City snow plows

[Ryan Salo]

Has anyone seen any city snow plows? I live on Clifton and it has not been plowed or salted yet. Did this storm catch city hall off guard? Did we send them to the east coast?

[Ryan Salo]

So I just called city hall and found out that we have 7 trucks out right now, and I guess that is normal for us. I then called rocky river, they have 13... Do we really have a businessman running this city? Services keep residents safe and happy. Are you safe on lakewood roads today?

[Ryan Salo]

Cleveland heights has 13 out as well...

[marklingm]

Do we really have a businessman running this city?

On July 30, 2007:

I am Michael P. Summers. I am a candidate for Lakewood City Council, Ward 3. I am seeking this important leadership position for the following reasons:

1) I believe that Lakewood is at a tipping point
2) I believe in Lakewood's future, but I believe its positive future will not come about easily or naturally
3) I believe that Lakewood's greatest strength is the intellectual capital of its residents. It has many other strengths, but its human capital provides the catalyst for innovation, investment, cooperation and determination.
4) Lakewood has many challenges. All of them need to be acknowledged, and dealt with.
5) Lakewood City government should have three major areas of strategic Focus:

a. Preserving and growing the quality of all of its housing stock
i. Maintaining existing housing stock
ii. Developing new forms of housing stock
iii. Reworking obsolete forms of housing stock

b. Achieving structural balance with expenses less than revenues- sufficient that the city creates a capacity for investment in its future- in addition to maintaining and improving its core services.

c. Lakewood can gain financial strength through focused economic development of commercial office job expansion (vs. Industrial or retail development.)

I believe Lakewood City Council's role is to create focus, create and foster alignment of all resources- both public and private, toward a consensus driven agenda that will ensure that Lakewood tips in the direction that preserves and grows the quality of life for its citizens.

I seek to be a leader in this important effort.

http://www.lakewoodobserver.com/deck/viewtopic.php?t=4443

On June 4, 2012:

Why doesn't government behave more like business?

I am frequently asked about my views and experiences regarding the differences between business leadership and government leadership. It is a great question and I am in a very unique position to answer it.

***

Likewise, some other noteworthy differences between government and business are the respective approaches to strategy development processes, customer feedback, suppliers and competitors, performance measurements, organizational development and employee motivation. These subjects will be a story for another day.

By no means should these differences be viewed as excuses for lesser government performance. Business leadership principles do apply. But not directly. At the core of both good business and good government is a commitment to goals, great customer service, efficient use of resources and effective implementation of thoughtful strategies. This is exactly what we are endeavoring to do in Lakewood city Government.

http://lakewoodmayor.blogspot.com/2012/06/why-doent-government-behanve-more-like.html

[Tim Liston]

Hey Matthew....

Lots of cut and paste above, but not one original word. Is there a point you are making? If so please let us know.

[Tim Liston]

Hey Ryan....

Maybe you should just plan on staying at home tonight instead of counting trucks. It's winter. Sometimes we get a lot of snow.

[Ryan Salo]

Tim,

Thank you for the advice to just stick my head in the snow and ignore the obvious problem. I guess people that just stay at home don't need to worry about those traveling on our city streets.

Why should we see how other cities do things better, there isn't room for improvement here is there...

Ryan

[Peter Grossetti]

This got me thinking (and doing some quick wikipedia research)

Lakewood - 6.7 square miles
Rocky River - 5.6 sq miles
Cleveland Hts - 8.1 sq miles

I did not take the time to find out the number of miles of streets/roads each municipality maintains (which might be a better ingredient to stir into the pot) ... but knowing a just bit about each of these communities, Im guessing Lakewood -because of its density- has the most??

I'm not trying to make any point at all ... just tossing some proverbial fuel on the fuel.

I'll check back later as I have a driveway and sidewalk to shovel.

[marklingm]

Hey Matthew....

Lots of cut and paste above, but not one original word. Is there a point you are making? If so please let us know.

Hey, Tim ...

The point is simply to respond to Ryan's question.

I thought it was best to simply use Mike Summers' original words since I doubt Mike is going to jump in here.

But, here's the "CliffsNotes" version for you instead.

Do we really have a businessman running this city?

On July 30, 2007, Mike Summers - the Ward 3 City Council Candidate - explains why government should behave more like business. See http://www.lakewoodobserver.com/deck/viewtopic.php?t=4443.

On June 4, 2012, Mike Summers - the Mayor and Public Safety Director - explains why government doesn't behave more like business. See http://lakewoodmayor.blogspot.com/2012/06/why-doent-government-behanve-more-like.html.


Again, I'm just answering Ryan's question with Mike's original words.

Let's all chill out and enjoy the blizzard.

After all, we’re all just good neighbors talking over the snowy digital fence about life in and around Lakewood, Ohio.

Matt

[marklingm]

Thank you for the advice to just stick my head in the snow and ignore the obvious problem.

I'm not trying to make any point at all ... just tossing some proverbial fuel on the fuel.

... I see what you two did there ...

[Peter Grossetti]

Hey, there goes one (a city snow plow) now!

[Jim O'Bryan]

Has anyone seen any city snow plows? I live on Clifton and it has not been plowed or salted yet. Did this storm catch city hall off guard? Did we send them to the east coast?

Ryan

I actually saw a pretty good response from City Trucks today and tonight.


Snow storm Euclid hit. Really we name snow storms?


Height of the storm, and you can see the road has been plowed recently.


And while I was shoveling the walks to keep them clear, the truck went by many times.


But you can see even the side streets look good.


So I did my bit and shoveled. Clearing walks is one of the manual labor things I love.


Streets clear, walks clear, time to go and relax.

Please keep your walks clear, it is the neighborly thing to do.

.

[Ryan Salo]

Jim,

I am glad to see that small parts of Lakewood received a good response. It looks like most of the 7 trucks must have been in your area. I had to run a few errends this evening so I drove around lakewood at around 9pm and there were still dozens of side streets that had not been touched even once. I then drove through rocky river and even dead end streets had been salted...

I guess my big question is how can we justify having nearly half the number of trucks as surrounding communities when we have 93 miles of street to cover? Is this safe? I know of at least one accident that would not have happened if they were driving in a city that takes driving safety more seriously.

Texting while driving laws? How about safe streets to drive on first?

[Jill Jusko]

Can't speak for citywide, but I'll have to give a thumbs up to road crews by me. Thought they did a good job keeping up.

According to the mayor's Twitter account: "up to 18 plows working on lkwd rds. will work all night in 12 hr shifts. each plow runs 5 mile loops. shift changes at midnight & 3AM"

[Ryan Salo]

According to the mayor's Twitter account: "up to 18 plows working on lkwd rds. will work all night in 12 hr shifts. each plow runs 5 mile loops. shift changes at midnight & 3AM"

That is interesting. The streets department at city hall says we only have 7 trucks. I wonder which is correct, that is a big discrepancy.

It is also interesting that the Mayor tweeted that at 6:00pm. Which was after the storm had ended. 3 hours later a large chunk of the city was still not plowed and RR was done. If we really have 18 trucks covering 93 miles, the entire city should be complete in no time, especially once the snow stops.