Thursday, April 28, 2016

"A SHOT IN THE ARM!" FOR IMPROVEMENT OF CANTON'S NEIGHBORHOODS?

UPDATED:  2:17 PM


VIDEOS

KING'S LANDING
PRESENTATION
TO
STARK CO. COMMISSIONERS

===================================

CIVIC ACTIVIST BRUCE NORDMAN
&
KL PARTNERS (LESAK)
ON
FUTURE PLANS FOR KING'S LANDING

Very quietly a real estate transaction closed whereby what was formerly known as Ridgewood-Castle Apartments whereby the 170 unit apartment complex was purchased by an from-outside-Canton real estate partnership, to wit:


According, the some Cantonians who live in the vicinity of the complex—now known as King's Landing—the purchase offers the promise of eliminating the complex as being a policing and fire servicing nightmare into a first rate supplement (i.e. compacted living space) to one of Canton's historically stable neighborhoods known as Vassar Park.

The transaction appears to have been "under-the-radar" insofar as city officials being aware of it and its potential to transform the Vassar Park neighborhood to some semblance of the neighborhood being perhaps Canton's finest middle class/upper middle class neighborhood.

KL Partners' manager (Josh Lesak) was brought to the Stark County commissioners' weekly meeting yesterday by Vassar Park neighborhood civic activist Bruce Nordman.

Here is a video of Nordman and Lesak making presentations to the commissioners.



And, as The Stark County Political Report often does, here is a one-on-one video with yours truly doing an "in depth" follow up with Nordman and Lesak.



Much has to be done to restore Canton to her former greatness as one of Ohio's premier urban centers that has produced a president of the United States.

Recently, Canton City Council adopted a comprehensive plan to set about step-by-step to rehab Canton so that one day within the foreseeable future the Hall of Fame City will be featured in major U.S. media as a "Come Back City Extraordinaire."


The National Football Hall of Fame Village has the promise of being a key cog in the wheel of progress in bring Canton back to urban premier status.



As does Councilman John Mariol's (Ward 7) Market Square Project (LINK).


Another important cog in Canton "wheel of progress" in rehabbing the city is the merger of the Canton Parks Commissioner and the Canton Joint Recreation District which on March 15th gained voter approval of 5 mill financing beginning on January 1, 2017 and is in process in determining who will manage Canton's Parks and Recreation as director going forward.

Had the financing issue failed, Cantonians would have been looking at a scenario suggested by this SCPR graphic used in describing the critical nature of the March 15th vote.


Though the leadership of current director Derek Gordon, Canton City Schools vice president J.R. Rinaldi and Canton Park Commission member Sam Sliman, Canton's parks and recreation facilities promise to be an asset as more and more visitors are drawn to the city.

There  is a what the the SCPR thinks a healthy competition going on as to who will lead the new entity as director going forward.

The Report's take is that many think current director Derek Gordon has done a fine job.

However, government at all levels ought to be seeking the best possible leadership and leadership evaluation always need to be in a "work in progress" mode.

Thomas M. Bernabei has been mayor of Canton for four months now.

With the assets that this blog focuses upon and others not dealt with in this blog, he appears to have building blocks in place to do—over the span of time—what a short time ago seemed impossible.

But everything cannot be government initiative.

The private sector needs to step forward responsibly and productively to help bring Canton back to being an attractive community to live in.

One of the primary and repetitive points that Manager Lesak made yesterday was that KL Partners are about cleaning things up at King's Landing.

The SCPR did a search of Stark County's Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) for a listing of legal initiatives as confirming evidence of Lesak's point, to wit:


It appears that KL Partners is embarked on pathway that may well prove to be a model for other private sector enterprises to help Canton make a come back to being one Ohio's top desirable urban destinations.

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