Cart before the horse?

[Jim O'Bryan]

While on one of my Sunday walks around the city I ran into this image
on the entry to "Mainstreet." Which I believe is about to celebrate a
birthday in this town. Most of the muscle behind Mainstreet would have
missed it as they were at home in their cities for the weekend.



Welcome to Lakewood!

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.
.
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If they could have just extended the border another block,
and had been able to get the best flower baskets in the county!

Welcome to Lakewood!



Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Now that is nice.


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[Shawn Juris]

wow, so now it's Main Street's fault that someone puts a mattress on the curb? Or is your point that if someone is putting a mattress out then no one should try to fix up another part of town? This ongoing criticism that I hear reminds me of the O'Reily types that like to complain about the direction of the ACLU. Both are open groups that I'm sure would be happy to have your involvement and feedback. Or there's always the option to undermine support of something that could be very beneficial with half truths to further misunderstandings of the principles and mission of the group. Whatever problems there may be with the Main Street program, I doubt they will be corrected by smear like this.

For what it's worth, this picture was taken 4 blocks east of Bunts. If you're going to attempt to criticize a group for starting a long term improvement project, shouldn't it at least be in the area that they are focusing on. "Main Street", if I remember correctly goes from approximately Belle to Arthur. Bunts was considered at one point for the eastern border but I believe it was decided against. I'm sure that there a plenty of pictures that can be taken to prove the point that Lakewood looks bad in this section of Detroit; Sinagra Park, the renovation of Rozi's, the Library, the renovated Church across the street, the new"er" facade at First Federal Lakewood. I'm sure somewhere in there though you can photoshop some pictures to make it look abandoned, maybe with a tumbleweed or an abandoned shopping cart.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Shawn

Smear! Get a hold of yourself man.

My point simply put is let's make the cake before we try to frost it.

4 block but less than a football field and a half.

Maybe my point was all the flower baskets in the world will not help, if we drive through garbage to see the flower baskets. Maybe it was to point out the safety issues of making people look up at the flowers while the sidewalks are deadly. Maybe the point was, we should ask businesses to do their share for the dirt in front of their stores...

Maybe it was not an attack on "Mainstreet" at all, but merely pointing out thoughts for future discussions.


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[Shawn Juris]

I think I've got a pretty good hold of myself. I held back on some of the comments that initially came to mind. 3 things;
You can call it misleading if you prefer, since the image that you captured was not at the entrance to "Main Street" as you suggested.
No matter how many times you claim it, flower baskets are not the end all, be all of this program.
People that live outside of Lakewood are still welcome to help improve it. They may not be welcome to do so by you, but others may still invite them to join in.
If it was posted to start a conversation well then, there you go.
Now, is that really the entrance to "Main Street" or is it blocks away (between 4 and 11) and something that doesn't even fall under their umbrella of responsibility. I've heard a number of things promised about the program but mattress pick up on Sunday wasn't one of them.
The post really just baffled me. I mean is your belief that the city should be full of community activists taking responsibility for their surroundings, a group of LCPI members should be responsible for any trash dropped off inside or outside their district, or that those employed with the city should respond when needed. What is really wrong with this photo? Should the owner be charged with something? Should the police be involved? Should a neighbor have stopped it? We've got vandalism one month and a case of dumping the next and you wonder why our property values aren't the tops in the area? I didn't realize that making the cake in this scenario was keeping trash off of all of Detroit and that was in some way a precursor to pulling together the city and a group of businesses to revitalize their district. By all means though let's wait until there are no mattresses on Detroit for 6 months before we start with the frosting.
Let's call this what it is. Someone in an area not connected in any way to the "Main Street" district dumped a mattress and box spring. Could have been someone driving thru Lakewood or the tenant/owner of the building on the lot. We don't know but this is how it was resolved.
And "Deadly sidewalks"?? is this a headline teaser from Action 19 news?

[David Scott]

I too am baffled by this post. What is the point ?? The area in question is across from St. Ed's so would it be better if Cleveland annexed all land upto and including St Eds (and Lakewood Park) so this would help Lakewood, how ???

This is a rental property and I doubt if rentors wait until trash day to put their mattress out on the street.

I realize this is the East End of Lakewood and not as nice and kept up as the West End, but some of us in this area take care of our properties.

Again --- if I could figure out the reason for this I might understand it better, otherwise it is just an attempt to ?????

[Suzanne Metelko]

I'm baffled that we're not supposed to hold our city employees accountable for their jobs! Jim, when did LCPI and Mainstreet become the city police force, the building department and waste management or for heavens sake - the mayor!

LCPI and Mainstreet board members aren't paid to do their job. They do it in their off hours when they should be able to enjoy their families, or a program at the library, or a walk in the park. And Jennifer Hooper is paid to implement the work of the board, not pick up garbage, although they all took time this spring to do just that.

I'll tell you this - we don't have these types of issues at the library - perhaps because we have a paid PROFESSIONAL who is held accountable for the operations and a board that is held responsible for that paid professional.

Ok, now I'm really going back to the books......

[Jim O'Bryan]

I'm baffled that we're not supposed to hold our city employees accountable for their jobs!...

Holly smolies! From the mouth of Babes...

Again, no attack on Mainstreet or LCPI. What is the point of spending money on flowers(the city) when the Gateway(streets leading to "Mainstreet") look like this.

No amount of flowers, even if they moved the footprint east and west would fix. What should be considered the obvious. We can have the nicest downtown in the country, but if you have to drive through East st. Louis to get there, what is the point.

Again, frosting(my favorite part) before the cake was even cooked(my second favorite part).

Ok for those not good with metaphors. - What is the nicest thing in picture two that is not in picture one. So even with the hard work of LCPI the impact is? It is not just the city, residents to must jump in. Was not a city worker leaving this on Detroit, You know opposite a school that is only 15% Lakewood students, the rest go home and tell their parents how cool Lakewood is. 4 blocks, from Garfield, a cornerstone of pride when finished.

Mainstreet is about a year old, I remember Tom Jordan, Dryck Bennet, Kathie Berkshire, Jennifer Hooper, and Tim Lasky in front of the Christmas Tree on the front page above the fold.


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[Shawn Juris]

Jim,
It's a mattress in front of an apartment. Is this discussion about renters and property managers having pride in their community now? I'm all for it, just as much as businesses owners, homeowners, shoppers, students and anyone else should not leave a mess and take some pride in their town. What is the action you suggest? Maybe a group can get together to improve things. Oh but be careful, if they don't make it Wonderland inside of a year then you might as well shut it down. What is the problem? How common is the problem? Is it mattresses or trash or "deadly sidewalks" or potholed roads? Don't each of these things have a department assigned to them at city hall? And what is the order that these problems should be fixed? Is there a set of instructions somewhere that we can all see? If sidewalks are "deadly" and there's a mattress at 135th and Detroit, why did we build a new Y and a new Library. We really should have taken care of those two things first before we poured millions into these new buildings. The logic doesn't work, does it?

[Jim O'Bryan]

Shawn

Feel free to read my post anyway that you wish.

The facts remains, the CITY(all of us) have a cake to bake before we frost it.

Why buy the frosting if we can't even afford the ingredients for the cake?

It would be like me asking you for car insurance before I even had a license to drive.

Do we build a $20,000 pocket park TODAY on land that will be built on in 2008? Do we pave roads that will be torn up to fix the curbs?

I guess I look at this a little different than you. Lakewood as reported at city council had a surplus of $60,000 for the year. This does not give us the luxury of very many mistakes. It might also need to make a plan and prioritize.



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[Jeff Endress]

It might also need to make a plan and prioritize.

Okay Suzanne.....there's your opening....

Jeff

[Lynn Farris]

Is this where the apartment owners are told to put their refuse? I know the West End got beat up severely for putting their mattresses right where they were told to put them for trash pick up. It was unsightly and made us look blighted - but that is where it was most convienent for the trash collectors and where they were told to put these types of things.

Can someone in the administration look into this and see what people are supposed to do? What happens when a tenant moves out and it isn't on Trash Day. Where do they leave these big things? I see things on Edgewater sometimes too. And if someone screws up and leaves it in front, 5 days before the trash collection, is there someone that can be called? Does the trash department handle it - or does it sit there as an eye sore for 5 days?

Suzanne, you are right - someone needs to be responsible. In another city that I worked in, they had building department officials that traveled doing inspections in various wards who were constantly doing sight inspections. They would call these types of problems in to the various officials. Who are the graffitti police? Can't they be the same ones to identifiy the mattress problems? Is this the citizens job to call it into city hall, our ward council people's job, the police who are patrolling the streets, the building department? Can the Mayor just assign someone/group responsibility?

This isn't the fault of Mainstreet. But I agree with Jim too that we need to solve the big problems and not just ice the cake.

What have been the accomplishments after 1 year of the Mainstreet Program?

What are the 1, 2 and 3 year goals?

[Gabriel Biber]

How many L.O. posts does it take to move a mattress?

[ryan costa]

This matress was free to a good home.

I am willing to plant marigolds.

[Jim O'Bryan]

This matress was free to a good home.

I am willing to plant marigolds.

Ryan

That's the spirit.

I see the matress is still there, so you might not even need to hurry.

Maybe someone wrote Blackwell on it?


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[Jay Foran]

How about a little critical thinking....

Is it possible that someone was relocating and simply was staging pieces (mattress and springs) on the street prior to the moving van/truck arriving? Perhaps the person was inside their apartment getting another load (the nightstand?) and therefore out of sight at the time of Jim sauntering by. Certainly, we have learned not to take everything at face value.

Another possibility.... if Jim can burn a flower basket into the picture, why couldn't have he done the same with the mattress and springs? Certainly, Jim is a conspiracy freak. He never said he wasn't in to generating them himself as well.

Me, I'm taking Jim's tagline and applying it in this case.