Paul/Mike
A strong Cleveland definitely is a plus for Lakewood, that is unless it sucks out
development dollars that could have been used for inner ring suburbs. It is great
for Lakewood unless it starts to feed on Lakewood, as it already has with Tremont,
Ohio City, Downtown, Collinwood. (See Bill Call posts)
You see the problem is that Cleveland, bought into CLE+, the new version of "Cleveland is
a plum." It was hip, new, cool, and it got a huge push from all of the non-profits, like the
Cleveland Foundation, buying into the hype they started. At the meetings, they joked that
the young people would love the simplicity, after all "the people need it simple, real
simple." "Cleveland, the best location in the nation" was old, and too complicated. It
sounded like grandparents. So people just as old, who were paid huge salaries, came up
with "CLE+" for the mindless to follow and get behind.
The thought process was: put the areas together and we have the same GDP as Rwanda,
allowing us to be "players" on the world stage in the global market place. It was all hype--
put out Foundations collecting millions, and groups like Team Neo and hundreds of others
dying to get their hands on the grant checks that went with the slogan. Things built on hype
sooner or later falls apart. Youngstown was the first to bail, getting their act together
without the help of the grant- eaters getting paid millions to trickle down hundreds, or
sometimes less.
One of my favorite CLE + stories is how Team Neo was trying to lure "a successful
entrepreneur" to Cleveland. They flew this successful entrepreneur in, they put him up at
the Ritz Carlton, they showed him the city, then they sat down to talk about the pluses of
moving his entire empire to CLEVELAND (not Lakewood). The thought was that something
as big as this could kickstart the community, and they had been getting millions to make
CLE+ slightly better than Rwanda.
And who was this celebrity that Team Neo (chosen by the Lakewood Chamber of
Commerce to talk to the Leaders of Lakewood at the Community Breakfast)? None other
than the man who had bought the rights to "Bat Boy" from the Weekly World News. That's
right, not the originator, but the guy that bought the rights, after all the hype was over.
This is how desperate and pitiful the chase for cool can be.
It is this mindset that has held Cleveland back. After all, if you make millions if not billions
for helping a city, do you ever want it not to need your very special help? Really, give up
your six figure job for what? I see earlier someone mentioned the Euclid Corridor. A
complete joke. Euclid Avenue, once filled with privately owned businesses, is now filled
with huge shining buildings, 90% or more that are non-profit or government.
That's right. Those buildings exist to take money from people for redistribution after taking
45% off the top. It is a sim city of unreality, propped up with the newest people buying
into the ponzi like scheme, instead of simply coming to the Cleveland area because of
the weather, time zone, economy, cost of living, amount of fresh water, and ease of getting
around, things that all seem easier to market than "Bat Boy."
So that in the end, the only thing Cleveland attracts is people who are already living in the
area. It is all nothing more than a shell game controlled by a few, and fed by the paid
hype of many. You want money from the Cleveland Foundation, the Gund Foundation?
You better embrace "CLE+."
Which means EVERY CDC is all about CLE+ even when they think it is a joke. They have
no choice. So the hype and scheme builds. Those desperate to keep non-profit jobs, tell
their volunteers to repeat. Kind of like how a high school football coach uses the bodies of
young players to keep his/her job.
So that Collinwood gets hip, and people move into Collinwood, soon they figure out it is
hype, and move to Tremont where they realize its hype, then they move back to Ohio City,
where they realize it is still hype, and move Downtown.
The fastest growing community is the anchor to a region that is losing people everyday.
GET IT? "CLE+" -- a flawed scheme that has failed, and driven Cleveland into a ditch.
Actually since CLE+ started the population of Cleveland has fallen by over 25%.
Now what is even funnier is that in Collinwood, Tremont, Downtown, rebirth was not just
started organically, ie, without grants or the need for anyone to brand them "hip" or "cool"
for the week-minded, but because they were the best places at the time for the people
who started them. The first people to live in Downtown and make "warehouses/apartments"
started in 1977, a couple Lakewood guys living in the Bradley Building. It has been built up
every since. In 1982 the first legal warehouse apartment was approved.
In Tremont, a Lakewood person saw how cheap the homes were and bought 20 of them,
offering them to friends in the arts, music and business. Both of those groups have tried to
get things going in Lakewood, only to be told no, no, no, repeatedly. We are on the plan to
being hip, just ask the Cleveland Foundation. It was not until long after the cool was
established that the CDCs and non-profits jumped in to take credit. CDCs love taking credit for anything.
Through it all, Lakewood remained the very un-hip best place to live and raise a family.
While the others were selling their souls to bars and clubs in a desperate attempt to be
cool, Lakewood just dedicated itself to new schools, new libraries, and great police and fire service.
As The Flats came and left, Ohio City came and left, came and left, Tremont came, blew
out, now filling with really uncool people, Slavic Village coming on, Collinwood coming on,
and Downtown coming on, Lakewood just kept their head, and their eye on the prize: good
schools, good library, a dedication to education and smart people, that helped to make
Lakewood the best place to live and raise a family. For over 100 years.
Kind of amazing, isn't it? That a simple dedication to honest, real living, would make a real city, real popular.
Lakewood, hold on. City Hall has been written about, and they are deep in taking full
credit for something that has been here all along. The other day I was speaking with a
member of council, commenting on how Lakewood has held its own for over 50 years. The
comment back was: "It is certainly nicer today than it was in the past when it was bad"?
Now I have been here on and off for nearly 60 years. I must have missed that bad period.
A clear rewrite of local history to prop up how well they have saved the city!
To be honest, in nearly 60 years, I never remember the city saying, "We cannot keep
parks safe and clean we have to shut them." Until this administration and council took
over. I do not remember any other administration saying, "We need to save $43,000 a
year, take your own garbage to the streets." I do not remember any other administration
needing to hire a PR person to spin the news EVERY DAY, let alone needing that person to
further lies and untrue stories in order to cover up the facts. I do not remember any other
administration admitting they have failed to such an extent that the city is hemorrhaging
and all we can do to make ends meet is to make our churches into sports bars in the
middle of a neighborhood.*
I have only heard of one other community taking hoops down because the kids are out of
control, and that city has put them back up and added to them.
Nothing worse than when a city believes its own hype, well maybe when the city starts
trying to live up to the hype while ignoring the very thing that got them there: schools,
families, libraries, neighborhoods. Yeah, the bar owners might contribute to your election
war chest, but it is the people of Lakewood that ultimately vote for you.
Do they drive it into the river, following other hip failed communities banking on bars, or do they sober up and realize
it is all about the residents?* For the record these are City Hall thoughts, not mine.
.
