The Observation Deck

This past weekend I had the misfortune of having to purchase a new camera lens, and stopped
down around the river to test it out and see how it was working, compared to the older one.
The lens worked perfectly, but I had the chance to notice something I found both odd, and
a little unsettling.

It has been about 10 years since Cleveland gave up the second part of its name and the term
CLE came flying in on the back of CLE+, the non-profit group and marketing point that was
taking not just Cleveland, but Akron, Youngstown, and making their collective loves better by
selling us nationally and internationally with the knowledge that together we can stand tall
at the World's financial table, as together we had nearly the same GDP as Rwanda.

Many other groups jumped on the new, cooler, easier to spell "CLE" tagline, and
it fit so nice on Ts, stickers, and made twitter slightly more bearable. After all what did it
matter if Cleveland was getting richer, (well at least if you were non-profits selling CLE),
damn, it does sound so cool. And that we can market...

Cleveland, 1974? 2014?

Cleveland, Ohio, Cuyahoga County Seat, 06.14.2014 pm 70 degrees.

... anyway, I digress, Down on the wonderful Cuyahoga, which has been greatly improved since
the Ralph Perk days, I looked towards the fastest growing section of the city, Downtown, and
took this picture, and realized that the view has not changed for decades. That in the county
that is still losing people, being the fastest growing community is merely akin to having the
best lounge chair on the Titanic. That no political force or nonprofit force, have done
a thing to stop the hemorrhaging-- that "The Best Location In The Nation" is disappearing.


Cleveland, Ohio, Cuyahoga County Seat, 06.14.2014 pm 70 degrees.
If you ask me, the city does not look like it has had much really done to it. Lots of hype.

It was at that time I stopped and thought about Lakewood. A city that has remained filled
with good people and good businesses, not just when it is cool, but all the time. A city that
had proven sustainability from the days of the Big Stick Market Crash to the Days of the
Big Stock Market Crash a hundred years later.

While everyone has come and gone chasing "cool," Lakewood has jremained simply, the best
place to live and raise a family. At the end of the day, is that so bad? It seems so many
in this city are more worried about chasing cool, than keeping our neighborhoods whole,
safe, clean and inviting. I thought it might be nice to reflect.

The best place to live, and raise a family never goes out of style.

Since it was a nice night on Saturday my wife and I took a little ride downtown by way of the shoreway and back home via Detroit.

The RTA improvements along Clifton are coming along fine. New housing and a Giant Eagle store will be constructed on the vacant lot at 117th and Clifton. The condos are going to be in the $500,000 range. Cleveland is doing some street repairs on some of the side streets. Edgewater Park looked good from the street. The beach are was clean and the sand was freshly groomed. We could see the sand because the beach was empty. To our right we could see the construction of the new underpass for the Gordon Square area. We go to the Capital Theater on occasion so direct entry from the shoreway will be a plus.

We headed downtown for a drive by the Horseshoe Casino. There didn't seem to be much going on. The area around Public Square was populated by large groups of people drinking out of paper bags. The wind was blowing trash all around. Does the $65 million in improvements planned for public square include trash cans?

It was an easy drive down Euclid because there weren't more than a handful of people on the streets. It seemed pretty desolate for a Saturday evening. We saw a lot of vacant store fronts along Euclid. I read in the Plain Dealer that the County is offering operating subsidies for new retail stores. There are a lot of vacancies in the nearby office buildings as well. I suppose the County will have to offer subsidies to tenants in the office buildings so the tenants in the taxpayer subsidized retail will have some customers.

We took a drive through the Warehouse District. There were a lot of empty parking spaces and a lot of empty patios.
We headed back West to Lakewood down Detroit. A new apartment building is being built on the North side of the Street along the shoreway. It looks like some of the suites will have a nice view of the lake. The Harp was very busy. The patio was packed. I always thought their food was just fair so we haven't been there in a while.

There was some kind of festival going in the Gordon Square area. There were a few tents pitched along the street. Most seemed to be offering old garage sale items. The Latitude and other places seemed pretty empty. First Federal of Lakewood will be opening a branch in the old Chase space on Detroit.

A little farther along we saw a woman sweeping the street and sidewalk near her apartment. She seemed too young for that kind of behavior. A bit of atavistic behavior. I wonder if her behavior will influence others or if she will just give up? Why is it that one bad apple spoils the bunch but one good apple doesn't improve the bunch?

We passed by the Brothers Lounge and noticed a Lakewood police car parked out in front. I didn't know Lakewood assumed the responsibility to patrol that end of Cleveland but I guess someone has to do it.

Value World in Lakewood seemed busy. The owners of the new condos across the street should be pleased.

It looked like a quiet night. The new patio at the Winking Lizard was busy. It's one of the nicer patios around. The food is pretty good too. Although, contrary to popular belief a restaurant can offer mediocre food and do very well. I guess we all have our favorite examples.

Downtown Lakewood was kind of quiet. The Melt was busy but Carrie Cerinos seemed slow. They have good food but there is a lot of competition out there.

Then back home for a quiet evening on the porch.

[quote="Bill Call"]Since it was a nice night on Saturday my wife and I took a little ride downtown by way of the shoreway and back home via Detroit.

Edgewater Park looked good from the street. The beach are was clean and the sand was freshly groomed. We could see the sand because the beach was empty. [/quote]

I decided to take the long way home from work Sunday evening about 5:00. Driving on the Shoreway through downtown there seemed to be a lot of activity at the R&R HOF. Further down there was a line of cars stretching up the exit ramp to Edgewater Park onto the highway. Thankfully I wasn't in the right hand lane. There were so many cars in there they were parking on the grass. The beach was very crowded. I'm not sure when you went by but the beach does close at 9:00 and I'm pretty sure parents would not be keeping their kids out there much past 7.

The yacht club is celebrating its 100th anniversary and, concurrently, Cleveland Race week. Events like that draw a lot of people.

Will Brown wrote:The yacht club is celebrating its 100th anniversary and, concurrently, Cleveland Race week. Events like that draw a lot of people.

Also, Edgewater Live, with food trucks, music, concerts all summer long, I believe.


.

Most of the nicest work downtown has been refurbs/repurposed existing buildings. While it doesn't look different from a distance, it's a far cry from the burned out structures of two decades ago. Cleveland may or may not be on the right path, but I hope for the best. Lakewood may be sustainable on its own, but a strong center city will make Lakewood better, in my view. Which does not seem popular in this space.

Jim ... can you clarify what's going in the Vedda building?

A stronger Cleveland is DEFINITELY a good thing for Lakewood.

Paul/Mike

A strong Cleveland definitely is a plus for Lakewood, that is unless it sucks out
development dollars that could have been used for inner ring suburbs. It is great
for Lakewood unless it starts to feed on Lakewood, as it already has with Tremont,
Ohio City, Downtown, Collinwood. (See Bill Call posts)

You see the problem is that Cleveland, bought into CLE+, the new version of "Cleveland is
a plum." It was hip, new, cool, and it got a huge push from all of the non-profits, like the
Cleveland Foundation, buying into the hype they started. At the meetings, they joked that
the young people would love the simplicity, after all "the people need it simple, real
simple." "Cleveland, the best location in the nation" was old, and too complicated. It
sounded like grandparents. So people just as old, who were paid huge salaries, came up
with "CLE+" for the mindless to follow and get behind.

The thought process was: put the areas together and we have the same GDP as Rwanda,
allowing us to be "players" on the world stage in the global market place. It was all hype--
put out Foundations collecting millions, and groups like Team Neo and hundreds of others
dying to get their hands on the grant checks that went with the slogan. Things built on hype
sooner or later falls apart. Youngstown was the first to bail, getting their act together
without the help of the grant- eaters getting paid millions to trickle down hundreds, or
sometimes less.

One of my favorite CLE + stories is how Team Neo was trying to lure "a successful
entrepreneur" to Cleveland. They flew this successful entrepreneur in, they put him up at
the Ritz Carlton, they showed him the city, then they sat down to talk about the pluses of
moving his entire empire to CLEVELAND (not Lakewood). The thought was that something
as big as this could kickstart the community, and they had been getting millions to make
CLE+ slightly better than Rwanda.

And who was this celebrity that Team Neo (chosen by the Lakewood Chamber of
Commerce to talk to the Leaders of Lakewood at the Community Breakfast)? None other
than the man who had bought the rights to "Bat Boy" from the Weekly World News. That's
right, not the originator, but the guy that bought the rights, after all the hype was over.
This is how desperate and pitiful the chase for cool can be.



It is this mindset that has held Cleveland back. After all, if you make millions if not billions
for helping a city, do you ever want it not to need your very special help? Really, give up
your six figure job for what? I see earlier someone mentioned the Euclid Corridor. A
complete joke. Euclid Avenue, once filled with privately owned businesses, is now filled
with huge shining buildings, 90% or more that are non-profit or government.

That's right. Those buildings exist to take money from people for redistribution after taking
45% off the top. It is a sim city of unreality, propped up with the newest people buying
into the ponzi like scheme, instead of simply coming to the Cleveland area because of
the weather, time zone, economy, cost of living, amount of fresh water, and ease of getting
around, things that all seem easier to market than "Bat Boy."

So that in the end, the only thing Cleveland attracts is people who are already living in the
area. It is all nothing more than a shell game controlled by a few, and fed by the paid
hype of many. You want money from the Cleveland Foundation, the Gund Foundation?
You better embrace "CLE+."

Which means EVERY CDC is all about CLE+ even when they think it is a joke. They have
no choice. So the hype and scheme builds. Those desperate to keep non-profit jobs, tell
their volunteers to repeat. Kind of like how a high school football coach uses the bodies of
young players to keep his/her job.

So that Collinwood gets hip, and people move into Collinwood, soon they figure out it is
hype, and move to Tremont where they realize its hype, then they move back to Ohio City,
where they realize it is still hype, and move Downtown.

The fastest growing community is the anchor to a region that is losing people everyday.

GET IT? "CLE+" -- a flawed scheme that has failed, and driven Cleveland into a ditch.
Actually since CLE+ started the population of Cleveland has fallen by over 25%.

Now what is even funnier is that in Collinwood, Tremont, Downtown, rebirth was not just
started organically, ie, without grants or the need for anyone to brand them "hip" or "cool"
for the week-minded, but because they were the best places at the time for the people
who started them. The first people to live in Downtown and make "warehouses/apartments"
started in 1977, a couple Lakewood guys living in the Bradley Building. It has been built up
every since. In 1982 the first legal warehouse apartment was approved.

In Tremont, a Lakewood person saw how cheap the homes were and bought 20 of them,
offering them to friends in the arts, music and business. Both of those groups have tried to
get things going in Lakewood, only to be told no, no, no, repeatedly. We are on the plan to
being hip, just ask the Cleveland Foundation. It was not until long after the cool was
established that the CDCs and non-profits jumped in to take credit. CDCs love taking credit for anything.

Through it all, Lakewood remained the very un-hip best place to live and raise a family.
While the others were selling their souls to bars and clubs in a desperate attempt to be
cool, Lakewood just dedicated itself to new schools, new libraries, and great police and fire service.

As The Flats came and left, Ohio City came and left, came and left, Tremont came, blew
out, now filling with really uncool people, Slavic Village coming on, Collinwood coming on,
and Downtown coming on, Lakewood just kept their head, and their eye on the prize: good
schools, good library, a dedication to education and smart people, that helped to make
Lakewood the best place to live and raise a family. For over 100 years.

Kind of amazing, isn't it? That a simple dedication to honest, real living, would make a real city, real popular.

Lakewood, hold on. City Hall has been written about, and they are deep in taking full
credit for something that has been here all along. The other day I was speaking with a
member of council, commenting on how Lakewood has held its own for over 50 years. The
comment back was: "It is certainly nicer today than it was in the past when it was bad"?
Now I have been here on and off for nearly 60 years. I must have missed that bad period.
A clear rewrite of local history to prop up how well they have saved the city!

To be honest, in nearly 60 years, I never remember the city saying, "We cannot keep
parks safe and clean we have to shut them." Until this administration and council took
over. I do not remember any other administration saying, "We need to save $43,000 a
year, take your own garbage to the streets." I do not remember any other administration
needing to hire a PR person to spin the news EVERY DAY, let alone needing that person to
further lies and untrue stories in order to cover up the facts. I do not remember any other
administration admitting they have failed to such an extent that the city is hemorrhaging
and all we can do to make ends meet is to make our churches into sports bars in the
middle of a neighborhood.*

I have only heard of one other community taking hoops down because the kids are out of
control, and that city has put them back up and added to them.

Nothing worse than when a city believes its own hype, well maybe when the city starts
trying to live up to the hype while ignoring the very thing that got them there: schools,
families, libraries, neighborhoods. Yeah, the bar owners might contribute to your election
war chest, but it is the people of Lakewood that ultimately vote for you.

Do they drive it into the river, following other hip failed communities banking on bars, or do they sober up and realize
it is all about the residents?

* For the record these are City Hall thoughts, not mine.

.

Hi Jim,

I read your article twice and still do not understand any argument that claims a revived Cleveland could possibly be bad for Lakewood.

I completely agree that the current Lakewood city administrationcan be complacent and not aggressive promoting our best values. But your story about the "Bat Boy" acquirer and the Ritz Carlton shindig, doesn't really prove to me (and maybe I am missing it) that a strong Cleveland is bad for Lakewood.

We NEED a strong Cleveland. Lakewood is fantastic by itself but part of our charm is the quick distance to cultural events, sporting events, downtown dining, etc. that is imperative to keeping our own city alive. A dead Cleveland is definitely NOT good for Lakewood.

Instead of bemoaning about Plain Dealer coverage, or what Cleveland City Hall is doing, we need to focus on what our OWN City Hall is not doing. We should be positioning ourselves as the "City of Choice" for those who want to take advantage of what Cleveland has to offer without living in Cleveland. Our city is second to none in Cuyahoga County for a combination of housing prices, walk/bike ability, school system, library, restaurants and more.

But, without a strong Cleveland, we will fade just as much as they will.

Just my take and have no problem if others disagree. Cheers,

Matt

Matthew Lee wrote:We NEED a strong Cleveland. Lakewood is fantastic by itself but part of our charm is the quick distance to cultural events, sporting events, downtown dining, etc. that is imperative to keeping our own city alive. A dead Cleveland is definitely NOT good for Lakewood.

I think everyone agrees that an economically strong Cleveland is a good thing. But how do you define strong?

Cuyahoga County's current economic policy is focused on subsidies. Subsidies for sports, arts, condos, apartments, restaurants and office buildings. That policy has accelerated job and population loses in the Cleveland area. Because the County does not offer subsidies to all cities in Cuyahoga County cities that do not receive subsidies are at a disadvantage. If you are not in Crocker Park or Downtown you are out of luck.

In a region with a declining population subsidized growth in one area comes at the expense of growth in another. If Cuyahoga County offers subsidies to downtown condominiums and downtown apartments what does that do to the apartment market in Lakewood?

A good example of how the subsidy culture does real damage can be seen in the new medical center being built in Avon. All of those hundreds of millions being spent will not add one job or one person to the region. The entire development will come at the expense of cities like Lakewood.

I suppose the residents of Avon would say a healthy Avon is good for Lakewood.

Why is the political leadership in Lakewood so silent?

Bill Call wrote:Why is the political leadership in Lakewood so silent?

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." Abraham Lincoln.

Matthew Lee wrote:Hi Jim,

I read your article twice and still do not understand any argument that claims a revived Cleveland could possibly be bad for Lakewood.

Matt

I am not against Cleveland. A strong Cleveland makes our lives a lot better, and a lot easier.

I want a real strong Cleveland.

But do we put our effort into making Cleveland strong at the expense of Lakewood? Is it time for us
to take one for the team? Because in a declining population someone is losing.

I have often said and still believe, Lakewood would be the second largest city in Montana. So if we were to
make our city whole and healthy, in Cleveland's bad times, we do OK. In Cleveland's good times we
cash in BIG! Lakewood has done OK because we did not chase the fads, we respected the neighborhoods,
not the quick come and go firestorms of cool that are so fragile, they usually disappear overnight.

I am all for Cleveland succeeding at something. CLE+ is a dismal failure, worse than Cleveland's a plum.

.

Jim O'Bryan wrote:CLE+ is a dismal failure, worse than Cleveland's a plum.

Hey, Jim, you are forgetting, "Lakewood is a party bus! Come get drunk with us! It's cool to pee at the elementary!"

Matt