The Observation Deck

Yesterday, I attended the LHA Board of Trustees meeting at Lakewood Hospital. Unfortunately, I used the second-floor atrium restroom prior to the meeting. It was disgusting. The wastebasket was overflowing, the sink was dirty, there was toilet paper around the toilet, there was fecal matter on the front lip and down the front of the toilet bowl, and there was a bug crawling on the floor. I will post some pictures below, however, I will refrain from posting pictures of the toilet, as I feel it would be in poor taste. After the meeting around 6:00 P.M., I checked the condition of the restroom and found it unchanged. I did smell sewer gases this time, which I suspected to be coming from the grate in the middle of the floor. I reported the odor to the information desk.

It is bad enough that CCF removed most of the services from our hospital. At this meeting, I recall the trustees claiming that our ER visits were down. I believe they failed to mention that a large amount of our squad runs now go to Fairview, St. John's, Metro, or Lutheran. Are dirty restrooms another ploy to make our hospital look run-down? I have never seen dirty restrooms at the Richard E. Jacobs Center, ever. Shame on you Cleveland Clinic, for allowing your restrooms to look like this!

P.S. Sorry I can't fix the pictures. Duh!

A friend of mine volunteers at the Hospital. She has been telling me she has seen a big decline in general maintenance and housekeeping.

A nurse who works there told me that equipment is being tagged for removal. What message does that send to the employees? I suspect that the promises the Clinic makes to make jobs available to the current employees of Lakewood Hospital are as good as the promises made to the people of Lakewood with the Vision of Tomorrow.

Much of the past damage done to the Hospital can be blamed on the incompetence of City Officials, LHA and Hospital Board. What we are seeing now is deliberate sabotage.

The intent is clear:

DESTROY AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Years ago my prediction was that at the end of the lease term, 2026, the Clinic would leave behind an outdated building without any customers. The actions of the Mayor and the Board have accelerated the time line.

Bill,

When you are losing $500,000 a month, sacrifices have to be made!

The number one strategy in this city is declaring a property, a park, a school, a hospital, a whole neighborhood "blighted" while the city itself does the "blighting."

It's blighted! It's no good. It's dangerous. It's bad. We don't need it we should get rid of it. It would be much for useful for "Economic Development."

Same thing here. It's so funny, people talking about how Lakewood Hospital is losing money and saying it isn't as good as it used to be, when it's been systematically dismantled with the approval of City Hall for years. That was the plan--- to have it lose money, to have it lose services. To blight it. Otherwise, when the Clinic started moving services out, they would have stopped them.

Kauffman Park? Just let it get overgrown, don't police it, leave graffiti up when it happens, call it dangerous and a magnet for trouble---- the first time, under Fitzgerald, because according to a school board member, Cleveland Clinic wanted that space for an administrative campus! The second time, when it had to close early at sundown (along with Madison Park) because "nothing good happens in a park after sundown" when really it was about handing over public parking to businesses near there. Quaker Steak, Humble, Mahall's. As long as the visitors coming to Lakewood have close parking when they go out drinking.

Grant School? Because it was in the "density zone." Right in the middle of a commercial district and right in the middle of more families than anywhere else in the city, in two family houses! In apartments! Lots of the Grant parents didn't speak English! As I was told by a member of the committee, "You're going to find out that no-one in Lakewood cares about those people in the density zone." Packed with families with kids who needed school to be within walking distance. In the end? Closed! Chosen as "Best for Re-Use!" Much better for Economic Development than for educating children, at least those blighted children.

Grant School remained open because even though the Board of Ed and the Administration got used, they found their footing, came back, asked the state to reconsider our population in order to keep seven schools, and took care of the kids, which is their only job and it's a difficult one.

The West End? Remember how those houses were "blighted" because they had only single car garages? Hilarious, unless you were one of the people living there. Better for Economic Development than a whole thriving neighborhood of homes and residents.

And now... a "Family Health Care Center" based on an inner city model which is essentially a referral center out of Lakewood, extra land, and that 75 million dollars left over for Economic Development by a "new non-profit" with the theme of taking care of "wellness" in Lakewood, with what, a Rec Center? While we lose our hospital. Our real safety net, and all of those jobs. Again, hilarious. If we lose enough population when we lose the hospital that we truly go below 50,000 people in the next census and lose our status as a "city," maybe we can even lose our local court system. All for Economic Development. What's that going to be again? Why is it worth it?

The state of Ohio said we had to close a school, jump on in there, get some land, make a deal! Cleveland Clinic doesn't want to include Lakewood in their master plan which is to move out to the wealthier suburbs surrounding Cleveland, and make everyone else use their main campus or Metro. Rather than defend our hospital, and say to the Clinic, well, maybe you're not such a good fit for Lakewood anymore, maybe we should get some new management-- encourage them! Jump right in there. Help them blight the hospital. It'll be good for Economic Development.

It's the same strategy every time.

If you've never seen this episode of Sixty Minutes, it makes for some good entertainment on a wet Friday afternoon (or a sunny one) while we get ready for the weekend when we might have some time to think! Watch what a good job our elected officials did of defending Lakewood residents that time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSJhyTa6fLk

Betsy Voinovich

Betsy Voinovich wrote:Kauffman Park? Just let it get overgrown, don't police it, leave graffiti up when it happens, call it dangerous and a magnet for trouble---- the first time, under Fitzgerald, because according to a school board member, Cleveland Clinic wanted that space for an administrative campus!

During the George administration Kaufman Park became a real eyesore. The worse it looked the fewer people that used it, the fewer people that used it the more we heard comments like "maybe there is a better use for all that land".

When an investor paid $6 million for Drug Mart Plaza I knew something was up. The property wasn't even worth $2 million. It turned out that there was a secret agreement to sell the Park for development. The plans called for a huge multi story condo project.

Around that time Beck Center was having financial difficulties. It's facilities needed major improvements and its programing was suffering. There were rumors that Beck Center would be moving to Westlake. I posted an article to that affect that was quickly denied. It turned out that Stark enterprises was working hard to have the facility moved to Crocker Park. That effort failed.

Recently, Cindy Einhouse gave a presentation about the Beck at a Chamber of Commerce meeting. She said the Beck is making money and has an economic impact worth tens of millions of dollars.

Keep all that in mind when reading about Lakewood Hospital and remember that the Hospital has exactly as much business as the Clinic wants it to have.