Essential Business??

[Amy Martin]

We decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather yesterday to take a long walk (4 miles) through Lakewood. We covered more than half of both Madison and Detroit. We saw the overwhelming majority of Lakewood businesses closed - auto parts store, auto mechanic shops, auto body shop, computer repair shop, vacuum cleaner store, etc. Yet, we were absolutely shocked to see that Lakewood's 2 bicycle shops - Spin on Madison and Beat Cycles on Detroit - were not only open but had customers inside the stores.

How is it that I can't get my car or computer repaired, but yet I can go and get my bike tuned up for the season? This makes no sense to me. I would think that repairing my computer or car would be more essential than buying a new bicycle.

I feel that that these businesses should shutter their doors immediately.

[Matthew Lee]

1) Auto parts stores, mechanics, etc. by Ohio Law are allowed to stay open and are considered essential. If they choose to close, they can, but there is nothing prohibiting them from being open.

2) Ohio has also determined bike stores are essential as some people rely on them for their transportation to/from essential work:

https://www.13abc.com/content/news/Bike ... 78671.html

Those bike stores are not violating the current directive. Whether that directive is appropriate or not could be up for debate but those stores are definitely not in violation of anything.

[Dan Alaimo]

It's all rather arbitrary and fear based.

I've had an old elliptical in my basement that hasn't been used in at least a decade. The only time it was touched was when we moved it from basement to front yard, and then cleaned and disinfected. Because of the time at home, we were finally able to deal with it, and thought someone else stuck at home could use it. So I posted it on one of the Lakewood giveaway pages. An admin rejected it because they thought it was full of virus.

So tomorrow I'll call the refuse department then put it on the tree lawn. It's too big for our car.

Meanwhile if anyone has an interest, get in touch. It's really a bit of alright. It works OK although it's old and heavy and FREE. BYO disinfectant if you prefer.

Lakewood admins... Sheesh!

[Dan Alaimo]

Addendum to my last post.

I've been listening to NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo's daily press conferences and today he mentioned that a side effect of people staying at home is a serious case of "cabin fever."

To the admins of the aforementioned Lakewood page, a free and usable piece of exercise equipment is very helpful to some people in these times. It is even essential.

Open your eyes and maybe spray a little disinfectant.

You are not the arbiters of other people's values.