GUEST POST Daniel W Given

ED NOTE. Dan Given, as always outspoken and to  the point shares his thoughts with  OH HER AGAIN BLOG and City  of Lorain Politics Face Book Page.  

Daniel W Given: lifelong Lorain resident
• Former elected Council person in the 7th ward, 8th ward and Council at Large for 22 years 1994-2016.
• Safety Service Director 4 years – 2016-2019….. Under Mayor Chase Ritenauer
• Currently General Manager/ Chief Operating Officer, Paul Davis Restoration, Strongsville.

Questions to ponder:

Why is a new city hall even needed?

(a) I would understand the thought process if people were clamoring to come into Lorain let alone the downtown of Lorain which is miles away from a major highway.

(b) The current city hall is in acceptable shape with the city keeping up with basic maintenance. The current mayor just spent tens of thousands of dollars on landscaping thus fortifying this position so the property is far from rundown.

(c)The Property meets the city current needs as it has for the last few decades. (It holds all employees .The LPD has invested many upgrades and expansions there and the LPD electronics alone will cost an abundance to replicate or move. Also the Jail will most likely close in the future offering more space for LPD if needed after remodeling it).

(d) Employee /elected officials desire for shiny new toys is not the reason for long term debt.

(e) This offers no benefit to taxpayers nor offers any efficiency of services.

(f) No corporate entity would think about making such an investment with no financial goal of improving profits….

(g) Current Mayor Bradley wants to say” look at me, I opened up the waterfront”…. but for what?

Photo source Face Book

(h) Unless we have all missed the news release there is no interest.

Remember, we bought the finger piers thinking that would lure in the developers- NOPE. Ohio Edison took down the electric plant hoping to lure developers- NOPE. We took down the high tension wires thinking that would lure developers- NOPE.

We have spent MILLIONS $$ on our dream of prosperity yet no one wants us. Developers don’t want to invest their money here. We spent spent spent and still nothing. Stop spending on OUR local vision and see what others are NOT INVESTING IN.

(i) Name a lakefront city around us that is blossoming and attracting high dollar business investment…..

I see none and hear crickets…… Erie, PA to Toledo…. nothing worth noting.
Sandusky has the top rated amusement park in the nation and yet they struggle financially and have similar problems. The cold weather 9 months a year does not make us a vacation Mecca and we need to accept that. Even the Macinac Island area is dead with no development along the mainland shores.

(j) Enough already. The Emperor has no clothes with this idea and it needs to be addressed. It’s wasted time and wasted $39,000.

(k) As to St Joseph hospital land, who has the most to gain from removed responsibility going forward? Legacy owners.

(l) Stand up for common sense. Someone on the city council has to have the willingness to understand reality and saving OPM – other people’s money. The citizens limited tax dollars.

(m) Let’s focus and understand corporations/developers invest in areas with disposable income. Our area is severely lacking that compared to others.

(n) Lorain’s residents are far from wealthy. Poverty levels are definitely present here. Locally we have no clothing stores except Kohl’s, no car dealers, no high end restaurants, no recreational facility, etc. etc…. our housing values are at the bottom, our schools in disarray, our roads and water lines need work, we have basic city services only. We have no recreational programs for young or old, we have higher than want crime, we have gun shots daily, we have no employment outside of hospital and government to speak of…. .. Reality sucks doesn’t it?

(o) Let’s work on things that make a difference. Moving a building that’s been there for 50 years without a pressing need and no funds for the next debt payment is far from a financially sound decision. Elected officials need to make financially sound decisions and not RISKY DEVELOPMENT decisions. Those are for the private sector

(p) Next, who wants to buy? Anyone? The Staubauch  report presented in 2008.just before the Subprime Mortgage Crisis, when the bottom fell out.

THERE IS A SURPRISE!!!! | That Woman’s Weblog (wordpress.com

spelled out lots of things to us yet everyone forgets the need to clean up our back yard prior to asking others to come in and see our potential. We spent thousands {ED NOTE $90,000} on that report yet is sits in the basement unread by current officials. Oh ya, what it says is unpopular and unpleasant to our residents. It says clean up your back yard. Clean up your homes. Lower your crime. Improve your school scores. Once again I hear crickets. I am not happy about all this either however I am no longer dreaming until we IMPROVE OURSELVES. AND HAVE A TIME LINE FOR COMPLETION .

(q) Remember Our Steel plants are shuttered. We are a Rust belt city. For at least the last 28 years I am not aware of any large developer or business being interested in the property or the area of downtown Lorain.

(r) We as Lorainites, think the property is valuable but no one else has or does. We continue to dream but someone needs to be the VOICE OF REASON. We have beer budgets yet champagne dreams. Developers usually want to use other people’s moneys as well. What well will we want to drain for that? More debt?.

Photo Lorain 365

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(s) Let’s also remember the finger piers have no utilities to that area and the cost to run utilities will be extremely expensive and most likely cost prohibitive. The finger piers will also need structural analysis to determine what that land is capable of holding up. Piles of ore do not have the same liability as a condo building or office building. The only way Cleveland has had such investment like that has been through state and federal dollars for infrastructure.

ED NOTE: Remember this concept of over 20  years ago – the Old Ohio  Edison plant is still pictured

and then the ship  in the bottle concept that was touted by Mayor Foltin  in 2005 to  get the cash to  go  for a casino   that was never going to  happen  casino though council, and other “pipe dreams”  Loraine Ritchey

2006 – Lorain was dreaming lights on Broadway then and now | That Woman’s Weblog (wordpress.com)

(t) Our residents can’t even afford the utility department physical improvements required. We need to improve those underground assets and once we viewed those needs and increases the fees to cover future improvements, the public said NO.

(u) Folks these are the raw, unvarnished, hurtful facts. Warts and all

(v) Lorain needs a lot of things but not this, not now. Elected officials and their Priorities are beyond screwed up to even consider this pipe dream.

We barely afforded the city central service building and the two new fire stations without the additional levy funded by the local tax payers.

Let’s remember, the east side fire station was a 100 year old decaying structure with NO MAINTENANCE regularly give to it and if a business was operating out of the old city garage facility we would have shut them down for safety violations. The City didn’t maintain that building either. Those two buildings were decades beyond their usable life yet our workers were forced to work in them. Our current City hall is not like those buildings..

I could go on and on. I love the city and its people however our leadership needs to understand who we actually are and what we actually need. A new city hall is NOT WHAT WE NEED.

(x) I am deeply disappointed I even need to draft this rant of reality but it needed to be said… Dan Given