Mark Kindt wrote:Developers Will Transform Lakewood
Various candidates for elective office in Lakewood have dropped-off their literature to my home. I commend each of them for committing themselves to public service.
Not unexpectedly, their campaign literature has the usual kinds of well-written fluff -- much of it about maintaining various community values that we celebrate as residents of Lakewood.
In this Deck essay, I am going to attempt to quantify and evaluate the impending development that Lakewood is experiencing and will continue to experience.
If you are a resident who supports wide-scale economic development for Lakewood as an overall improvement to the City, you will be gratified by the likely events of 2019.
If you are a resident who, like me, has a healthy skepticism about wide-scale "canned" economic development for Lakewood, you will be disappointed by these events.
The Lakewood that we enjoy and celebrate is in the midst of serious changes that affect a broad range of quality of life issues for its residents.
In this Deck essay, I will try to bring some of those issues into focus for broader community discussion.
If you question whether wide-scale impending development using public subsidies is the appropriate course for the future of Lakewood, I encourage you to study the alternative "reform" ticket:
Meghan George
Laura Rodriquez-Carbone
Brad Presutto
Jeff Wise
If you generally support wide-scale impending development with public subsidies as the appropriate course for the future of Lakewood, I encourage you to study the "non-reform" ticket:
Sam O'Leary
Tess Neff
Jason Shachner
John Litten
Dan O'Malley
This is my
personal sense of the difference between the two tickets.
Each ticket has varying flavors of endorsements and the endorsement processes still seem to be incomplete.
If you support the construction of One Lakewood Place on the former hospital site, then you would likely find the "non-reform" ticket closer to your civic interests.
Meghan George did not vote in favor of One Lakewood Place; O'Leary, Litten and O'Malley voted in favor of it.
I also believe that the "reform" ticket is likely to be more supportive of the Rader reform legislation.
These characterizations of "tickets" are entirely my own. I believe that they are reasonably reflective, though some candidates may be undecided about these issues. They can post here.
Obviously, you understand that I have written in support of reform and against One Lakewood Place. My bias is express, not hidden.