The Observation Deck

Bryan Schwegler wrote:The Observer is great because it's very broad and it has tons of community/citizen involvement all focused by a highly dedicated and talented editorial staff. Patch is great for a straight online news publication with a much tighter focus on news. And yes, even the Plain Dealer has its good points.

I mean who wants a world where only one point of view or news organization is dominant? I know I certainly don't, even if that outlet were the Observer.

Only a fool gets their information from one source.

However, those that claim to be "real news" need to do a much better job. The bias, the
mistakes, and the lack of depth, is terrible, if you present yourself as a "news source."

A business I would hate to be in.*

* Actually I am very proud of our motor racing news project, where we are really doing
an insanely good job, if I do say so myself of covering events, news, interviews, and
the big breaking story.

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Thealexa Becker wrote:Interesting post, but I got hung up on the part where you specifically mentioned me and then got my point of view wrong.

No, I don't really like how the Detroit theater looks. And additionally I don't like how people are complaining about the abscence of a theater they didn't patronize. If they did, then the theater wouldn't be going out of business. The issue is a moot point so people need to really let it go now and move on to something else that is important.

But I DID patronize the theater. I go to the other theaters because, well, they are open, and they play movies the Detroit doesn't that I want to see.

So in summation, I DID value having a hometown theater. I wish it had been better and stayed open. I wish it would not be implied otherwise in this thread.

Hi Thealexa,

I am so happy to hear that you liked having a hometown theater, and that you went there, because I know you understand the value of it. I wish it was better and that it had stayed open too, and I go to the other theaters because they're open, and sometimes the Detroit didn't have movies I wanted to see. I LOVED being able to get there on foot or in the car in such a short amount of time; the only thing I didn't like about it was how cold the bathrooms were, but I'm not that fussy. Once the movie starts, I'm not really thinking about anything else.

Sorry that I missed this in your previous posts, and sorry that I mischaracterized you as one who didn't appreciate the theater.

Brian Schwegler said: The thing that I don't understand is why it's not listed on the city's website? To me that's the more concerning piece. why isn't the city making this information more public on the own site?

Hi Brian---

I guess that was the biggest part of that section of my very long original post. This meeting is an active attempt to poll concerned people in the city-- a chance to maybe create a shared picture, of the kinds of things we do value and why.

It has the potential at the very least, to be a snapshot of who were are now and what we care about, IF the information that there is a meeting is available to the public. At this point, this info is available to very few people. If you really cared about this meeting, and wanted to be there, but have to arrange babysitters, or switch your work schedule, or needed a ride, you could use a little warning.

I imagine it will show up in the Events column of the next printed Observer, and the Observer only lists events for the coming two weeks, so maybe that makes sense. The info not being on the City's website doesn't make that much sense.

By the way, THE MEETING IS AUGUST 17TH AT 7 PM AT THE MAIN LIBRARY. It's a work session, hosted by Mayor Summers and Dru Siley. People who attend will get a chance to look at pictures and fill out surveys about which buildings they value in Lakewood.

The cat's out of the bag!

It sounds like it will be interesting.

Betsy Voinovich

Betsy,
I think you make some very good points regarding the difference between being an active citizen and being a professional city planner or preservationist. Your experience (and plenty of others) involved with the school hearings for those 1.5 years (much of that agony recorded in these archives) was an unfortunate waste of time.

Bill I think it's a stretch to call having a plan - or "planning" - an automatic jump into soviet style rigidity. In my experience, planning is simply designing thought. You would never get a circuit board without a schematic, nor create pretty much any other organized effort. But I do agree that the citizens input should be taken as valuable data to consider for the larger questions and solutions even if they do not necessarily make decisions.

The Detroit is probably a done deal. There are plenty of good points about it's demise and it may well have been saved. I threw in a design for retrofitting it using McDonald"s money (purely based on making Lemonade of the inevitable Lemons of McDonald's indeed purchasing the property). The thought was --rather than them tearing it completely down and losing the Detroit, revamp the property to keep one side theater and the other side McDonald's -generally keeping the look of the front facade. It was met with some positive reactions, but mostly a sense that it was too late to consider it.

I don't know if the owner was not active in running his property(sure seems that way). But if it's his property and he doesn't keep it viable, and people stop coming, when will that be a city problem? Unless the city residents come up with creative ideas for business owners to better run their properties, I doubt any city government can ever do much to avoid this kind of thing. I don't know what that would even be called. A Chamber of Commerce? Maybe.

I take what Betsy is saying to mean, if these meetings occur and citizens are involved great, but don't expect the citizens to find solutions, as architects and city planners are paid to do that work. No telling what criteria will be found if any. I think it is completely reasonable to presume that a town with 100 year+ old buildings, that none of them are exactly alike and each circumstance is unique. That said, you will probably see some patterns emerge (store fronts with apartments above, etc.)

Anyway, just wanted to compliment Betsy on her poignant post (even though some of the sub themes on news reporting and printed papers was also interesting).

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Here's the announcement on the city website:
http://onelakewood.com/Events.aspx?EventID=640

The Historic Preservation Review Panel? That's a black hole.

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Speaking of preservation, I was visiting with an old friend of Lakewood, perhaps you've heard of him. He's hanging around the East Side these days. I told him about his house. He was not amused.