Re: Public Safety Meeting re Park Hours/Pitbulls TONIGHT 6PM
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 3:24 pm
Hello, all. I wanted to weigh in a bit here.
Our parks are and will continue to be incredibly safe and I appreciate the thought that we need to curb graffiti and vandalism. It seems there are a few knuckleheads out there who do this sort of thing.
Not wanting to sound too much like a politician, I also want to express my respect for my colleagues on council and this committee in particular, Ryan Nowlin and Shawn Juris, and know they want what’s best for Lakewood and hope they have the same opinion of me.
I decided to vote against the ordinance for a couple of reasons. First, a motive given for the ordinance was that the parks are dark in many spots and not designed for easy patrols and this ordinance would provide a new tool to our officers. I see these points very clearly and feel this ordinance does provide that extra tool but does not make the parks easier to patrol or less dark.
The second and, I think, more important point, is that I feel we should be sending the message that regardless of how trivial the matter may seem in a practical sense – an hour or so in July/August, two hours in September/October – knuckleheads will not prevent us from keeping these parks open until 11:00 p.m. Not everyone agrees with my two sentiments and I respect their opinions.
To expand, the symbolism of closing parks earlier in an effort to curtail vandalism is hard for me to accept regardless of how few may us the parks after dark for legitimate reasons. (Just off the top of my head, legitimate uses may include working their plot at the Madison Community Garden, volunteers working the LEAF plot also at Madison, folks walking home with their children on a warm October evening after the library closes who opt to cut through Kauffman and tennis/exercise just to name a few.)
I felt the message we should send is that we will keep the parks open to all residents (Madison and Kauffman have been open until 11:00 p.m. for many years) and do everything possible to find vandals, prosecute them, make them pay for the repairs and invite them back into the park. That’s right – invite them back into the park. If it happens again, we’ll do the same thing over and over and over until the knuckleheads realize at least three things: (1) we’re serious, (2) they aren’t getting anywhere but lighter in the pocket and heavier in the number of community service hours served and (3) we want them to mature and be prideful members of the community. I know the police department is working to find those few who are responsible but it's never going to stop it unless we figure out a way to tap into it peer to peer.
However, I am hopeful that this ordinance may curtail these incidents. I also appreciate the administration volunteering to offer an update on graffiti and vandalism a few months down the road. I look forward to this communication.
Lastly, I know it’s happened elsewhere around the country but I do not believe anyone has devious intentions to drive down the value of these or adjacent areas so that a developer could pick them up on the cheap. Nor do I believe this is a north side of the tracks versus a south side of the tracks issue.
I also appreciate this forum and the opportunity to participate.
Yours in service,
David W. Anderson
Councilman, Ward 1
216-789-6463
Our parks are and will continue to be incredibly safe and I appreciate the thought that we need to curb graffiti and vandalism. It seems there are a few knuckleheads out there who do this sort of thing.
Not wanting to sound too much like a politician, I also want to express my respect for my colleagues on council and this committee in particular, Ryan Nowlin and Shawn Juris, and know they want what’s best for Lakewood and hope they have the same opinion of me.
I decided to vote against the ordinance for a couple of reasons. First, a motive given for the ordinance was that the parks are dark in many spots and not designed for easy patrols and this ordinance would provide a new tool to our officers. I see these points very clearly and feel this ordinance does provide that extra tool but does not make the parks easier to patrol or less dark.
The second and, I think, more important point, is that I feel we should be sending the message that regardless of how trivial the matter may seem in a practical sense – an hour or so in July/August, two hours in September/October – knuckleheads will not prevent us from keeping these parks open until 11:00 p.m. Not everyone agrees with my two sentiments and I respect their opinions.
To expand, the symbolism of closing parks earlier in an effort to curtail vandalism is hard for me to accept regardless of how few may us the parks after dark for legitimate reasons. (Just off the top of my head, legitimate uses may include working their plot at the Madison Community Garden, volunteers working the LEAF plot also at Madison, folks walking home with their children on a warm October evening after the library closes who opt to cut through Kauffman and tennis/exercise just to name a few.)
I felt the message we should send is that we will keep the parks open to all residents (Madison and Kauffman have been open until 11:00 p.m. for many years) and do everything possible to find vandals, prosecute them, make them pay for the repairs and invite them back into the park. That’s right – invite them back into the park. If it happens again, we’ll do the same thing over and over and over until the knuckleheads realize at least three things: (1) we’re serious, (2) they aren’t getting anywhere but lighter in the pocket and heavier in the number of community service hours served and (3) we want them to mature and be prideful members of the community. I know the police department is working to find those few who are responsible but it's never going to stop it unless we figure out a way to tap into it peer to peer.
However, I am hopeful that this ordinance may curtail these incidents. I also appreciate the administration volunteering to offer an update on graffiti and vandalism a few months down the road. I look forward to this communication.
Lastly, I know it’s happened elsewhere around the country but I do not believe anyone has devious intentions to drive down the value of these or adjacent areas so that a developer could pick them up on the cheap. Nor do I believe this is a north side of the tracks versus a south side of the tracks issue.
I also appreciate this forum and the opportunity to participate.
Yours in service,
David W. Anderson
Councilman, Ward 1
216-789-6463
