http://media.lakewoodobserver.com/issue_pdfs/Observer_Vol_08_Issue_07.pdf
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It's Spring fever. That's what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want-- oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! - Mark Twain
And so Spring comes to da' Wood. A name so many hated from the earliest days of being used in the Lakewood Observer. So much outcry over a simple and what we thought at the time funny, coooooool name for the Brand we were trying to find, describe, and amplify. It was so funny from day one of the Observer project as some of us looked back. The Observer was set up so that we could know more about Lakewood, it residents, its officials, its programs, and then while looking at them, understand them, and eventually amplify them. This is just common sense, it is the way to an easy road to success. Find who you are, what you are, and then simply find like-minded people. When a community is 80% there, all one needs to do is finish the 15% or so. After all nothing is perfect, communities always need work. That was 8 years ago.
This year we just won "Best Suburb in the County" again. So for a moment, let's skip that Lakewood is the second biggest suburb in the county, so maybe the Scene focused on readership. Let's forget that a ton of ads, maybe a larger percentage than any other city comes from Lakewood, so maybe the Scene was just trying to sell ads. Let's forget that the editor and 1/4 of the staff live in Lakewood, after all maybe that is because we are the best, not the reason why we were voted the best. This third year of celebration do we even understand why or how we got here, or where we are going? Are we simple doing things to look like we are doing things? Is the city trying so hard to grow and reinvent itself that it has never stopped to smell the roses or more importantly understand who we are and how we got here? For without understanding that, it is nearly impossible to build anything worth building, or that has any chance of sustaining, and sustainability is the foundation a city or business can compete from, and make no mistake we are in competition.
We, that is the City of Lakewood, will not win this competition with more burgers, hell, anymore food places (we just passed #305). But we can win with clean safe streets and parks, that are there to be enjoyed not feared. We can win this competition with great schools that are properly funded and utilized by all of the residents of Lakewood. We can win this competition by making sure we retain our "cool" by letting people live their lives in as open a way as possible, unless they infringe on the right of others to do so. After all we have location, we have accessibility, we have walkability, we have livability. If we cannot win this with all of that, then we must look at why?
One last quick thing to mention. Mayor Summers kicked off his State of the City Address with a great story about some refugees from Burma, or Thailand, whatever it matters not, they are here and we love them for it. But the story was how great, and cheap and easy it was for them to get a Habitat for Humanity House in Lakewood. I love Habitat for Humanity, great program, helps so many. But what I would ask the mayor, why not make it as easy for those who live to to keep their homes. I think we all have millions of examples where the fix is much easier and cheaper than the cure and treatment down the road.
The "Best City" with a population of 51,000 residents, cannot be that hard to maintain with good leadership and vision. It is also not that hard to fall off that pedestal with a simply slip or moment of taking the eye off the ball.
It should be an interesting and fun summer, see you all at the Old House Fair.
peace/love
James C. O'Bryan
Publisher
Lakewood Observer, Inc.