Grace O'Malley wrote:I heard that McDonald's bought the Detroit Theater. What's the scoop?
Grace as of last week, not yet.
McDonald's on Sloan has been looking at the property, and it is not a dead issue, just still
in the talking phase.
As we went to press last week, the story surfaced and after speaking with many city officials
including Mayor Summers, "There is no deal at this time."
At the same time it would seem that CVS is also not as sure as we thought.
Bryan Schwegler wrote:Jim O'Bryan wrote:Not complaining pointing out have many great ideas come from Lakewood even without
assistance.
Jim, this is a very astute and key statement. The best thing we can do is get Lakewood to a place that regardless of where the idea originates, that the city is such an attractive place that we never have to offer incentives again for anything.
Bryan
I will go farther.
Not spewing hate for 5 Guys, far from it. Spewing Love for The Root, The Coffee Pot, The
WestEnd, Around the Corner, Deagen's, Melt, Aladdin's, Virgina Marti, Screw Factory,
Doughnut Kitchen, Elmwood Bakery, Angelos, Miller's Sunoco, Winchester, Three Birds,
Pier W, bela dubby, Lion n Blue, Rush Inn, etc.
Was it wrong for me to notice that all but one of the "Best of Cleveland" that came from
Lakewood was organic? That Melt, built their success without the $100,000 plus the city
gave the multi state 5 Guys, to not open a regional office but to hire four people? Should
I not look to the 5 screen printers that built their businesses without the $50,000 given
to University Tees to move to Lakewood and compete against them?
Do you think that $100,000 could have helped Lakewood Businesses?
Now let's go to start ups. My new CEO for AGS Software worked at JumpStart for two
years, and sat down with Nate Kelly before the election to discuss our "Start-Up" program.
He found it to be much like programs other cities have with one very large difference.
Avon's has $4 million to invest in local companies, Beechwood $16 mil, Mentor $10 mil,
Wooster $8 mil, Lorain $24 mil. How much does Lakewood have? $0!
But had we not invested in attracting big box stores, would we have had at least
something more to offer than a roundtable discussion of, "Tell us you ideas and maybe..."
No single thing in this town has done more for building the Lakewood brand than Melt. Not
the LO, not LakewoodAlive, not City Hall, but the marketing machine known as Matt Fish.
And the cost to us tax payers, $0, matter of fact he paid us for the privilege. We got our
notoriety, not on the backs of the nearly always empty Robek's, but on the back of the
heavily tattooed employees of the Melt, the earth children of The Root, The Lakewood
Library, and yes even 56 West.
I am not saying Panera is evil, or have no right to exist in this city, far from it. What I am
saying, not to you but our "civic leaders" look at what is working. Look at what gives us
the biggest bang for the buck. Look at what has staying power and growing power. What
will help us continue to be "The Best," "The Coolest," "The Greenest" whatever gives us
the ability to reach outside of Lakewood and bring more quality residents, and more
businesses that allow us to be us.
Bryan you are all over the place trying all sorts of stuff and doing even more.My argument
is not that you leave Lakewood and that you should stay here. What I am saying is what
adds to this city's landscape? What helps us, help ourselves?
In my business world, we could be available for grants in damn near every place we go,
so many of the groups we work with want the paper to be non-profit. I personally prefer
to not go after grants, because it creates a non-sustainable false sense of success, that
only leads to the business spending more time chasing grants than doing what they
should.
Then there is the fallout. It is rumored that 5 Guys, that puts out a good burger, though
arguably not better than many other places in town is $50,000 a month behind
projections. So what happens when they move or close? What happened to many of the
other places that barely hung on or closed because of them making their $100,000? While
one could say, it is an open market, and they should have done better. Did they fail
because of the city giving an unfair advantage to others? Were there opportunities lost
for a better use of the money? Were we buying friends at the cost of friends and family?
While you as a consumer should have every choice you want or need, does the city need
to make sure of that even at the cost of other businesses? Is it the better use of our tax
dollars to get into spending contests with communities that can outspend us 100 times?
5 Guys have been great for Lakewood, jumping in to help charities. Panera the same, but
should we not look to see if there was any fallout.
Not a bitch fest, not hate. As I said I have been to Panera, Chipotle, 5 Guys, but I also
have been to the WestEnd one of the best burgers in town, and seen it dead. India Garden
which not only got zero help from the city but was hassled of their India Food Emporium
because the tail in the "p" made the sign 4" to tall, and had to be redone. To 5 Guys getting
$100,000 and being allowed to ignore rules and laws, to The Root that jumped through
hoops to get open legally on their own.
When a person says shop local it is not an attack, it is not hate, it is common sense in a
city like Lakewood. If you prefer big box stores it does not make you evil, but it should
make you stop and pause and think. That when 5 Guys has a bad month it has very deep
pockets to fall back on. When the WestEnd has a bad month, it could be their last, and the
death of a quality established place.
Humans can justify anything in their own minds. Some of the worst atrocities by mankind
have been easily justified by those committing them. So let's take the human justification
out of the equation, and look at the hard cold facts. The cause and effects.
Do we go to WalMart because it is cheap, or because there is no place left but...
That is all.
.
