Speaking to a gathering of about six people last Thursday at Harding Middle School during the latest stop on his Listening to Lakewood tour, Mayor Edward O. FitzGerald touched on a variety of topics including the fate of Kauffman Park’s Little Links, the financial situation at the Beck Center, and the future of Hilliard Square Theater.

Battling a power outage that affected the school and a large swath of the southwest area of the city, FitzGerald pushed through his opening presentation with neither a microphone nor a PowerPoint propaganda machine. He repeated from memory variations of tired self-congratulatory talking points and factoids that painted for listeners a deceptively rosy picture of the state of the city.

$2 million surplus

FitzGerald, who lost interest in his job as mayor after less than two years in office and is now seeking to become Cuyahoga County Executive, said the city is on target to have a $2 million surplus at the end of the year – its largest in seven years. “We are basically stable,” he said, but cautioned municipal operations are at their limits of efficiency. From his perspective, in other words, there’s no more fat to trim.

He declared success against crime (“some notable declines in crime statistics”), with nuisance situations (“a slew of evictions”), and recycling (“up roughly 20%”). In sum, he said, “We’re a smaller city with some big city problems.”

Little Links will be no longer

FitzGerald said the city is moving forward with modest improvements to Kauffman Park, including the removal of Little Links, which will repurposed as green space. The owner of nearby Lakewood Plaza has expressed his intent to renovate the tired-looking property, but hasn’t set a firm start date on the project, according to Director of Housing and Building Jeff Ashby, who was present at the event.

Beck Center still has money concerns

A member of the audience wondered if the Beck Center should be moved to Kauffman Park to capitalize on the prime location. “There isn’t money to move the Beck Center,” replied FitzGerald. He said that it is “under extreme financial duress,” and explained what the city has done to try and improve the situation. “These are tough times for non-profits,” he said.

Dim picture for Hilliard Square Theater

The same audience member asked about the status of the shuttered Hilliard Square Theater. FitzGerald said that the theater in the mostly vacant building complex is in very poor condition.  “It’s a very, very difficult property to redevelop,” he said. “It would almost have to be a complete redo” and “the cost to restore it is enormous”.

FitzGerald said that the movie theater industry is not doing well in the current economic climate. He noted that the theater on Detroit Rd. is having a tough time staying open.

The mayor said one major disadvantage to the Hilliard Rd. building is its lack of available parking. He felt it would be particularly expensive to acquire either of the adjacent buildings – one an apartment building and the other a gas station, because they are both money-making businesses.

FitzGerald said the city has helped theater owner Robert Dobush complete state grant applications, but the situation was “very, very difficult.”

Since the state has already invested in The Capitol Theater in the Gordon Square Arts District, the mayor doubts they would want to get involved with a similar project in such close proximity.

The next best hope, FitzGerald said, would be if a wealthy investor with the right kind of vision came along. The mayor acknowledged that the odds of anything good ever happening are not favorable. “I can’t say I’m overly optimistic about it,” he admitted.

Are weekends in Lakewood boring?

Someone said that the weekend vibe around the Coventry-area of Cleveland Heights was better than anywhere in Lakewood, and wondered what the city could do to fix it.

The mayor said the city can’t force businesses to open on Sunday and the situation in Lakewood is better than it used to be.

Paying to fix streets instead of paying for fireworks

A gentleman wondered if the city should take the money it spends on fireworks and instead apply it towards the cost of repairing roads. FitzGerald said the Fourth of July holiday is an important once-a-year community event that showcases the city to thousands of people. Compared to the millions of dollars it takes to fix the roads, the money spent on fireworks is very minor.

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