The Observation Deck

It has been the philosphy of the Observer since day one. To pass any and all information without slant or bias. And use that to build the very public, very inclusive on-line and in person discussion. That it is only through transparency, and public discussion/dissension that real problems can be solved. This this is not Jimmyville, but Lakewood Ohio.

Sorry, Jim, but with over 6500 posts, it feels and looks like Jimmyville. If you took a 6 week hiatus from posting, how would the Deck look?

I don't expect you to take a sabbatical, because this is your business, and your passion....any more than I would back away from LakewoodAlive. That said, I am definitely replaceable. I'm not sure the Deck would survive without you.

Mary Anne Crampton wrote:Sorry, Jim, but with over 6500 posts, it feels and looks like Jimmyville. If you took a 6 week hiatus from posting, how would the Deck look?

I don't expect you to take a sabbatical, because this is your business, and your passion....any more than I would back away from LakewoodAlive. That said, I am definitely replaceable. I'm not sure the Deck would survive without you.

Mary Anne

I have never asked you to step back from anything. Actually in our many meetings face to face which always seem cordial I often tell you what a good job you are doing. I have always given you 100% support, and I believe the paper if you were to count column inches might be your second largest sponsor.

6500 posts, many for the schools, city hall, news, jobs, LakewoodAlive, Police, edits post etc. Yes this is my passion but it is not my job. I own three business on Mainstreet, in the downtown footprint. The Lakewood Observer is merely my passion. My passion to make sure that Lakewood is never beset with another ill planned project built on lies. To do that the forum had to be open, to all. So that people can attack me an the platform. Why I do not understand, as I said it has always been here for you and LA, and will continue to be open. Why marginalize the Observer because some Lakewood residents and taxpayers dare to ask questions.

I actually took a two month sabbatical, and the board did seem to not only breath, but survive. Only a fool would think they are not replaceable. The LO has grown and many people have taken over other duties, and yes I am looking for a new publisher, to take over for me. Thursday night will be my third meeting with her. Might not happen but if I could find someone, who could run it, and keep it open and on track, I would hand it over in a second. To date, most have agendas, that will not do in the new era of transparency.

Jimmyville?! Lakewood looks like Jimmyville? Hardly? I cannot think of one part opf Lakewood that looks like Jimmyville or that I am trying to cast in my ideal image. I would like the streets clean. I think high rises along the lake make sense. I see the many possibilities of a peninsula, I like free concerts and outdoors events. Jimmyville? No that was a promise I made to a very wise mutual friend the day he signed on. I would grow up and learn that the city needs to be trusted. That it is always better to sit down in an open discussion and walk even a couple feet in the other person's shoes. That not only am not always right but that I am rarely right. But buy asking and working with enough people and making use of their knowledge, maybe, just maybe I can start to understand the problem better and the many possible solutions. Jimmyville? No University of Bejing.

Lakewood yes, and I love that.

But hey, a boy can dream, even with the cynicism of an old man, a boy can dream.

right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOPDI03gmUw

PS - When I mentioned one I was thinking of Lakewood Christian Service Center. They work wonders, but it is not a CDC.



.

If Lakewood could be "Markyville", I'll make a LOT of changes

Mark Crnolatas

Hi,
Ms. Crampton, you said:

"There is no firm in Lakewood that can provide the complete set of services offered by Studio Graphique. We went with the best. We did it for Lakewood. This city deserves it."

I have to say that I disagree strongly with that comment. I know of a number of people that live (and some actually works) in Lakewood that are capable of doing what you needed. The fact that your "organization claims it is devoted to economic development in Lakewood, and which encourages citizens to "shop Lakewood" and support local business," adds further insult to the statement you made.

Could you please present to us all the effort you did in searching for Lakewood talent prior to making you your claim? What RFPs? What posts on this or any other forum did you make? What e-mails did you send out asking for Lakewood talent? Which meetings that your group held did you announce that you had this need?

There are some that live in this Great City that suffer day in and day out with an inferiority complex. They think Lakewood is not "good enough" and therefore, the people that live in Lakewood are "not good enough". Oddly, your statement speaks directly to that attitude.

I have never had the pleasure to live in a City with talent and diversity packed tighter than it is in Lakewood. If you look you will find people that actively work to solve many of the major issues facing our World right next door. I struggle to think of a problem that could not be solved with Lakewood talent.

If you think you can't, you are probably right. If you think you can, you are probably equally correct.

So, please say all you want about the firm you hired, but do not lay claim that it could not have been done by Lakewood people.

Don,

Didn't you just sell your house? Was your real estate firm a Lakewood based firm?

I think the Lakewood Schools just employed a Delaware based consultant to help facilitate Phase III?

Here is more on Studio Graphique that was posted on the LakewoodAlive website January 20th. I encourage all of you to visit the website noted in the editor's note.

Studio Graphique: Lakewood Connection

My name is Allison Copeland Levine and I am the Marketing Director for Studio Graphique. I am a Lakewood resident, my husband and I have lived in the city for 5.5 years now and we are raising our 2.5 year old son in Lakewood because we love the city and all that it has to offer. We are homeowners, our son attends the Lakewood Community Care Center and I am thrilled to be a part of this project to help make Lakewood a better place for visitors and residents alike.

My husband Jeremy and I have been members of Lakewood Alive from the very beginning and as the former Secretary for the Committee for a Greener Lakewood, I was invited by Mayor George to attend the first Main Street meeting held at the Beck Center. This is where I met Mary Anne Crampton, who at the time was the president of LakewoodAlive when it was a volunteer organization. A few years later I attended the public streetscape meeting, where City Architecture presented the Detroit Avenue Streetscape Plan, which highlighted the need for a signage and wayfinding plan for Downtown Lakewood as a part of a successful completion of this project. Mary Anne (by then the Executive Director for LCPI and its Main Street Lakewood program) and I reconnected and Studio Graphique kept in touch with her as Main Street was searching for funding to implement these elements of the streetscape plan.

We assisted Mary Anne and Lakewood Alive (formerly LCPI) with a grant proposal for a branding, wayfinding and signage design project. When the funding was awarded, we submitted a full proposal for Design Committee review. While we have extended our discounted non-profit hourly rate to LakewoodAlive, we have not offered any free work for this project, as has been suggested elsewhere.

There have been several public meetings on the overall streetscape project and the signage and wayfinding program, where Lakewood residents voices could be heard and there will be several more throughout the project.

I want to note that the Downtown Lakewood Logo and the Signage and Wayfinding Plan are separate phases of this project. Wayfinding and environmental graphic design is a very refined art and process and our firm is one of only a handful of firms throughout the region that specializes in this work. We are the only firm in Northeast Ohio that specializes in both branding and environmental graphic design. Our experience in developing wayfinding programs is unmatched in the Cleveland area, and includes projects such as Shaker Square, University Circle (to be installed Summer '09), the Eastlake Stadium and Lucas County Arena. The technical, behavioral and political understanding required to put these programs together is normally out of the range of what traditional graphic design firms do.

Our involvement in this project started with my passion for Lakewood, its walkability, its mom-and-pop shops and the desire to give downtown Lakewood a sense of place and to help residents and non-residents alike find what makes our town so great. I feel honored to work with a team of such creative and talented designers that could help Lakewood implement this plan.

I’d like to thank Mary Anne, the Wayfinding Committee and the Board for all the hard work they have put into this project and can’t wait to see the end result for Lakewood.

EDITOR'S NOTE: We want to thank ALLISON for her relentless professionalism and enthusiasm for Lakewood, particularly since she has been undergoing treatment for a rare cancer throughout most of this project. She is an incredible, inspirational woman, and a reflection of the quality of people involved in this effort. If you would like to send Allison words of thanks or encouragement, visit her website: http://www.caringbrige.org/visit/allisonlevine. Thank you,Allison, for taking the time to write this post.

Nice, Jay, personal shots.

Is your jamminman personality on the loose again?

Many non-profits post their form 990 so that public requests for information are instantly available.

I still don't understand why I have to go into the office for it. I will if I have to, but it presents a burden for me.

Sheesh.

Jay Foran wrote:Don,

Didn't you just sell your house? Was your real estate firm a Lakewood based firm?

I think the Lakewood Schools just employed a Delaware based consultant to help facilitate Phase III?

Here is more on Studio Graphique that was posted on the LakewoodAlive website January 20th.

Jay

Thanks for stopping in, and helping explain this.

I believe, and Don can correct me, that it was a for sale by owner, then they moved into another location in Lakewood on the Gold Coast.

As for the Delaware based consultants, I would hope that you looked locally first and then closer to home.

As for Studio Graphique, I have spoken with people at the "design meeting" and they said that it was more of "focus group" as opposed to a real committee. Pick a, b, c, etc. And that Studio Graphique was decided on without the committee. Certainly you realize that Erie Design did the wayfinding signs for the library, and that my company did some for Lakewood Schools, Case Western, and others. Then there was the marvelous work done by DL Meckes and her 4Design crew. As this was a public funded effort was there an RFP.

As Lakewoodalive is your group, with Mary Ann running the show it is completely within your rights to run it as you see fit. I see it mostly as a very positive effort for the city, and as you know my support is there even when I disagree.

However, I would ask that you look and read the LA Mission statement which I support, and try to use Lakewood first. I realize that you work for a "regional" concern trying to bring businesses in to Youngstown, Akron, Cleveland etc. But hey brother can you spare a dime for your hometown.

.

One question for Don Farris.

Are you a CDC whose missions statement says that they are dedicated to Economic Development for Lakewood? If you were, then it would be taken for granted that you used Lakewood resources for everything you do.

But you're not, are you?

Grace O'Malley wrote:Nice, Jay, personal shots.

Is your jamminman personality on the loose again?

Grace,

Just responding to Hawk, Eagle and JustMe. We both know they are all in this thread, fortunately now with their real names. But at the end of the day we are no farther. While the venom is less poisonous, the intent to debilitate still exists.

Thanks for crystalizing for what so many in the community have recognized for some time.....that many of the postings within this thread and other related threads are to marginalize (I am going with Jim's word) either LakewoodAlive or those associated with LA. That many of the posts surface grudges that are personal and have roots back to the West End debacle. It is discouraging to me to see that we have made so little progress.

I know I/we would like to see things improve.

Knowing MaryAnne as I do, I know her motives were honest and sincere in posting Too bad this thread has gone the way it has.

I know everyone within this thread cares deeply about Lakewood. Maybe, we all should not be trying to force each others into corners trying to prove that one group doesn't love it the right way.

Obviously, JMHO.

Maybe someday!

Jay

You and Mary Ann devote many hours to improving Lakewood. Many of us are appreciative of your tireless efforts.

But why is it that when perfectly legitimate questions are asked, there is an immediately defensive attitude and tone taken in response?

There have been funding and expenditure questions asked and the answers are supposed to be public available yet they still have not been answered coherently. Why do you assume you/they are being accused of something? No such insinuation was ever made, just a request for info that the public is entitled to.

As for the use of an out of town business to design the signage, I totally agree with Don and many others in the city who see it as hypocritical that an organization whose intent is to encourage economic growth IN Lakewood would go outside Lakewood to procure services. Why encourage others to shop or buy Lakewood when the organization itself cannot make that effort. The excuse that Studio Graphique is uniquely qualified does not hold water.

If LakewoodAlive cannot answer questions without becoming defensive and accusing others of ulterior motives, then how can you claim that you wish to "engage" the citizenry? Do you really want our opinions or do you just want to tell us, paternalistically, what is best for us?

Jay - This thread went off when the passive aggressive behaviour of non-answers and response started.

Whether you, LakewoodAlive, LCPI and whoever else is part of this like it or not, you have legal responsiblities to fully disclose all expenditures and intake of money as seen on your 990. Obstacles have been placed to getting that information when it could have been posted here or even emailed to me.

I certainly didn't come on here to shoot anything down and I don't know about those names you posted, that's not part of my agenda. I only post on here and with my real name. So I'm figuring that jab is not in my direction.

You have the legal responsibilty to answer for expenditures when members of the public request, without turning it into a battle or accusations that someone is bad, it's part of the responsibility of being a 501c3.

As for the Studio Graphique Situation, it still remains that the company is outside of Lakewood, being used to do work in Lakewood becuase no one in Lakewood is good enogh. This conclusion, according to the answers that I have seen, was reached without a public requestion for bids. I am not making accusations or casting apersions on anyone's character, but again, I remind you, your mission statement says that you are charged with and will do economic development in Lakewood. This was not a Lakewood Business, their tax dollars as a business go somewhere else.

The impression that this leaves is lip service only to your mission statement.

Wouldn't some of the grants that you received include the statement that you were doing economic development in Lakewood? That's why there are questions being asked.

I don't know why I had to explain all this.

I'm sure I'll be attacked, accused and viewed as being hostile for doing something that I have every legal, and moral right because of my love for my community.

Frankly, I'm very stubborn and will not stop until I have all the information I have requested and answers to my questions.

I'm not part of anyone's agenda, I'm a lone ranger.

Hi!

Sharon, you are right, we aren't a CDC, but we are dedicated to supporting Lakewood Businesses, perhaps because we have one. But we also like doing things ourself when we feel we have the right set of skills.

Mr. Foran,

An interesting story, which I'll share in hopes of helping anyone else that is trying to sell their home and we are aware that the market is much more difficult now than when we sold. Lynn is the best sales person I know and she wanted to try her hand at selling our house herself, since we weren't in a rush.

She developed a web site and posted on 3 free websites, The Lakewood Observer, Craig's List and Zillow. She also ran ads in the Lakewood Observer. She then went out to get a for sale by owner sign for our yard from Home Depot. It featured a For Sale by Owner web site that was free, so she decided to list our information there as well. One of the options on the Sale by Owner website was an option to be listed on the MLS for a very nominal fee. Well, that is like the mother load of advertising for real estate, and we didn't think we could be listed there unless we went with a real estate firm. At least one like Ohio State Realty. There were no Lakewood Firms that would list us in this manner, that were indicated on this web site only Valley View Realty. (This may be an opportunity for a Lakewood Firm and if one does, do this type of listing please speak up because it isn't easy to find you) It also allowed us to schedule open houses and realtor shows.

However there was a catch. Once we agreed to this nominal fee, we could no longer use the For Sale by Owner sign that we had purchased which had started the whole thing. Ironic isn't it? So we put up the Valley View sign. However other than getting listed on the MLS and taking calls for us, Lynn, a Lakewood resident, really did all of the selling. She surprised herself by selling the home relatively quickly and I am pretty proud of her as it is still the only home in Lakewood that sold for over $450,000 in the last 12 months. Let me rephrase that, I am proud that she sold, but sad that others haven't been as fortunate. Lakewood is full of outstanding values.

Now the schools. I'm a little confused as to why you are bringing that up. Is it to say, look they are bad too? (That never worked for my kids and I'm sure it didn't for yours.) Are you happy that a Lakewood Firm didn't get the work? I'm disappointed as there are many Lakewood firms and NE Ohio firms that could really use the business.

My daughter worked with Ms. Levine and she is indeed an incredible woman and our continued prayers and thoughts are with her. And while I don't doubt that her firm could do this work, I still take issue with Ms. Crampton's claim that NO Lakewood firm could do this work.

Kumbaya

Jay Foran wrote:That many of the posts surface grudges that are personal and have roots back to the West End debacle. It is discouraging to me to see that we have made so little progress.

Jay

Thank you for finally saying what I have said for so many years.

The WestEnd was a debacle, not because of the project. I think all of us would have been happy with the apartments gone.

It was a debacle because of the lies, and bad management. It was a debacle because of a few wanted their way or the highway. It was a debacle because of those that were driving the bus, were blinded by shopping, shopping, shopping.

The original plan, ironically called "Mainstreet" was beautiful. Nearly everyone bought into it. The Ferriss were some of its biggest supporters. Then some people got greedy and others knew what was best for everyone, though most could not buy a clue. It was retail, retail, retail, retail. In a market that was trending down, and online trending up.

But I suppose what is even more troubling is that you and possibly LakewoodAlive still wants to work back rooms and coffee clatches. To come up with the mystery meat, then serve it to Lakewood making everyone think it is what they ordered. You grew up here before moving out. Did you really find getting around so difficult that we need to spend possibly a quarter million dollars to find our way? I really do not understand the hostility to the very people you have turned to in mailings asking for financial support. To me this is one of the major problems, instead of answering questions, legitimate questions you come back and attack.

When you and Mary Ann attack the Lakewood Observer and our members you are attacking the very people you claim you want to help. Last night I looked at your website, and your claims. What struck me was how many of your members and supporters helped to start and fund the Lakewood Observer. I received many emails from them apologizing for the outburst on the Deck yesterday. They started and signed on because of our goal of transparency and getting information out. They joined because the LO is Lakewoodcentric, and saw the nightmares that happen when outside developers came in.

I really do not get it. It is almost like you are self destructing, over a couple legitimate questions, or even sillier, a sign?

.