The Observation Deck

I don't feel safe here. It's fabulous that as I am taking my child to H2O camp I have to explain again why people graffiti private property. I feel real safe when my kids tell me the foul names they are called as they walk to school. I feel real safe when I listen to horror stories I heard last night from one resident at a council meeting. I feel real safe when my parents have their tires slashed in their driveway. I feel real safe when my parents store is broken into twice. I feel real safe when my friends car is broken in to. I feel real safe to hear of car jacking. I feel real safe when the police chief tells us this isn't the 60's or the 70's, times change. I feel real safe when people in this city make excuses for thugs because they are bored. I am really tired of being told this is a safe city. I don't feel safe, my family doesn't feel safe and many of my friends don't feel safe. I have only lived here 12 years and this isn't the city I moved to.

I'll stop now and go drink my kool-aid so I can join you all with my head in the sand!!!!

Danielle - I can relate to feeling unsafe here - no it's not the Lakewood you moved to 12 years ago - it's not the same country as 12 years ago and societal problems have escalated to catastrohic proportions.

I will say that I have never had my head in the sand - I have spent my life working for social change and since moving back to Lakewood - I grew up here many centuries ago - I have devoted a large amount of volunteer time in the political arena - mostly behind the scenes - to try and facilitate proactive, positive change that will impact the lives of all people who live in Lakewood. My contributions are not huge but they are basically what I can do.

Not everyone has their head in the sand or in the clouds.

Danielle Masters wrote: I have only lived here 12 years and this isn't the city I moved to.

This isn't the same Lakewood I moved into 3 years ago.

What if we show all the kids Breakin 2: Electric Bogaloo and let them have at rehabbing the old Hilliard Theater. Quick little montage and with some cheezy background music and everything will be okay. Or more realistically we can set up work scholarships based on cutting lawns, shoveling snow and picking up the parks. Kids can work and Lord knows there's plenty to be done. This FREE idea doesn't teach anything other than reinforcing the attitude of living off of others hard work. I think it's time that the city stop attracting non-productive residents with handouts and programs.
Bravo, for the honesty Danielle. Hope it isn't followed with an invitation to move you out of town.

My 12 year old son broke down crying as he was leaving the house this morning to ride his bike and meet his friend, who lives on BAXTERLY, and ride from there to a basketball camp together. I wouldn't let him leave until he told me what was wrong. 12 year olds don't just randomly cry. Seems he overheard the discussion with my husband and I about the City Council meeting, specifically the crimes that have occurred on and around Baxterly. He was afraid. Very afraid to ride there. Very afraid those boys would jump him too, with " 'just' a BB gun" as Chief Malley put it last night!(Don't EVER put 'just' in front of the word gun!) I assured him he would be OK, that 2 of the 3 juveniles have been caught. (What about the 3rd juvenile???) I offered to ride my bike with him to Baxterly. He and his friend agreed to meet in front of the Fire Station on Madison. He felt safe knowing the Fire Men would not let some punks jump him for his bike with 'just' a BB gun. I dried his tears and off he went.

I spent the rest of the day milling over the who situation concerning crime in Lakewood, feeling like the powers to be really do get it. Do I really want my kids to live in fear? Do we (ALL AGES) really feel like we are being heard? That we are not making up these stories of crimes in Lakewood?

I'm not bad mouthing Lakewood. I am proud to be a RANGER!

This is not the Lakewood we moved into 17 years ago.....

There's a ton of things that go unnoticed that happen on my street (BAXTERLY). Regardless, we wouldn't move from here and I know that the residents with young children aren't moving anywhere either.

these were isolated events. I do have to say that our youth is growing up angry and with a chip on their shoulders, like they're fighting in a life and death situation on the elementary school playgrounds.

It's a case of children being neglected by their parents, who are giving birth at a younger age nowadays and aren't ready to have children. The children go to school, learn, realize that they have some kind of opinion and think they're the almighty diaper wearing gods.

At the end of the day, the individuals who vandalize, steal, sell drugs, etc. only do so because their parents either didn't raise them the best way for the individual child (not saying theyre bad parents, just every kid has different needs, qualities, so on) or something happened at home or in their family which gives them that chip on their shoulder to be more violent, rebelious or lazy.

I love this city and don't plan on leaving. There are lots of great positive things in this city. We have great energetic citizens, a fabulous Y, a fabulous school system, beautiful library, etc. There are so many positive things, but we need to address the negative things that should change. I CHOSE to call this city home, I have CHOSEN to invest in my community, and it upsets me when people refuse to see we need help. I have five children to worry about and I am worried. I plan on staying and fighting but it's difficult when many refuse to address the problems.

I have repeatedly asked for the parks to be safe and in good repair. I have repeatedly asked for graffiti to be handled. I get nothing from the mayor. He has even refused to address my 10 year olds concerns. We need to wake up and fight for this city. Lets keep the good things going and address where we have problems.

Ivor Quote "There's a ton of things that go unnoticed that happen on my street (BAXTERLY). Regardless, we wouldn't move from here and I know that the residents with young children aren't moving anywhere either."

Ivor,
SIX families with a total of 16 children have moved off of Baxterly in the past THREE years. They are not isolated incidents.
My friends on Baxterly are afraid.

I hear you Danielle.

We also choose to call this city home, and invest our time and money here. It was either New Jersey, Salt Lake City, Virginia, Sydney Australia or Lakewood when we had to move out of Germany.

Well here we are and we'd make the same move over again. Australia does sound kind of nice though.

I have to admit, the attitude in this city worries me. People want cops, but don't want to raise taxes. We're blessed with great schools but still had people voting against the levy. I want no graffiti to be seen but don't want to pay taxes to give the city funding to do so. So on and so on.....

DL pointed out that citizens sitting on front porches, watching and observing the pulse of the city, will catch criminals in acts before any police officer will. It has to be a two way street, and right now there's construction going on in that street.

I wanted to see something happen, and in one week I made it happen.

I guess people are just too lazy to offer their help in hand, but will gladly list a laundry list of things that need to be changed in order for them to be happy. That worries me more than any thug out there. You can arrest the thug but you can't repair the tear that complaints and negativity do to a city's heartbeat.

Mrs.Toole,

There are a few houses that have gone up for sale. One family moved just last week with 7 kids. They moved to california, because the husband got a better job offer. They hated lakewood, cleveland, the weather, and the family they had up here. They weren't scared. Justine Cooper moved too, but still lives in Lakewood. I hope you aren't counting them.

I think this curfew law, if it's enforced, will address some problems in this city. Watching my generation fall apart and having old friends from elementary and middle school take the bad road, my view is that it comes down to better parenting over anything.

Australia sounds really good right about now.

I have to disagree in general with the "feeling safe" issue, relative to being anywhere around the other burbs. If you put things into perspective, talking about a BB gun relative to thugs around W.65th talking about the pros and cons of how to hide a 9mms on yourself in the summer, I pick Lakewood.

I agree it can be frustrating though. People do complain about the crime issue, and the other issues discussed here and I agree the citizenship isn't willing to put up the money for the cost of keeping our city pristine.

What is the answer? Move out? Hell no. If there are only 10 people out of the thousands that live here that are willing to say, "I'm willing to help", thats 10 more than 0.

The LO is a great success story as far as what it is, but how about measuring us as a population. We have this excellent sounding board, but how many of the posters here are willing to devote some time and MINIMAL effort to help out? '

If we can accomplish that, by starting a ''concerned citizen's group", at least we have made a positive tangible move.

There are dozens of citizen watch groups in Cleveland that have watchers driving around in cars equipped nearly as well as police cars, reporting things that might be suspicious, yet we in Lakewood seem unable to get a few people together just to wander our city and keep one eye open for whatever, with a cell phone and a note pad sticking in a pocket.

I'll tell you when it'll happen. When it's far too late to have any sweeping or strong effect. Compared to many countries around the world, we have too much of a "don't close the door 'till after the horse runs away" mentality.

If we can break that naive concept and get into a preventative mode
then we can say we the citizens of the Wood at least care and are doing something tangible about it. If we do not then we will have served ourselves a plate of something we will not care to consume due to our own
lack of "doing".


Mark Allan Crnolatas

[quote="Mark Crnolatas"]I have to disagree in general with the "feeling safe" issue, relative to being anywhere around the other burbs. If you put things into perspective, talking about a BB gun relative to thugs around W.65th talking about the pros and cons of how to hide a 9mms on yourself in the summer, I pick Lakewood.

In regards to the 'BB' gun, until Monday night, when Chief Malley told us at the City Council Meeting that the weapon used was "just a BB gun" in the jumping of the young boy for his bike incident, people were originally told it was a gun. We were not told what type of gun. IT could have been a 9mm for all we knew.

My point is that those in attendance found out it was "just a BB gun". Until told otherwise, those not there just know 'gun'. That IS scaring a lot of people.

Ivor Karabatkovic wrote:I have to admit, the attitude in this city worries me. People want cops, but don't want to raise taxes. We're blessed with great schools but still had people voting against the levy. I want no graffiti to be seen but don't want to pay taxes to give the city funding to do so. So on and so on.....

Ivor,
That's hardly just Lakewood...that's generally way Americans think.

Danielle

I can acknowledge that you feel unsafe in your own city, for whatever reason.

But if you think for one second that the new curfew law will help you in any way, or reduce crime, its just not gonna happen.

So don't be deluded into thinking Demro made any inroads on the crime problem in Lakewood with that curfew law.

Grace O'Malley wrote:Danielle

I can acknowledge that you feel unsafe in your own city, for whatever reason.

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Danielle

There is no reason to feel unsafe in Lakewood, none. To be honest I have to think anyone could walk across the county without fear. Cuyahoga county, much to its credit is very non-violent area.

Lakewood even more so.

The past two nights, the streets have been beautiful to walk down. Families out on the streets walking kids, and enjoying the walkable community.

While Ken has the tone of a victim, the truth is not that bad.

This is one reason we have suggested the police levy. Not because crime is out of control in Lakewood. Far from it, it is down, and I am willing to bet police response time is down as well.

It is to send a statement to thugs. We take our peace of mind very seriously. DO NOT come here with your mischief, you will be arrested.

Back to the curfew. I am always cautious when an older generation tells a younger generation. "It was OK for us, but we have to take that away from you." I am even more skeptical during political season, and become almost outraged when it becomes part of a politician's portfolio of successes right out of the box.

When citizens talk about it is is good. When it becomes a scare tactic to get elected, it borders on evil.

FWIW



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