Enraged Heightsters on the Warpath

On March 3, First Interstate announced that it has exercised its option to purchase the Cleveland Heights portion of the Oakwood Club property. This news is surprising only to those who’ve had their head stuck in the sand or somewhere else for the last several months.

Fran Mentch, the ringleader of Citizens for Oakwood, immediately issued a fatwa on their Facebook page:

Unless she’s stupid, Mentch knows these demands aren’t going to fly. Note the highlighted items:

+ Money donated to the Forest Hill Park Foundation: There are two lies here: 1) The Oakwood Club is not greenspace, it was a golf course. Just because something has grass does not make it a greenspace - especially if that grass is fertilized, if there are man made sand traps, and gas wells on the property! 2) The space was not “lost” to the community because it never belonged to the people of Cleveland Heights or South Euclid - it was a private club.

+ Right of first hire to South Euclid and Cleveland Heights residents: No chance of this happening. A landlord, who is trying to fill spaces, is never going to impose such restrictions. Further, companies are usually bound by internal policies and external legislation to hire solely based on qualifications.

+ Money should be placed in escrow to pay for the demolition of the Walmart in Cleveland Heights if a Walmart Supercenter is built in Oakwood: Mentch really shows her hand here. Note she calls it the Walmart in Cleveland Heights, NOT the Walmart at Severance Town Center. Her request is specious and irrelevant in any case, because if Walmart abandoned its highly active Severance location, the site would not be demolished, Severance would try to fill it. The space is Severance’s property to do with as they please.

By the way, there has been no confirmation that a Walmart Supercenter will even be built at the Oakwood site. There have been rumors, which I have no doubt were started by Fran Mentch herself and fanned by her cronies, including Susan Miller and Sandy Stone.

+ Oakwood is not a done deal. Based on what has happened in other communities, this could go on for years. And there you have it: The fact is, Mentch and her cronies are not interested in a real dialog with the developer. The purpose of these demands, along with everything else they’ve done over the last several months, is to Stonewall and delay.


Who are the people beating the drums against Oakwood Commons? Who are the Citizens for Oakwood? They are a loose coalition of NIMBYs, Heights business interests, and misinformed greenies, who have no concept of reality or who pretend to have none. The NIMBYs are leading the way. They’ve had a quiet golf club in their backyards for decades and have grown accustomed to it. There has been talk of selling Oakwood since at least 1994. During all these years, they failed to take action to buy the land for green space, and they’re pissed that someone else has now bought the land. But they really have no one to blame but themselves.

Fran Mentch has never offered specifics about Citzens for Oakwood’s plan for the land, aside from vague promises about the Metroparks and requests for donations. Mentch has never specified how much money has been raised, where it has been spent, and how much remains in their account. Where’s the money, Fran?

Once again, this comes down to Cleveland Heights trying to bully South Euclid. Mentch’s demands mostly favor Cleveland Heights and do not even address the plans to build homes on the Cleveland Heights portion in the land, even though that’s what her statement was in response to. And Mitchell Schneider seems to be stuck in the middle. Fortunately for him, he seems to have thick skin.