Is the City Losing the Fight Against Graffiti?

[Lori Allen _]

This place is going around town sticking all of their stickers on the utility poles. It's for some kind of auction. City Hall cannot keep up.

Sweet Designs.jpg (79.17 KiB) Viewed 3680 times

[Lori Allen _]

Okay, let's state some facts here. These are the buildings that have had graffiti on them for well over roughly four months.

13415 Madison - former site of Donnelly's Furnace Co - owner lives here in Lakewood on the Gold Coast. What is his excuse for not maintaining his building?
13330 Madison - owned by a landlord from Parma.
13383-85 Madison - owned by a landlord from Cuyahoga Falls (near Akron)
13367-69 Madison - owned by a landlord from Sheffield Lake
1486 W. 117th - owned by a landlord from Strongsville. He also owes almost $100,000 in property taxes, along with garbage ans water fees. The doors also do not shut, allowing pests in. Who does the landlord know in the offices of Mike Summers and Armond Budish?

12603 Madison - owned by a landlord from Avon. He also owns numerous properties in Lakewood.
13007 Madison - owned by a landlord from Maple Heights.
12800 Madison - owned by a local, Lakewood landlord. He owes $6,000 in property taxes and garbage fees.
133351-55 Madison - owned by the same landlord as 12603 Madison.
11825 Detroit - owned by an attorney from Beachwood.
11728 Detroit - owned by Virginia Marti College, occasional host of mayor's meetings.
13389 Madison - owned by landlord from Hackensack, NJ (just outside of NYC)
13395 Madison - owned by landlord from Fairview Park. There are also holes in the balcony floors.
13800 Detroit - owned by landlord from Mentor.
13215 Detroit - owned by landlord from Erie, PA.
14301 Madison - owned by landlord from Hudson.
13363 Madison - owned by a landlord here in Lakewood. Again, there is really no excuse.

If I can find all of this is less than five minutes, what is City Hall's excuse? This is all public information. They have been sitting on doing anything about this graffiti for roughly four months. In my opinion, the two ward councilmen, John Litten and Dan O'Malley (this is all in wards 3 and 4) are also to blame.

[Lori Allen _]

Summer is starting to wind down as the stores bring out their school supplies. It has been a great summer for council members to be out identifying issues in their wards and ensuring that they are rectified in a timely manner. What happened?

Perhaps they are waiting for winter hoping that either:

A. It gets so cold that the graffiti is magically frozen off. Too bad that kind of stuff only happens in fantasy movies.
B. We get feet upon feet of snow so that it is covered up.
C. It goes away on its own.
D. An anti-graffiti zombie apocalypse.

Unfortunately, it is no laughing matter. It is a shame that Summers & Co. appear to see it as no big deal. Time for council and Summers to rise up from their chairs, roll up their sleeves, and start identifying real issues in their community.

[Dan OMalley]

In my opinion, the two ward councilmen, John Litten and Dan O'Malley (this is all in wards 3 and 4) are also to blame.

Lori - have you contacted me about this? If so, I missed it. I am just now seeing your post of July 8. The Observation Deck is a great forum but I must admit I don't ready every thread, let alone every post. If you have a pressing concern, please email me.

-Dan O'Malley
Daniel.omalley@lakewoodoh.net
440.552.7234 (cell)

[Lori Allen _]

UPDATE: Graffiti that has been reported to City Hall is still not being removed. Some of it has been there since April or May. What is going on? City Hall has been given specific locations, addresses, and ample time to cite property owners to remove this graffiti. There is really no excuse.

Article II - Section VI - City of Lakewood Charter
The Mayor shall be the chief conservator of the peace within the City; shall supervise the administration of the affairs of the City; shall see that all ordinances of the City are enforced

There are laws against having graffiti on property. Graffiti is a crime and therefore falls under the Director of Public Safety, ultimately.

[Lori Allen _]

Now that it appears that the graffiti has not been addressed in Wards 3 & 4, it is now spreading to wards 1 and 2.



Article II, Section VI of the Lakewood Municipal Charter states the following:

The Mayor shall be the chief conservator of the peace within the City; shall supervise the administration of the affairs of the City; shall see that all ordinances of the City are enforced.

[Lori Allen _]

It's a new year, but that doesn't mean that City Hall and City Council have been keeping their eyes open for graffiti.

I will be going through the city, ward by ward as time permits and documenting graffiti. I have already completed ward 4 (see below). I have already begun work on Ward 3. I have documented about 63 instances of graffiti in Ward 4 (each tag being a separate instance).

This has been brought to the attention of City Hall numerous times and in numerous fashions, including here on the Deck. Some of this graffiti has remained in the same locations since last April or May. There is no excuse for graffiti staying on a building for more than two weeks. If it does, City Hall needs to go remove the graffiti themselves and send the building owner a bill. Dumpsters are the worst, as nobody seems to really know who is responsible for removing the graffiti on them.

Again, see below. There is now absolutely no excuse for this graffiti remaining for much longer. Come on City Hall! Eye of the tiger! You can do it!

[Lori Allen _]

Ward 3 is no stranger to graffiti. Madison between Elbur and Waterbury is the worst. Buildings, trash cans, USPS boxes, poles, you name it, but the majority is on private buildings. City Hall has been aware of most of the graffiti in this video for months, yet it remains.

Quite frankly, most of Madison in Ward 3 east of Bunts looks like a war zone. Graffiti, broken screens, decaying apartment balconies, litter, etc. Nick's vacant lot is also accumulating litter.

This video has been posted for City Hall to see where all of the graffiti is in wards 3 and 4. There shall no longer be any unreasonable delay in the removal of this graffiti. As weather and my time permit, I will be checking progress in wards 3 and 4 periodically.

The question is, why am I doing this?

P.S. We used to just have the Crips and Bloods here. Now we have the Heartless Felons, Latin Kings, and maybe more.

[Lori Allen _]

It has been about nine months since my last post on this thread regarding graffiti in Lakewood. I am disappointed yet not surprised that most of the same graffiti remains nine months later. That is almost one year. That is roughly 270 days.

270 days that I have allowed City Hall to take proper action to have the graffiti removed.

I counted the Wards in which the graffiti featured in this video was found. Tweleve instances of graffiti featured in this video were in Ward 4. Four instances were in Ward 3. In other words, 2/3 of the graffiti featured here is in Ward 4.

I did not have to look hard or long for this graffiti. Most of it is easily visible from Lakewood's main thoroughfares. I am perplexed as to why Mr. O'Malley and Mr. Litten are not taking action to rectify these issues, especially seeing as it is not only easily visible from the street, but has also been brought to their attention numerous times previously here on the Deck.

We all know that City Hall reads the Deck. Why is it that every time Mr. Summers is caught with his pants down, there are 50-100+ guests online?

Mr. O'Malley, Mr. Litten, Mrs. Marx, Mr. Nowlin, and Mr. Bullock, you are hereby notified of the below graffiti. Please do some work for your constituents (particularly in Ward 4) and see that this graffiti is removed in a timely fashion. It has already remained for 1-2 years. Thank you.

[Lori Allen _]

Just like Summers, the two council clowns made sure this post, and other posts showing problems with the city, are buried.

Gentlemen, your jobs involve taking care of your citizens and the city. This includes graffiti. Start earning you council paychecks the legal and moral way.