My apology...

[Jim O'Bryan]

This morning I was speaking with a trusted friend that asked me, "Why should I feel bad for living North of Clifton."

Then he/she proceeded to point out how many times I had made fun of this.

The answer I said and I will share here.

"No one should ever feel bad because of where they live in Lakewood. We are all Lakewoodites."

My problem is/was that some of these people I have known for awhile and I love to have some fun joking about moving to the promised land. However many on this board have no idea of my past with these people.

This has now become a learning experience much like Joan Roberts taking me to task on "faux cities."

As such I would like to apologize to all.

I will certainly work harder in the future on correcting many of my bad habits.

peace


.

[Heidi Hilty]

Thank you.

[stephen davis]

Aw, James, lighten up.

You didn't invent the historic lines of Lakewood. The Norths and Souths of the tracks and Clifton been talked about forever.

This city only covers five and a half square miles. We all have friends that live all over this town.

I live here because, among many other things, I love the lack of the kind of attitudes that suck the oxygen out of the well upholstered ghettos like Westlake, Strongsville, Solon, et al. Human interaction, intellect, and souls are resources that are more sustainable here than almost anywhere else in the region. Opportunities and friendships reach all corners of Lakewood's geography.

With few exceptions, Lakewoodites celebrate their differences enough to talk, and even joke about them. In an almost oxymoronic way, we are unified by our differences. Special people live here. They like it here, warts and all.

Getting all sensitive about what piece of land a house is on is silly enough to have fun with.

I do suspect that many of the people that live north of Clifton, or anywhere in this town, also get to chuckle about what a high quality of life they can enjoy with the rest of us in Lakewood for a reasonable price, as opposed to how some of their friends have to live in more western or eastern suburbs.

I've always told you to have fun with this project. You've earned that right. You have thrown a ton of energy (The "ton" part is not a fat joke.) into this city in a freewheeling, almost free-associating, way. You have created an opportunity for residents from all corners of Lakewood to reintroduce themselves to each other.

Keeping it real, unreal, and fun, sometimes means taking trips to the edge. You're pretty good at that, even though that edge can be ticklish to some. Okay, it can be downright annoying sometimes. I know, and I'm sure Mrs. O'Bryan might provide similar insight on this.

Anyway, just because a couple of people have lost their sense of humor doesn't mean you have to.

I don't accept your apology.

[Jim O'Bryan]

...I don't accept your apology.

Steve


Wasn't really made to you.

I appreciate the kinds words and you stepping up to protect my back.

But not everyone is as good at barbs as you, both throwing and catching. The person that came into my office yesterday is a lurker on the board, and a damn good person.

When they pulled out their list of questions, not complaints, we went through the list and the only one I was embarrassed over was "Is there a reason while I should feel bad because I bought a house North of Lake Road?

While it would have been easy to play out the whole deal of why Lake and not Clifton? Detroit?... The fact is many of Lakewood's finest residents live North of Clifton. Of course many more live North of Lakewood Heights.

While you and I and others remember "Wrong side of the Tracks." When I first met Ken Warren who has been here 30 years he had never heard the term except in literary classics like, er, ah, er, well I am sure there is one.

As I have critiqued others for their "handiwork" on "building the Lakewood Brand," I must now slap my own keyboard hand. This week we had another fine future Lakewood citizen sign on to the board, she certainly will move to Lakewood, we all know this because of what Lakewood offers. Friendship and good neighbors will move to the top of the list as the days go by in her and her husband's life. But today as a stranger looking in she does not know we have a great history of friendship and making fun of each other. She just thinks I am a jerk, and the division in Lakewood is huge. We both know she would only be right on one count.

These kind of gentle jokes are best served over coffee, drives, or when I try to light the pilot on my computer.

As Ezra Pound once said:
There once was a brainy baboon who always breathed down a bassoon for he said, "It appears that in billions of years I shall certainly hit on a tune."

peace



.

[Joan Roberts]

I love the lack of the kind of attitudes that suck the oxygen out of the well upholstered ghettos like Westlake, Strongsville, Solon, et al. Human interaction, intellect, and souls are resources that are more sustainable here than almost anywhere else in the region. Opportunities and friendships reach all corners of Lakewood's geography.

With few exceptions, Lakewoodites celebrate their differences enough to talk, and even joke about them. In an almost oxymoronic way, we are unified by our differences. Special people live here. They like it here, warts and all.

Getting all sensitive about what piece of land a house is on is silly enough to have fun with.

You know, I like Lakewood. I really do. And maybe someday, I'll wax really poetic about why, just so people understand where I'm coming from.

But this kind of comment just totally offends me.

In the first, place I LIVED in one of those "well-appointed ghettoes" It wasn't Stepford. It wasn't Pleasantville. We had "human interaction, intelligence, and souls" and any suggestion otherwise is nothing but an unmitigated insult. You completely blow up your own premise with the other line. If "getting all sensitive about what piece of land a house is on" is so "silly", then why are you so quick to snipe of the zip code is something other than 44107.

I don't know why this constant bashing of the rest of the world drives me up a wall (made of architecturally-correct brick, of course), but it does. And I can't let it go.

Also, can we not get totally gauzy about all Lakewoodites joining hands and singing Kumbayah? If I want to "celebrate our differences" at the Clifton Club, I will be invited to move my celebration to the street.

Come on. It's a good place for some and a great place for others. It's like your kids in a way. You love 'em for what they are, but you don't have to think they're perfect. Or is this all just human nature?

A BIG PS:

I know this is a sensitive thing with me, and I hate to make it a bone of contention.

I'd rather turn that into a positive.

Why can't we think of Lakewood as an alternative for those who have specific tastes, as opposed to crapping on the masses who choose another way?

[Joe McClain]

There must be something wrong. I find myself agreeing with Steve Davis. I think Steve should do a survey of density of capers jars in fridges north and south of the Williams Sonoma Line.

Full disclosure: I am in my office. If I walked briskly, I could be at the local Williams Sonoma in under 3 minutes. I often go there and eat the bread and infusion oil samples for lunch.

[stephen davis]

then why are you so quick to snipe of the zip code is something other than 44107.

Joan,

At 52, I'm not "so quick."

When I was a kid, our family moved every year or two. I was never in a school longer than 2 years until my 4 year stint at O.U..

I've lived in urban, suburban, and rural communities all over Northeast Ohio, Southeast Ohio, upstate New York, Dallas, Chicago, and Western Samoa.

I've travelled plenty. I can see myself living in other places (Seattle is a very cool place.), but I work in Cleveland, so let's just say I've got to live in this region for now.

Over 20 years ago I moved to Lakewood from Aurora. I immediately found the "home town" I never really had. I was totally energized by this city. I met a bunch of great and interesting people, got very involved in the community, and really grew personally. I am more comfortable here, now, with my family, than any other place I have lived.

Lakewood isn't perfect. How do you deal with that? You, and everyone else, can love it, like it, dislike it, or hate it any way you want. You can stay or go. You can find, or make your own "home town" here or elsewhere.

I know many that have moved to Westlake, Bay, Medina, Strongsville, etc.. Some are happy, some complain that they only see their neighbors as their cars enter or leave their driveway, and some move back.

So, I'm not "so quick to snipe" at other zip codes. I've had plenty of time to examine other zip codes.

These are MY OPINIONS. I know what works for ME.

Seems, though, that you were pretty "quick to snipe" at me for this.

Also, can we not get totally gauzy about all Lakewoodites joining hands and singing Kumbayah? If I want to "celebrate our differences" at the Clifton Club, I will be invited to move my celebration to the street.

Another great thing about Lakewood is that we don't all have to join hands and sing Kumbayah. We can really fight with each other too. I'll bet that's the part you like.

By the way, I've never been in the Clifton Club building, or Corky's, or Thai Kitchen. Doesn't bother me.

Steve

[stephen davis]

Joe,

You moved to a better place, and we're all very happy.

Steve

[Jim O'Bryan]

Joan/Steve

It is all very interesting to me, here is the problem with this board.

We have a pretty tight group of friends and neighbors that have been around working together on many levels for all sorts of stuff. None of us really take ourselves that seriously, and we all are drunk on the Lakewood Purple Kool-Aid.

Then we have another group that likes Lakewood and rightly have said, "It is good enough but we are not ready to jump off the cliff with other Lakewood Lemmings,

And a third group that is looking to move here, or just get information here.

Some of this has to be hard to understand. Some of the nuances will/would/should escape most readers.

It becomes tough. Steve is right, Joan is correct.

How we balance that will be interesting in the coming years.



peace


.

[stephen davis]

Jim,

Quit it. You don't have to apologize to the guests too. This isn't the Welcome Wagon.

I didn't drink all of the Lakewood Kool-Aid. I spit some over my shoulder when nobody was looking.

At least part of what I like about this place is having access to a fairly energized bunch of individuals, groups, and officials to initiate change of THINGS WE DON'T LIKE.

Steve

[Joan Roberts]

Sorry, but 'well upholstered ghettoes" is just plain dismissive. You can like what you like, but you can't say your attitude is "live and let live" when you toss out phrases like that.

Understand. What I'm against is stereotyping of any kind. I know someone who belongs to the saddest class of people in the world, the "former friend". Why is she a former friend? Because she accused me of something close to child abuse when she found out I was moving with my kids to Lakewood.

I don't like that crap when it comes from the snobs out west, and it doesn't play any better when it travels in the reverse direction

And it's just not true. Avon Lake, Westlake, Bay Village, Solon, all those places that are so devoid of human interaction and soul have actve civic organizations, PTAs, church groups, block parties, etc. And there are more that a few Lakewoodites who park their cars in the garage and keep to themselves. I can think of a half dozen off the top of my head. So can you.

Why try to assign human value to a zip code?

I won't try to fight this again. If you all choose to believe that Westlake and Solon are filled with lost souls possessed by the demons of possessions and conspicuous consumption, and if you choose to believe that everyone in Lakewood is just this side of Gandhi, those will be the beliefs you hold.

No matter how beautiful those ARB-approved bricks, they hurt when you keep bangin' your head on 'em.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Jim,

Quit it. You don't have to apologize to the guests too. This isn't the Welcome Wagon.
...

Steve


When I am having a touchy feely humbling moment get off of my cloud.


peace



.

[Jeff Endress]

Joe

I think Steve should do a survey of density of capers jars in fridges north and south of the Williams Sonoma Line

Capers are way too ordinary to tell you anything. Think bigger. Think unabated consummerism. Think Niman Ranch Beef....(four 11 Oz. Rib-Eyes only $110.00 item #45-7937592)

Think 10 oz. jar Chicken demi-glace ($20.00 item # 45-4420592)

Jeff

[stephen davis]

Joan,

You do like the fight, don't you.

I am not being dismissive.

How about I just say you win.

No, really, you win.

Really.

Steve

[Kenneth Warren]

Ms. Roberts:

Lakewood is the best little bar town on Lake Erie.

With each toast, you are helping the drunken boize in Wood to face the horrible truth of the irritations we advance on the Deck.

Under the influence of Lakewood Koolaid, the higher self is prone to collapse penniless into the illogic of territory and tribe quarantined in the Lakewood Observer drunk tank.

I realize our blousy public expressions of emotional attitudes and irrational propositions about the Wood’s incomparable quality of life especially in relation to other places form a provocative offensive for the maniacal brand-building and mythologizing, which is Mr. O’s providential and poetically inspired specialty.

Let him rip.

At the same time it is easy for the sane person to empathize with the vexations Ms. Roberts articulates so insistently.

As drunken boize of the Wood, we are inclined to spout half-cocked notions and sneaking suspicions about the nefarious orders of existence that compel the economy and geography of our undoing.

For boize like me, Lakewood is the insane gateway to numinous experience shared sometimes in the company of Mr. O, Mr. Davis and others in the Lakewood Observer Gourmet Food Security Network.

It's riffs; it's emotions. It's myth; it's 'tude. It's brand.

The drunken boize in the Wood are, in reason’s light, hopeless cases locked on the inside of their own language games.

When we drive drunk on Lakewood Koolaid beyond the boundaries of the most densely populated city between New York and Chicago, we quickly become lost in the basic existential dilemma that confronts us. The geography of despair consumes our faculty of reason. We are left to our irrational devices to construct the terms of the Lakewood charter myth that binds us magically together in a LO land of White Unicorns and brand-building Eagles.

While I don't believe as Mr. O does that the boize are trainable, I do sincerely hope you will continue on the LO Deck to dish out your powerfully stated hangover remedies of compassion and respect for all our human sisters and brothers in hometowns across the planet earth.

Ms. Roberts, this Bud’s for you.

Kenneth Warren