Should Cleveland....... (Lakewood, Euclid, Warren: how much, homes, neighborhoods)

[C-TownGeneral]

Should Cleveland try to make a deal with the entire Cuyahoga County to combine city services and population? It could be beneficial by the sharing tax revenues and Cleveland would have a population of almost 1.3 million people. I know its unlikely but what do you all think?

[ZnGuy]

Absolutely. Legacy costs have to be extreme. Businesses are consolidating to cut costs, why shouldn't gov't. With all the corruption investigations I wonder how much money has been thrown away. Gov't can't jsut keep raising taxes.

[hertz]

absolutely not

[1watertiger]

i think nancy pelosi has a better chance of winning a miss america contest.

[Clevelander17]

A full scale city-county merger? I don't think that's such a great idea.

However I do believe that a number of mergers between municipalities, school districts, and some county level services would definitely help the region. But I don't think any cities or school districts should be forced to do anything they don't want to do.

However if a number of similar cities decided, on their own, to merge with each other, that would be great. For instance, why must Mayfield Village and Highland Heights be separate? Or Orange and Pepper Pike? I'm sure there are other, more debatable mergers, that could be listed that might make sense.

[5Lakes]

Yes, but it will never happen.....in Cleveland or just about any other established city. The region would be much more functional and efficient if that actually did happen. Schools should keep their current districts though.

[Clevelander17]

Originally Posted by 5Lakes

Yes, but it will never happen.....in Cleveland or just about any other established city. The region would be much more functional and efficient if that actually did happen. Schools should keep their current districts though.

If we're going to do it, schools should be part of it, too, at least to some degree. There are currently 33 school districts in Cuyahoga County, which, by any measure, is way too many.

I think if we got that number down to 12-15 by merging a number similar neighboring districts, things would be much better.

Some possibilities: Beachwood + Orange; South Euclid-Lyndhurst + Richmond Heights; Bedford + Maple Heights + Warrensville Heights; East Cleveland + Cleveland; Rocky River + Bay Village; Olmsted Falls + North Olmsted; Cuyahoga Heights + Independence; Brecksville-Broadview Heights + North Royalton; Solon + Chagrin Falls, and the list goes on...

[WeSoHood]

The westside communities have already started to combine some things like SWAT team and there were discussions of Fire as well (not sure if they did it or not).

Combining Rocky River, Fairview, and Lakewood would be interesting. Lakewood and Rocky River used to be one city (Rockport) before splitting. It would create a city with about <100,000 in about 14 sq miles.

[Clevelander17]

Originally Posted by WeSoHood

The westside communities have already started to combine some things like SWAT team and there were discussions of Fire as well (not sure if they did it or not).

Combining Rocky River, Fairview, and Lakewood would be interesting. Lakewood and Rocky River used to be one city (Rockport) before splitting. It would create a city with about <100,000 in about 14 sq miles.

I have a hard time believing that Rocky River would choose to combine with Lakewood and Fairview. I think a combo of Rocky River, Westlake, and Bay Village would be more appealing to residents of all three cities.

[WeSoHood]

Originally Posted by Clevelander17

I have a hard time believing that Rocky River would choose to combine with Lakewood and Fairview. I think a combo of Rocky River, Westlake, and Bay Village would be more appealing to residents of all three cities.

I was merely saying it would be an interesting.. and stating a fact that they used to be one city. I also think they have more similar neighborhoods with the older homes, so it would create a far more attractive (in my mind) area. Of course, I doubt this ever happens nor do I disagree with you. I do believe all of the communities share some services.