The Observation Deck

We can argue about which community has less crime 'till we're blue in the face.

Let's look at some immediate impact issues or issues that deserve immediate attention. Hopefully we can get some concrete and useful answers at the next public safety meeting:

1.) When Danielle started this thread she stated, "I was on the fence about a police levy but after speaking to this unnamed officer tonight I say it's time. He told us the levels of crime may not be increasing but the types of offenses are changing." What are the changing offenses? As citizens and members of blockwatch programs, what specifically can we be looking for to weed out what we think is criminal activity to focus on what truly is suspicious behavior? And I'm not talking about the obvious like someone smashing a car window compared to someone having trouble with his keys in the door.

2.) Do we have enough marked police cars on the streets on every shift to adequetly handle the current average call load and not put an absurd amount on the hold list. Remember not only do police handle traffic and personal safety, many times they have to assist fire/rescue.

3.) Is there enough patrol cars on the streets to be proactive? I believe Councilman Bulter asked this about 4 weeks ago at the city council meeting. I can't specifically remember the chief's answer.

4.) What's the actual number of cars the chief feels is necessary for the size and number of calls the city is handling. I believe these last three fall into the "Performance Factor" Kevin was talking about in his thread on page 3. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

5.) Jail space - To myself, city hall is obviously outdated, but it's a pipe dream to even think about building a new city-center. So is there any room to expand the holding facility in the current building. Can another building be used to hold offenders? Is it legal, feasible and safe enough for the officers and prisoners to have an off site holding facility?

6.) Do criminals and/or undesirables feel comfortable to do their "business" in Lakewood? I don't know if there's statics for this or a concrete answer, but in the opinion of law enforcement or people in the know, is there a mindset that when certain places lack of maintenance, is the area treated differently or with less respect.

7.) The chief made a statement at a city council meeting to the degree there are people living in lakewood who can't afford to live here and it's draining our resources. I don't want to put words in his mouth, again I believe that's some what to the degree of what he said. It would be nice for him to elaborate on this.

I'm just throwing some ideas out there to stay focused. Would these answers help our decision on what's really happening? Whether or not a levy is needed? I don't want arguments, feelings and opinions anymore. I want answers, a true understanding of the situation from our city leaders and an immediate start to the beginning of a more peaceful community both visually and mentally.

The police department is not the only answer to crime in a city. It is, by it's nature, the department that does exactly what a police department does. It provides the city with police officers who respond to criminal activity.

There are other parts of the equation. Some simple, some not so simple.

There is the realistic influx of non-residents coming into our city and committing these crimes, both adult and juvinile. We don't have a gated community, so the evolution of criminal activity will follow historical increases across the country.

The answers to that is to at best, hold back the dam from breaking so we don't end up with a Lakewood that within a few short years looks like some of the areas of Cleveland where even the police officers have to become extra aware when they venture into those areas, for their own safety.

What can we do? We do need the increase in police officers and their on-street visiblity. One way or another we need to pay for that to exist.

We need to loose the head-in-the-sand attitude and become aware ourselves. Turn on some porch lights, light up your back yard, become an activist to some degree, don't be afraid to testify in court if you witness a crime in progress.

Too many people "don't want to get involved". I've seen people walk right over a man laying on the sidewalk in Cleveland because no one wanted to get involved. Those stories are common in large cities.

Let us as residents never get that callous, uncaring or self-centered.

We need to communicate with each other and like Collinwood did in the not too distant past, get fed up with crime in our area, and use the watch group idea as not a fix-all but just another part of the equation.

Ask any Cleveland police officer how he/she feels about their effectiveness in their job. A common answer you might hear is they don't have time to actually deal with a situation as they would like in many cases, because they have to move on to the next call. Call load exceeds the number of officers available. Some feel more like report writers than police officers.

We can't allow our own police officers to get to that point if at all possible. We do need to do whatever we can as citizens, by voting for monies that will have a positive effect and giving our police dept. the manpower and equipment needed so they can do their job as they know it has to be done.

We need to keep our own eyes and ears open and watch our own areas
and report criminal activity, and let the whole world know, as Jim said,
that Lakewood is a great place to live and a real bad choice to screw around in.

Mark Allan Crnolatas

Jeff Endress wrote:Joe

The cost of living in Lakewood is getting to the point where it just isn't worth it. I'm on the fence, but about the only thing keeping me here is the schools

<snip>

.....find a community with lower rate AND a house worth what your Lakewood home is worth OR find a community with a similar rate and a house that costs LESS than your Lakewood home. Good luck. I think Wooster or Apple Creek might fill the bill.

I'm not so sure I totally agree with this reasoning. I've read your other comparisons where you site higher actual overall costs once you consider commuting and so on. Of course it may cost more to go some place better. It's more a question of how much you are willing to pay for what you find to be a nice place.

There comes a point where putting money into an old Pinto just isn't worth it. It's still a tired old Pinto. I'm sorry. You don't drive a Pinto do you? I know, it's a Pinto wagon. A good one with AM and FM radio. I know you don't, just kidding.

Jeff Endress wrote: Reasons to stay? Clean. Safe.

I think there is more to it than that. Hire 30 police so people perceive Lakewood to be safe? I'm not so sure that is the answer. People seemed to gloss over this comment before but 1 - prove to me the city is using its resources as efficiently as possible and have eliminated waste, and 2 - it was stated here that 30 more police will cost * $300/year per $100,000. That in reality will be $40-$50/month. Add that on top of the ever increasing school levies, the upcoming school levy (that people shouldn't forget and be aware of), the new county tax (that Ryan Demro told us about), the schools are bound to need an operating levy soon (or the world will end), and we've heard that no matter who wins the election, there will be a city tax increase.

How much is too much? And for what? I know there are a lot of nice things about Lakewood, but seriously, how much is too much?

*
$300/12 months=$25/month per $100,000
Most people I know are paying on values of around $200,000. So I get about $50/month.

Bill--The suggestions you make are not, as you seem to suggest, mutually exclusive of those made by me. You have many good ideas, and I would hope any leader is vigilant about allocation of resources, negotiating contracts, etc. Please refrain from straw man arguments --i.e., "doubling property taxes"--who suggested that? That type of gimmick gets this community nowhere.

Joe

It's still a tired old Pinto. I'm sorry. You don't drive a Pinto do you?

I did....1977 three door. Baby blue with a sunroof. Firestone 500 tires and an exploding gastank.....

But, back on point. If you want to use car analogies, let's say my Lakewood home is more like a 1965 Baracuda, 426 hemi, convertible. How much would you put into that rired old ride?

Jeff

Well,

I might liken my 1909 home to a Hudson car, as that was their first year of production.

Also the birth year of Gene Krupa and Benny Goodman and Leo Fender.

3 cheers for a re-birth of music-creating talent in 1909!

But to stay on topic, 1909 was also the first use of the track at Indy.

Gee, do ya' spose some of the bricks around the house could'a come from the same brickyard that built Indy?

Ah, imagination....

Jeff Endress wrote: But, back on point. If you want to use car analogies, let's say my Lakewood home is more like a 1965 Baracuda, 426 hemi, convertible. How much would you put into that rired old ride?

Jeff

I have a 1969 GTO Judge with a 400 cubic inch Ram Air III engine. Unfortunately, I'm in a parking lot with several tired, rusty, old Pintos with expired tags.

Rick and Jeff, you guys are too funny with your old muscle cars. All those cars did was make a lot of noise and go fast in a straight line. They couldn't stop or turn! I'll wave to you as I pass you in the turns...

1965 Baracuda. Hmmm. A Chrysler product. Wow, Jeff, are you saying your house is very unreliable and has a low quality build? You should considering moving.

Gary, those guys are dead. The bricks were replaced years ago. They no longer fit the need.

Besides, all those things are old and worn out. They no longer fit today's realities. That's one of the many reasons Detroit is suffering so badly; someone came along and offered something better. People moved on. Detroit stuck with their old game plan thinking we really didn't want those better products. They've been trying to catch up ever since then.

Being lighthearted here guys. Just having fun.

Ah, the fast-paced march of progress:

Everyone:

A trip to the Western Reserve Historical Society and their auto museum will show us how far we've "progressed". As a member of their Teacher's Advisory Board, I was amazed at the technological advances of cars, even as far back as 1909.

Joe:

Yup, the old guys might be dead, but price out an old Fender guitar, or a vintage Radio King Slingerland solid maple shell snare drum, and I think you will see that at least a few people appreciate the quality of old.

It's not only product value though, it's perceived value; as well as supply and demand. Hard to believe, but at the Berea Fairgrounds Flea Market, a guy was selling an '80's Rolls Royce for what I felt was a song.

True, it had been really used, and needed restoration, but I wonder with all those then-new '80's electronic gizmos, about restoration practicality?

It's one thing to hop into a machine shop to make a flywheel, and quite another to cook up some electronic whizbang thing-a-ma-gig.

Still new or old, Joe's right. It's all good fun. Just before Mom died, we got her a PT Cruiser. She didn't have to climb up, or slink down into the cabin. She just hopped right in. Great car, still have it. No problems, and very fun to drive. A real road machine.

Dad and I heve fun with it...Should we take the "Daimler" out today?

Oh yeah, far as I know there are still original bricks in the Indy brickyard, and more original ones holding together parts of my house. as well.

They still work better than my 8-track tape deck did, last time I tried it out.

So I am realtively new to the grand idea of actually writing my ideas out for others to see, so please bear with me.
As a new resident of Lakewood (I moved here in march), it comes to my attention that crime is an issue and unfortunatley in some senses will always be an issue. While I understand the need to put more police on the ground to attempt to side step the groundswell of the undesireable populations my question is when is it just outlandish? Although I am not a facts and figures guy on this issue, it seems as though we have a reasonable size police department, and that at any given time you may have up to 10 officers on shift, (if i'm wrong I apologize in advance). So with this being said increasing your force by 30 officers (2 shifts a day, 2 days off a week, at peak times lets say 11 more officers), You are right there doubling your police force. I am not saying that I disagree with the need for law enforcement, unfortunately in this day and age you must do what you can to sustain your own standard of living but I wonder if putting this much of a finite resource (the tax base) into one program will not in the long run, push even more people out of town. I understand the idea is to remove the undesireables and increase the property values and such, but where do we expect those people to go? I moved to Lakewood bc it was cheap, I'm not ashamed to admit it, alot of people are doing the same. So by increasing the tax burden you may or you may not really incite people to move here.

Robert!

Welcome to the 'Deck!

You will find that your opinions will be challenged, and that some interchanges may indeed get rocky.

Still, all in all, we have some sincere interested (and interesting) people here.

Lakewood does, to me at least, offer outstanding value, particularly in a tight housing market. The quality of a Lakewood home is often a thing to behold.

A Lakewood resident since 1958, I feel as comfortable here now as when we moved here, perhaps even moreso. These days, we have a tapestry of different groups that were not around as often back then. Rather than fear change, many of us held get-togethers at the Womens' Pavilion and other places, where we could get to know each other.

I love this place and its people. I'd rather live here than anywhere I know.

Of course we are a city, and we unfortunately have crime and criminals. I remember reading somewhere that anywhere you go, 9 out of 10 people are basically good. That other 10% will be around, just about everywhere.

We also have a great police force to deal with that group, and they do good work indeed.

So again welcome to the 'Deck, and to a great community of caring people!

I to welcome you to the Deck, Robert.

I only have time for quickie here (on the Deck, ahem) but I saw a Hemi Cuda go for over 1 million at an auction on T.V.. I think it was worth the money invested.

Short story: A neighbor has some relatives who live on the near west-side of Cleveland. They want to move into Lakewood ASAP, primarily to escape the crime in their neighborhood and to have their kids go to our schools. I guess it's all relative to where you were, or where you are.

Plug for the Community Watch group: Please take a look at the thread called A Community Watch Group. We're looking for interested people willing to help.
Anyone can join or do, as long as you have a clean backround (as in for a criminal backround check, and live in Lakewood. Even if you don't want to leave your house, or cannot cruise or walk the city, you still can be a part of it. Just a plug for a little project some fellow Woody's are interested in pulling together.

Mark Allan Crnolatas

Gary-

My dad was grumbling about a new feature on some car: a push-button that starts the car. He knows it isn't a new feature.

Everything old is new again.

dl-

Your father shows sublime wisdom.

As a matter of fact people seem to want to push my buttons all the time; especally around here.

Robert Overman wrote:I moved to Lakewood bc it was cheap,

Robert


Around here we like the term inexpensive.

You are certainly one of my favorite new Lakewoodites.


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