The Observation Deck

Some of us on the Advisory Board have always gotten a kick out of what Freemont is doing.

Mainly making sure everything has a bit of fun and mirth in it.

http://www.fremontseattle.com/center_frameset.htm

Can we put up a Lenin statue in Lakewood?

Trolls under the bridges?


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The idea of making a little fun her and there is not a bad one. People take everything so seriously it would be nice to see a troll under a bridge.

And for the record I would support a Lenin Statue in Lakewood.

Jim DeVito wrote:The idea of making a little fun her and there is not a bad one. People take everything so seriously it would be nice to see a troll under a bridge.

And for the record I would support a Lenin Statue in Lakewood.

How about Lenin and Lennon armwrestling?

Phil Florian wrote:

Jim DeVito wrote:The idea of making a little fun her and there is not a bad one. People take everything so seriously it would be nice to see a troll under a bridge.

And for the record I would support a Lenin Statue in Lakewood.

How about Lenin and Lennon armwrestling?

Phil

You know as our offices are next to each other. But his was one of the number one things discussed at the Observer. FUN

We have lots of hard work, but that does not mean, we cannot have fun and enjoy each other.


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If you ever end up visiting Fremont (one E), I can direct you to an awesome book store owned by a good friend of mine.

Valerie Molinski wrote:If you ever end up visiting Fremont (one E), I can direct you to an awesome book store owned by a good friend of mine.

Valerie

Is there a website? We now have a new small used bookstore. Before that we were looking at a small group throwing in $XX,XXX amount together to start our own. Let's see what your friend's looks like.

Perhaps you could start some other threads for the cities you thought would apply to Lakewood and let us learn from them?


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Jim O'Bryan wrote:
Is there a website? We now have a new small used bookstore. Before that we were looking at a small group throwing in $XX,XXX amount together to start our own. Let's see what your friend's looks like.
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Since Ashtabula was mentioned in another thread, and our new used bookstore has just opened in Lakewood, I thought I would share information about Lofthouse Books. It is one of the few businesses left on Main Street in Ashtabula and in all of my travels has remained my favorite used bookstore.

http://www.lofthousebooks.com/

Being in business since 1989, it's amazing and quite an accomplishment that they've been able to remain open in such a declining economic city. I have not yet made it into Madison Rose, but look forward to checking it out in the near future. It is about time we have a bookstore, and I'm very excited about it. I think that Lofthouse Books would be a great networking tool for such a new business.

Jim O'Bryan wrote:

Valerie Molinski wrote:If you ever end up visiting Fremont (one E), I can direct you to an awesome book store owned by a good friend of mine.

Valerie

Is there a website? We now have a new small used bookstore. Before that we were looking at a small group throwing in $XX,XXX amount together to start our own. Let's see what your friend's looks like.

Perhaps you could start some other threads for the cities you thought would apply to Lakewood and let us learn from them?


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She used to be a part of a chain, local to Seattle, called Twice Sold Tales. http://www.nwsource.com/ae/scr/edb_vd.cfm?c=s&ven=7155&s=nws

Their claim to fame was good selection of used books and each store had a 'store cat.'

She broke off from them and changed her name to Ophelia's Books. http://www.opheliasbooks.com/Welcome_to_Ophelias_Books.html

She still has a store cat.

You could also look at the most successful, biggest independent book store in the nation... Powell's. They are the best book stores I have ever been to.....ever. Hands down. http://www.powells.com/

I hope I'm putting this in the right thread....

My family and I enjoy visiting many different cities and towns. Last year we visited Asheville, NC, they have a great art and dining scene and of course home to the Biltmore Estate. They weren't perfect, in fact I was surprised by the amount of homeless persons and street kids (not kids hanging around with friends---but straight up teens begging for $$$) I had only ever seen this in Toronto before. Asheville is a town thats proud to fly their 'Freak Flag'---and sometimes I think that Lakewood should embrace this more. I know that were not 2.5 kid, WestBayRiverAvon Village kinda place. So wacky parades for no good reason is great....little tiny fairy doors placed outside of businesses (ala Ann Arbor) so the fairys can get in, would be awesome.

Does anyone else think that sometimes Lakewood tries too hard to be "normal"?

Anne Steiner wrote:Does anyone else think that sometimes Lakewood tries too hard to be "normal"?

haha... I agree... there is such a great dynamic of people in Lakewood, and I think one of the things that would express that better would be more local businesses. If people stopped talking about trying to attract national chains and focussed more on local businesses we'd really have something unique. perhaps something like yellow springs.

I'm holding back on my responses to this thread because, as I understand it this is specially moderated. Please correct me here so I can do this right, the Lakewood shoulds are okay? And who is Lakewood in this scenario? If we're looking for solutions and maybe we're not but what is the next step to more local business vs the suggestion that the unidentified entity of Lakewood is trying to be "normal" and attract the wrong businesses?
I get that these ideals fall in line with the general atmosphere of the Deck and are held by most all of the 30 or so usual poster but if this is a forum for data driven discourse shouldn't we go beyond our opions and preferences? What are the market indicators? Who are the consumers? I'm not trying to argue the point but let's take it a step further here. What are the differences between Fremont and Ashville. At a glance both are outlying cities of larger cities that are booming. Lakewood is? Yes, we should strive for those types of things but what are the challenges? A child in a family that earns $300K from Boeing or a company in the Research Triangle can afford a vacation from reality and can chose to be a hippy in one of those towns. Is that a factor?

Shawn Juris wrote: A child in a family that earns $300K from Boeing or a company in the Research Triangle can afford a vacation from reality and can chose to be a hippy in one of those towns. Is that a factor?

I alluded to this in the 'Youngstown' thread. My friends that live in Fremont, WA? Well, he works for Microsoft. They sold two individual properties to buy their house there....which is 1/3 of the sf of mine for about 3x the price.

Shawn Juris wrote:I'm holding back on my responses to this thread because, as I understand it this is specially moderated. Please correct me here so I can do this right, the Lakewood shoulds are okay? And who is Lakewood in this scenario? If we're looking for solutions and maybe we're not but what is the next step to more local business vs the suggestion that the unidentified entity of Lakewood is trying to be "normal" and attract the wrong businesses?
I get that these ideals fall in line with the general atmosphere of the Deck and are held by most all of the 30 or so usual poster but if this is a forum for data driven discourse shouldn't we go beyond our opions and preferences? What are the market indicators? Who are the consumers? I'm not trying to argue the point but let's take it a step further here. What are the differences between Fremont and Ashville. At a glance both are outlying cities of larger cities that are booming. Lakewood is? Yes, we should strive for those types of things but what are the challenges? A child in a family that earns $300K from Boeing or a company in the Research Triangle can afford a vacation from reality and can chose to be a hippy in one of those towns. Is that a factor?

Shawn

Let's forget the hippy part. Got to the website and read and take in what they are doing.

My point, is that they are having fun while doing the hard work. That they have not let problems, and there are many there, get in the way. Read how the guy that bought Lenin's statue had to fight to get it raised and it has become a "fun" focal point for the city.

This was merely a link to the myth and the mirth side of development.

Dan Slife just got back from two months around the country, he has found that even the most secure are having a tough time of it. It will be in an upcoming story.

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I conceed the point that fun is a plus, I suppose that was the point. To get back to my response to the widely accepted view that no one is really arguing against, are there factors that affect a suburb of Seattle's ability to enjoy such luxury? While Dan may well come back with a different view and it's difficult to say who is correct, my recent accounts from the great northwest are that they are relatively unaffected by the "economic slowdown" of late. An example of the demographic that I referred to as being a hippy was made clear to me by my sister who spent a good deal of time in and around Ashville. The drum circle, dread lock kids there are called trustafarians by the locals that work in the nearby summer camps (which coincidentally cater to the families with money).
While fun is a good thing in any venture, certainly we can all agree that while money may not buy you love, it certainly helps to pay for a couple of dates. It only seems fair to me that if we are to reject or at least be skeptical of how much we can learn from Youngstown because they may have been worse off than Lakewood in some way, an equal measure should be applied to affluent suburbs when we try to model them. I'd be of the mind to learn lessons from both but to not forget to ask what the differences are as well as how that will fit here.
If I may reference Maslow http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_h ... y_of_needs I would suggest that as a city these two places may be higher on the pyramid than we are. It's nice to strive to get there but these must come in steps.

Shawn Juris wrote:If I may reference Maslow http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs I would suggest that as a city these two places may be higher on the pyramid than we are. It's nice to strive to get there but these must come in steps.

Shawn

I agree they are much higher up the pyramid then we are. Or so it seems from way back here. There are also very different dynamic underway in both cities. While their property values are high, ours are falling. There economy holding its own(possibly) our economy has tanked.

However I think we would agree that a city that can be safe and clean, will be perceived as better off then those that are not. When you add fun to that equation, it becomes a nice place to live and work, in theory.

This is why I have been beating this drum for four years, it would seem the low hanging fruit is clean(totally in our grasp), safe(making inroads will be tough, and fun(wing cook off, car show, band 2 gether, etc.)

If we grab those three very easy things we have made giant strides towards attracting residents and businesses. It gets even easier on everyone if we let city hall concentrate on safe and CLEAN, while you, Ruthie, Mary Anne, Slife, Jennifer Scott work on the fun aspects.

My point with Freemont, is...

Is Lakewood, or better yet the residents ready for a troll holding up the Hillard Bridge, visible by all driving by I-90? Is Lakewood ready to really think out of the box to create myth and mirth, than can be a nice PR move? Are the groups currently working around Lakewood even capable of thinking far enough out of the box to make any impact? Certainly you bring new blood to the equation, with the wing cook-off and other project you took on with the Jaycees. LIA has been a nice injection of fresh new blood and out of the box thinking for Lakewood, what is next?

Random thoughts, nothing more.

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