There's A Hole In Daddy's City Where All The Money Goes...

[Jim O'Bryan]

Dan, thank you for posting the link to the video.

I encourage everyone to take the time to watch the video of this meeting. This was a very informed discussion of hospital site remediation issues and likely costs associated with a significant contaminated soil removal action.

I am glad Dan posted this link, but well informed or hopeful? Dry Cleaner? 1,000 tons of dirt? $3.5 million to start?

I believe that while Mayor Summers has used the Lakewood magazine to spread more lies, like "I am leaving the city with a $13 million" which is typical for a c.com article. Well if you back off what is owed, and what was gifted to the city and yet to be squandered he is leaving the city of Lakewood with around $600,000 dollars, not $13 million. Besides he has also sat on repairs for both pools, the sewers repaving and more.

According to the financials I am looking at the City will be forced to sell off many of the parcels they own! Was this by accident or is this the "next five years locked up" that Summers/FitGerald gang brag about.

Bankrupt the City buy it for pennies on the dollars.

Mike, humor me, how about a look at the books and documents now that you are leaving.

.

[Jim O'Bryan]

$248 million dollar big hole update, 01.05.2020

.


.

[cmager]

$248 million dollar big hole update, 01.05.2020

By chance, does the One Lakewood Center need to excavate below grade for a basement or parking garage? If so, this is incredibly, super convenient. Just askin'...

[Richard Baker]

Face facts, has any City of Lakewood major project ever come in on time and within budget? Everyone that voted for a Democrat council and mayor is responsible. All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put the hospital back together again. Your crying over spilled milk.

[ryan costa]

Face facts, has any City of Lakewood major project ever come in on time and within budget? Everyone that voted for a Democrat council and mayor is responsible. All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put the hospital back together again. Your crying over spilled milk.

Republican-run local governments also like to liquidate public assets, and also grant tax abatements and other subsidies to new development. This means an entrenched group of conventional republicans running the city would have probably done the same thing. Those are the odds.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Face facts, has any City of Lakewood major project ever come in on time and within budget? Everyone that voted for a Democrat council and mayor is responsible. All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put the hospital back together again. Your crying over spilled milk.

Republican-run local governments also like to liquidate public assets, and also grant tax abatements and other subsidies to new development. This means an entrenched group of conventional republicans running the city would have probably done the same thing. Those are the odds.

OK how about a hybrid model, like say a centrist Democrat, that is funded by centrist Republicans with NeCons in the background. Sprinkle in a handful of painfully naive Democrats, that just want everyone to get along, and float it on a bed of GenX/Millennials that straight up could not see any need for a hospital over a Rec Center. Cover liberally(like that Richard) with dumbed down and burned out residents tired of politics in general and wham bam thank you man, new strip mall with the old Mayor making bank on it.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm, if we could just add a touch of non-profits which are ways for conservative to do with other people funds things they see as impopartant like, bum proof benches, mediocre public art, and oh yeah anything their friends work for.

I call it OneLakewood Stew.


We could have ice skated in the big hole, well except that it is a brownfield.

.

[Richard Baker]

[quote="ryan costa"][quote="

Republican-run local governments also like to liquidate public assets, and also grant tax abatements and other subsidies to new development. This means an entrenched group of conventional republicans running the city would have probably done the same thing. Those are the odds.[/quote]

With all due respect, it wasn't republicans or independents that sold out the health care of Lakewood. If you want to discuss party history, we can start with Lincoln the first Republican and discuss the Democrat party's history from then through the nineteen sixties. The only reliable political fact is that Democrats will blame their mistakes on others, it's doesn't matter who they blame; Republicans, Independents or acts of God. Democrats are like children, "I didn't do it or its' not my fault" and won't own up to their mistakes. The single lever voting has to come to an end if you expect to change your party. City councilmembers were reelected because they were Democrats after they voted to close the hospital???????????. What Republican or Independent can you blame for their reelection?

The City of Lakewood is not immune to Detroit's management insanity; it was the wealthiest city in the world in the 1940s. Lakewood is a population-dense city and becoming denser thanks to a city without greenspace ordnance for developers. The majority of employment in Lakewood is retail and services. It does not have a balanced economy, and it is dependent on people working at jobs outside the city limits. It has two major assets; it is convenient to downtown Cleveland and Lake Erie. If the economy has a recession, Lakewood will experience a mass exodus due to its high property tax.

Before you get started, I have voted for both Republicans and Democrats. A wise man once said that he supported Republicans more than Democrats because they were only taking this nation into insolvency at 60 miles an hour rather than the Democrats at 90 miles an hour.

[cmager]

Republican-run local governments also like to liquidate public assets, and also grant tax abatements and other subsidies to new development. This means an entrenched group of conventional republicans running the city would have probably done the same thing. Those are the odds.

With all due respect, it wasn't republicans or independents that sold out the health care of Lakewood. If you want to discuss party history, we can start with Lincoln the first Republican and discuss the Democrat party's history from then through the nineteen sixties. The only reliable political fact is that Democrats will blame their mistakes on others, it's doesn't matter who they blame; Republicans, Independents or acts of God. Democrats are like children, "I didn't do it or its' not my fault" and won't own up to their mistakes. The single lever voting has to come to an end if you expect to change your party. City councilmembers were reelected because they were Democrats after they voted to close the hospital???????????. What Republican or Independent can you blame for their reelection?

The City of Lakewood is not immune to Detroit's management insanity; it was the wealthiest city in the world in the 1940s. Lakewood is a population-dense city and becoming denser thanks to a city without greenspace ordnance for developers. The majority of employment in Lakewood is retail and services. It does not have a balanced economy, and it is dependent on people working at jobs outside the city limits. It has two major assets; it is convenient to downtown Cleveland and Lake Erie. If the economy has a recession, Lakewood will experience a mass exodus due to its high property tax.

Before you get started, I have voted for both Republicans and Democrats. A wise man once said that he supported Republicans more than Democrats because they were only taking this nation into insolvency at 60 miles an hour rather than the Democrats at 90 miles an hour.

Mr. Baker, your recitation of party history is too-filled with mistakes to even start. Suffice to say that, in Lakewood, you've been observing privatizing Republicans dressed as Democrat's.

[Tim Liston]

”…. in Lakewood, you've been observing privatizing Republicans dressed as Democrat's….”

This whole “Republicans disguised as Democrats” narrative that some people here are promoting, that’s laughable. I’ve said it here before: the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, they are private clubs. The He-Man Women Haters Club with nicer clothes. When Lakewood’s elected officials, all of them, attend Democrat Club functions, or pay their dues, they (and their money) are welcomed with open arms. They are not thrown out and their checks are not returned. They are therefore Democrats. Not Republicans, and not independent. QED.

Lakewood hospital was torn down by members of the Democratic Party. Period. Had Lakewood been run by members of the Republican Party, the same thing might have happened. We’ll never know.

I’ve also said this before: both Clubs will espouse any ideological belief that will keep them in power (money). And they are the proverbial “two ice cream sellers on the beach,” jockeying for votes. Two ice cream sellers on a beach will naturally gravitate toward the very center, right next to each other, and work “their” side. Republicans and Democrats do that too. That’s why there is so little difference between them, ideologically. They’re really a Uniparty. If either strays too far from the “center” they cannot win an election against the other.

Very occasionally, something happens that causes the ice cream sellers to switch places. Same with politicians. We’re seeing that now at the national level: Republicans are moving toward a more populist “workingman’s” ideology, and Democrats are increasingly becoming the party of the comfortable class. Don’t ask me what precipitated that but Trump recognized it and that’s why he’s president today. That and the fact that the Democrats ran one of the most unlikeable people on earth.

“Power doesn’t corrupt, it reveals”….

[ryan costa]

”…. in Lakewood, you've been observing privatizing Republicans dressed as Democrat's….”

Very occasionally, something happens that causes the ice cream sellers to switch places. Same with politicians. We’re seeing that now at the national level: Republicans are moving toward a more populist “workingman’s” ideology, and Democrats are increasingly becoming the party of the comfortable class. Don’t ask me what precipitated that but Trump recognized it and that’s why he’s president today. That and the fact that the Democrats ran one of the most unlikeable people on earth.

“Power doesn’t corrupt, it reveals”….

Mainstream democrats assimilated most of 1980s economic conventions. Reaganomics. Both parties have had to double down on social issues to distinguish themselves from each other. Some of the Republicans have become more extreme economically to distinguish themselves: but not most of the ones on social security and medicare.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTDW3DuBvjo&t=3726s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0o1gvpQcIw

[dl meckes]

The city leaders did not sell bed licenses or equipment. This would have given the city a pretty nice cushion. I think Bill Call, or Mark Kindt, or Brian Essi analyzed those numbers a while back.

When you give away an enterprise that was the equivalent to the GM Lordstown plant, you have a problem. There were a lot of really good-paying jobs and the hospital employed people who weren't all young, in good physical condition, or men. I mention men because the former mayor was so happy to create construction jobs. I don't see throngs of women working these jobs.

Our city officials did not ask that a percentage of the construction workers live in Lakewood - oh right, the Fannie Lewis law was overturned. So the great construction jobs that go along with these developments don't go to Lakewood workers unless there are pockets of Amish living in Lakewood.

What's done is done. Summers promised to stay in office until the hospital came down and he did that. I could never understand why that sounded like something to be proud of.

I'm glad that we've had a change in leadership.

[Stan Austin]

DL I wonder how members of our specific generation who were brought up with an underlayment of market principals (like mowing a neighbors yard or shoveling snow for money) could have had those basic brain synapses short circuited.

[Jim O'Bryan]

DL I wonder how members of our specific generation who were brought up with an underlayment of market principals (like mowing a neighbors yard or shoveling snow for money) could have had those basic brain synapses short circuited.

Stan

The problem is that everyone has this need to paint with a large brush, it is happening everywhere. Social media has become a cesspool of it.

So when a complex issue arrives, people look at it and try to fit it into their particular chubby hole in which they can explain it away or be at peace with it.

The fact is, everyone in this particular debacle were in it for their own reasons. Some kind of dovetailed with pubic needs, most didn't but could easily be described as "what is best for the community." Of course this comes from Boomers and as you pointed out while we grew up with values, very few actually retained them.

What if a handful of people, saw an opportunity and moved on it for themselves, then it falls apart, and someone has to clean the entire mess up. That those that started it made sure their interests were protected and or taken off the top, and the rest, well the rest can sort itself out.

Here is the question of the day to prove my point. The pollution clean-up at the Hospital will be over $6 million before it comes close to being down. The money that would have paid for this has been shifted to Three Arches, which claims it acted in the area's best interest by grabbing the millions from LHF for "healthy needs." Recently we saw them spend a ton on studying bike lanes in Old Brooklyn, a city that at least one of the board member's family has invested in. To my knowledge this would be the 4th or 5th study of bike lanes dating back to when Robin Sandys started at the Old Brooklyn CDC.

Actual question - Why doesn't Three Arches pay for the healthy remediation of the Lakewood Hospital site. Seems like a more dire use of the funds than bike lanes?

.

[Richard Baker]

[quote="ryan costa"][quote="Richard Baker"]Face facts, has any City of Lakewood major project ever come in on time and within budget? Everyone that voted for a Democrat council and mayor is responsible. All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put the hospital back together again. Your crying over spilled milk.[/quote]

Republican-run local governments also like to liquidate public assets, and also grant tax abatements and other subsidies to new development. This means an entrenched group of conventional republicans running the city would have probably done the same thing. Those are the odds.[/quote]

Ryan, it appears that the City of Chicago must have some of those Republican wolves in sheep's clothing when they leased out the Skyway toll, a huge cash cow like the hospital for 99 years for instant cash do reduce debt, and they are running a deficit without the toll roads income. However, only the people traveling on the instate or lived in Indiana commuting would be effected. The tolls almost doubled but it was perfect: it had no effect on the voters unless they went to gamble on the ships/barges. If you can find one Republican city official or politician in the City of Chicago, you will have to dig him up. Perhaps they're selling the same denial fantasy.

That aside, you may want to review the annual financial report for the City of Lakewood. It has more dialog then, War & Piece, more uplifting Its a Wonderful Life and more deceiving than Macbeth. What is most notable that the prior year's numbers rarely appear for comparison. Is the absence of numbers ruse, or what you don’t know won’t hurt you? We know the hospital's health services to a city of 55,000 souls will never be replaced, but the hospital contribution to the city's income line will also not be recoverable.

Several significant budget concerns, the city is hugely overstaffed and the pension deficit is out of proportion to the revenue stream. The city storm and wastewater infrastructure will require considerable capital expense for replacement and repairs, and the cities primary source of revenue is income tax followed by property tax, mainly residential. Additional, disproportional property taxes with neighboring cites and the two primary revenue streams expose it to both regional and national economic whims. The Republicans that talk the talk and walk the walk of Democrats on the City Council killed the only golden goose that was recession-proof and irreplaceable.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Volume 11, Issue 1 January 6, 2015, our first story in print. It had been here on the Deck since December 27, and hinted at before.
http://media.lakewoodobserver.com/issue ... sue_01.pdf

By the third issue in 2015, The Mayor, and others demanded we retract the lie, and get on "their team."
http://media.lakewoodobserver.com/issue ... sue_03.pdf

From there a way of noise from a small group of civic leaders and their sycophants led us down this road with lies, intimidation, and questionable election tactics.

Hard to believe it's been five years, and now the big hole in Daddy's city all of our experts warned of is here.