Is Lakewood an economic dead zone?

[Bill Call]

Yes

[Jim O'Bryan]

Yes

?

[ryan costa]

The United States has a great surplus of assets and resources.
https://m.youtube.com/@NickJohnson

[Bill Call]

Northeast Ohio is an economic dead zone. Most of the regions corporate headquarters have the left the region. The largest employers in the region are government and non profits.

While the health care industry here is doing very well that is not going to last. More vibrant areas in the country are busy building their own first class medical centers. Our region can't compete.

We have a stagnant or declining population and a corrupt political leadership. That's hardly an environment for growth.

Lakewood is a dead zone within that dead zone.

New development in the regional dead zone is a zero sum game.

You see that in Lakewood.

While it's nice to see new restaurants in Lakewood the fact is that when a new restaurant opens an old restaurant closes.

The West 117th project only proceeded because of government subsidies. The reason the project needed subsidies was because the project made no economic sense. The project failed because the government money ran out. It's a good thing it failed because it's success would have destroyed non subsidized business.

The Clinic is spending $150 million to expand Fairview Hospital, $200 million in new development in Avon and more. Lakewood is shut out of that development. You will have to ask the architects of the Hospital debacle why it made sense to shut Lakewood out of the regions only growth industry.

There are new apartments and condos going up in Battery Park, the flats and Rocky River. A region with a stagnant population can only support so much new construction. Apartment construction in this area is also a zero sum game.

Don't look to the old Hospital site to turn things around. Development on that site makes no sense. To be a success it needs to be big and if it's big it needs a big parking garage and if you build a big parking garage your new development is mostly parking garage.

[Ed Favre]

Most of this is true. The loss of Lakewood Hospital was the greatest political, government, and financial blunder in the history of Lakewood. The citizens were lied to and it cannot be replaced. Restaurants and bars are not the most stable businesses and employers for the city.
Politically, the red majority in the State is just as corrupt and has more power than any local politicians and they work against the older, blue cities.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Northeast Ohio is an economic dead zone. Most of the regions corporate headquarters have the left the region. The largest employers in the region are government and non profits.

While the health care industry here is doing very well that is not going to last. More vibrant areas in the country are busy building their own first class medical centers. Our region can't compete.

We have a stagnant or declining population and a corrupt political leadership. That's hardly an environment for growth.

Lakewood is a dead zone within that dead zone.

New development in the regional dead zone is a zero sum game.

You see that in Lakewood. .

Bill

Not so sure it seems council is so eager to give Dru Siley a ton of cash, that they look like school kids trying to sit with the cool kid.

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[Matthew Lee]

If Northeast Ohio is such an economic dead zone, and that our health providers can't compete with other cities, it's odd that the Clinic is spending over $350 million on Fairview/Avon.

[Ed Favre]

Avon Hospital (the stolen former Lakewood Hospital) is the Clinic following the urban sprawl money and a feeder to Fairview.

[Mark Kindt]

Despite much of my previous writing about the situation in Lakewood, I see an extreme opinion from Bill Call that deserves some balancing comment.

The bars are full this afternoon. You can barely get down the streets because of delivery trucks and open parking spaces seem to have disappeared.

You can't get a seat in the coffee shops, because of the remote workforce operating from every flat surface in the City.

Just because structures are not being built does not mean that Lakewood is an economic dead zone.

Post-pandemic--it seems to be thriving. We should be thankful. It could be much worse.

The nature of work has radically changed. Everyone works remotely off their laptops. I constantly see people working with two laptops and a cellphone. This is unprecedented computing power and we are in the midst of constant economic change.

Real estate values have so escalated in this so-called "dead-zone", that most of us could not afford to purchase a comparable house other than the one we reside in.

[Bill Call]

The nature of work has radically changed. Everyone works remotely off their laptops. I constantly see people working with two laptops and a cellphone. This is unprecedented computing power and we are in the midst of constant economic change.

Real estate values have so escalated in this so-called "dead-zone", that most of us could not afford to purchase a comparable house other than the one we reside in.

All valid points. Income taxes and property tax revenues are at record highs, but so is spending.

I don't think record high housing prices are a good thing. I couldn't afford to buy my house in this market either.

Most Lakewood restaurants are struggling. When a new restaurant opens another must close. I don't think a bar based economy is a sign of strength.

Economic development in the Cleveland area is a zero sum game. The Cleveland Clinic is spending $150 million at Fairview Hospital and another $100 million in Lorain County and even more on the East side of Cleveland. Lakewood gets nothing from that development.

The Ohio City and Flats area are getting millions in tax payer subsidies for new development of all kinds including apartments and condos. That's a great thing for those areas does nothing for the wider region. Like the bar and restaurant business, housing is a zero sum game. That's one reason why housing development is at a standstill in Lakewood. Another reason might be that the City of Lakewood has some weird ideas about development.

Developers in Rocky River along Lake Avenue are doing quite well.
New development in Ohio City and the Flats is thriving.
New housing development projects are being constructed around Lutheran Hospital.

If those developments were in Lakewood, the Cities involved would demand that all the old buildings be saved and that the projects include a substantial number of low income housing units. If it was Lakewood they would also demand that development around Lutheran Hospital take place only if Lutheran Hospital was closed down and moved to Medina county.

Developers had some unique ideas for the old school board building but the City turned them away. The City wants to preserve the existing buildings and have them converted into low cost housing units.

The City financial statements show that the City is on sound financial footing, for now.

02-29-24-City-of-Lakewood-Month-End-YTD-Financial-Report.pdf

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[Mark Kindt]

The nature of work has radically changed. Everyone works remotely off their laptops. I constantly see people working with two laptops and a cellphone. This is unprecedented computing power and we are in the midst of constant economic change.

Real estate values have so escalated in this so-called "dead-zone", that most of us could not afford to purchase a comparable house other than the one we reside in.

[...]the City of Lakewood has some weird ideas about development[...]

You can say that again!

While I don't think that Lakewood is an economic dead zone, I think I can safely assert that for the past decade or more we have all witnessed a planning function that appears to have significantly failed the City and probably has impeded other successful economic development.

Years ago, I reviewed all of the plans submitted for the redevelopment of the hospital site; it now seems unlikely than any of those 7 plans would ever have been viable, if completed, and they all offered similar approaches--office and retail, etc. They were all obsolete when submitted. I went over all of that here in detail over months of posts.

Did the planning folks really have to wait until the end of the game [demolition] to understand that the physical hospital site was severely polluted with VOCs.

I also concur with Bill on most of all of his broader points in his comments to my recent post. More on that later.

[Leo Wetula]

I don't think a bar based economy is a sign of strength.

Bingo.