Leaf Pickup Begins

The City of Lakewood will begin collecting loose leaves on Monday, November 2, 2009 and will continue until approximately December 11, 2009, weather permitting. Starting Monday, residents don’t have to bag loose leaves – just leave them on the curb (not in the street) and city crews will pick them up.

Because there are TONS of leaves on Clifton Boulevard and Lake Avenue (we love those old, huge trees), those streets will be collected separately. Collection crews will start working at the east end of Clifton Boulevard and Lake Avenue and work west until completed. After crews have completed Clifton and Lake, they will collect leaves citywide starting from the west end and working east.

The number of citywide collection trips depends on the weather, so please place your leaves out as soon as possible to avoid missing your collection. Additional pick-ups begin for Clifton and Lake again on November 16 and November 30. There will be no collection on November 26 and November 27 because of Thanksgiving.

Work on New Bailey Building to Begin Monday

The removal of the 1960's concrete façade on the Bailey Building will begin on Monday, October 26 and is expected to take approximately 3 weeks. Soon, you’ll begin to see the 1920's Bailey Department Store that has been hidden for all these years revealed.

A 120 ton crane will be positioned on Detroit to lift the panels off of the building and place them on the ground on the Warren side. Crews will then remove the windows and load the panels onto flatbed trucks were they are being taken to a facility to be broken up and recycled.

Traffic will be maintained, but one lane will be closed on Warren and police officers will be posted at the intersection while work is underway. The work will start on the Detroit Avenue side and then move to Warren Road.

The complete renovation, with assistance from the Department of Planning and Development Economic Development Fund, will be complete by Spring of 2010. Stay tuned for information about the new restaurant and retail tenants that are slated to fill the building.

Lakewood and Partners Win Another Development Award

The City of Lakewood, Lakewood Historical Society, Lakewood Heritage Advisory Board, and LakewoodAlive won another award, this time from the Ohio Historic Preservation Office for their collective efforts to recognize, preserve, and promote Lakewood’s historic resources.

From OHPO:
"Their work has contributed significantly to improving the quality of life in Lakewood through historic preservation...New development has taken place in a planned and precise manner on vacant lots. Other development includes the adaptive use of the former Lakewood Tennis Club/Elks Lodge as a Winking Lizard and the First Church of Christ Scientist as the Maxxum Corporation offices. The City’s Heritage Advisory Board has surveyed all of the commercial buildings in the City and assigned a ranking of historic and architectural merit to help support careful development and preserve the best resources...
...City strengthened its demolition ordinance
...Birdtown neighborhood to the National Register of Historic Places.
...City passed a Preservation Ordinance, which went into effect this year that codifies the city’s local historic preservation program. And this year, the Lakewood Historical Society’s primary site, the Honam/Hotchkiss House, became Lakewood's first locally designated landmark.

By strengthening its historic preservation legislation, designating districts both nationally and locally, and using historic preservation as an economic revitalization tool through Downtown Lakewood and the Main Street Four Point Approach™, the City of Lakewood is securing its future economic vitality incrementally and building both literally & figuratively on its existing unique and historic resources."

Cleveland Scene Readers: Lakewood's Best

In this week's Cleveland Scene, the magazine's readers found that the best in the Cleveland area can be found in Lakewood. Some of the categories where Lakewood is tops:

Best Place to Trim your Locks
Crazy Mullets
14807 Detroit Ave
216.712.7733

Best Place to Eat on a Budget
The Place to Be
1391 Warren Rd
216.226.8783

Best Vegetarian Restaurant AND
Best Middle Eastern
Aladdin's
14536 Detroit Ave

Best Indian
India Garden
18405 Detroit Ave
216.221.0676
indiagardencleveland.com

Best Local Theater Company
Beck Center
17801 Detroit Ave
216.521.2540
beckcenter.org

Cleveland Scene Editors Choose Lakewood

In this week's Cleveland Scene, the magazine's editors designates just a few of Lakewood's destinations as the best in the region. Some of the places that are the Cleveland area's best:

Best Place to Hang Out
Lakewood Public Library

Best Re-use of an Industrial Building
Templar Industrial Park (a.k.a. the Screw Factory)

Best Bowling Alley
Mahall's 20 Lanes

Best Restaurant Promotion
Melt Bar & Grilled Tattoo Offer

Best New Bakery
Blackbird Baking Co.

Best West Side Expansion
Big Fun
(We're going to claim this one, even though it's in Cleveland, but just barely)

Protecting Lakewood's Landmarks - Update

A joint work session of the Planning Commission, City Council's Committee of the Whole, and the Lakewood Heritage Advisory Board has been scheduled for 10/21/09 at 6pm in the City Hall Auditorium. The groups will discuss the merits of the proposed legislation to protect the interiors of Lakewood's designated historic properties and consider amendments or alternatives. It will be a roll-up-your-sleeves style meeting that is open to the public. If you have material for the group to consider at that meeting, please submit it to planning@lakewoodoh.net before Monday, October 19th.

Parks Master Planning Presentation

The City's community forum to kick off the Park System Master Plan was held on October 7th at the Main Library Auditorium. The forum's focus was to bring diverse stakeholders together to begin the collaborative work of creating a comprehensive plan for our parks.
The meeting was well attend and included representatives from a number of community organizations such as Lakewood Soccer Association, Lakewood Alive, Friends of Madison Park, LEAF, Lakewood Christian Service Center, Lakewood City Schools and Leashed Dogs in Lakewood Parks. The group shared ideas and discussed opportunities, concerns and community priorities that were recorded by City staff to begin compiling the idea list the will be a basis for a park system plan.
A second workshop will be held in November to report the findings from the first meeting and to formalize action steps. The presentation is below.

Park%20System%20Master%20Plan%20Presentation%20October%207th%202009.pdf

First Time Homebuyer Program in High Demand

The Lakewood HOME Program provides one of the best mortgage financing packages available to qualified first time home buyers interested in purchasing a Lakewood home. Assistance, which comes in the form of a 0% interest, no monthly payment second mortgage is used to assist with both down payment and closing costs.

Used together with the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit, you can buy a Lakewood home at an incredible value. Lakewood Realtors and banks alike have reported that the tax credit has been getting first time home buyers in Lakewood at record rates.

Lakewood's program offers deferred payment, zero percent (0%) interest second mortgage

* $7,500 for condominium property,
* $10,000 for single-family property, or
* $14,000 for two-family property with forgiveness schedule.

The loan to be repaid immediately at time of resale, transfer, or if property becomes absentee-owned. Purchasers of two family properties are eligible for loan forgiveness. Fifty percent (50%) will be forgiven aftern the fifth year of owning and occupying the property and twenty percent (20%) each year thereafter until one hundred percent (100%) forgiven.

The program will be available even after the tax credit expires. Find out more here.

Neighborhood Planning: Birdtown / Madison East

The Department of Planning and Development hosted the first in a series of neighborhood planning workshops for the Birdtown/Madison East neighborhood on September 22nd at North Coast Baptist Church (2051 Quail).

The workshop was attended by about 40 residents, business owners, community group representatives and City representatives to begin work on creating a plan for the neighborhood.

A lively discussion included the topics of neighborhood beautification, transportation, parking, walkability, cultural resources, park improvements and safety. City staff will work in the coming weeks to distill the community comments and will host the next meeting in mid November to report back to the neighborhood and begin setting priorities for on-going improvement.