The Observation Deck

I awoke this morning to an email from a seasoned lawyer who helped defeat the West End Debacle. He wrote:

"I see that One Lakewood Place is up for a rezoning; that is what referendums, initiatives and charter amendments are for, the will of the people; that is how the Lakewood West End project was stopped."


This made me think for a moment: If the the Lakewood voters knew what they knew now back in 2015 and 2016, would Lyin' O'Leary & Company have prevailed?

I also thought of Mr. Kindt's comments yesterday on a thread of a similar name that cut to the skinny on the thread title. Mr. Kindt wrote:

"The developer bulldozers are coming through and new housing will be built for future non-residents at taxpayer expense and on an exclusionary basis.
And, as usual, the message to the citizens and voters will be that we didn't have any choice."

Or, would the exclusionary Lyin' O'Leary with his Politburo CCCP/CCDP Lyin' comrades just keep up the lies to retain power and status?

Brian Essi wrote:I awoke this morning to an email from a seasoned lawyer who helped defeat the West End Debacle. He wrote:

"I see that One Lakewood Place is up for a rezoning; that is what referendums, initiatives and charter amendments are for, the will of the people; that is how the Lakewood West End project was stopped."


This made me think for a moment: If the the Lakewood voters knew what they knew now back in 2015 and 2016, would Lyin' O'Leary & Company have prevailed?

I also thought of Mr. Kindt's comments yesterday on a thread of a similar name that cut to the skinny on the thread title. Mr. Kindt wrote:

"The developer bulldozers are coming through and new housing will be built for future non-residents at taxpayer expense and on an exclusionary basis.
And, as usual, the message to the citizens and voters will be that we didn't have any choice."

Or, would the exclusionary Lyin' O'Leary with his Politburo CCCP/CCDP Lyin' comrades just keep up the lies to retain power and status?

Brian

Interesting thoughts. Fact is Mayor is basically King in Lakewood because of our charter, and Ohio State laws. This is exactly why oversight and transparency by residents and outsiders is so important.

The Mayor could have done this without the lies, the meetings, the charades and lies. However, he would have never been reelected, and he had to be to make the deal work. Just like they needs Council President O'Leary in as Mayor so that the entire cover-up can continue. I mean one of the fascinating observations through this entire deal is why so many people were lying when they did not have to? Compulsive?

Brian I am not sure of your neighborhood, but in mine, no one would have voted for selling off Lakewood's largest assets, employer, and an anchor in the health care industry for a Multi-Use Strip Mall. Now I see why they had to lie!

All of those up for elections this time, chose to not just believe obvious lies, but to spread them and help with the dumbing down of Lakewood, Lakewood voters, and residents. Think about it, for 3 years, they built a tower of failure out of lies, threats, intimidation, destroying documents, leaning on legal businesses and more.

Like the West End Strip Mall Project, which is currently being revived under the WE banner. The more the residents knew, the better choice they could make. And the choice they made was to not believe the rampant lies. But to use critical thought such as... They say it was all rented out, but why do the businesses they list say they know nothing about the project, or had filed bankruptcy? And the ever present if it is such a great deal, why all the lies, cover-ups and hard sell?

Many of the same people involved in that debacle, were also involved in close Grant debacle, and now the Hospital Debacle. Actually, their names always reflect desperate attempts at growth with zero critical thought or chance of being beneficial to the community. Perhaps some form of angel of death logo, a grim reaper, wait they did have a funeral street car for a logo for awhile. They should have kept it. They did have "Shakedown Street" oh wait that was never official.

Now 3-Arches is OK, like McDonalds... Give them $50 million and another shot at a $248 million dollar publicly owned institution and you might get some change back!

Lakewood, you were played, and you lost big.

Vote the bums out.

.