My Challenge To Lakewood

[Mark Kindt]

Hey, Democrats!

What will it be then, eh?

Spend tens of millions of dollars to subsidize upscale housing for the wealthiest members of society.

OR

Jump-start the Green New Deal in Lakewood and establish our leadership position now for the future.

Trust me. This is your choice. You have the power. Use it.

[Mark Kindt]

Short, Sweet, and Simple.

I have already written hundreds of paragraphs on the Deck supported with documents, tables, and charts explaining why One Lakewood Place is a terrible choice for our community. I'm not going to repeat myself.

My primary argument is simply this. One Lakewood Place will never generate sufficient tax revenue to justify the millions of dollars in public subsidies, probably $15M now, that have been poured into it.

From the get- go this "once-in-a-generation" public investment opportunity is a failure.

Aside from the value of the lost Lakewood Hospital, the direct subsidies of the land and the site preparation (ever increasing) won't earn any sort of investment payback until the end of this century or early in the next.

It's as simple as that.

Why as a community of Democratic voters led solely by Democratic office-holders are we publicly subsidizing luxury housing that no ordinary citizen will ever be likely to afford?

[Mark Kindt]

Again, Short, Sweet, and Simple

Why as a community of Democratic voters led solely by Democratic office-holders are we publicly subsidizing luxury housing that no ordinary citizen will ever be likely to afford?

Why as a community of Democratic voters led solely by Democratic office-holders are we NOT publicly subsidizing solar-installations for our homes and buildings.

Why are we NOT pursuing the objectives of the Green New Deal program here now?

With the enactment of House Bill 6, Ohio now has the worst energy policy in the nation having killed Ohio's renewable energy programs.

What I love above about solar-installations and solar-retrofits is the fact that rate-payers, home-owners and building-owners, almost immediately gain reductions in their energy costs. (Exactly what First Energy doesn't want.)

I am only selecting just one aspect of this. Nationally, the Democrats and the Progressives have a completely integrated plan for a Green New Deal.

What are Democratic office-holders in Lakewood going to do about this?

Please press them.

[Mark Kindt]

Short, Sweet, and Simple.

I have already written hundreds of paragraphs on the Deck supported with documents, tables, and charts explaining why One Lakewood Place is a terrible choice for our community. I'm not going to repeat myself.

My primary argument is simply this. One Lakewood Place will never generate sufficient tax revenue to justify the millions of dollars in public subsidies, probably $15M now, that have been poured into it.

From the get- go this "once-in-a-generation" public investment opportunity is a failure.

Aside from the value of the lost Lakewood Hospital, the direct subsidies of the land and the site preparation (ever increasing) won't earn any sort of investment payback until the end of this century or early in the next.

It's as simple as that.

Why as a community of Democratic voters led solely by Democratic office-holders are we publicly subsidizing luxury housing that no ordinary citizen will ever be likely to afford?

You Do The Math

Not counting in the lost value in tax abatements, the city estimates that in 2026, One Lakewood Place will generate approximately $434,000 in property and income taxes.

So, the "once-in-a-generation" public investment with the developer will not pay-back the approximately $15M in direst public subsidies until 2060. Could be longer!

[Mark Kindt]

By 2060, we will be another 40 years into global warming.

[Mark Kindt]

Again, Democrats, why are we focused on building upscale housing that only the most affluent can afford? How did this become the agenda for our future?

[Mark Kindt]

If the planning department has quantified the number of new upscale homes and apartments the city should have, I would encourage office-holders to release that information and review how it was determined.

[Mark Kindt]

By 2060, we will be another 40 years into global warming.

Last year, the majority of our city council signed a pledge to support the Green New Deal. How will the Green New Deal become an affirmative agenda for the future of Lakewood?

The next decade will be instrumental in shifting away from fossil-fuel consumption. How do we make that happen here?

[Mark Kindt]

Let's stop pretending that Lakewood is going to be the Healthiest City in American and do something real instead.

[Stan Austin]

I would start out at a most elemental point. Specifically, reject the notion from Trump that we can regress to a point where we can poop in our river and lake.

[Mark Kindt]

By 2060, we will be another 40 years into global warming.

Last year, the majority of our city council signed a pledge to support the Green New Deal. How will the Green New Deal become an affirmative agenda for the future of Lakewood?

The next decade will be instrumental in shifting away from fossil-fuel consumption. How do we make that happen here?

My essential point here is that we've already committed to the Green New Deal. Democrats, let's make this a reality in Lakewood. Call your think tanks and find scale-able ideas for a city of 50,000.

Realities like:

1. Charging stations for electric vehicles.

2. Sustainability standards for new construction.

3. Solar panels on all public building.

[Richard Baker]

Let’s Go Green,

The average cost of solar panels installed is $10k to $25 ranging from 4 kW to 8 KW output assuming you are living in a sunshine state located at a lower latitude. Lakewood only has 166 days of sunshine a year. Then there are those trees; they shade our homes reducing the cost of cooling them, but they are not suitable for solar energy. However, the city is helping with that problem by removing healthy trees from the tree lawns. Then there is the degradation of solar panels that is about 1 percent a year due to our cold winters, and snow and ice loads are other issues.

The average electrical bill for the average home in Lakewood is $75 and a liberal assumption is that you can save $50 a month or $600 a year. In addition to many homes that it is not environmentally possible to install solar panels or economically feasible.

Want to go “Green”:

1. Downsize the articulating behemoths buses not needed for the number of passengers it transports. Yes, natural gas is still a fossil fuel and propelling empty space is a waste.
2. If you commute to Cleveland or nearby, purchase electric vehicles. Although it still takes a footprint on the environment and uses electrical power generated by the Loran generation plant, it
has less impact on the environment than the SUV grocery getter
3. Installation, a tax deduction and low-cost loans as an incentive to owners of the many homes that have minimal installation. The warmest place in many of these homes is fifteen feet,
outside and downwind.
4. Require city employees to use energy-efficient cars that the taxpayers serve. They all commute to Lakewood so they won’t have to pay the exorbitant property taxes and pay to send their
children to parochial school for an education.
5. Remove and insulate all the windows in the City Hall to reduce the energy used for heating and air-conditioning. The occupants won’t notice it, they are all in the dark anyway.
6. Stop the bike lane and no turn on red signs crap; they impede vehicle traffic, causing congestion. Congestion is not good for the environment.
7. City council stops being bought off by developers with high-density projects, tearing down the personality of the city and burdening traffic and schools. In addition to removing the cities
medical and health care facilities, causing an environmental cleanup mess.

Who kidding who, Lakewood City officials holding up a sign for "Green" is a level of hypocrisy only Democrats can achieve.

[Mark Kindt]

Mr. Baker, as you can see, my posts are directed to Democrats and Democratic Party office-holders in an attempt to spark an affirmative agenda for the future based on the Green New Deal.

For those Republican Party members or those who identify as Independent and oppose an affirmative agenda like I suggest, I encourage you to organize and run for local office.

"Oh, no, we could never do that...it might reveal that our true agenda is simply anti-government."

[Mark Kindt]

Embracing an affirmative agenda for the next decade that broadly benefits all would go a long way toward uniting our community around common positive goals.

[Mark Kindt]

One Example: Charging Stations For Electric Cars

Here's a local link:

https://goevelocity.com/