefits and drawbacks. We considered cities like Seattle, Baltimore, Chicago, Indianapolis, Santa Fe, etc. But in the end, Cleveland beat them all.

All our friends and family told us we were crazy. But we trusted our research and felt strong in our decision. On our first trip to Cleveland we put hundreds of miles on our car, criss crossing the North Coast looking for just the right neighborhood. But it wasn't until we stumbled across Lakewood that we knew we were home.

If you want to brand Lakewood, than my offering would be : "Lakewood, the worlds perfect neighborhood."

Location, Location, Location is all you need to know. In ten minutes, I can be downtown, If a snow storm hits, I can still walk to the end of the block for groceries and just about anything I need. When I go to the coffee shop, I can sit and hear a half dozen different languages (yes, the diversity actually drew my family here). This is a front porch neighborhood, not a gated community where people hide in the back. When I call the police, three cars appear within a minute. When I poured a new concrete walkway, several neighbors showed up without me even asking and helped me out.

The people who run from a city like this are fools. They think they are safer, or in a more stable environment. But it's all an illusion.

It's the people that make a city, not the store fronts or the tax base or even some signage at the end of a block. And I wouldn't trade the people of this city for anything.

Yes, i'll take the homeless, I'll deal with the drugs and I'll pay my share of taxes. The only thing that really bothers me is the number of people that seem to think they need to apologize for living here.

How often have you heard someone say; "well we live in Lakewood now, but we're saving for a place in Bay Village." or "well, we'd like to live in Rocky River, but we just couldn't afford the house we wanted."

The biggest thing that this city is lacking is PRIDE. I LIVE IN LAKEWOOD DAMMIT AND IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHY, THEN THERE'S NO POINT IN ME TRYING TO EXPLAIN IT TO YOU.

now can we get back to the real issue; will our mayoral hopefuls strap a set on and answer the freakin' question?