The Observation Deck

Bryan

I am not trying to paint you anti-Lakewood. Let's be honest Lakewood is nice, but it is far from perfect. This is what intrigues me, you start from a pretty high level, to make something better.

The only real problem with Crocker Park, Legacy Village and even Great Northern around is it makes good people, smart people covet, and loose sight of the better bigger prize.

Did you ever think the solution could be as easy as a can of paint? At the price we can afford to make little mistakes. Let's not forget how short term the parking problem really is, if you accept price/need of travel will become a huge factor in the future.

Diagonal parking Detroit, add add a bike lane, and a bike rack on every block end with a bench in the last space. Maybe establish a special small/hybrid spot at the other end. So one small car can always park for free. Increase parking prices AND Parking Time. This would encourage shoppers to stay out longer. Currently they get a free 1/2 hour, so they hurry in and hurray out. If they got an hour, they might wander into other stores and shop. If they leave the next person gets FREE time. That group would probably generate a hug amount of ticker money as they try to fit 15 minutes worth of shopping into the 7 minutes left on the meter. Ka-Ching!

Bryan -
BestBuy, Applebees, or a Cheesecake Factory.

What kind of odds will you give on a twenty dollar bet on 2 out of 3 in 16 months. The only thing I ask is, let me change the name of one of the businesses.


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Jim O'Bryan wrote:[

\While you yearn for a Cheesecake factory, Joan yearns for an Applebees, -



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You're baiting me here. Is that nice?

If you see what I yearn for, visit the South Side of Pittsburgh. East Carson Street, to be specific. A home-grown zone of interesting restaurants, live music, a few funky shops, a couple of "basic services" stores (hardware, dry cleaners, etc) yes a couple of tattoo parlors (oh, well). There MIGHT be a Starbucks in there somewhere, but there's not an Applebee's in sight.

And this just happened. No "official" attempt to promote it. If you haven't been to Pittsburgh lately or at all, I suggest you skip the Golden Triangle/Station Square tourist areas and take a cab to East Carson Street.

The South Side has, over the last 5 years or so, become "hip". And now, it's not just a hip place to eat and hear a blues band, it's now, predictably, a hip place to LIVE. It is Ken Warren's "creative class" dream well on its way to being a reality. And this in a city that's been taking a bigger economic thumping than Cleveland, if that's even imaginable.

The only thing that can screw the South Side's prospects is crime, a la the Flats. Time will tell. So far, it's not an issue.

I believe the train has long since left the station for retail as we know it in Lakewood. We can wish for the Targets, the Borders, the Trader Joes, but we have neither the space (yes, parking IS a big deal) nor the demographics (they DO look at that per-household income) to attract the sorts of retail "we want".

Oh, BTW, last time I checked, on the far end of East Carson Street, a "lifestyle center" was being built.

As for your bet, I'll take it. You get 0 or 1 out of 3, the 1 possibly the Applebee's.

Joan Roberts wrote:Oh, BTW, last time I checked, on the far end of East Carson Street, a "lifestyle center" was being built.

As for your bet, I'll take it. You get 0 or 1 out of 3, the 1 possibly the Applebee's.

They sold millions of leisure suits and platform shoes. Last night on Leno he mentioned a new machine that helps kids dunk cookies in milk. I have no idea why a "lifestyle center" is being built. But it doesn't make it right or smart, it just makes it being built.

As for the bet, Applebees was the name I thought I might have to change. I'll take it.

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Jim O'Bryan wrote:Bryan

I am not trying to paint you anti-Lakewood.

I'm not necessarily saying you, however there is a large contingent that basically thinks anyone who shops outside of Lakewood is of the devil. They've made their opinion quite known.

there isn't enough parking ??

Let us accept the premise that being seen Pedaling a bicycle is undignified. How about riding a motor scooter? What are the legal obstacles one faces to riding a moto-scooter in urban environs of lakewood and the greater cleveland area? Just how many forms do you have to fill out? How many lines do you have to stand in to submit these forms? What are the cultural barriers(besides getting hit by a car)? I know they are pretty easy to steal....

Ryan

The rules are the same fo soccters and motorcycles. The test is not that hard and if you have problems you can just take the written test and get a temporary learning permit good for 12 months.

I feel much safer on y scooter than on my motorcycle. I am really not riding the motorcycle much at all. In the city scooters rule. I know of at least ten people getting wise this summer alone.


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Wow I resurrect an old thread, take a couple days off, and miss a lot. That’s good!

Just a couple things. One I wanna point out that the graph DougHuntingdon posted is very deceptive. He says…..

doesn't look as bad from this angle

You’re right it doesn’t. A one-third drop in one’s stock price looks like a mere hiccup when you use a logarithmic scale for the stock price axis.

Here’s what the very same graph looks like when you click the "linear" button and not try to mislead people.

Fact is, Cheesecake Factory’s stock price is now back to where is was four years ago, and well under where it was when Crocker Park opened in late 2004. Despite many more restaurants. To me it looks like a broken restaurant stock and the bloom is off the rose. Reminds me of Planet Hollywood, Rainforest Café, etc. though I think Cheesecake Factory will fare better despite its affiliation with faux cities because themeatically it is not as far over the top.

It should not be more profitable to cut down trees and develop onto greenfields than it is to re-develop onto previously developed property. I try to teach my children that recycling goes way beyond bottles and cans. And what makes it worse is that taxpayer dollars, yours and mine, abet this process by funding the widening of highways that make sprawl possible. Ultimately, my tax dollars are spent to impair the viability of my hometown. Lakewood stands little chance until some of those factors change. For starters (here we go again) it would help if gasoline were priced at what it REALLY cost and not subsidized by taxpayers. Like I said we already subsidize the roads! At the very least, let those who use the gasoline pay the price.

Oh and hey Jim thanks for the mention of the role biking should play here in Lakewood. Rode to breakfast to The Place to Be with my wife, good thing there's two trees in front of that place or she would have had to drive.

I think your post is deceptive.

5-year and max - logarithmic or nonlogarithmic, it beats the S&P 500, Dow 30, AND the NASDAQ - Despite recent hickups, the stock has still performed well. I'm not invested in the stock, and I don't care if it goes to zero or 1000. I also have never liked any cheesecake of any kind I ever ate in my life, whether from Tops or Aunt Genevieve, and I don't plan on buying any from the Cheesecake Factory, either. For all I know, it's just a name, and they actually sell pizza.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=CAKE&t=my&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=%5EGSPC,%5EIXIC,%5EDJI

So, their stock has gone down because they have invested in faux cities. What you should do, is figure out which companies are investing in faux cities, and then short them. You could make a lot of money, and then buy a place in Tuscarawas County with Mike White

http://www.timesreporter.com/photos/February2004/Playboy2.jpg former Mayor White and his horse (rated G)

Doug

Have to go along with Doug here.

One of the best performing stocks for me has been Best Buy. They're not even the face of "faux cities," they're at the very epicenter of urban sprawl. And yet, I've doubled my money (with a stock split) over the last 30 months.

Cheesecake Factory also has a location at Caesar's in Vegas. Don't know if that qualifies as a "faux city" or not.

But it dawned on me the other day, as I thought about "urban sprawl", that it's been 60 years since Mr. Levitt built his first cheap tract homes on Long Island.

60 years! We're now three generations into it. The original Levittown toddlers are now getting Medicare. Think about that.

We can decry urban sprawl, but we can also decry rock and roll, television,, cell phones, the internet, microwave ovens, fast food, birth control, the bikini, and "Catcher in the Rye" . Someone has looked at all of them, wagged their fingers at us, and said it's the death of civilization and will put us on the road to eternal damnation.

But after 60 years, it's really not a fad anymore, is it?

It's a fact of life we need to deal with, make our peace with, and understand that for every one of us who decries it, 10 embrace it.

America survives in spite of our base desires. Maybe because of them. More likely, it's our differences that help us thrive.

Joan Roberts wrote:Cheesecake Factory also has a location at Caesar's in Vegas. Don't know if that qualifies as a "faux city" or not.

I guess you haven't been?

Joan Roberts wrote:But after 60 years, it's really not a fad anymore, is it?

It's a fact of life we need to deal with, make our peace with, and understand that for every one of us who decries it, 10 embrace it.

10 to 1?

Joan Roberts wrote:America survives in spite of our base desires. Maybe because of them. More likely, it's our differences that help us thrive.

What makes us strong. Pluss we can choose to live anywhere we can afford.


peace

Jim O'Bryan wrote:\
10 to 1?

Not far from it.

Take the total populaton of the five-county Cleveland SMSA (add Akron if you like). Look at the population of the TRUE first-ring suburbs (I'm defining it as those communities substantially built out BEFORE WWII).

I don't consider Parma or Fairview Park first-ring suburbs in that sense. They were the first stops on the post-war exodus out (as Lakewood itself was in the 20s and 30s). They're not laid out like Lakewood. They don't have the "feel" of Lakewood. And unlike Lakewood or Shaker, their growth wasn't based on the original transit system.

And, while you may disagree, I don't include Cleveland, because I'm guessing (perhaps mistakenly) that lots of folks in Kinsman or Farifax would like a house in the 'burbs if they had the choice.

Run the numbers, and you'll see that it may not be 10-to-1, but the number of people living in post-WWII communities outnumbers those living in the Lakewoods and Shakers and Cleveland Hts's by a pretty substantial margin.

Joan

Of all the people show up at this picnic buffet with a poll. I can't believe you of all people bring a faux poll to the 4th of July Weekend Picnic. Wasn't it you that just last year warned me about the dangers of polling and the ham with the rainbow on it?



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How does Cheesecake Factory stack up to Dave and Buster's?

I was at the Dave and Buster's in Westlake a few years ago, for a friend's pre-bachelor party dinner. On the way in a black Teenager in gold chains tried to get in with his girlfriend. He was refused entry! And it was sad because you know he was trying to impress his girlfriend!

Once seated the waitress was talking with me. She commuted from Elyria. "do they pay you enough to eat here?" I asked her.

"No" she answered.

In retrospect, she may have been warning me about the quality of the food.