The Observation Deck

dl meckes wrote:I'm concerned about the suggestion that LPD ticket people with shopping carts with no warnings.

I don't think that's the answer to the problem.

DL

What about making each resident buy a shopping cart from the city. Then nonprofit groups could make cart holders, kind of like mitten holders but longer?

I mean, as it is a quality of life issue.


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Why not ticket them. I think it's unproductive to even spend energy on this topic. If you need help with your groceries then buy a little cart or call the Div of Aging for help. There are so many issues to deal with but people don't "deal" with them in a sense that has any finality. People drive down Lake ave every morning at 60 mph...does anyone get ticketed? Not that I see. Just write a few tickets consistanly and people will get the message.

As happens so often in our society anymore, a problem is brought to the attention of the powers-that-be, and just about any answer except common sense seems to come forth.

As always, the poor and the elderly are the ones who suffer.

I've never seen some wild-eyed teenage scofflaw wheeling through our streets with a shopping cart. I would believe that it's generally the elderly, and often the poor widows needing to push their groceries home. Whether the cart is stolen or not would seem to be an open question, as it probably makes its way back to the store next time.

Additionally, for the city to fine a business for retrieval of it's "stolen" property is just a terrible precident. Take it to an extreme, if you will. Your bike is stolen, and the city fines you for retrieving it for you? If they tried that with our residents, politicians would quickly be looking elsewhere for employment.

As a member of the Community Development Block Grant Committee, I would favor the allocution of a few of those dollars for the remediation of this problem, as it assuredly is an issue of compassion affecting the poor and elderly.

I certainly think that our city is better off with compassion, rather than heavy-handedness, in matters like this one.

<<<>>>Your bike is stolen, and the city fines you for retrieving it for you? If they tried that with our residents, politicians would quickly be looking elsewhere for employment.<<<>>>

Doesn't the city of Lakewood require all bicycles to be registered? Perhaps the city would fine you for recovering an unregistered bicycle. Otherwise, the recovery would be indirectly financed by the registration fee.

Perhaps every shopping cart needs to be registered with the city? Each cart could also have an NCIN (National Cart Identification Number) engraved into it, along with a bar code sticker. Someone at city hall could track them all in an MS Access database.

Doug

The National Shopping Cart Association will never go for Doug's idea.

"You'll have to pry my shopping cart from my, cold, dead hands"

The next George Romero movie is about a mutant strain of Staph infection spread through wayward Shopping Carts...

It will cause peewee soccer games to be cancelled across the world, and even the homecoming football game.

Weeks later the streets are empty but for the solitary predations of ambulatory shopping carts.

Next on Chanel 5 News at 6.

In nyc supermarkets have a railing around the perimiter of the store's exit and sidewalk that allows a person to walk through but is not big enough for a cart to fit through. Probably the most practical solution. A couple thousand dollars for the markets;should be doable by a Giant Eagle or Marcs.

I see Aldi's is finally demolishing Cadillac by DeLorean. The building is about 15% down.

Doug

took a pit stop this morning to marcs plaza and almost ran over 20 wild shopping carts. they're worse than deer around here.

whatever we do, I hope Lakewood avoids what Euclid did ... some of the grocery stores there have big fences surrounding their doors, so you can't get the carts out into the parking lot. So you have to leave your cart there, and either bring all the groceries to the car, or if you have a lot, leave the cart there, and drive your car over. Not a huge inconvenience, but it really looks bad, as though you're in some sort of prison setting.

Zagara's Market in Cleveland Heights has a better way ... the perimeter of the parking lot has an underground cable in it that triggers a wheel lock on each cart if the cart is attempted to roll past the perimeter. Once locked, the cart is left behind. Folks aren't really trying to steal the carts (in 99.9% of the cases), they're just lazy and don't want to carry groceries home, they'd rather use the shopping cart than bring their own wheeled cart. This method prevents them from doing that.

I had heard about that system. I wonder if it's cost effective. Certainly sounds better than the pylon or fence option. Why penalize those that are following the rules?

<<<>>>Zagara's Market in Cleveland Heights has a better way ... the perimeter of the parking lot has an underground cable in it that triggers a wheel lock on each cart if the cart is attempted to roll past the perimeter. Once locked, the cart is left behind. Folks aren't really trying to steal the carts (in 99.9% of the cases), they're just lazy and don't want to carry groceries home, they'd rather use the shopping cart than bring their own wheeled cart. This method prevents them from doing that.<<<>>>

There was an article a year or two ago about a Dave's in Cleveland trying that. According to the manager/owner of the store, people just drug the carts away anyway. So, not only was the store still missing the carts, they were out extra thousand$ for installing the cart control system. Whether or not customers are determined enough to drag the carts away in such a situation may heavily depend on the type of neighborhood.

Doug

Sounds like an interesting IQ test for the city.

It used to be easy to find little red wagons, usually made of metal.

Now they are made of plastic. Even the wheels are plastic, and there is no front pivoting axle. They've been safety-proofed and idiot-proofed into uselessness.

Is the problem appearing larger than it really is?



Was it blown out of proportion for the sake of media?


Shawn/CD

Security systems.



Dan Slife* points to Lakewood's safeguard on theft of shopping carts. After watching the cart for two days to see in anyone owned it. It was decided that the person pushing this cart was old, and probably could not get past the bump in the sidewalk.

Could it be as simple as ignoring the white dots?

*NO shopping carts were harmed or stolen in the filiming of this. This cart was returned by Dan after the documentation to the offending store.


FWIW