Sounds like a perfect fit for the ghettoized east end of Lakewood.

Yes! I love value world and will be so happy to have it in Lakewood!

And here we go again........................ :(

I do shop at Value World sometimes, don't get me wrong but why don't they look into the western end of Lakewood? Yeah, I bet that would happen....NOT. Sorry but I was just hoping for a better business there. All we can do is just hope that it's better than the one in Cleveland.

Wow, thanks, I went to college, spouse has 3 college degrees, including an MBA from Case. I work at Drug Mart in the pharmacy. I love to second hand shop as it is recycling. I live on the Eastern side of Lakewood as it is easily accessible to the shoreway to get downtown and to a university where my spouse is an adjunct professor. So nice you think the East side is "Ghettoized". Biased much Michael? This part of Lakewood is being revitalized too...I will be very happy to have an occupied, tax revenue generating store, verses an empty building...If you look down on parts of Lakewood with such a narrow view, maybe you should move to to Avon or Bay.

I like it there but I don't like a good chunk of what I see there though. I live within eyesight of the new one coming. I just would like to see something other than a thrift shop there as sometimes it can attract the wrong kind of crowd and the street I live on has PLENTY of that going on now as it is. Again, I DO shop there but am opposed to having it where it will be going.

Funny how I'm sure the western end would fight this more. I've tried but I was told it's going to happen. <sigh>

Christina, I don't think there is a large enough building for VW to go on the West End. Drug Mart is 18,000 sq feet. About the size of the current VW. Plus, parking accounting for parking. Even if there was a location, West Enders would fight it. What would YOU like to see there other than VW?

Sorry Alexandra- I'm with Michael. That Value World will only drag down the eastern end of Lakewood even more. Why would business owners want to try their luck in a section of the city that has a store aimed at serving the economically disadvantaged? And although you might shop there, the store was not established to serve people who want to be environmentally friendly by wearing others' old hand me downs, but rather those who cannot afford better.

I live in "Western" Lakewood and everyone is right-it would never fly here!

I tried fighting it Alexandra and the thing is my council woman (yours too I assume?) said that there's nothing they can do if a business wants a location (I forget her exact words). Funny now I'm hearing we Could've fought it. That's politicians for you. Well, maybe a burger joint or like someone else said Starbucks. She said there's nothing you can do if a business wants a spot then basically it can have it. I should've pursued it more instead of just listening because if we COULD have fought it you better believe I would have. Not happy abt some of the stuff going on in Lakewood. This being only one. The whole yard sale thing is another.

Last Thursday it gave its stamp of approval? Wait. I heard it was a definite way before that. A way to get us nay sayers to back down? Oh man. When my husband is off of work on Friday I think I'm going to city hall and bringing a notebook and actually talking to someone face to face about all of this. Something doesn't sit right with me.

Nimby people....nice, Bill. Yeah that isn't childish. We're trying to think of SOMETHING at least. Gimmie a break. I hope that Applebee's goes up in that lot with the black fence.

What the city should-can do is hold Value World to a set of standards that uphold the aesthetics of what other new business in LW have done. Instead of having a giant store full of racks and racks of used junk and a big ugly parking lot they should be able to make them conform to a store that is designed well with tact in mind. LW has many antique and oddity type vintage stores that do it with charm and VW should keep that in mind when they design their facility inside and out. The new CVS is a perfect example of this. The builders and city both took in to account the surrounding area and what would fit in to the community and they pulled it off.

NIMBY stands for Not In My Back Yard. A common acronym for a stance against unwanted development in your neighborhood.

Christina let me know when you and your husband plan to go to the city. My wife and I may join you and perhaps we could bring other concerned citizens who were left out of the decision making process. Our council woman said there was nothing they could do but as the article points out the city sold them land to grease the deal. When the city sold the land (technically our land) they sold our leverage as to what went in there.

Yeah, they should, Michael.
Angelo, I plan on going Friday at some point to talk to them abt this and the yard sales. I was thinking the morning, sometime before 12? What works for you?

I agree somewhat with Micheal. I do believe that the east side of Lakewood is just not the same and putting in a Value World right there is just not sitting with me. I grew up on Idlewood which is way east lkwd and then I could say it was safe and cleaner over there. Just hope it doesn't make things worse and hope the store won't get trashed.

Hi Michael,
Unfortunately, it is time to let the past romantic visions of Lakewood be put to rest. Lakewood, like the rest of NE Ohio, is in serious decline both economically and physically (buildings, roadways, etc.) That is the reality today. East Side/West Side of Lakewood is rather pointless for such a small suburb that is aging and declining in population. Anyone living in Lakewood today should be overjoyed that any new business wants to build/open here. The city, like the region, has a challenging future. And with a Governor and GOP party that openly discriminates against women's right, gay rights, immigration rights - Ohio's image is severely tarnished nationally. And any young person with a degree will soon leave for more tolerant and progressive East and West Coasts/Chicago. The brain drain is a future deadening reality in Ohio, yet the only vision we get from our Governor is one of intolerance/hatred and very very retro policy making. If you want Lakewood is re-emerge as it once was, then the whole area of NE Ohio needs to reinvent itself.
I doubt if that will happen. And cities like Portland, Austin, Denver, Pittsburgh, SF, LA, etc. will continue to be the places young ambitious folks will move to, and new 21st technology will build at. No 21st century business wants to relocate in Ohio - what if lousy weather and a right wing Bible government, who move here in 2012?
(case in point, hipster Dredgers Union closes in downtown, for many of these reasons.)

Hi all! I'm a newish (2 years) homeowner in Lakewood, just east of Bunts and also a young professional. I'm not sure if my area would be considered the "east end of Lakewood" or not, but I know that I love living here and have never once regretted our choice to purchase a home. This rampant crime seems to have skipped my area. I'd just like to say that I'm also an avid thrift store shopper and can't WAIT to have VW so close. Any business is better than a vacant storefront. Also, if thrift stores attract the "wrong kind of people" then why do cities like North Olmsted and Strongsville have them? Something tells me the riff raff aren't bussing in to shop there...

Everyone's against gays but if the gays come back to Lakewood theyll fix up the houses and the neighborhoods and property values will go back up.

Everyone's against gays? WHAT???? That comment was highly uncalled for, Shawn. Not EVERYONE is against gays. I just don't know what else to say other than you should delete that comment. Really unnecessary. Really. I have plenty of gay friends. I'm not against them. Wow.

No they're not bussing in to shop there. Value World here or where it is now is different from where a thrift store might be in Strongsville. I know not everyone wants to hear it that way but unfortunately it's the truth. Plain & simple.

LW in decline? I see the exact opposite happening....Try living in a stuck up suburb (starts with letter I-12 miles south) and you will see this town in a whole new light. Culture, art, diversity and tons of awesome pizza and antiques all done with pride. This town in moving up while some of the other surrounding Peyton Places keep peeking through curtains and ignoring their kids growing drug problems!

Just put up a Goodwill and get over it. Maybe a used tire shop or a BBQ/gas/cheap cigs store. We could put a pawn shop and move right past the west end.

I hope this doesn't affect the greatly run small business resale shops. Businesses like MODA, for example, take pride in their stores and I'd hate to see them lose business over this.

I don't think big thrift stores are bad, but when you put one a block from W. 117th I think it will bring in some bad news from Cleveland.

I've been to the one on Lorain, and you see some normal people just thrifting -- but then you see the bad news, or the really poor people who shop their for underwear and socks and I'm sorry but that is not good for Lakewood.

Shawn,, I just have to reply,

I just think it's amazing the amount of bigoted people spewing their hate on here because the "wrong people" shop at Value World. You may not be saying it but some of us know EXACTLY what you mean.

I'm just going to keep coming back to read the comments every day until one of you accidentally drops the n word. I know you're thinking it, we all see it thinly veiled in your comments. Just as we know you're thinking this very moment "He can't be talking about me! Some of my friends are ethnic! Why just the other day I hired a local ethnic boy to cut my grass!".

Sometimes I forget the real "infestation" in Lakewood (to borrow from Mr Miller), racists, classists and those that think that they're living in some gated golf course community and not a working class, mixed population city.

Wow...this city is somethin else...it seems no one here wants any kind of growth to happen...everyone was opposed to the new McDonald's n now this value world...everyone needs to get off there high horse...just cause u live in a suburb don't mean ur sh*& don't stink...ur no better than anyone else...if u don't like the growth in this town do somethin bout it....and move!

Great... now all the "trash" from Cleveland will come to Lakewood's Value World to shop! (...and No, I am not saying that only trash shops at 2nd hand stores.) I am sure the owners of the new townhomes on Detroit will be thrilled with that. Putting that store in Lakewood would be a HUGE mistake. ...and yes, I do live on the east side of Lakewood, and yes, I agree it has gone "downhill."

We need to do something about all the trash, you're right. I vote we start with ignorant racist white trash who think they're living in Whiteytown, USA and not the real world.

I'm going to hold a free screening of Triumph of the Will in the park this weekend if you want to come see it. Flesh eating bacteria filled sheets and napalm smoothies will be provided by Lakewood Friends Alliance. Go to WWW.quitpretendingyouarentaracistpinheaddipshit.com/yesyou/yourracismisshowing.html for details.

Hi sammaeal,

Michael A. Miller also commented on Value World to Move Into Vacated Drug Mart.

"Looks like a profanity-laden threat, including but not limlited to bioterrorism, to me. Are the police invited? Here it is in plain English: NOBODY MOVES TO LAKEWOOD BECAUSE THEY WANT TO LIVE WITH LOW-RENT BLACKS, EXCEPT FOR OTHER LOW-RENT BLACKS, THE WHITE GIRLS WHO LOVE THEM AND WIGGERS. Is that clear enough for you?"

C'mon Mikey! I know I should've opened with a poop joke to be able to speak to the level you're working at, but don't mistake absurdist black humor for a threat. Oh, wait...I forgot that you're scared of dark skinned people and those wolves in sheep's clothing, those terrifying "wiggers"! Do you ever get scared because your shadow is darker than you? Just curious.

As for the rest of your comment, you're so close, man! You came just ONE LITTLE LETTER from saying the word you want to say most! Grow a spine and stand by your beliefs! Yell at the moon for eating the sun! Wonder why the evil spirits steal all the flowers in wintertime! Show your ignorance proudly for all to see! JUST SAY THE WORD! Don't be scared of your hatred! Celebrate it and wave that banner high so we can all see!

BTW, free plug here. Mr Miller is available to proof-read and copy-edit your work, authors! Who wants to be proof-read by a grammar and structure illiterate hate monger! He will also do your dishes and laundry, leaving them LILY WHITE (even if they started out another color)! The queue starts here!

http://mikeyltd.weebly.com/index.html

No, Michael, I am secure in myself. I just want to see you become the best and most self actualized racist you can be. A through and through racist is something I can begrudgingly respect; for they are at peace with their convictions. Someone who uses euphemisms and PC work arounds to get to their point lacks courage and honor; especially when they proclaim their disdain for the PC language.

I don't have to like your speech, but I believe in protecting it. But in return, you should have the courage to just say what you want to say.

You want my phone number, email address. etc? All you have to do is ask nicely, punkin.

This has been my name for my online persona and through my art and writing since 1992. I have used it for my work longer than I have used my real name for it. This is as much my name as any you may use. You may think I'm hiding, but in actuality this is who and what I am and have been for two decades now.

I am with you sammaeal and not only is he racist he is also a bully. One of his first comments on this issue was telling Alexandria to get off her "soapbox" which is nothing but insecure bulling behavior. We are all on our own little platforms here and duh isn't that the whole point of comment boxes???

This is another case of people needing to go back and look up the true definition of a word before they throw it around for their convenience to support their lame finger-pointing. Again, anyone who is feeling persecuted or unwanted is welcome to raise their bar or keep steppin'.

It's interesting, Gina, that you refer to me in the third person as if I'm not a presence here. If you did that in front of me in person with other people around, it would be considered a demonstration of extreme rudeness. Also, it's a clear-cut example of demeaning behavior based on a conclusion you jumped to without really knowing me or my real-life behaviors and interactions with people. Last I knew, that was the definition of prejudice. I'll underscore that with a presumption of racism, since I'm guessing you;re a person of color moreso than just a sympathizer. Tsk, tsk. For shame!

I have no desire to "know" you I simply responded to the judgments you hurled at others. I choose not to have bullies in my life and have always stood up for those who are being bullied in front of me. Your words mean nothing to me so do not bother responding to mine.

Who asked you to stick up for them or for any input whatsoever? Now that you're done bragging about what a fine and brave person you are, you can go back to being an invisible nothing.

If you think everyone who expresses his thoughts candidly and directly is a "bully", you better look up the definition of that word, too, then remove yourself from society because no one is going to tiptoe around you for the rest of your life because you're a hypersensitive little spun-glass princess.

Maybe when you're out slumming at Value World, you can swing by Drug Mart and pick up several bottles of Midol.

"Michael
13 seconds ago
Wow, you are annoying."

Good.

http://lakewood-oh.patch.com/announcements/crime-near-lakewood-police-station?ncid=newsltuspatc00000001

"I very rarely walk out the front of my apartment but when I do more often than not I see the 'dope boy take down' by the police. Seems to me the closer you live to the police station the more crime."

Well, I think the new mcdonalds and cvs are infinitely trashier than a second hand store. I live in western lakewood and would much rather see a second hand shop than the garbage popping up around me...i support reusing, recycling, and helping those in need; I am opposed to gmo food and junk food, corporate greed hurting communities, and every other store front in my 'downtown' being a cell phone provider...get a grip, thrift stores aren't the things hurting the community.

Get a grip she says. Wow. Well, where do YOU live, Theresa? If you don't live right by where it will go like I do you might be singing a different tune. I just am going to cross my fingers it won't go to crap.

I guess the verification or denial of the ghettoization of Lakewood along socio-economic lines depends on whether you can read between the lines of this article:

http://lakewood-oh.patch.com/articles/unreasonable-amount-of-crime-reported-at-hidden-village-apartments