The Observation Deck

Photo by Alex Belisle

Last night, Dennis Kucinich set forth newly discovered facts in a very calm and rational way and called for elected officials to take heed of the new information exposed by the taxpayer lawsuit. He said that people should have a right to vote on such an important issue that concerns the future of Lakewood.


Photo by Alex Belisle

Many members of Build Lakewood in attendance appeared stunned ---you could almost feel the air escape the room as Kucinich methodically set forth the facts. While the blue shirted Build Lakewood members were a minority in attendance, it seemed that most or at least an even number of questions came from Build Lakewood members.

Some like David Stein and LHA trustee Rebecca Patton were visibly angry and spoke out of turn.


Photo by Alex Belisle

Ms. Patton, who prefaced her comments with her credentials, questioned whether people should have the right to vote of the hospital issue-- because they were not informed or educated enough on the issue and she didn’t like the way people voted.

Mr. Stein tried to attack Kucinich on the basis that he had not yet reached out to the "other side".


Photo by Alex Belisle

Kucinich kept the focus on the decanting plan facts and suggested that if city leaders moved forward without the people voting, he might call for grand jury. He clarified that he was not making any charges himself, but rather a grand jury would be the proper body leveling charges, if any, and only after a full investigation.


Photo by Alex Belisle

You can see all of Alex's photos at:
http://www.lakewoodobserver.com/photoblogs/alexander-belisle/dennis-kucinich-evening-community-forum

One of the BL folks also repeated the "Hospital is used mostly by non-Lakewoodites" talking point.
I've never understood that logic at all.

Many of our local institutions -- ranging from Around the Corner to St. Edward High School -- rely primarily on customers from outside Lakewood.
Economics 101 says that this is a GOOD THING because it brings out of town dollars into our community.

So why is that a "bad thing" when it comes to the hospital?

I have a feeling that the BL folks will be doing a lot of soul searching today. To think, the whole development plan they support is based on the bogus "market trends" idea laid out by the CCF and LHA and the Summers administration.

Lakewood Hospital has been and still is a very vital entity in our community, despite all the machinations by the CCF to slowly kill it over the past 10 yrs. That says a lot about the viability of Lakewood Hospital.

Great meeting last night and I hope more will be conducted in the near future.

There was a lot of great info at the event, but regrettably the Library prohibited filming or live streaming.
The information could have been shared to much wider audience.

EdsCle of RedBoatLive came to stream the event, but was escorted out by the police.

I'm curious why the library has this "no video or photos" policy?

Michael Deneen wrote:There was a lot of great info at the event, but regrettably the Library prohibited filming or live streaming.
The information could have been shared to much wider audience.

EdsCle of RedBoatLive came to stream the event, but was escorted out by the police.

I'm curious why the library has this "no video or photos" policy?

Mike

They do not have a no video policy. What they have is no photographs or recordings of events
without prior written notification. It has been on their books as long as I remember. The Schools
have the very same policy, for exactly the same reasons.

Yesterday I got a call from the James Crawford the director of the Lakewood Public Library. He had
concern for over how rambunctious the discussion between Councilman Tom Bullock with anyone
else had gotten at the Hospital. He did not want any problems for the library, a true community
safe zone. I mentioned he should open it up, but said, he was sticking to the written rules as those
were the ones he could defend.

I got a text from Ed, and I talked with Jim this morning, he is not changing rules but hoping to
make more aware of them.

Had the meeting been on the steps, it could have been filmed. At City Hall, it could have been
filmed, at Lakewood Park it could have been filmed. Had Ed asked in writing...

.

Michael Deneen wrote:I'm curious why the library has this "no video or photos" policy?

Apparently, they don't enforce the "no photography" policy very well ... unless Alex got "the written permission of the Library Director or a Manager" as stated in item 7. of their Public Venues Policy.


Personally, I think its a matter of "selective enforcement."

Peter Grossetti wrote:Apparently, they don't enforce the "no photography" policy very well ... unless Alex got "the written permission of the Library Director or a Manager" as stated in item 7. of their Public Venues Policy.


Personally, I think its a matter of "selective enforcement."

Alex was the one "allowed" photographer.....Jim would know the backstory.

Michael Deneen wrote:

Peter Grossetti wrote:Apparently, they don't enforce the "no photography" policy very well ... unless Alex got "the written permission of the Library Director or a Manager" as stated in item 7. of their Public Venues Policy.


Personally, I think its a matter of "selective enforcement."

Alex was the one "allowed" photographer.....Jim would know the backstory.

Not surprised to know that Alex was on the up-and-up. Class act, that NYC transplant!

I am GRATEFUL for the Build folks who came to our forum last night. I thank them for being willing to HEAR what we present - even though they probably had already convinced themselves not to believe anything we might say. But - they CAME. I am grateful.
To those who now have doubts, I would say: You may feel you must publicly show allegiance to someone -- but YOUR VOTE is PRIVATE. Vote as your heart tells you is RIGHT.
I could hear the air being sucked out of the room - when Dennis showed the slide that depicted 1667 surgeries in Lakewood Hospital - going to ZERO. The collective, quiet breath-catch - was real.

If there were slides presented perhaps they could be shared and then distributed more widely?

We didn't distribute slides. But the entire document package was printed and handed out to the press representatives at the morning press conference.
Bruce Geiselman scanned and attached the entire set of documents to his article on Cleveland.com about the Kucinich press conference of Monday morning 9/21.
Perhaps Matt Markling can post the exact link to get these documents.
It was about 120 pages long, 1/2" thick, lots and lots of material.
It is a VERY INTERESTING read - not at all dry or boring.

Thanks Peter. NYC prepared me well. But Lakewood is way nicer!

Kate McCarthy wrote:If there were slides presented perhaps they could be shared and then distributed more widely?

Kate,

Here is a complete copy of the Emergency Motion Filed with the Court on Friday September 18, 2015.

If someone has Dennis Kucinich's remarks from the press conference that they can post that would be great.

See Jim O'Bryan's post about Ex-Congressman Kucinich's remarks - the full text.