Bill Call wrote:Jim O'Bryan wrote:You know, this should make everyone think.
I'm sure that the Mayor and City Council HAVE thought about this. That is why they will be offering operating subsidies to businesses that move to the Hospital site. I suspect that those subsidies will be buried in some yet to be revealed secret agreement and paid for out of some secret slush fund. I will be very surprised if the Mayor and council give an honest accounting.
Will the taxpayer subsidized business attract out of town customers or will the taxpayer subsidized business cannibalize existing business in Lakewood?
Bill
You forget, Lakewoodites have been trained to use our money to subsidize business.
Witness, "DowntowN" in most other cities that would be a SID, supported by the businesses in its border. Only here in Lakewood are residents tricked into supporting which is looking more and more like a movie set. They talk of Coventry, but Coventry is a SID, a majority of all improvements paid for by the businesses.
But here, the mover and shakers create false narratives, that all of their ideas, will save Lakewood from ourselves. While raising taxes, cost of living, and many of the very special things that make Lakewood, Lakewood. In a desperate action to prove they are right, not mistaken. Hence the never ending crawl down the business rabbit hole that erodes fine residential living, for the delusional concept "we are a destination." Because the second they stop pushing that delusion, it all falls apart very quickly.
Lakewood made its bones, being a great place to raise a family, fall in love, find an apartment then as the family grew, the couple couple continue to buy up the social/economic ladder. Apartment, to half a house, half a house to starter home, starter home to 4 bedroom, then eventually back to the apartment, and finally assisted living. And unbelievably perfectly organically built community, that needed very little else to thrive, and survive.
But Lalewood's dreamers, movers and shakers have proven again, and again, and again, and again. They come up with seriously flawed plans, that they have ZERO ability to deliver on, so they ALWAYS come up short in every way, forcing them to start yet another to cover up their never ending string of failures. Marc's Plaza, the center of high end shopping with habitrails for humans going to the Hospital, Lakewood Center North, Geigers, Barnacle Bills... ZERO ability to carry through on that. West End an idiots view of what we need. Small thinking on the edge of our most valuable property. DowntowN where we desperately needed a gazebo so that it could become a proper "Mainstreet City."
As you know far to well, "One Lakewood" is merely another act of scrambling to save their asses and faces from another failed attempt at a Rec Center, that they wanted without ever really looking into what it does to communities that cannot afford them. So now they come up with "One Lakewood" version 1, "One Lakewood" version deux, "One Lakewood" version trois... As the failed civic leaders and elected officials prove yet again, they are far better at following each other down the rabbit hole, then thinking for themselves, what alone outside the box.
The very real problem, as we are witnessing globally, once you screw up an Eco-system and or community, it is hard to restore balance and order.
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