The Fork In The Road

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Mark Kindt
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Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: The Fork In The Road

Postby Mark Kindt » Tue Dec 17, 2019 2:52 pm

How Did We Get Here?

About a year ago, I described with public documents how our civic leadership ignored the offer from the Metro Health System that led to the demolition of our award-winning public community hospital.

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=25046

Please take a moment and read this Deck thread.

Less than a year later, civic leadership is on the brink of tax abatement to construct luxury apartments and town-homes that no ordinary resident can ever afford to live-in.


Dan Alaimo
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Re: The Fork In The Road

Postby Dan Alaimo » Wed Dec 18, 2019 1:38 am

I second Stan. The Clinic might be better if you are a Middle Eastern oil sheik, but Metro is just as good for the rest of us.


“Never let a good crisis go to waste." - Winston Churchill (Quote later appropriated by Rahm Emanuel)
Bridget Conant
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Joined: Wed Jul 26, 2006 4:22 pm

Re: The Fork In The Road

Postby Bridget Conant » Wed Dec 18, 2019 8:29 am

Metro is more than “just as good,” it just doesn’t tout its own horn constantly.

The Clinic does a very good job of marketing itself. Do you see Metro ads on the side of busses? Do you get constant junk mail telling you about the “world class care” you can get at Metro? Do you see ads pop up on Facebook for Metro? Do you see Metro in USNews, a spot that the Clinic literally PAYS for? (Google how those rankings are manipulated and how three other hospital watchdog organizations put CCF no where near the top.)

Like much of what we have here, we think less of it than do outsiders. It’s a shame. We have world class cultural institutions, fabulous outdoor areas, great universities, and MORE THAN ONE highly regarded hospital systems.

I’m tired of seeing UH and Metro dissed because they don’t spend enormous amounts of money telling us how great they are.

And think about that, will you? Who is paying for that?

Enjoy your overrated, overpriced care at Cleveland Clinic, if you choose.


Mark Kindt
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Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: The Fork In The Road

Postby Mark Kindt » Fri Dec 20, 2019 1:16 pm

This Table Does Not Include The Value of Future Tax Abatement To Selected Developer

Make No Mistake About It -- One Lakewood Place is Part Two of the Hospital Debacle.

At some point in the 21st Century, the City of Lakewood might see a positive return on its massive public subsidies to its selected developer.

Public Subsidies for Luxury Housing -- Poor Public Policy Choice -- Lakewood.jpg
Public Subsidies for Luxury Housing -- Poor Public Policy Choice -- Lakewood.jpg (235.53 KiB) Viewed 11882 times


Mark Kindt
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Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: The Fork In The Road

Postby Mark Kindt » Fri Dec 20, 2019 5:00 pm

Once you factor in 100% tax abatement on the structures that the developer builds, it will take One Lakewood Place 129 years to return enough tax revenues to the public treasury to cover the amounts in public assets and public funds that have been and will be dumped into the project.

In the post above, I meant to say 22nd Century. Yes, I'm serious.

There are no net tax revenue benefits from One Lakewood Place whatsoever this century.

It is simply a vanity project of some kind.

It makes no financial sense for the City of Lakewood whatsoever.
Last edited by Mark Kindt on Fri Dec 20, 2019 5:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.


Bridget Conant
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Re: The Fork In The Road

Postby Bridget Conant » Fri Dec 20, 2019 5:12 pm

I’m not sure it will be a success for the developers, either.

Now that the site needs continuous vapor mitigation, how much would YOU pay to live there? Despite the rosy picture painted by the city, that issue WILL impact sales and rentals.

No one remembers the shopping center built in Garfield Heights on top of a landfill? All the major tenants were GONE in two years. The continual problems with venting gasses drove them and customers away.

I fully expect this to be an issue, especially with the environmentally conscious MILLENIALS they think they’ll be attracting.


Bridget Conant
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Re: The Fork In The Road

Postby Bridget Conant » Fri Dec 20, 2019 5:14 pm

Read this and weep:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_View_Center

Every major retailer was GONE within 2 years. As of today, the ONLY store left is a Giant Eagle.

Is this our future?


vernon sendelbach
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Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2014 8:16 am

Re: The Fork In The Road

Postby vernon sendelbach » Sat Jan 11, 2020 9:52 pm

Mark Kindt wrote:Proposed New Developments Are Beyond The Reach Of Ordinary Workers

Structural Exclusion of Seniors, Veterans, Union Members, Teachers and Average Families -- Apartments.jpg


and per Mayor George's column in last weeks Observer, why did they include rich areas like RR, Avon, et al in DMI, rather than Lakewoods, meaning so-called "affordable housing" will cost even more than your graph shows


Mark Kindt
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Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: The Fork In The Road

Postby Mark Kindt » Mon Feb 17, 2020 10:49 am

Mr. Sendelbach's observation is well-taken.

If we chart-out the affordability metrics recently adopted by the city in its expansion of tax abatement, we can see that even the affordability "set-asides" are likely to be unaffordable for most Lakewood residents.

I may address this with another table, but this takes a lot of time and care to be credible to readers in terms of both analysis and accuracy. I think I have already made my point on the lack of affordability for the new town-homes and upscale apartments.

Anybody really think that Lakewood needs another McKinley Place?

The new developments that will be built with our direct and indirect public subsidies (land, site remediation, tax abatement) will increase the numbers of vehicles on Detroit, Belle, and Bunts by somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 cars.

Yes, the addition of a hotel at One Lakewood Place is a fine amenity for the city, but how much more will the Lakewood treasury have to contribute in terms of incentives. Who will fund the additional incentives?

--Only the taxpayers.


Mark Kindt
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Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: The Fork In The Road

Postby Mark Kindt » Mon Feb 17, 2020 1:42 pm

Here's What The City Has To Say

http://www.onelakewood.com/wp-content/u ... _10.14.pdf

And, see also:

http://www.onelakewood.com/wp-content/u ... rPoint.pdf

What is clearly missing from both of the documents is any information about how the City is publicly-subsidizing luxury housing with direct subsidies and financial incentives.

---Leaving an extraordinarily incomplete picture of what the city is actually doing.

Finally, the planning department frequently uses the misnomer "market-rate" housing" while failing to explain that the "market-rate" housing is actually being significantly subsidized by the the public treasury through both direct and indirect subsidies.

If you have to subsidize it, it ain't "market rate".


Mark Kindt
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: The Fork In The Road

Postby Mark Kindt » Tue Feb 18, 2020 4:08 pm

It's Pretty Simple

If your public planning function plans to build unaffordable housing units and uses public assets/public funds/abatement incentives to do so; guess what, at the end of the process you will have housing units that no ordinary resident can afford to live-in.

In other words, this a problem of our own design. Not having enough upscale housing to accommodate the highly-compensated professional classes; ordinary working-class families need to fund with their taxes a housing policy that makes the city less affordable and less amenable to them and other potential residents like them.

It is clear from the planning department's own documents, that they have no plans to drop tens of millions of public dollars on affordable housing units. The multi-million dollar public subsidies are only for the high-end luxury housing--townhouses and luxury apartments.

Transformation for the affluent; business as usual for everyone else.

Bravo! Democrats!. You are really in tune with your constituents.


Mark Kindt
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Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: The Fork In The Road

Postby Mark Kindt » Wed Feb 19, 2020 10:20 am

The Lakewood public policy is to dismantle the healthcare safety-net used by ordinary folk in order to fund gentrification with public subsidies to the incoming major developers.

Gee, thanks for that!


Mark Kindt
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: The Fork In The Road

Postby Mark Kindt » Sun Mar 01, 2020 4:21 pm

Mark Kindt wrote:The Lakewood public policy is to dismantle the healthcare safety-net used by ordinary folk in order to fund gentrification with public subsidies to the incoming major developers.

Gee, thanks for that!


Reminds me of the "Outer Limits" episode where an entire block of a city is missing and the only thing left is the hole in the ground...

--Rewritten for Lakewood:

Intelligent, young couple, move to city and pay all their taxes for 35 years and when the foreign pandemic arrives they drive to their public hospital for treatment, get this horror fans, only to discover that there is a hole in the ground where their hospital used to be...

Of course, "Outer Limits" is only fiction...


Mark Kindt
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: The Fork In The Road

Postby Mark Kindt » Mon Mar 02, 2020 11:16 am

Now A Pretty Serious Matter

All kidding aside.

Frankly, for those of us over 65 or those of us with vulnerable conditions, this is now a pretty serious concern given the likely spread and impact of COVID-19.

Where do we collectively find ourselves?

No Lakewood Health Department.

No Lakewood Hospital.

No Lakewood Hospital Association.

No Lakewood Hospital Foundation.

No Lakewood funding for health care.

....Just a massive hole in the ground.


Mark Kindt
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: The Fork In The Road

Postby Mark Kindt » Mon Mar 02, 2020 11:38 am

Public and Private Leaders Rejected The Metro Proposal To Invest In Lakewood Hospital

Just to remind everyone again of the option to have the Metro Health System operate Lakewood Hospital:

Lakewood Metro Presentation 9.17.14_Redacted 10.jpg
Lakewood Metro Presentation 9.17.14_Redacted 10.jpg (175.39 KiB) Viewed 8179 times



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