The Observation Deck

If you have $300,000 to invest in Lakewood Park. The park that serves Lakewood Catholic
Academy their sports fields, and Lakewood Soccer some soccer fields, and is the closest
park to many of the members of council and the mayor.

Perhaps you could spare some money to reopen our other lit parks back to 11pm?

Just an idea, how about the rest of us?


.

I saw on another Lakewood-oriented new site that upgrades were planned at Madison Park too.

What about Sinagra Park?

Jill Jusko wrote:I saw on another Lakewood-oriented new site that upgrades were planned at Madison Park too.

Jill

Why I know how gleefully you love to point things like this out to me.

PLEASE, read my post.

What I am talking about is getting the old hours back so that we can enjoy the parks as we
used to before they shut them down early.

Nothing like improvements for a park you have to stop using sometimes 4 hours earlier
than Lakewood Park. It was a stupid, foolish, and lazy decision to close the parks that was
never based in any facts, just the ridiculous thoughts of the head of the committee who
proclaimed, "Nothing good happens in a park after dusk." Instigated by a department
head that was letting hundreds of thousands of dollars slip through his hands while trying
to do less work.

Of course you will not read about that from the other site. You will not hear any tough
questions, or opinions about restoring proper hours for those parks, as they need the
parking for the family business, and are afraid of being too tough on the city.

I am not convinced that by making oneself completely servile to City Hall is the best way
to cover City Hall. However, perhaps that is a technique they teach in journalism school,
because it would seem to be what many do.

.

Jim,

Do you know if the police are actually enforcing the new park hours?

My initial thoughts are these laws give the police the power to selectively remove problem people and probably are not going to be heavily enforced. Please let me know if this is not the case.

I'm not gleeful. I did read your post.

Ryan Salo wrote:Jim,

Do you know if the police are actually enforcing the new park hours?

My initial thoughts are these laws give the police the power to selectively remove problem people and probably are not going to be heavily enforced. Please let me know if this is not the case.

BINGO!!!!!! We have winner!!!!

If I remember correctly ... the coversation at the Committee (Public Safety?) where this was discussed, someone said -and I am paraphrasing here: "this (the new ordinance establishing park hours) is a tool that LPD can use."

Same goes for why every outdoor basketball hoop in Lakewood was taken down in 2008 ... a tool to "selectively remove problem people." (And the guy behind the order to remove those hoops is now running for governor. Makes me wonder what social engineering changes he has in store for the buckeye state )

Peter Grossetti wrote:

Ryan Salo wrote:Jim,

Do you know if the police are actually enforcing the new park hours?

My initial thoughts are these laws give the police the power to selectively remove problem people and probably are not going to be heavily enforced. Please let me know if this is not the case.

BINGO!!!!!! We have winner!!!!

If I remember correctly ... the coversation at the Committee (Public Safety?) where this was discussed, someone said -and I am paraphrasing here: "this (the new ordinance establishing park hours) is a tool that LPD can use."

Same goes for why every outdoor basketball hoop in Lakewood was taken down in 2008 ... a tool to "selectively remove problem people." (And the guy behind the order to remove those hoops is now running for governor. Makes me wonder what social engineering changes he has in store for the buckeye state ) (emphasis added)

"Politics makes strange bedfellows," Peter!

The folks who have been complaining about City Hall and the County Executive for the past decade and more are now “Putting on the Fitz” for the gubernatorial race.

I seem to remember campaigns wherein certain city council and mayoral candidates campaigned on "keeping the borders safe" from “those people.”

Jim O'Bryan wrote:If you have $300,000 to invest in Lakewood Park. The park that serves Lakewood Catholic Academy their sports fields, and Lakewood Soccer some soccer fields, and is the closest park to many of the members of council and the mayor.

Perhaps you could spare some money to reopen our other lit parks back to 11pm?

Just an idea, how about the rest of us?

Back to Jim’s point, we have a NIMBY City Hall … unless they are nice streets and parks.

Jim O'Bryan wrote:Of course you will not read about that from the other site. You will not hear any tough questions, or opinions about restoring proper hours for those parks, as they need the parking for the family business, and are afraid of being too tough on the city.

I am not convinced that by making oneself completely servile to City Hall is the best way to cover City Hall. However, perhaps that is a technique they teach in journalism school, because it would seem to be what many do.

And, as to journalism in Lakewood, it’s not like anyone at City Hall would take a page from the IRS/DOJ/FBI playbook … right?

Matt

Ryan Salo wrote:Jim,

Do you know if the police are actually enforcing the new park hours?

My initial thoughts are these laws give the police the power to selectively remove problem people and probably are not going to be heavily enforced. Please let me know if this is not the case.

Ryan

I have no knowledge of enforcement, and if they are not then why did council waste
time with it? If they are, it is yet another unneeded restriction on the tax payers, and residents.

They could have accomplished the exact same thing, only better by making it "Lakewood
Residents" or people with Lakewood residents as they do in Bay and Westlake.



That way whenever there is a problem, day or night, they merely have to ask for an id.
It would not have limited every Lakewoodites access to these parks.

The time limit, was a "jihad" by the head of the committee, that sadly admitted he could
"not think of one good thing that could happen in a park after dusk." Which speaks
volumes of both his mindset, education, lifestyle, and respect for others that might be
able to come up with legal things to do in parks, like talk, walk, sit, relax, look at stars,
meet friends, kiss, fall in love, etc.

Because one person has no ideas, means the city suffers? Really?

Damn!

.

My initial thoughts are these laws give the police the power to selectively remove problem people

Don't they already have that power? Isn't that what police do? You need a new law to tell them to go ahead and confront or remove someone who is causing a disturbance or acting suspiciously?

I'm sick of that "tool" excuse. They used it to justify the daytime teen curfew and a few other ridiculous new "laws."

The police ALREADY have the power to do their job.

Grace O'Malley wrote:

My initial thoughts are these laws give the police the power to selectively remove problem people

Don't they already have that power? Isn't that what police do? You need a new law to tell them to go ahead and confront or remove someone who is causing a disturbance or acting suspiciously?

I'm sick of that "tool" excuse. They used it to justify the daytime teen curfew and a few other ridiculous new "laws."

The police ALREADY have the power to do their job.

Grace

Of course you are right about that. Police can stop a person anywhere they want.

But we have a councilperson that has decided even though they have ZERO knowledge
of social engineering trying to be the BIG Social Engineer for Lakewood! What I find
laughable is this hypocrite used to come on the Deck day after day, month after month
and accuse the LO of social engineering, as we were merely trying to understand "the
brand" that Lakewood was projecting.

One of the many things I find laughable about the "mad doctor" councilman from ward 3
is in the early days of the Lakewood Observer when we had some of the best people in
city with backgrounds in community building, social studies, psychology etc. the LO was
accused by possibly the worst councilman of all time of, "social engineering" when all we
have ever worked to do is understand the nature and brand of the city of Lakewood. After
all we have always believed that if you can understand a city as good as Lakewood, then it
is not a huge effort to find businesses and residents that like that "brand."

He has spent years painting this project as "evil" and "anti-Lakewood" when it is the
opposite, the Lakewood Observer is Lakewood, nothing more than its mirror. While he, the
power mad councilman tries unthoughtful and unfounded social experiments on the tax
payers and voters of Lakewood. Hell he couldn't even keep a goldfish alive in his office.

Stop the madness, please stop the jihad against law abiding Lakewoodites, please stop
changing Lakewood for the worse as desperately try to make people respect you.

It just isn't working, and its harmful and hurtful.

Reset the hours for Madison and Kaufman Parks, tell the bars that you serve, instead of
the residents they will need to share parking until midnight.

The residents of Lakewood deserve that, and more.

.