We're Award Winning!

Here's an exciting message from our president, Carla:

Hello Neighbors,

I received a nice bit of good news recognizing all of your efforts.  Joel McEachin of the Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission emailed me the following:

"I am pleased to inform you that the Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission will be presenting the "Great Save Award" to the Lake Shore Area Preservation Society for your commitment and accomplishments in stabilizing and restoring the Lake Shore subdivision gates.  The award will be presented as part of the Commission's Annual Preservation Award Program scheduled for Thursday, May 6th."

You should all take pride in this acknowledgement.  It is especially appropriate to receive this award on this date since the original Open House/Dedication of the neighborhood was on Mother's Day weekend, May 10th, 1925.  Almost 85 years ago to the date!

Thanks to all of you for your commitment and involvement.

Carla

What wonderful news! We'll post more details as we get them. 

Present Day Good Stuff

We have had lots of fun and interesting comments while walking down Lake Shore's memory lane... the old bakery, shoe repair shop, 2 drugstores with soda fountains, a few fun and respectable neighborhood drinking establishments (as opposed to the current stripper pole dancing places), the old post office, the Golden Arch (no, not McDonald's), Denny Moran's, the original Burger King, swans at Roosevelt Mall and lots more.

Here's my next question(s)... what do you think are the best places to go in Lake Shore today? What makes us unique and a great place to live? I think Chamblin's Bookmine is on my list of favorites and I'm so glad they are part of the neighborhood. There's no excuse for being bored when there's so much to read, watch and listen to available right down the street. I recently discovered that they rent books on CD which I listen to in my car all the time. If you see me sitting in my driveway not getting out of my car it's because I'm trying to finish the chapter!

Joining In

I have gotten a few questions about joining in on our neighborhood conversation. It can be confusing for some folks who have not spent much time in the blog world so here's a tip or two for you. At the bottom of each post is a link that says a number and then "comments" - if you click there it will take you to a comment box where you  can type in your contribution and click the "post comment" button. You have the option of remaining anonymous if you don't have a google or other "ID" but anonymous posts are scrutinized more closely for rule breakers (i.e. be nice or get deleted). Another easy way is to click on one of the comments in the "recent comments" link just to the right at the top of the blog. This is good for joining in on a current conversation. If you have something to say about a post that has not been yet commented on you have to use the comment box on the post itself to start a new conversation apropos to that particular post. There, are you confused enough yet? Don't hesitate to try it, the worst that can happen is that you learn what doesn't work!

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Stupid Criminal Report

Carla told us that a man robbed the Hess Station recently. He filled his trunk up with beer and cigarettes and when he slammed the trunk his license tag fell off and he apparently was too busy to notice. The police ran the tag number and went to his house but his wife told them he wasn't home. Don't know if they've caught up with him yet but I would suspect it won't be long...

This information and a whole lot more is what you miss out on when you don't attend the LAPS meetings. Don't be left wondering what is going on in your neighborhood - come to the next meeting on Monday April 26th, 6:30 p.m. at the Lake Shore Women's Club. We will have a guest speaker from Metro Crime Prevention.

Police Activity in the Neighborhood

We've had a spurt of activity in the neighborhood since last night. There was a shooting on Cassatt and Shirley, the news report is here.

Carla sent out the following via e-mail on 2 other incidents near her house last night:

Crazy night on Cedarwood and Pinewood tonight!
At about 10:30/11:00 Wednesday might there was a house fire at the corner of Cerdarwood and Lake Shore. Evidently, the lady who lives alone there set the fire in her kitchen (this is unconfirmed) but they did take her away in a police car. She is known in the neighborhood as a little ex-centric.
At about 2:00/2:30, I look out my window on Pinewood and the house across the street from me is taped off and 4 police cars are sitting out there and an elderly lady is being detained. I know she is the mother of the person who lives in the house and when I asked the officer why the street was cordoned off he just said it was a crime scene! I have no idea what happened there. I will not get any sleep tonight.
This is not an April Fool's joke!
Weird night, watch out for your neighbors.

Carla

Hopefully that spurt of activity is over and things will calm down again but we all should always watch out for ourselves and our neighbors. The more people who stay involved in the community the safer it we be for us all.

A Message to the Goobers racing down Jersey Street

You there, in the pickup trucks squealing and peeling rubber down Jersey Street the other evening. You are SUCH a goober. I suppose you think you look cool and all that but most of us think you're morons. Seriously. We just want to take our kids and pets out for a nice stroll in the evening and you come flying down the road (and having to slow down for the road humps we put there just for you which makes you look extra goofy) and now we have to worry about you running over somebody. Just stop it. Really. Just stop.

I'm trying to get this message across in the kindest way possible. But neighbors, what do you think? How can we best address this issue - fast, reckless drivers on our streets endangering people, tearing up the medians on Bayview and on and on... Should we take down tag numbers and call the police? Attend the SHADCO meetings and bring it up there? Point and laugh at the morons who think they're "all that and a bag of chips"? Find out where they live and hope their mommies will ground them? We're open for suggestions but keep it legal, please.

Lake Shore Historical Trivia

As someone who was born and raised in Lake Shore I remember a lot about this neighborhood over the last 50 years but I'd love to know more. Tell us if you remember any of these things or if there are other tidbits of history and trivia that you can add:

• Lake Shore Middle School used to include the elementary grades.
• Roosevelt Mall used to have a pond with black and white swans swimming in it.
• Easterlings Drug Store was on the southwest corner of Blanding and Palmer. They had penny candy and a soda fountain. 
• There was another drugstore with a fountain on San Juan where Alpha School of Massage is now. Anyone remember the name? I want to say Ligget's but that may be wrong.
• There used to be houses at the end of Birkenhead on Urban. They were moved to open the road out to Roosevelt Blvd. 
• There used to be a Burger King near or where Chamblin's Bookmine is now.
• We used to have our very own post office on Jersey Street and Lexington. 

That's enough to get us started I think.