The Observation Deck

Howdy!
I fear I am a bad neighbor and, against my better ideas of myself, very judgemental. But what is a guy to do when confronted with a house on one's street that is clearly being taken care of in a manner that is a) not good for their own family needs and b) not good for the appearance of the neighborhood?
There is a house on our street that was for sale for a long time (not unusual in parts of Lakewood any more, sadly). When it was bought, we fellow neighbors were all excited that a potentially nice home (it needed some work) was finally free of the persistent "For Sale" sign.
There were initial concerns that there might be trouble when the front porch was used to basically store rows of dining room chairs, couches and other furniture. The thought was that maybe they were re-doing the floors and needed a place to store things. This was months and months ago, though, and the stuff is still there (and has increased). One piece of furniture, a giant Entertainment Center, was left on the lawn for a while and then was haphazardly taken apart...by a large hammer, apparently. Now it lay in ruin on the lawn (covered with broken glass) and looks like a house a month after Katrina's water receded.
I have seen the homeowners outside from time to time and I try to engage them in some neighborly chat but they never respond other than to look or walk away. I don't feel comfortable going beyond that to the point of "Hey, you need help clearing this stuff away."

Any thoughts on how to handle this as a good neighbor? How have others dealt with this? Is a call to the city the best route? Glaring looks as I walk by their home in my best passive-aggressive mode? An anonymous letter from a concerned citizen (this was done to a family we met at a party over the holidays...they keep the letter framed in their living room!).

It has gone from simply trashy to eyesore to actual danger (the amount of broken glass sprinkled on the lawn concerns me). Any ideas would be great.

Thanks!

Phil

Since you have already made a good faith effort to approach the person, my advice would be to contact City Hall and your councilperson.

Have any of your neighbors had contact with them? Perhaps someone on the street has struck of a positive relationship with them (maybe through kids in school or something).

Phil, give me a call we'll see if we can nudge them along. 221-6737

Phil:

I am delighted Councilman Dever is in the house and on the case.

Muchas gracias, Miguel.

I want to suggest a neighborhood intervention strategy along pre-emptive lines, something not suitable perhaps in this case because it has gotten too far along. You will have to decide.

1. Select three neighbors with interpersonal skills.

2. Formulate the premises that will inform the block norm you are seeking to establish.

3. Bring cookies and the Lakewood Observer to new neighbor and begin a conversation about the neighborhood and its norms.

4. Ask the new neighbor to share his premise about living in a house of your block.

5. Gently ask questions about the storage premise.

6. Inform him that the neighbors are concerned because that premise doesn't not function well in your neighborhood.

7. Ask if he needs help to get the problem solved. If your time bank is rich, say you are here to help him get it done.

8. If he blows you off with hostility, tell you are sorry that he does not want to work with you according to your neighborhood custom. Unfortunately he has left the neighborhood with no choice but to enlist the help of City Hall's enforcement authorities.

9. Close with - out of respect and loyalty to the neighborhood, you wanted to let him know as neighbor that in this neighborhood we like to work together before we call the enforcement authorities.

10. When you are interested in respecting our neighborhood norm, let me know and work on improving our relations.

I believe we will be facing struggles over norming behavior across multiple fronts.

Two weeks ago, I got into it with a dog walker sans scooper outside my house on Belle. I'd been finding deteriorating doggie norms on Belle where I live. While delivering the LO, I spotted a couple and pooch on my tree lawn ready to leave a bundle. It was dark and the woman saw me observing. She made a smooth decoy move, as if she were picking it up.

I walked over and said, "Hey listen, I've been picking up after you for the past two weeks. You need to pick that up."

"We did," they said.

"No you didn't," I said, "It's right there," pointing with my foot.

I said, "Hey man, leave it there, and I'll be happy to call a cop."

He said, "I don't like being threatened."

"Then get it up," I said.

Needless to say, they picked it up.

These are not pleasant experiences. But unless we insist on the norms that will obtain in our neighborhoods we will be sorry.

I do think there needs to be increased fines for leaving doggie dirt and that the animal warden patrols needs to crank up accordingly.

These are all quality of life matters. Our civilizing neighborly force needs to gain the upper hand over conditions where new residents have been raised in places of anomie and outta my face.

Kenneth Warren

Wow! A ten point plan....I doubt Condi Rice puts as much thought into her negotiations!

As for the doggie dirt, I am pretty sure that enforcement is more of a police matter than the animal warden.

We will be doing a piece about the animal wardens in an upcoming issue, I'll explore the topic.

Mike:

There may be some confusion as to who in our fine city is on first when it comes to doggie dirt -- the warden or the cop.

I did run my doggie dirt incident by a Lakewood Police Officer, hoping to confirm my expectation the cop on post would enforce whatever the appropriate law might be. The Officer told me that if I called the cops nothing would be done, because it's a really matter for the animal warden to handle. His advice was to find out where they live and call the animal warden.

I realize the police are stretched thin and that such a call would fall to the bottom of the priority pile, with the outlaw doggie owners likely making a quick get-a-way.

I realize Lakewood is a city that loves its dogs. Perhaps when it comes to doggie dirt citizens are left to take the law into their own hands?

How about a city authority advising as to the enforcement policy, where it falls as a priority in a stretched thin staffing situation and clarifying the matter here for citizens, outlaws and enforcers alike.

Kenneth Warren

I'll check it out. Since the warden usually isn't out on routine patrols, I figured it would be a police thing. After all, it is pretty much like littering.

Mike:

Litter thugs and doggie dirt ner' do wells constitute Lakewood's current capture of "squiggie man" chaos making in the Wood. The dirt plays out on the broken windows continuum.

Incidentally, I noticed twice this week there is a couple who walk their dog around 6:00 - 6:30 a.m. Lake and on Belle. They have a litter pick-up stick, picking up trash along the way.

They exemplify the DIY Lakewood citizen par excellence.

If I make contact, would you like to do a story for LO on their value added dog walking?

Kenneth Warren

Great idea!

Get their name and contact info and we'll feature them. Very timely for the summer months!

Ken-

I like your approach very much. We have had some problems keeping everything together at our house for a variety of reasons (primarily family health issues).

When we first moved to our present home, we didn't know the neighbors and they didn't know us. When we could have used a little help, our neighbors never saw us outside to strike up a conversation and had no way to reach us. They had no way of knowing our circumstances.

We didn't know if there was some enterprising kid who could be called to help with yardwork when we couldn't keep up. Since that time, we know that our neighbor's son can be hired if we need him.

<Shameless plug>We could also call E&D's Landscaping Lawn care, Yardwork, etc.. 216-221-6857 - very hardworking kids who have a LO classified ad. </Shameless plug>

It took us a few years to get to know our neighbors well enough that we knew who we might ask for help. We also believed we could handle everything. Sometimes we can't.

I want to be clear that we have fantastic neighbors. As we think about attempting to have Lakewood know itself better than any other city, I am now thinking that it would be nice if we got together with our neighbors to put together a little street guide.

A simple sharing of knowledge - do you know a good fix-it person? Are there kids who can help with yardwork or other chores? Babysitter? Can someone walk the dog? Plumber? Electrician? Carpenter? Doctor? Dentist? Favorite bakery?

If we put together a little list for our neighbors (new and established), it would be so helpful and welcoming. I didn't know we had a number of graphic artists on our block. I know we have (at least) two of the best gardeners you'd ever want to ask for advice.

One of our neighbors put together a list of contact information. While rarely used, it has come in very handy.

Not all of our neighbors are going to be the nicest people, but so many of them are. Our lives keep us fairly isolated. We don't have a front porch where we may greet people as they pass by. We could absolutely be more neighborly.

We're working on that.

I can't figure out that fancy white box buissiness, but Mr. Florian wrote:

"But what is a guy to do when confronted with a house on one's street that is clearly being taken care of in a manner that is a) not good for their own family needs and b) not good for the appearance of the neighborhood?"

Mr. Florian,
Interesting, you’re all distracted by the doggie poop. Clearly, the only reasonable solution to the deteriorating house next door is to refer it to the housing department. After the owner neglects to respond to the violation notices it will eventually be referred to the courts, where continuance upon continuance seems to be likely. Then, if the owner approaches the city maybe he can work out a sweet parking lot deal. I understand there’s a big need for parking in the city. I’m sure that Mr. Florian and his family would agree that that solution would be an improvement.

Lisa:

I intended no doggie distraction. I respect your situation and see this case as the big test of norms, values and enforcement protocols at the critical moment in our city's history.

Believe me, I will never forget that dinner a decade or so ago at Paul Kuchuca's when I first met your husband, a poet living in Cleveland.

I pitched Lakewood as a great place for a poet to live. I believed my pitch then, and I do now. I will push with you on this, because I feel a profound obligation to instigate for that greatness, which might now seem overstated in the registry of your personal experience on Edwards.

I am sorry.

Know that I stand in your corner on this matter.

Nevertheless, I see the "bloody dead birds" in your driveway spawned from the quasi-abandonment practices that are the bane of your 'hood, the doggie dirt on my tree lawn, Phil's "outta my face/the holler is my place" neighbor all pointing to rising levels of anxiety concering weak enforcement calibrations in the face of norm deterioration.

At the city council meeting, your husband said something to the effect "I can allow my neighbors to be."

I am not quite sure his intended meaning. It sounds accepting and passive to me.

In the current condition of the city, I do not believe tcitizens and neighbors can let go the throttle and forego exercise of gently rising pressures applied to the norming process, one conversation at a time.

I surmise you have had countless conversation with the property owner and managed to get nowhere in the way of a neighborhood norm. Perhaps that is why you tell Phil to call the city.

Let norming and storming brew from City Hall - that's one approach.

As a city we do need to figure this out and coordinate an approach to norms.

Lakewood will succeed or fail on its ability to effect norms in the face of anti-social behavior from both capital and the underclass.

Clearly your issue is a culminating point for the city - a friction point between neighborhoods and business interests along a continuum that includes the humming/buzzing property on Belle and Detroit, which Councilman Demro has instigated to remedy.

Some would prefer to let bygones be bygones, thankful that any business and property owner has set up shop here.

So we reach this critical point of consciousness concerning citizen perception about weak enforcement calibrations in the face norm deterioration.

Here again, on the moral message, I think Ryan Demro got it right.

We do not disagree over the moral message at stake here.

Rewarding the property owner who has made your life in Lakewood such a discouraging experience, setting the parking plate for punch palaces flies in the face of moral sense.

Some caution about following moral logic and personal frustration into character questions about a suitable partner for the city.

Your experience and the record form a one-two punch.

Perhaps the financial impediments to such a deal will ensure a good outcome.

Kenneth Warren

Ken wrote "Incidentally, I noticed twice this week there is a couple who walk their dog around 6:00 - 6:30 a.m. Lake and on Belle. They have a litter pick-up stick, picking up trash along the way."


Ken and Mike, I know the couple and their dog 'cinders'. I will let them know you'll be calling.

I have the solution.

http://www.ci.lakewood.oh.us/pw_recycle.html

Plant Pride…Not Litter / Spring Spruce Up
• Saturday, April 8, 2006, 10:00 AM to noon.

For the neighbor who has all the junk in the front yard, knock on the door with fellow neighbors as part of Lakewood's Spring Spruce Up and offer to take the junk away.

Doug

Ken,
I think you have encapsulated the core issues quite well. Thank you for your persistent interest in fleshing out the essential arguments. (Asides happen, doggie poop or otherwise. There’s an odd dynamic to feeling like you’re being sucked into a private living room conversation, but really it’s out there for all to listen to, and comment on if they are moved to do so. To be sure, I recognize the value but on a personal level, it’s out of my comfort zone. It is not my intention to “forego the exercise of gently rising pressures applied to the norming process, one conversation at a time.â€Â￾
It’s also an enormous time commitment. I should be working on my game. My 6 year old beats me every time at Go Fish, and I’m trying. And I don’t know how many installments of the Jack and Annie Magic Tree House Adventures there are, but my nearly four year is determined that we plow our way through them all in the very near future. Instead, I find myself plucking away at the computer participating in the norming process of our potentially great city. Makes one think about moving to an already great city.)

So the city fails the big test. Then what? In your mind Ken, is this the tipping point? Do you think others see it that way?

“Perhaps that is why you tell Phil to call the city.â€Â￾
Mostly, I suggested Phil call the city to be sarcastic, to highlight that what seems like a reasonable way to address the issue of deteriorating property in a neighborhood. Clearly, referrals to housing court don’t hold much sway. I wonder if our issue is “a culminating point for the city.â€Â￾ To this point, the code violations of the property next door seem of little interest to council. That’s one thing. Then, that the planning department is more than happy to cut a deal with such a property owner just seems wrong. It doesn’t seem there is place for “moral logicâ€Â￾ when it’s really just a numbers game. A cheap parking lot, we should all be happy and grateful. And those bothersome code violations, well, they’re really not an issue any more.

While I don’t claim to speak for my husband, our philosophy of tolerance of people to be who they are and live their lives without being bothered applies to our neighbors. Acceptance and passivity have their place. However, when our neighbor’s violations begin to encroach into our lives, be it in the form of dead birds, paint chips, eroding landscape from lack of gutters or, God Forbid, parking lot urine smell, noise in the form of vulgarity, car stereo systems, constantly slamming car doors and sun baked asphalt heat in the summer, then well, it’s time to speak up and call it what it is.