Sterling Lakes, Old & New Brainard Roads, Traffic on Lander Road all subject to discussion

From the Chagrin Solon Sun:

Traffic safety concerns for drivers exiting Sterling Drive onto Brainard Road have ignited discussions about the possible reopening of Old Brainard Road as a north-south thoroughfare.

More than 15 residents from the Sterling Lake development showed up at a monthly road and safety meeting of City Council Jan. 11 to press the new city administration about what they consider an accident in waiting. They said poor sight lines at the intersection make them afraid to pull out of the development for fear of being struck by fast-approaching vehicles on Brainard.

Read the whole story and check out the minutes from the 1/11/12 meeting when they're posted.

What do you think about a light at New Brainard and the Sterling Lakes entrance across from the Pointe townhouses?  Should that gate be permanently closed and Old Brainard re-opened so that people can exit there?  If Old Brainard is being looked at for re-opening, should it be just the end at Chagrin, or also down by City Hall?

Or should everything stay as is?

I haven't said a word about where this fits in as a priority for the City or how any changes would be paid for, but obviously those questions and others will have to be calculated into the equation.

Or no?

For All The Times I Kept Asking, Is The Market Really There??

From today's New York Times, "In Florida, Battle Over Growth Goes To The Voters,":

Even now, with about 300,000 residential units sitting empty around the state, the push to build continues. Since 2007, local governments have approved zoning and other land use changes that would add 550,000 residential units and 1.4 billion square feet of commercial space, state figures show.

So for Ms. [Lesley] Blackner, a Palm Beach lawyer with a Mercedes full of paperwork, the real estate crisis is not just the fault of Wall Street, Washington or misguided borrowers; it is also the back-scratching bond between elected officials and builders — a common source of frustration in weak real estate markets around the country wherever developers are still fighting to add more housing.

Sigh. Only the unanimous support for the proposed changes by the Pepper Pike residents who currently live at The Pointe persuaded me to vote yes on those plan changes.  But the reality still may be that while the demand for the originally planned units is next to nil right now and for at least the next couple of years if not longer, the demand for what will be going up remains extremely uncertain in my mind.

NB: The article is about the sides lining up behind and against Amendment 4:

Amendment 4, as it is officially called, would give Floridians a vote on changes to state-mandated plans for growth in every county and municipality. Much of the potential impact of the measure is up for debate, with important details most likely to be decided by the courts.

But if it is added to the state’s Constitution — which would require 60 percent approval on Election Day — critics and supporters envision revolutionary change.

You can read more about it here.

AGENDA: City Council Meeting, 4/21/10

For tomorrow night's meeting:
Agenda: Pepper Pike City Council Meeting, 4/21/10

AP Article Asks: If Tishman Speyer Can Walk From Biggest Underwater Morgtage, Why Can't You

I believe the fact that we have a system that divvies up responsibility in a way that feels unequal is more responsible for it perhaps being unequal than the people who choose to take advantage of the system itself (think of double-dipping in Ohio as a similar issue: the law allows people to retire with public pensions and then be rehired into the same job after retiring; we may not like it, but it is legal). 

But the bottom line of why we allow commercial enterprises to bail, without penalty, while individuals must pay the price, literally, probably relates to the fact that typically, in a capitalist society, we want to encourage risk-taking by businesses that are willing to take on risk and, because of their immenseness and often their diversity, they can better manage loss.  Capitalism relies on encouraging risk because we believe that - and capitalism values the belief that - risk will produce positive and desirable results.

On The Lookout: Housing Complex Retired to Creditors

It's easy to read this post this morning in NE Ohio and think, but Pepper Pike isn't Manhattan.

But there's a reason we consider real estate a speculative and risky business, no matter where the deals are.  Because real estate development, by nature, involves speculation and risk, which means sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And who wins and who loses also changes.

From a New York Times Alert I received late last night (and is only available online right now - it might be in tomorrow's paper but it's not in today's), titled, "Stuyvesant Town's Owners to Turn Over Complex to Creditors":

The surrender of the properties...ends a tortured real estate saga that saw the partnership make expensive improvements to the complex and then try to rent the apartments at higher market rates in a real estate boom. But a real estate downturn and the city’s strong rent protections hindered those efforts, leaving the buyers scrambling to make payments on loans due for the properties...

“We have spent the last few weeks negotiating in good faith to restructure the debt and ownership of Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village,” said the statement by the partnership. “Over the last few days, however, it has become clear to us through this process that the only viable alternative to bankruptcy would be to transfer control and operation of the property, in an orderly manner, to the lenders and their representatives.”