Walking The Talk

[Mark Kindt]

Excerpt From My Letter Of June 24, 2020 To Local Officials

"I write to request the immediate repeal of recent legislation that expanded outdoor or patio dining for bars and restaurants in Lakewood.

This legislation was adopted without meaningful epidemiological information about a pandemic that most reliable sources had concluded was largely unmitigated and likely to become worse.

The Governor of the State of Ohio has explained this to the public in a sincere and comprehensive manner on an almost daily basis since my last correspondence. As I am sure you know, news reports in almost any medium confirm that the pandemic is largely unmitigated and increasing in scale on a daily basis.

While the legislation may have been well-intentioned, it should now be repealed before its implementation by the Planning Commission becomes a public health threat to residents and visitors to Lakewood.

Moreover, the legislation has been misrepresented in print in a manner that may improperly imply that Lakewood is or will be safe from Covid-19 for residents and visitors who dine or drink here.

I am also convinced that this legislation is to the actual and serious detriment to the very businesses that it was intended to assist in terms of potential legal liability to patrons who contract Covid-19 on their premises or onto expanded public property. [Edited by author for purposes of this post; absent in original letter.]

I encourage each of you to consider the current unprecedented situation and reevaluate the public health risks of expanded outdoor or patio dining in Lakewood."

Additionally, I want to note that the Planning Commission is reviewing numerous applications for expanded outdoor dining.

[Mark Kindt]

Please Read The Attached Washington Post Article on Covid-19 Autopsies

No Lakewood resident, visitor, or employee should have to run the risk of a severe, but unknown disease while dining or serving on public property as a matter of a municipal policy, especially during an obviously unmitigated and growing pandemic.

The issuance of conditional use permits by the Planning Commission to bars and restaurants for expanded outdoor dining on City property should be halted immediately.

Their continued issuance creates a risk that no resident, visitor should be asked to bear.

[Mark Kindt]

The Overall Situation Is Now Much Worse

A month after I sent my letter to the Lakewood city government, the entire situation is worse and we all know it.

Here's The New York Times analysis for Ohio as of today:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... cases.html

The State of Ohio will be under a state-wide mask order as of 6pm this evening.

Yesterday, both Cleveland and Columbus were singled out by the federal government as urban areas with surging or aggressive growth in cases.

More than another 1,000 Ohioans have died since Memorial Day Weekend.

Death Toll = 3,235.

[Mark Kindt]

Excerpt From My Letter Of June 24, 2020 To Local Officials

"I write to request the immediate repeal of recent legislation that expanded outdoor or patio dining for bars and restaurants in Lakewood.

This legislation was adopted without meaningful epidemiological information about a pandemic that most reliable sources had concluded was largely unmitigated and likely to become worse.

The Governor of the State of Ohio has explained this to the public in a sincere and comprehensive manner on an almost daily basis since my last correspondence. As I am sure you know, news reports in almost any medium confirm that the pandemic is largely unmitigated and increasing in scale on a daily basis.

While the legislation may have been well-intentioned, it should now be repealed before its implementation by the Planning Commission becomes a public health threat to residents and visitors to Lakewood.

Moreover, the legislation has been misrepresented in print in a manner that may improperly imply that Lakewood is or will be safe from Covid-19 for residents and visitors who dine or drink here.

I am also convinced that this legislation is to the actual and serious detriment to the very businesses that it was intended to assist in terms of potential legal liability to patrons who contract Covid-19 on their premises or onto expanded public property. [Edited by author for purposes of this post; absent in original letter.]

I encourage each of you to consider the current unprecedented situation and reevaluate the public health risks of expanded outdoor or patio dining in Lakewood."

Additionally, I want to note that the Planning Commission is reviewing numerous applications for expanded outdoor dining.

A policy mandated to expire by ordinance on October 31,2020 is now, sadly, on its way to permanence for the duration of the pandemic.

[Mark Kindt]

My Reasons To Oppose The Expansion Of Outdoor Dining For The Duration Of The Pandemic

I fundamentally oppose the extension of outdoor dining onto public right-of-ways beyond the ordinance sunset date of October 31, 2020.

My primary concerns are numerous:

1. The program has been misrepresented to the media and the public as "safe or safer" without evidence, despite a large and recent body of sophisticated data that the city has large classes of citizen likely at healthcare risk. (See, the 2018 Confidential 90-Day Study -- providing a neighborhood-by-neighborhood analysis of healthcare at risk groups.)

2. Participants in the program have already had to quarantine employees and delay return to operations.

3. There is little or no available rationale for subjecting residents, visitors and employees to the risk of disease contagion on local public right-of-ways (sidewalks, streets).

4. Victims of such contagion now have NO meaningful legal recourse to address damages they might suffer on public sidewalks/streets (as a result of Amended House Bill 606 signed into law on September 14, 2020).

5. The effect of the State legislation largely eliminates the benefit of the required insurance coverage under this ordinance already set to expire.

6. Their is simply no recommendation in the federal CDC guidelines that cities designate by ordinance use of public right of ways for private business use by bars and restaurants, either temporarily or for the duration of the pandemic.

While the original ordinance may have been enacted with good intentions, it would be a serious mistake for all to extend or expand it for the duration, the unknown duration, of this global pandemic.

Let the ordinance naturally expire on October 31, 2020 as originally intended.

[Dan Alaimo]

Lest anyone think Mark Kindt is the only Lakewood resident with these concerns, I'd like to add my voice.

In particular the lack of legal recourse seems dead wrong. Until this is addressed either through the courts or with an insurance provision, this plan should be stopped in its tracks when it is scheduled to end. As often happens, they have over-played their hand.

[Mark Kindt]

If I am materially incorrect in my recent posts on this topic. I will be happy to provide correct information. My office telephone number is (216) 521-6024.

I standby what I have written here.