Lately I've been getting emails from all over (Michigan mostly) about how much fun the Harry and The Potters event was. What had caught me by suprise was everyone thought Lakewood was a great city and the people are amazing.
Every person ended the email with something along the lines of "I would love to come down again if I had a reason to".
It wasn't a "bad" suprise to me, I just didn't think it was that noticeable for people that were staying here for one evening.
With so many events being scheduled and a really busy and fun summer, has the city come to life?
I think there's this new Lakewood Pride being shown in people within the city. It's always been there, it was just a dormant characteristic in us Lakewoodites.
What do you guys think?
and speaking of Lakewood Pride, come out this Friday and support your Ranger Football team as we cheer the Rangers to victory over a tough Brunswick team.
Is Lakewood truly a great city?
Moderator: Jim O'Bryan
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Ivor Karabatkovic
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Is Lakewood truly a great city?
"Hey Kiddo....this topic is much more important than your football photos, so deal with it." - Mike Deneen
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Kenneth Warren
- Posts: 489
- Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2005 7:17 pm
Mr. K.
Lakewood is just beginning to crank up alignment and friendship vibes. We are registering the results of recent experiments like Harry and the Potters and today's Car Culture Show. We are growing collaborations and friendships across generations and social classes with a deep focus on enjoying people.
How else could we stay energized in a densely populated place, if we fail to make and take the charge of good vibes among people?
As you know, Jim O'Bryan is an amazing person who has been working and playing hard to enact his love of Lakewood in a spirit of party and fun.
He is teaching young people like you, Brian, Joe Grimberg, and other interns about technical graphic work, new media, work and play on your own terms.
There are not many places where such a potent combination is occuring.
Heidi Hilty is mentoring. DL Meckes is mentoring. I could go on and on.
Watch what is happening here and savor the sweetness.
Last year an Indian Ph.D student from Case, who had moved to Lakewood from Cleveland Heights said to me that the remarkable thing about Lakewood is how the generations are mixing it up here.
That big human family feel in the face of an unstable economy, with people figuring out ways to become more resourceful, to teach and transmit skills to the next generation.
Bit by bit each of these encounters puts people in a good place, a good state of mind based on building the good order of the city in a world of increasing disorder.
There a people of scientific mind like Mark Timiski, who regards the effort to order city life through the lens of entropy and negentropy.
Again I could go on and on about all the Lakewood Observers getting into the act, pushing out from absence into presence and community.
Speaking personally, three years ago, I would have never dreamed of sweating outside for 8 hours at a car show. I'd be inside with the AC on, reading a book. Now it's a singular event in my Lakewood experience. I made new friends, learned about people and things for which I would have been clueless.
Uncle Scratch put on a great show. People of all ages were on the street and in the groove.
It is my belief that in Lakewood, with the Lakewood Observer friendship - "that evanescent in every man's experience, and remembered like heat lightning in past summers" as Thoreau describes, is expanding across generations and interests in ways unexpected in a densely populated inner ring.
Family and friendship in the Lakewood register with a twist of culture can create good vibes not expected.
I believe it's part of the sociology and geography and built environment.
I am thinking the ragged shifts from 20/30s built urban to 50s suburban car/drive in that haunts both Madison and Detroit business districts may actually support the human production of the good vibe.
We must find ways to overcome the deficits a more structured and richly capitalized place simply present as dead weight.
It's "the soft parade," as Jim Morrison of the Doors once put it.
The good vibe comes as a surprise. Hit after hit of good vibes by surprise is the source of Lakewood's emerging transpersonal community register.
People feel it and may not have the theory or vocabulary to decribe the why and how.
In the old days, Bill Vedivic told me about something called "The Lakewood Mystique," meaning that there was something about people and their generous efforts to found and sustain organizations like Lakewood Christian Service Center somehow unique to this place.
It's really a tradition. What we are attempting to do in the 21st Century is to tweak and transform the civic tradition a little bit by bringing the play element to the table.
People don't need to be so stiff and rigid. We can flex flow a bit and enjoy the company of people committed not only to hard work but to a safe, clean and smart fun.
That's my take.
Kenneth Warren
Lakewood is just beginning to crank up alignment and friendship vibes. We are registering the results of recent experiments like Harry and the Potters and today's Car Culture Show. We are growing collaborations and friendships across generations and social classes with a deep focus on enjoying people.
How else could we stay energized in a densely populated place, if we fail to make and take the charge of good vibes among people?
As you know, Jim O'Bryan is an amazing person who has been working and playing hard to enact his love of Lakewood in a spirit of party and fun.
He is teaching young people like you, Brian, Joe Grimberg, and other interns about technical graphic work, new media, work and play on your own terms.
There are not many places where such a potent combination is occuring.
Heidi Hilty is mentoring. DL Meckes is mentoring. I could go on and on.
Watch what is happening here and savor the sweetness.
Last year an Indian Ph.D student from Case, who had moved to Lakewood from Cleveland Heights said to me that the remarkable thing about Lakewood is how the generations are mixing it up here.
That big human family feel in the face of an unstable economy, with people figuring out ways to become more resourceful, to teach and transmit skills to the next generation.
Bit by bit each of these encounters puts people in a good place, a good state of mind based on building the good order of the city in a world of increasing disorder.
There a people of scientific mind like Mark Timiski, who regards the effort to order city life through the lens of entropy and negentropy.
Again I could go on and on about all the Lakewood Observers getting into the act, pushing out from absence into presence and community.
Speaking personally, three years ago, I would have never dreamed of sweating outside for 8 hours at a car show. I'd be inside with the AC on, reading a book. Now it's a singular event in my Lakewood experience. I made new friends, learned about people and things for which I would have been clueless.
Uncle Scratch put on a great show. People of all ages were on the street and in the groove.
It is my belief that in Lakewood, with the Lakewood Observer friendship - "that evanescent in every man's experience, and remembered like heat lightning in past summers" as Thoreau describes, is expanding across generations and interests in ways unexpected in a densely populated inner ring.
Family and friendship in the Lakewood register with a twist of culture can create good vibes not expected.
I believe it's part of the sociology and geography and built environment.
I am thinking the ragged shifts from 20/30s built urban to 50s suburban car/drive in that haunts both Madison and Detroit business districts may actually support the human production of the good vibe.
We must find ways to overcome the deficits a more structured and richly capitalized place simply present as dead weight.
It's "the soft parade," as Jim Morrison of the Doors once put it.
The good vibe comes as a surprise. Hit after hit of good vibes by surprise is the source of Lakewood's emerging transpersonal community register.
People feel it and may not have the theory or vocabulary to decribe the why and how.
In the old days, Bill Vedivic told me about something called "The Lakewood Mystique," meaning that there was something about people and their generous efforts to found and sustain organizations like Lakewood Christian Service Center somehow unique to this place.
It's really a tradition. What we are attempting to do in the 21st Century is to tweak and transform the civic tradition a little bit by bringing the play element to the table.
People don't need to be so stiff and rigid. We can flex flow a bit and enjoy the company of people committed not only to hard work but to a safe, clean and smart fun.
That's my take.
Kenneth Warren