The Observation Deck

The City of Cleveland will be receiving millions in taxpayer subsidies for a hotel development in the Flats.

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index ... k_pro.html

Lakewood cannot compete with taxpayer funded development in Westlake, Rocky River and Cleveland. The Mayor and City council should first try to find out why Lakewood is inelligible for County development dollars and then try to get development.

Bill

Be careful what you wish for.

While at a unveiling of Clifton Pointe project at the Clifton Club, Nate Kelly, spoke of a $100
million dollar expenditure by the county on "Commercial Economic Development" and that
Lakewood could see it share of $2 million coming down the pike.

At the same time we have Councilman Juris making a plea for a hotel to be built in Downtown
Lakewood, as it is what the people want and need. According to him.

So we might get our own little hotel project.

I have also heard conversation about a project that could be interesting on the East Side
of Lakewood, that some believe could be a great start at lets just say something at this
point. What I have heard is very exciting, but they are just getting their act together. From
what I am hearing and the people I talked to the city would be far wiser to check that out
which might also have a hotel in the development.

My point of be careful what you wish for. I have seen you ask for Clinic Development and
enlargement, while many would like to keep Belle, Belle, with the house on it. We have
seen others demand strip malls with retailing drying up. I myself have always wanted a
Ferrari in my car collection, but with my mechanic dead, it is hard taking care of what I
own now.

I would love to see get $2 million and put it into things that are sustainable, no matter
what happens down the road.

FWIW


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_________________
Jim O'Bryan
Lakewood Resident

"The very act of observing disturbs the system."
Werner Heisenberg

"If anything I've said seems useful to you, I'm glad.
If not, don't worry. Just forget about it."
His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Can you share? Or is this something that needs to be kept on the down-low until plans are fully developed?

Myra

I only mentioned it, as I have heard of some interesting ideas out there for development
money. I know the group wants to go through proper channels like the mayor, city,
council, etc. It would be a huge brand builder, and could really be nice for the east side of
Lakewood, and Lakewood. Chances of them pulling it off? Slim? But I love dreamers with
big vision.

That is why we are celebrating the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this week in Cleveland.
Some people tried the impossible and pulled it off.

Let them get their show together for now.

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_________________
Jim O'Bryan
Lakewood Resident

"The very act of observing disturbs the system."
Werner Heisenberg

"If anything I've said seems useful to you, I'm glad.
If not, don't worry. Just forget about it."
His Holiness The Dalai Lama

When/where did Councilman Juris make this plea? I don't get to City Council Meetings, so perhaps I missed it there.

I am curious to know more about his (and others') thoughts on bringing a hotel to Lakewood. My initial reaction to locating one DowntowN is that it would seem like a fish out of water but I'll keep my mind open to this idea. There are many small (boutique) hotels in urban areas that discreetly blend into the existing architecture. This approach might work here.

We have hosted extended family gatherings when we were unable to accommodate all of our out-of-town guests. In those situations we have found hotel rooms for them rather than cope with the limitations of a typical Lakewood house. (I vaguely recall one of Rob Masek's Lakewoodites comics that captures this sentiment.) Those hotel rooms have always been in Westlake to avoid paying a premium and subjecting guests to the potential wayfinding/traffic/parking hassles of downtown Cleveland. It would be nice to have them closer to our home.

Meg

The request was made of council for a $7,000 study on a hotel in Lakewood by Shawn. On
the Deck he takes great pride in this, and making sure it is run through council.

I actually questioned about spending 280 hours worth of salary money, that could be used
to keep Kauffman and Madison open on a study that it would seem very few see the need for.

The comment was a hotel in downtown.

I have spoken with many and I have gotten many calls about this.

If you did not know the history of the Days Inn, prior to it being a Days Inn, and you
stayed there, you would find it not that different from many Days Inns across the country.
The same beds, the same blankets, the same showers.

Just north of that is The Gold Coast Motor Inn, which is another motel of similar style.
The Winton Place, and Caryle also offer suites that can be rented by the day, week or month.

FWIW


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_________________
Jim O'Bryan
Lakewood Resident

"The very act of observing disturbs the system."
Werner Heisenberg

"If anything I've said seems useful to you, I'm glad.
If not, don't worry. Just forget about it."
His Holiness The Dalai Lama

We have since added a bathroom but some of our elderly relatives still have trouble with Lakewood stairs.



I do not support using taxpayer dollars for such a study. Any serious hotel chain interested in Lakewood can/should "foot the bill."

Thanks for the information.

I could totally be wrong here, but isn't the $7,000+ through the Economic Development Fund? Isn't that CDBG money, not taxpayer money?

Im still not sure where I stand on this issue. But I might be willing to see what the results are of this study.

Meg

Not to beat a dead horse, but has a long history of using tax money that could have been
used on housing or residents to support "downtown" and business, which to me is insane.
Any business worth having should be sustainable enough to start on their own.

Now we are seeing TIFs and abatements for some developments, while the rest of us foot
the bill for others to live in new developments tax free.

At some point it would be great if council and city hall could make it as easy to stay and
live in Lakewood as they are making for some select people to move here.

What I did take away from the Mayor's State of the City Address is, "If you want to move
here, even without cost of living or a job, we will make it easy for you." That was the first
five minutes, followed by 50 minutes of, if you live here we are going to have to tighten
our collective belts and get tough and lean.

While I think it is great we have programs like, Habitat For Humanity building in Lakewood,
how about some Habitat For Lakewoodite programs?

The $7,000 Shawn wants would buy 280 hours of park clean ups or security, that would
allow Lakewood residents to enjoy the parks we have, as we do now. It is like Councilman
Shawn Juris is trading our lives for a handful of magic beans. And we know how that story ended!


FWIW

_________________
Jim O'Bryan
Lakewood Resident

"The very act of observing disturbs the system."
Werner Heisenberg

"If anything I've said seems useful to you, I'm glad.
If not, don't worry. Just forget about it."
His Holiness The Dalai Lama

A hotel sitting all by itself behind the parking garage would actually be a net loss for the City. A hotel as part of something a little bigger that uses up some obsolete housing or retail can be a plus.

If the City were to get $2 million I'd rather see $1 million to help pay for the paving of Madison and the other $1 million to creating a real cafe district along Madison. Narrow the street, add some parking, add some street/sidewalk enhancements, a little store front renovation and tear down a few obsolete buildings and the area might have legs.

Of course one man's good idea is another man's road to hell and the first rule of local politics is: Your idea sucks and mine doesn't.

Fer real.

I hate to be Donny Downer but...

We have a sewer rebuild, that is mandatory coming. The last 4 administrations have put it
off, but when it was first spoken of nearly 16 years ago it was a $50 million dollar project.

Much to Mayor Summers credit, he is the first mayor I have heard ready to come to grips
with the inevitable bill, we cannot ignore. The fines for not doing it are insane.

I like your ideas by the way. A hotel with reason makes sense, A hotel downtown for
residents to stash the occasional relative in, so underwhelming why talk about it. To think
a hotel will spur economic development is foolish, and shows just how far out of their
depth of understanding some are.

The Quaker Inn comes to mind in Akron. Which was going to spur development. 30 years
and 5 owners later, Akron finally built up enough around it to make it viable.

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_________________
Jim O'Bryan
Lakewood Resident

"The very act of observing disturbs the system."
Werner Heisenberg

"If anything I've said seems useful to you, I'm glad.
If not, don't worry. Just forget about it."
His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Kristen,

Where do you think CDBG money comes from?

_________________
Ryan Salo

I was trying to find a decent answer for this question, all I could figure it is from granted monies from the Federal Treasury (probably from national taxes). It was a quick read so maybe someone could understand it better...

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src ... t/programs

Well, to get this thread back on the original track.... I don't know if the city government needs to do this before they try to bring any type of economic development, but they should be looking to receive any monies that they qualify for through the federal government.

Has any one at city hall ever made a statement regarding this? I can't believe they don't at least query on these opportunities.

J Hrlec

I would agree with on caveat. They should be looking for any and all, and see if they can get
any THAT FITS WITH LAKEWOOD.

The city has been somewhat negligent in this years ago. Development Director Tom Jordan
was a master at bending things to fit our needs when he got it, but we rarely got it. I
loved how he took a traffic study and made them do a streetscape for Lakewood, as
pedestrian traffic and walks must be considered. Unfortunately, the next administration
thought this artists view of Detroit was a plan instead of a sketch.

Lakewood Progress Inc. was created to do this. To my knowledge and I could be wrong but
their big move was trying win a Hamburger Helper Contest for City Ideas for $15,000.
LCPI later merged with the political action group LakewoodAlive which was created to
make sure we were smart enough to understand Commercial Economic Development.

Today LakewoodAlive is headed by Ian Andrews who has a great record of getting things
going when he was Detroit Shoreway West, one of the hottest sections of Cleveland right now.
So perhaps, we will see more of it.

FWIW

.

_________________
Jim O'Bryan
Lakewood Resident

"The very act of observing disturbs the system."
Werner Heisenberg

"If anything I've said seems useful to you, I'm glad.
If not, don't worry. Just forget about it."
His Holiness The Dalai Lama