Parklets
At last week’s Housing, Planning, and Development Committee meeting, the Director of Planning and Development, Shawn Leininger, presented a draft of the Temporary Parklet Guidelines. Parklets take many forms, but for our purposes, parklets are conversions of on-street curbside parking into areas of outdoor dining. As you may remember, Mayor George requested that Council provide direction in the form of a proposed set of guidelines along with how we envision parklets to be implemented because, at that point, the City did not feel it was prepared to accept applications for parklets. With input from my colleagues, I drafted guidelines and presented them to the Mayor and her staff.
The Temporary Parklet Guidelines that Dir. Leininger presented were the result of research by the Planning Department, input from members of the Planning Commission, and input from Lakewood’s safety forces. The Committee approved the guidelines and businesses now can submit their parklet plans for approval! LBM has already submitted a plan and it should be reviewed at an upcoming Planning Commission meeting. Please click here to view the Temporary Parklet Guidelines.
League of Women Voters Historical Marker![]()
On July 28th, the Lakewood chapter of the League of Women Voters of Greater Cleveland hosted a dedication ceremony of the Ohio Historical Marker commemorating the 100th anniversary of the passage of Lakewood’s suffrage and Bernice Pyke’s leadership in the movement. We even had the privilege of hearing from Ms. Pyke’s grandson, John Pyke.
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In Lakewood, women won the fight to participate in municipal elections two years before the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified by the State of Ohio and three years before it was added to the U.S. Constitution! Thank you to the LWV for your hard work on this project and your dedication to promoting participation in government.
Next time you’re at Lakewood Park, check out the Historical Marker next to the Women’s Pavilion.
Find out what's happening in Lakewoodfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Lakewood Arts Festival
On Saturday, the 43rd Annual Lakewood Arts Festival was held virtually. The festival benefits a scholarship fund and arts grants in Lakewood each year. This year, the Arts Festival Board granted a $4,000 scholarship and two additional $1,000 scholarships to the following Lakewood High School students who have chosen to pursue further education in the arts: Esther Dolatowski, Natalie Costello, and Isabella Dombrowski.
The best part about the festival being held virtually is there's still time to support the talented artists and the LAF! Here's a virtual directory of the 2020 artists (there's some great Lakewood artists participating!):http://lakewoodartsfest.org/visit_directory.aspx
To help support the festival and the education of future artists, you can mail a check payable to Lakewood Arts Festival, P.O. Box 771288, Lakewood, OH 44107 or can make a secure online donation: http://lakewoodartsfest.org/participate_scholarship.aspx
Lake Avenue Bike Lanes![]()
The bike lanes on Lake Avenue are nearing completion! It was great to see so many people using them this weekend. If you were wondering what those green “bike boxes" are at the stop lights, Bike Lakewood kindly provided an explanation on their Facebook page:
“The Bike Boxes are available to use and provide a safe alternative when traffic is heavy or if there is a group of cyclists, like a family. Cyclists still have the legal right to use the regular left turn lane as a legal road vehicle.
Once you are in the bike box to make a left turn you are just like any other road vehicle making a left turn. If there is a turn arrow on the traffic light, you follow it. If not, you wait for the green light and yield to oncoming traffic and crossing pedestrians. Bike Lakewood and The City of Lakewood welcome suggestions on improving this corridor."
I have received several questions about the process or reasoning behind the parking decisions related to the restriping. The Planning Department held three community meetings from 2018-2019 to present residents with options for the Lake Avenue project. Lake Ave is approximately 40 feet wide, which makes bike lanes and parking on both sides infeasible. The Department used the input from the community meetings along with a full independent parking study and decided to retain street parking on the North side for most of the Cove to Webb corridor.
You can find the parking data and information from the planning process on the Lake Avenue Construction page of the City's website. http://www.onelakewood.com/lakeaveconstruction/
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