The Observation Deck

Jim, how can you be against such a great idea...

I like many ideas, I am not opposed to change. I really try to think of what is best for many
over the long run.

Sometimes even the nicest cutest idea for making the city pretty just needs a little critical thought.

Decade ago City Hall came up with a great idea to make Lakewood more homey and get rid
of one of the worst things to every happen to Lakewood, in their view I guess, into a new
cool, hip historical wave of nevo renaissance.

Get rid of the grass and the concrete, and lets buy millions of dollars in bricks, and brick
in the tree lawns and terrible flat concrete parts of Detroit and Madison


Well I have seen it work in other cities, but here in Lakewood, it always seems like a new
way to torture trees then slowly kill them, and provide everyone with low hanging lawsuit
against the city fruit to be tripped over.

It is not that I hate flowers, or nice things...


I just know how well we take care of them.

FWIW


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This is a great photo of a biker riding away after a fun game of Treelawn Tetris. High score, maybe?

Corey

My recollection is that the brick treelawns began during the 1980s with the storefront renovation program. I don't know if there was a plan or not to sustain the process, but we all know trees will grow and brick will heave. The sidewalk, on the other hand, exists whether the treelawn is brick or grass. There are provisions to maintain sidewalks, so that is a matter of ecxecution.

Edward Favre wrote:My recollection is that the brick treelawns began during the 1980s with the storefront renovation program. I don't know if there was a plan or not to sustain the process, but we all know trees will grow and brick will heave. The sidewalk, on the other hand, exists whether the treelawn is brick or grass. There are provisions to maintain sidewalks, so that is a matter of ecxecution.

Ed

The reason I brought this up was so many people go, "oh what a great idea..." and never use any critical
thought or the execution you mention.

Many cities in this are do use bricks, but theirs see, to be very well maintained, and the trees of a dwarf
nature, or are swapped out. What happens is someone says, bricks, and quaint and never budgets for
maintenance, so in the end it looks like hell, ghettoizes the neighborhoods and adds very little and/or detracts.

Let's put up flowers, with no thought or idea how to water them, and they die. Finally someone had the sense
to put them on the ground and sidewalk. But still we have had to rely on Pat Carroll's workers from court to
water them and I have to think, there just has to be a better way, and couldn't these people be used for
something we actually need done?

Mom always said, if you can't take care of a dog you do not get one. When I was a child I would cry. As an
adult I understand. I have always wanted a Ferrari, but simply could not afford to maintain it, hence no
Ferrari in my garage.

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It's similar to using grants for regular operations. Don't do it until you answered the questions of how much it is going to cost in matching and/or adminsitrative dollars and do you have a workable plan for when the grant money is gone.

Edward Favre wrote:It's similar to using grants for regular operations. Don't do it until you answered the questions of how much it is going to cost in matching and/or administrative dollars and do you have a workable plan for when the grant money is gone.

Damn, critical thought! So rare in this town.

Or if it is needed at this particular point and time.


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Jim O'Bryan wrote:
Well I have seen it work in other cities, but here in Lakewood, it always seems like a new
way to torture trees then slowly kill them, and provide everyone with low hanging lawsuit
against the city fruit to be tripped over.

It is not that I hate flowers, or nice things...


I just know how well we take care of them.

FWIW


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See just like that taken care of!

[img]...
[/img]

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Forgot to load the image!


Ed we jumped too soon.


Money was found in the budget I guess to fix it!



Good as new.


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Glad they got that taken care of...

This seems apt... European engineering I think.