Bad Press for Lakewood

[Amy Kloss]

Reading the Monday Moaning column in the Plain Dealer yesterday, I noticed that a writer was complaining about cars being towed from the Giant Eagle parking lot during the football game on Saturday (playoff game between Ignatius and ? -- I don't really follow sports). The moaner was blaming the city of Lakewood for towing the cars in an attempt to increase revenue. Here is the link:
http://www.cleveland.com/mondaymoaning/ ... _2009.html

I'm assuming that if cars were towed from the GE parking lot, it was the owners of the building doing it, not the city. Does anyone know anything about this? If these owners were smart, they would charge a parking fee during these events instead of towing cars from an unused lot.

The moaner also commented that the attendees spent a lot of money in bars and restaurants on Madison and Detroit before and after the game. This made me wonder if either the city or any of the business organizations in Lakewood have tried to capitalize on the influx of people who come into Lakewood for events at the football stadium or the Civic Auditorium. It seems that this would be a golden opportunity to pass out fliers, maps, coupons, etc. for the many restaurants and sports bars located in Lakewood. People coming from the south or east side of Cleveland may have heard of Melt, but have no idea how to actually get there, much less know about the other unique places to eat here. (As a former east-sider, I once drove up and down Clifton Blvd. looking for a bar to go to. I had heard there were a lot of them in Lakewood.)

Comments?

[J Hrlec]

I don't know what businesses in Lakewood currently do for advertising during concert and sports events, but it sure sounds like a potential way to grab more business.

As far as the parking situation, does anyone know if there are no parking or tow away signs in that parking lot?

[Bob Mehosky]

But that's a private parking lot. The city doesn't have anything to do with it.

Play by the rules and you don't get towed. Non-issue.

[LCannon]

Speaking of the football game, normally, we expect to see trash littering our street after a "big" football game and pick it up. Alas, it's the price we pay andn that's fine as we assume these visitors are spending $$ in Lakewood and that's a good thing.

On Sunday, however, the usual trash was left behind at Roosevelt Elementary School parking lot, but so was a bottle of urine. I find this appalling and dangerous. Some unknowing, curious child could have handled it. To make matters worse, there was a trash can less than 30 feet away! The moaner may complain about towing by a private parking lot owner, but I am complaining about ill mannered, boorish visitors who feel it's OK to leave their trash littering Lakewood streets after "big" football games. There seems to be no common courtesy anymore.

[J Hrlec]

Speaking of the football game, normally, we expect to see trash littering our street after a "big" football game and pick it up. Alas, it's the price we pay andn that's fine as we assume these visitors are spending $$ in Lakewood and that's a good thing.

On Sunday, however, the usual trash was left behind at Roosevelt Elementary School parking lot, but so was a bottle of urine. I find this appalling and dangerous. Some unknowing, curious child could have handled it. To make matters worse, there was a trash can less than 30 feet away! The moaner may complain about towing by a private parking lot owner, but I am complaining about ill mannered, boorish visitors who feel it's OK to leave their trash littering Lakewood streets after "big" football games. There seems to be no common courtesy anymore.

How do we not know this was left by a Lakewood resident and not a visitor or that it was not there prior to the event. I think that happening is pretty gross as well, but I think this is a valid question based on the thread topic...

[Heather Ramsey]

They're apparently talking about the OLD Giant Eagle lot; not sure who owns that at this point, but I'm assuming it's still a private entity. I'd admittedly be pissed if I got towed for parking in it, but I probably would have been too nervous that that would happen to park there in the first place. I think the real issue is not having anywhere to legally park for big games, especially now that the old lot is largely filled with temporary classrooms.

[Justine Cooper]

Amy,
I remember after moving here to Lakewood and coming out of Harry Buffalos and there was a woman in the parking lot calling a local tow truck company on cars that parked next door in the lot where businesses were closed for the day. The posting for "private" parking was either too small to see or not there, but I realized then that it was a big business for a local towing company here in Lakewood to "work" with others in towing peoples' cars. I felt really badly for the ones who had dinner and came out to find their car towed. And it felt like a set up. Yea the "logical" answer is to not park in "private" lots, but if noone is using the lot (like in the GE case) why can't something be done to utilize the dead space for games, etc.? Are businesses getting kickbacks for towing?

The truth is, Lakewood doesn't have enough parking and the city should work with local businesses to utilize "dead" or empty lots for events where others are visiting. Yes this is good for all businesses since many eat or patronize local businesses before and after.

I think your marketing idea is a great idea. Maybe the Chamber will whip up some map of businesses (Madison included of course) to distribute.