A few days before Scene meets up with Jon Stahl on the roof of his office-boat on Lake Erie, he was crawling beneath a cemetery in Erie, Pennsylvania, eating spiders and trying to locate a geocache item. This is not an unusual weekend story for the adventurous Cleveland businessman.
Here on the boat, Stahl runs LeanDog, a software design company that accomplishes much more than that tagline would suggest. His active-living mindset translates into how he runs his company.
Stahl takes us on a spin through the office, where engineers and designers work in open-office environments and invent new solutions to recognized problems, all while sitting atop the lovely waters of Lake Erie. At a time when Northeast Ohio is striving to re-engage the waterfront, or at least engage it in ways the city hasn’t in decades past, the floating office is something of a novelty but also a firm step in the right direction.
As an employee at Nationwide Insurance a while back, Stahl began researching Agile, Lean working habits, a movement of high-performance work that mirrors startups. His studies influenced Nationwide, and the workflow grew into a passion. Employees tend to be happier — and thus granted more freedoms, like, say, access to jetskis when the workday allows — and the company tends to be more innovative and successful. Not a bad path to travel.
LeanDog is just one facet of Stahl’s story, though. You might remember his name from the Cleveland Skylift project that was bandied about town a few years ago, the project that would have ski lift-type cars transporting people from, for example, the Flats to FirstEnergy Stadium. Like many ideas floated at City Hall in the past few years, the RNC kind of sidelined this one. But Stahl says that the Skylift will return to the local discourse in time, and he’s been fine-tuning the project.
And yet that still is just one singular part of the story.
Here’s where Stahl’s work is really going to shine: Rock the Lake, a new waterfront unity organization that will guide residents and visitors to everything that Cleveland’s lake and riverfront have to offer (recreation, dining, sightseeing: 64 “attractions” in all).
Once a month, Stahl would host a happy hour on his boat that brought together developers and leaders from Geis Cos., Cleveland Metroparks, Cumberland and elsewhere to talk about big ideas like this: the Skylift, Rock the Lake and beyond. In that way, Stahl and the group took the city’s penchant for talking about the water to doing something about it. Each stakeholder ponied up $5,000 to form the Lakefront Collaborative. (The group’s next project will loop in the sewer district to tackle water pollution issues.)
“Most cities that have a waterfront have a separate brand for their waterfront,” Stahl says. “Riverlife Pittsburgh, Navy Pier, and you could go on. We just didn’t have that individual brand for our water sites … And we love the river, but our Great Lake is our asset.”
The Lakefront Collaborative plans to give its work to Destination Cleveland, furthering the local network.
“There’s an energy, having a lot of people moving downtown and living downtown,” Stahl says. “When I hang out with my developer friends — the Geises and Paces — it’s not only young, it’s the older people who live in the suburbs and want a walkable lifestyle. It’s an amazing time to be in Cleveland.”
This article appears in Jul 27 – Aug 2, 2016.
Great dude!
Cleveland Skylift? NICE idea. Too pricy. Too much that can go wrong. Too many administrators, cops, politicos, other doing CYA. Tooo many pricy HIGH cost HIGH tax pseudo boondoggle projects like MED MART and AMERISTRUST tower that gave like a blank in so many ways and hardly a inspiring moment. NOW County going thru some weird IT county wide system upgrade that caused FED AGENTS to issue summons, take computers RIGHT out of COUNTY building. Like 5 or 8 COUNTY people plus like # on HYLAND’s side in real trouble now….. Project gets support, patronage for AWHILE til DIES back way FLATS other stuff does. SAD to predicate everything on some idiot clowns doing BS but get ENOUGH of that and see WHAT happens… go ask ex FLATS restaurant crews among others how all that went… A MESS. Got a mix of anti intellectualism, anti Yuppie, ANTI high $ building builders and a whole slew of other stuff going on as good old city Hall chases high $ white collar as rakes average slobs….and WONDER WHY few or no 1 wants to linger around for events down @ Public Square thou quite frankly anymore w/ALL THE BS going on who wants to get caught up in some ‘situation’.
WEIRD way STAHL and CSKL were collateral side damage of RNC among other things. NEARLY ANYONE tied to County and or THIS has been nailed including good old Me Jimmy D. PEOPLE FEAR stuck w/all kinds of costs and THIS project ranks up THERE. STAHL says no cost. Ok. WHAT if things go blank, stuck w/some rotting corpse THEN have to dispose of. WHO wants to stand on podium defending all THAT…. bad ENOUGH the LAND BANKS, rest TRYING to deal w/blank trying to unload now… NO idea HOW long this millennial Yuppie downtown loft liver thing will continue… look @ NEW Playhouse Sq. 19 story gig want to build on what East 15th? WHAT if have a (LONG OVERDUE) ‘recession’. When things go SOUTH for US takes YEARS to recover.. HOW much new high cost software gonna write? Ok so have all these medical colleges spitting out medical staff earning WHAT kind of HIGH $. STILL. NOT ‘that many’. FLING a $200 to $300 MILLION PLUS $ figure out there and people freak…. didn’t go too well for much maligned Taxin TIm Hagan. HIS own NIECE paid a H of a price NEAR 10 YEARS AFTER the fact…. can read whatever into all THAT… good old DCH, MED MART, etc. SURE REAL QUIET about all this… time will DC HILTON as to ultimately what THEY do… talking near on $1 billion $s. OTHER then barbacks, bikini dancers, other making $ out of it LOST on rest of city….. VIEWED as some wigged out make work…. NOT even 1/2 thru city and already a blank reply. OUTFITS downsize, move, contract out, etc.etc and gonna build NEW MONSTROSITY buildings WERE @ WHAT cost… put it THIS way… RISING CHINA…. like ONE BILLION Sq.ft EMPTY space. H of a export. IF wonder WHY really having a BAD ENGLISH call center day THAT is part of it…or all of ‘it’.
Let CANTOn have fun w/their toy…. makes more sense for THEM…. Put it THIS way… WHAT kind of insane over the top BS all the time in media never mind lower key unreported crap? SAD have to this pseudo army, gates, locks on everything but what else gonna do. HECK… good old illustrious Mayor frank J more or less locked down Downtown far as NEW public square to rest of it. ALWAYS a cop car sitting around THERE…… IS what it is. HIGH enough curbs, etc. SURE to deflect ‘turfers’ among other things…
W/the baggage ALL THIS created sure a REAL HARD thing to ‘back’. ALMOST like carrying dead weight of all kinds for all. INSTEAD of celebrating WONDERING WHAT kind of hideousness is gonna land on One’s desk. Gonna settle out @ X level and call it a day…..WHAT would any half way sane person/administrator do w/all this going on…. got attractions NOW that semi linger as undertake NEW! NEW! ad campaigns to jumpstart patronage…. Good old DCA did this to save OWN bacon which more or less did. SOME NEWER happy building owners cuz unloaded old office buildings….