The Observation Deck

Welcome to our world, The Lakewood Observer.

Tonight with the tireless effort of Dan Ott, Rami Daud, and DL Meckes, we launch the website that we believe can take Lakewood into the next decade and beyond; helping all of us understand our city better while working together. If you have doubts, just look at the list of names of people who have helped to launch this website/paper. If that is not diversity and a list of who’s who in Lakewood, then I don’t know what is!

No longer are we dependent on news from outside sources; we launch our hometown news tonight! Hold on to your hats, this is going to be one wild, fun ride!

Phase One - The Observation Deck, implemented by DL Meckes and 4design. Filled with (at present) over one hundred Lakewoodites who care about our city. This is the area that fuels the stories and allows us to continue to discuss long after the paper has wrapped some fish.

Phase Two - The website, designed and built by Dan Ott & Rami Daud, where news, facts, podcasts, photo galleries and calendars rule the roost. Read the news FRESH daily. Watch the paper form week after week. This area will include longer versions of the stories we run in the paper, and enlarged photo, sound and podcast galleries. Mark this page - it changes hourly!

Phase Three - The printed paper, first available on June 27, 2005. Be there or be square! Our goal is in sight and we are looking to go long and deep into the history of Lakewood.

I would like to thank the following people for their work, support, kind words, directions, pep talks, code, beta testing, and for being there.

The following 4+more have been working on this site/paper for 8 months!

Ken Warren
DL Meckes
Steve Davis
Steve Calhoun
Dan Ott
Rami Davd

Production Wizards
Bill Davis and Jan Davis

Advisors/Editors/Contributors/Mentors
Dan Slife
Jeff Endress
Gordon Brumm
Heidi Hilty
Lynn/Don Farris
Suzanne Metleko
Mark and Jil Timieski
Mary Anne Crampton
Chuck Greanoff
Bill Grulich
Stan Austin
Bryan Wroten
Jeremiah Hull
Tom Powell-Bullock
Thomas D. Corrigan
Melissa Garrett
Stephen Gross
Tara Zeigler
Mike Deneen
Matthew Charboneau
Bob Buckeye
Han Liou
Charley Newcomer
Teresa Newcomer
Kevin Galvin
Leslie M. Basalla
Vincent O'Keefe
Beckett Warren
Vince Frantz
Julia A. Wiltse
Kristen Barker
Timothy E. Kanak
Bob Togliatti
Luis Gutierrez
Steve Hoffert
Paul Nickels
Gayle Elizabeth Pickel
John Guscott
Gary Rossen
Mark Crnolatas
Turo Dexter
Jackie Avus
Kevin Butler
Catherine Butler
Grace O'Malley
Ruth Sholtis-Furyes
Paul Tepley
John Viglianco
Ann Driscoll
Terry Bell
Tom Shaughnessy
Ruthie Koenigsmark
Stosh Burgess
Bac Nguyen
Colleen Wing
Shellie Sedlak
Frank A. Mills
Tara Wendell
Mary Ross Coleman
Mary Hagan
Denny Wendell
Scott MacGregor
Stan Walsh
Jan Henderson
Chris Kelley
Michele Billow
Cathy Frantz
Steven Ollay
Joe McClain
Primus Chuks Igboaka
Fran Kennedy
Adam Gercak
Holly C. Whisman
Mark Latvala
Dr. Larry Keller

And Especially

Mayor Thomas J. George
Ryan Patrick Demro
Mary Louise Madigan

For trusting the process.


Thank you all, now let's cover some news and write some stories!

Jim O'Bryan

Gary-

The participation, the dialogue, and the contributions of news and knowledge from good neighbors has grown considerably, IMO.

The Observer participation continues to grow. One thing that I love about the Observer is how many new people and new voices have been brought into my life. But for this project, I may have never met you. My loss - and I wouldn't have even known it!

Oh, and having you dig this out of our own "way back machine" reminds me that Ken Warren and Jim O'Bryan had been all over me for wanting to trim old posts. They said we should keep 'em all. They were right.

Gary

We have changed in so many ways it is hard to explain.

One way we have changed is the amount of Lakewoodites reading the Deck and the paper. Everywhere I go people quote comments to me from every walk of life.

This month we have a legitimate shot at passing 3,000,000 hits a month!

What was once a dream and a vision is now producing and helping local civic groups to get their messages out, through Virtual Meeting Rooms, and stand alone websites provided for FREE from the Observer.

We have solidified our future with long term commitments and contracts from not only the Cleveland Clinic, Cox Communications but other businesses that care about keeping Lakewood informed through this award winning effort.

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Monday we will finally start taping the Lakewood Observer TV show. something that has been in the works for over one year.

Ready to double the size of the website, with two new features being added at the request of members and the community.

Our dedication is the same, the thoughts are the same.

Love for the city only grows day by day.

(Gary we have some huge announcements that are nearly ready to be shared. So ear I thought I had started this thread to make them public!)


.

Could there be an "oops" here? I see dl and Jim addressing Gary, but is that from somewhere other than this thread, or ?

Mark Allan Crnolatas

Mark-

Gary had posted, but evidently took his post down, as is his option.

This is Gary,

dl- Thanks for the kind words! Kumbayah indeed!

Jim, great points! How far indeed this has come!

I did indeed intend to bring back this post as a "time machine" tribute, but I wondered how it might be taken, so I changed my mind and deleted my remarks.

There is much to learn, plus a few belly-laughs and tears to be had in looking at those old posts.

The past can bring all kinds of responses, and so I second-thought that I'd just leave it alone. I guess I'm glad that did not happen and that others can now be reminded of this historic early post.

I even came up with a (now I think-misguided) poem about not going back to the old posts. It went like this:

"The Posts at the Bottom"

an opinionated parody...

To "My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean"
(Traditional)

1
To the posts that sink down to the bottom,

Of the Old Observation Deck dream,

Unmissed and unloved and outdated.

When remembered, we frequently scream:

Refrain:

"Don't bring back,

Don't bring back,

Don't bring back those old posts to me, to me...

Don't bring back,

Don't bring back,

Don't bring back those old posts to me!"

2
When we think of page 5, 6, or 7,

Or way back to page thirty-six.

What used to be very important,

Reminds us of petrified sticks!

(To refrain)

3
To posters who live in this City,

Come now, and why can't you see?

Today's posts? Tomorrow's old stories...

Don't bring back the old posts to me!

(to refrain)

...from a (getting older by the minute) banjo picker


It seems to have been a good idea though, to take a look back. I'm glad the old posts remain.

My deleted question was whether the 'Deck has deteriorated, or remained the same, or was better now?

My own thoughts are that this 'Deck has been a great thing, and it now has a history of it's own. Just click on one of the old pages. You'll see.

A trip back in time!

Gary

Thanks for the fun song.

You have talent, you should take up music lessons!

The Lakewood Observer from day three has been the heartbeat of Lakewood. More and more everyday. While some have asked us now and then to put some sort of control on it, it functions better without editing, censorship or agenda, a feeling that that is not always shared by others in this city.

Gary, I will have to take you tom some of the meetings we have outside of Lakewood. It is amazing how much they know and love the Observer as well. Reading the .pdf versions of the paper, and the Deck, brings them up to speed on what we know as a very vibrant energized city.

It was not BS, when Ken an I went to sit into the DeFrag meetings, that the Observer emerged as a star and one that was sought out by people from Youngstown, New Orleans and Rochester NY. they new more about the LO than I did.

The Lakewood Observer through the hard work and participation of nearly 5% of Lakewood is helping to define Lakewood's brand and hopefully make it better for all.

you my friend have been golden to this project and me.

For that I am very thankful.


.

Thanks Jim and all involved in this Project,

For your support, encouragement, and stick-to-it-iveness with me, and with this whole project.

It's been a fine day for memories, looking back. Well, mostly anyway. Today was Mom's birthday, but yes, there are many fine memories there too.

After she died, and with the rest of our family out-of town, Dad and I were really glad to get to know you all, and experience your friendship.

What a blessing.

Ah those old topics...

Some of those old topics really made me smile, like the time.....

Well, better still, what about you other Observers out there?

Were the old posting issues resolved, or should they be recycled?

Should they sit back in the musty dim archives of time, or be brought forth again into the light of a new day?

Are we pleased when we see them, or would we say "Oh no! I wrote that??"

In my opinion these posts are a tapestry of some of the best, the most caring, the most involved people of our time.

You.

Gary-

All of the old posts in the main discussion areas just sit taking server space. I have moved some posts to an archive file, but those had to do with the old way we used to move articles to the paper. Since every paper is archived as a pdf, those are not "needed" but they also exist on the server.

I still want to get rid of some topic areas, but there hasn't been a consensus.

I don't spend much time looking back, but I have, once or twice, looked at the first posts.

But I remember fondly, when we were first testing the possibility of a communication system, that four people had a secret code (a recently deceased author's name) to access our first "Deck."

That author, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, influenced some of us in many interesting - and probably unknown ways.

Great anecdote, dl!

Much of the Lakewood Observer Project is about looking forward.

The people who post here so often seem to me to want to effect change in Lakewood.

Visions are aired here that may well become realities tomorrow.

It's an exciting time to be a Lakewoodite!

I agree, the LO has obviously come a long way since it's beginning.

While the LO and the birth of our little one hit around the same time, I've spent more time tapping keys on the deck here, and not as much time as I would like going to the events etc. That is one thing I hope we can improve on (from my family's standpoint).

One part that sometimes makes me laugh is while I'm posting, since I rarely if ever use some outside word program, is while I'm addressing someone or something, by the time I'm finished with the post, there are several posts already beyond the "space" I was posting in, sometimes making what I just finished typing obsolete.

Not only are there many people watching, but many more posting, and when a topic hits a bit harder than some others, then it's time to move fast to get one's "say so" in, or 10 others will be already there while your still hitting the starter motor.

I've noticed another thing. I and I'm sure others, sometimes just have to express SOMETHING, some frustration or observation, and since there is nothing to censor that, even that simple and basic concept to air one's mind, is sometimes worth more than many can imagine, here on the LO Deck.

I found a quote that seems suitable for this thread. See below.
================
Mark Allan Crnolatas
"Hell, there are no rules here, we're trying to accomplish something" Thomas Edison

......and yet, all those words, all those posts, all those thoughts are out there somewhere, floating in cyberspace, waiting to torpedo our dreams at running for higher office.....

Damn! But for some discussion of herbs and pizza early on, I could consider running for an at large seat!!


Jeff