The Observation Deck

Captain’s Meeting Summary, October 10th

Dru Siley, the head of the Planning, Development and Housing gave an excellent presentation. This department is a result of the Planning & Development Departments merging with The Housing Department in a cost saving move.

$60-$70 million dollars has been invested in the City by businesses since 2008
The Root Café and Record Exchange both purchased their buildings and are rehabbing them.

29 businesses on Detroit pitched in $100 each to the City for the blue bike racks we see on Detroit.

Housing – there are 17,000 buildings in Lakewood, 13,000 are one or two family. Half of the fifteen hundred landlords live in Lakewood.

The Community Vision Plan completed in 1993 is being updated. Dates and times for open meetings can be found on onelakewood.com

The Detroit Streetscape plan has emphasized outdoor dinning.

The Drugmart Plaza is now fully leased.

The pedestrian crossings in mid block will take getting used to. Take special care not to run over any of our residents.

The Christian Science Reading Room west of Taco Bell has been declared a Historical Land Mark. It was purchased by a Company in California that is fighting that designation in the courts.

Dollar General is moving into the old CVS and putting $300,000 into fixing it up. They have made monetary contributions to the library.

Lakewood is the 14th largest city in the state with the 10th largest workforce. We have an unemployment rate of 5.2%. Businesses love the fact that hiring residents cuts down on tardiness. My commute from Lauderdale to the police station takes about eight minutes.

The new Drugmart will sell groceries similar to Marc’s.

Giant Eagle will put a Get-Go in its old location on Bunts & Detroit. They plan to sell whole foods. They will put $4,000,000 into renovating the store on Detroit over the next year.

Natures Bin has taken over the McDonalds on Sloane and expanded operations to about 4,000 square feet.

The City has 32,000 housing units. 500 residents are using the Federal Housing Choice Vouchers [Section 8], 40% are senior citizens.

The factory in Bird Town has a business called Graf Tech. They make a micro film used in all computers, phones and other such devices and employ 250 people.

The City has inspected every one and two family homes from the sidewalk. The homes were rated on a 1-4 scale. The 1 rating is best and 4 rating the worst. 1,741 buildings were given a 3 rating and have been cited. Seventy-five percent of the homes in this category are single family and ninety-one percent of them are owner occupied.

Twenty-five percent of the homes in this category are doubles; half of them are owner occupied. The Building Department is following up citations and many of the violations on these properties have already been fixed.

Fourteen of the seventeen Clifton Point units under construction on Sloane have already been sold.

The traffic light on Hall and Detroit will be moved to Detroit and Woodward.

The car wash on Detroit, west of Edwards, will be replaced. The new car wash will not have open bays and will recycle the “gray” water.

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Hi Jim,

I don't get whose summary this is. Who is "The Captain"? Who is speaking here when it says, "Dru Siley, the head of the Planning, Development and Housing gave an excellent presentation"?

What "mid-block" pedestrian crossings? The only one I know about is the one we've made ourselves, in front of Drug Mart and Radio Shack, where people look both ways and run across the street where the light and the crosswalk used to be. (And where there are signs saying, "Do Not Cross" or whatever.)

The pedestrian crossings in mid block will take getting used to. Take special care not to run over any of our residents.


Who was this presentation given to? Who was told not to run over our residents?

I would like to be at the next one of these.

Thanks.

Betsy Voinovich

Betsy,

This is a summary of the October 10, 2012, Neighborhood Block Club Program meeting where Department of Planning and Development Director Dru Siley spoke to block captains.

The summary was prepared by the Neighborhood Block Club Program, which falls under the “Public Safety Director” position held by Mayor and Public Safety Director Michael P. Summers.

I would assume that Mike is responsible for the summary.

Information about getting involved in a block club can be found at: http://onelakewood.com/PublicSafety/Police/BlockClub/.

I could not attend this particular meeting. And, I don't put much stock into anything City Hall spins at these meetings.

Whenever City Hall is asked block questions, my experience is that the standard line is usually, "Your concern is a soft issue. We have too many hard issues to deal with now."

Nonetheless, Mike Tuttle (from that department) does a great job keeping the block captains updated.

Getting City Hall to take any action on block club concerns is challenging.

Matt