The Observation Deck

This past week, I had the pleasure of attending the “32nd Annual National Institute on Legal Issues of Educating Individuals with Disabilities®” in Phoenix, Arizona.

As I travelled around Downtown Phoenix during breaks, as well as before and after sessions, I took the below photos on my phone (so no complaining about the quality Jim and Ivor).

While we will certainly never have the weather, I wonder whether Lakewood can become Ohio’s Phoenix with all the emphasis on our downtown improvements.

Thoughts?

Funny, when I lived in the Phoenix area it was an awful and dying downtown. Glad to hear about it's comeback.

Matt

Was it as clean as it looks?


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Matt,

Nice pictures! You would never know, by the looks of it, that Phoenix is the kidnapping capitol of our beautiful country. It always amazes me how images can take you a few steps away from some realities.

DowntowN Lakewood does have some good momentum...I hope it spreads throughout the city

Scott

Lakewoods downtown is looking better than ever. I'm not sure it will be able to last without full office buildings and a busy hospital. If a downtown is to succeed it has to have a criticle mass of people working downtown.

Phoenix has three advantages over Lakewood:

It has a lot of sunny days
It has a growing population
It is the state capital

Lakewood might be able to increase its population but I'm pretty sure we can't do much about the other two.

There are three obstacles to a prosperous downtown Lakewood:

Government subsidies of development along the freeways
Government subsidies in downtown Cleveland
Government homeless resettlement programs.

I have a sense that Lakewoods population is increasing, I see more young families and more activity. Can it last?

Jim O'Bryan wrote:Matt

Was it as clean as it looks?


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Yes, Jim.

Very clean ... and fun ... and it seemed safe ... but ...

Scott Meeson wrote:You would never know, by the looks of it, that Phoenix is the kidnapping capitol of our beautiful country. It always amazes me how images can take you a few steps away from some realities.

... there is that kidnapping issue.

See, e.g., http://www.abc15.com/generic/news/local_news/investigations/Phoenix-Kidnappings%3A-Uncovering-The-Truth.

Matt

Matthew John Markling wrote:

Jim O'Bryan wrote:Matt

Was it as clean as it looks?


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Yes, Jim.

Very clean ... and fun ... and it seemed safe ... but ...

Scott Meeson wrote:You would never know, by the looks of it, that Phoenix is the kidnapping capitol of our beautiful country. It always amazes me how images can take you a few steps away from some realities.

... there is that kidnapping issue.

See, e.g., http://www.abc15.com/generic/news/local_news/investigations/Phoenix-Kidnappings%3A-Uncovering-The-Truth.

Matt

Matt,

Is that a timely report or what? Just shocking!

What does that say about Leadership, Accountability and Transparency for some government officials? Even when things appear transparent...you may never really know how transparent without a detailed review of all the facts.

Leadership, Accountability and Transparency...maybe just some nice words for some campaigns?
The words create some nice images...but they may be more than a few steps away from reality.

We shall see as this year progresses.

Scott Meeson

[img]Our%20investigation%20has%20found%20Phoenix%20Police%20routinely%20inflated%20their%20kidnapping%20statistics%20throughout%20the%20year,%20including%20at%20least%20100%20cases%20that%20legal%20experts%20said%20should%20not%20have%20been%20counted,%20plus%20dozens%20of%20other%20questionable%20reports.[/img]

Why would a city inflate their kidnapping statistics?

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