Resilient City

[Mark Kindt]

Progress in Resilient City

In Resilient City, the civic leadership cannibalizes modern healthcare assets and infrastructure in order to build publicly-subsidized townhouses for the upper middle class including direct and indirect public subsidies for businesses adjacent to those new townhouses.

[Mark Kindt]

Employment Objectives in Resilient City

In Resilient City, the civic leadership successfully advocates, funds, and adopts public policies to encourage the exodus of highly-trained professionals and semi-professionals to employers in other cities.

In Resilient City, the civic leadership successfully advocates and adopts public policies to prevent the influx of highly-trained professionals and semi-professionals.

[Mark Kindt]

A Long-Standing Leader in Media Innovation

Resilient City leads American cities in its unique approach and leadership with respect to communication with its citizens. Media insiders report that Resilient City has been studied as a model for public communications by the current White House.

Here is a very recent example:

Resilient City's planning director was recently reported as saying that Resilient City would gain annual estimated combined real estate and income taxes of $1.5 million a year on a certain development project.

Media insiders know that this is a meaningless figure, because it fails to disclose the massive multi-million dollar public subsidies that Resilient City is providing to the developer on the front-end of the project.

Local coffee-house rumor has it that those in the know believe that it will take decades for collected taxes to fill that subsidy hole.

[Mark Kindt]

Risk-Taking Leadership in Resilient City

While less-enlightened municipalities in America are building or expanding hospitals and medical facilities, the bold civic leadership in Resilient City closed one of its regions' best-rated hospitals because they understood that the residents (particularly the low-income residents) were so healthy and resilient that it could be put to better use as "a once-in-a-50-year development opportunity". What courage!

[Mark Kindt]

No Federal Tax Help For Us, Please!

With a "we can do it on our own" attitude, the proud civic leadership of Resilient City gave a "cold shoulder" to the United States Government, when the U.S. Treasury tried to grant potential Resilient City investors special tax benefits. Bravo!

[Mark Kindt]

Pioneers in Public Wealth Transfer

These brilliant young technocrats who lead Resilient City are pioneers -- true masterminds -- in that newest rage in political science circles --transfer of public wealth to private entities.

Yes! You name it! Hospitals, schools, large pools of investments, medical buildings -- all successfully transferred to private parties. BUT...

But in Resilient City, we only accept nominal payment. Just $1.00, please. Thank you. Nice to do business with you.

[Mark Kindt]

Tough Love & Taxes, You Bet!

Siting here in Lakewood, can you imagine any other American city giving up public revenues from a highly advantageous long-term lease stemming from heritage community assets built by the city's elders?

Well, you've just never been to Resilient City, where the residents are so resilient that they can handle municipal tough love and all the taxes that go with it! You bet they can!

[Mark Kindt]

Community Spirit Takes The Cake

My friend in Resilient City told me that there were a bunch of spoil-sport, public-interest types trying to interfere in that "once-in-a-generation" development opportunity. I couldn't believe what I heard:

Community spirit is so strong in Resilient City that the association running Resilient City Hospital made sure that funds were donated to make sure that its closing would be guaranteed.

How about that!

Cooperating to close their community hospital so that the upper middle class folk could have new town homes. Wow! Now that's what I'd call community spirit!

That 'ill show those hair-brained liberals a thing or two, won't it.

[Stan Austin]

I am appreciating the irony. Is it subtle or a punch in the nose?

[Mark Kindt]

There could be some citizens that reside in Resilient City who might foresee a need for municipal reform there. I'll ask my friend about that.

[Mark Kindt]

Employment Objectives in Resilient City

In Resilient City, the civic leadership successfully advocates and adopts public policies to prevent the influx of highly-trained professionals and semi-professionals.

County -- Butt Out!

With more of that up-and-at-em, can-do spirit, the civic leadership of Resilient City told their county leaders to keep-out those high-tech medical professional jobs that Metropolis Health System proposed in 2014. Loud and clear, the message to the county was "butt-out". And, it wasn't just the jobs either.

Resilient City's tough-talking mayor, enjoying the support of non-profit leaders, simply ignored their big investment money (rumored to be on the order of $100M) to keep the county's nose out of Resilient City's business.

Another smart move for Resilient City, because within a few years Metropolis Health System was imposing fine, new, modern medical facilities upon other nearby cities (and generating excess public income tax revenues for those short-sighted municipalities.)

[Jim O'Bryan]

Mark

Interesting thread...

Instead of resilient city, maybe some thoughts from earlier in the life of the Deck and the Observer should be introduced.

A community especially an old community such as Lakewood is a lot like a coral reef. It can absorb some changes, even many changes and continue on for a long long time, just going along, in a sustainable, resilient way. In a way that delivers its brand and community life in a way that people bought into when they moved here, or grew up here and stayed. An idyllic that can also allow it to get lost in time. Walkable, schools, libraries, summer band concerts, fun little community festivals. As the rest of the world washes over it, with a slight ebb and flow that is barely recognizable or felt by all in the community. Even though the community has the density of LA or Wahington DC, it has the mindset of Mayberry RFD.

But should the wrong things get introduced into the community, it is actually much more fragile then it really ever appeared. Example, put a a mall, or make it a destination community instead of a bedroom community, and there is an influx of crime, problems, that it had never encountered before nor was really ready to handle. Changes are made to handle those issues, and there are cuts in other services, and because of the cuts in those services other things start to fall through the cracks and potentially it all gets like juggling jello. Possible, but tougher and tougher with every catch and toss. Before you know it, Mayberry becomes Huron Ohio, and is nearly destroyed forever.

Another early thought when we were having discussions to understand the :"Lakewood Brand" was a thought and slogan tendered by Joan Roberts, "Good enough for now." At first the idea and slogan was seen as a slap in the face, but when you took the time to think about it, "Good enough for now," is a feeling of comfort and contentment. But it also underlines just how fragile it all could be and with just a small shift, comfort levels drop, good enough is not good enough, and problems start that are hard to catch up with.

Which brings us to Steve Davis' favorite article by Dr. Tom Buyer out of Cleveland State that many if not most people select communities to live in and stay in based on schools, SERVICES, taxes, and "brand." What Dr. Buyer put forth in the article was once you get them, the biggest change they feel and react to is cuts in services and the raise in taxes for the same or less.

All of this puts Lakewood in the middle of a perfect storm. A small handful of people desperate to make things change for change sake. After all when one looks at the changes they have fought for, and/or schemed to pull off have either a ZERO impact on the city, in the things that matter to residents, or a negative impact on residents. We have a loss of services, as the city desperately tries to carry on services for residents from a stagnant tax base. So services are cut a little here, a little there, a little more here. While the Administration bends over backwards to make it more appealing to any off chance something could create even a small pick up in the economy, while never even thinking for a second how it affects the people living here.

Massive bars, drive-thru restaurants no commingling more and more with quiet residential neighborhoods. Creating friction, noise and actual pollution and the general feelings in the community we are less safe, and paying more for far less.

With that in mind, I look forward to your next installment.

.

[Mark Kindt]

Mr. O'Bryan, I will email a copy of your post to my friends in Resilient City and see if they have any helpful comments. It may take a day or two.

[Mark Kindt]

Employment Objectives in Resilient City

In Resilient City, the civic leadership successfully advocates and adopts public policies to prevent the influx of highly-trained professionals and semi-professionals.

County -- Butt Out!

With more of that up-and-at-em, can-do spirit, the civic leadership of Resilient City told their county leaders to keep-out those high-tech medical professional jobs that Metropolis Health System proposed in 2014. Loud and clear, the message to the county was "butt-out". And, it wasn't just the jobs either.

Resilient City's tough-talking mayor, enjoying the support of non-profit leaders, simply ignored their big investment money (rumored to be on the order of $100M) to keep the county's nose out of Resilient City's business.

Another smart move for Resilient City, because within a few years Metropolis Health System was imposing fine, new, modern medical facilities upon other nearby cities (and generating excess public income tax revenues for those short-sighted municipalities.)

The internet is really amazing. Just out of the blue today I heard from a public official in nearby Robust City who took great offense at my characterization of the expansion of Metropolis Health System. She said that her city gets to have their cake and eat it too. She also told me this.

"Metropolis Health System is investing $100M under a ten-year lease with the non-profit foundation that runs Robust City Hospital generating both long-term lease revenues and employee income tax revenues."

Now, get this, she tells me that Robust City is also redeveloping empty auto-dealer lots and other lots for, what she called, "right-sized" mixed-use commercial development. Not only that, but they have dedicated the long-term lease revenues from the hospital for a sinking fund for a municipal bond offering to help the local utility to upgrade the electrical delivery infrastructure for the City."

Rather, trend forward, I thought.

She was proud that Robust City had achieved reinvestment in its award-winning community hospital and, more importantly, that high-levels of charity care could be delivered to her community.

She also noted than any municipality that neglected professional and semi-professional jobs in science, technology and health care was just clueless. Here I think she meant Lakewood.

(Her salty opinions about the leadership of Resilient City really can't be posted here.)