The Observation Deck

I' ve yet to do a story to submit for the Observer, so I've been doing some research in the way of phone calls, talking to police officers, a few who worked for our company back when, and many who my wife and I worked with in the past.

I know, no one wants to hear this, but here it is anyway. Bring on the barbs, but here's the bottom line.

Suggestions by police officers not working in Lakewood, but know the west side, and western burbs:

Increase the police manpower in Lakewood!

Will that happen? I kind of doubt it,as I'm sure 20 people will say we don't need more officers, yada yada yada.

Again, we are a inner circle suburb. Irregardless of the crime stats, the guys on the streets, that live with those "stats" know whats going on more than what we are told by any form of media.

We want to spend great deals of monies on different projects and that's fine. The flats spent great deals of monies, but due to lack of police manpower to keep the flats "level" ...well you all know what happened.

Again, large amounts of monies are going to spent in the Flats for another "renovation". Did Cleveland PREPARE, and add more officers for that area?
Is that area getting more visiblity from the zone cars?

Maybe TODAY we don't need a large increase in police officers ...but the bottom line is we WILL. There is no wall built on W.117 between Cleveland and Lakewood. There's no wall built on I-90 or Lkwd Ht.s Blvd between Cleveland and Lakewood.

What is happening on Lorain from around W.110th and west, going to the border of Cleveland and Rocky River is also moving south.
Take a drive, take a look at the area. Talk to the people. Talk to a few police officers.


Here is a good fantasy:
Our city would increase the police department, increase police visability AHEAD, of the creeping of problems that keep CPD hopping in their first district (bordering from the bridge by Fairview Hospital eastbound to W.65.
To wait until they're needed is too late.

The problem is, it's our nature, as Americans to tend to wait for bad things before preparing well so those bad things don't have any real effect.

Cite the low quality levees, in N.Orleans, on and on and on.

If we want people to STAY here, the silent ones who don't necessarily post on the L.O., but contribute large amounts of money to the base of Lkwd, then whether Westlake and other further burbs crime stats are HIGHER than ours or whatever....the PERCEPTION is that they are lower.

Solution: Have more officers, cars and motorcycles visable 24/7. More than we need today, so we won't be doing what some other inner ring burbs are doing, and trying to play the losing game of "catch up" when by that time, there is little support, financially for increasing police strength, and keeping the area peaceful in general.

Again, all you have to do is go for a ride, and talk to some officers outside of Lakewood, that KNOW what they're talking about.

It's an investment that is priceless, in terms of having our city be pristine and enjoyable and having our building and shopping projects grow and draw more IN.

Mark (would like to see more motorcycle police too, in our city, if nothing else but for a great "image" that our guys now convey ) Crnolatas.

Mark:

I agree. More police power and safety are key to the continued appeal of living the city. The pressures on the borders your cite have been increasing with the decades and the break-down of the economy.

I've said it before on the LO Deck. I believe a safety analysis, the construction of incentives to compel police officers to live in the city and a comprehesive plan to support a dedicated police levy would be a smart thing to do.

Some people people Citi-Stat needs to be implemented before we know exactly what is needed and that we don't truly know if raising police manpower is necessary.

Certainly there is information to be gleaned from such an application.

The voices of law enforcement officers are quite eloquent, too.

About a dozen years ago, I visited the Shaker Heights PD headquarters with the Cleveland Leadership Academy, and I was struck by the degree to which video surveillance of various streets seemed a part of the day-to-day operation.

Is this an element to bring into the Wood as well?

In our bones, Mark, we know we need more police on the street and living in our neighborhoods. These two points need to be aligned in my book.

Let's hope it doesn't take too long.

Kenneth Warren

More cops on Clifton, I say. First off, there are never cops on Clifton after midnight. It's a safe haven for drunks (or people who are sober, but can't pass a breathalyzer, myself included) to drive home from bars. Second, I was mugged 3 Sundays ago at 9pm, on Clifton and 117th. The hasty assistance of a police officer would've been nice.

I'll be the first to admit: I'm a 20 year old that cranks his car stereo, dresses in a way that just asks for trouble, and drives a Mustang. I'm what Brooklyn police prey on. But I'd sacrifice some things if I knew that I could be more safe from Clifton drunk-drivers, and coke-heads that steal from the blue-collared working man. I really don't want to have to get my CCW and a gun when I turn 21, but if I have to to feel more safe, then so be it.

Dick

Dick:

Excellent report.

I just received an oral report about street walking, solicitation and bad boy action around the West 110 hood. We ignore these pressures and the spill over effects at our peril.

Kenneth Warren

Kenneth, we visit some people around the W.110th and Lorain area every week, or nearly every week. Oh the stories I could tell, since we also had some clients that had businesses in that immediate area, when we had our former company.

Mark

You just love to start the rumble don't you.

Let me suggest that you talk to a police officer IN Lakewood. Better yet, find one that lives here too. I think you might be a little shocked over what they will tell you.

They rarely ask for more police. What I normally hear is, "computers in squad cars that do not crash." This takes police off the street to fill out forms, and generally makes our modernized police force slow down to a crawl when it happens.

One officer who I have struck up a friendship with also would love for more of our police officers to live in Lakewood. As he puts it "loyalty."

I would think before we spend more money we would look at the figures, look at the budget, and examine better ways to handle things.

Something both of us believe in is REAL block watches. Nothing keeps criminals out like effective block watches. It also builds closer communities.

Dick

I believe those are crack heads stealing not coke heads. Most coke heads have white color jobs. But I feel your pain.

What year Mustang? Which engine?

Ken

Safety is a key issue. One of the tripods of good city living is safety. (Clean, safe, fun) But this seems to be a very slippery slope for all, until the smaller problems are figured out.

How do we pay for more police? Maybe we could fix the taxes with a mall. Wait a mall would add more car thefts, shoplifting, etc. and we would need more police.

In this day and age in Lakewood, the secret is doing it better for less, and getting more residents involved on levels they are comfortable with.

FWIW


.

Jim O'Bryan wrote:M

Let me suggest that you talk to a police officer IN Lakewood. Better yet, find one that lives here too. I think you might be a little shocked over what they will tell you.

They rarely ask for more police. What I normally hear is, "computers in squad cars that do not crash." This takes police off the street to fill out forms, and generally makes our modernized police force slow down to a crawl when it happens.



.

As important as listening to people on the front lines is, it only gives us one perspective. That's a little like letting Exxon/Mobil write energy policy (oops).
The people living in Lakewood's vulnerable areas have real concerns, and their perspectives must be taken at least as seriously as the cops. I wouldn't want to be the one to tell them it's because of crashing computers. Some might understandably point out that Lakewood seemed to be safer before police had computers at all.

But let's be honest and peel back the bark for a second here. One of the realities is that Lakewood is becoming, for the first time in its history,a multi-racial community, and if we're honest with ourselves, it makes some people nervous.

When you see a young African-American male in an NBA jersey on Detroit Ave at midnight, do you think, "Wonderful! Lakewood is finally achieving true diversity!" Or do you roll up the windows and make sure the doors ar e locked? Honest now.

Now, of course, that male is probably not a potential threat. And the police can't just hassle him for being Black. But we all have our ingrained perceptions, particularly we (previously) lily-white West siders. And it's hard to kick those perceptions.

In Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights this ceased to be a big deal years ago, and we can learn from them. In Lakewood, it's as much a race relations issue as a nuts-and-bolts cop issue. At least we can cut the crap and face up to that.

Joan is onto something here. The fact that many of the new kids are black makes them easy targets for alarmists. Does anyone have any facts or statistics that the city is becoming more violent? Although there is always room for improvement, it seems that our police are doing a pretty good job with violent crime. After all, murders in Lakewood are rare enought to be considered big news by the Cleveland media.

Naturally, more police would be great. And it should not surprise anyone that cops think there should be more cops. Block watches and community involvement are always good. Perhaps the Observer can play a role in encouraging block watches, maybe by publicizing existing efforts. If people read a story about an existing block watch program, they can learn how to start one on their street.

As for Mark's apocolyptic Katrina style vision, I find it both sad and funny.
I've been hearing the "bad element from Cleveland is moving into Lakewood" routine since I moved here in 1983. In fact, I am probably part of the said bad element! Some people were wishing that there was a wall along 117th even back then.

Relating back to Dick's topic about Lakewood history, I am pretty sure the locals got their knickers in a twist back in the 40s and 50s when the Irish started "taking over". They even had the nerve to build a Catholic high school over on Detroit Avenue. I'm sure that many decent God-fearing protestants (like those who moved out to Bay and River at the time) felt that Lakewood was becoming a disgrace!

Any of you that think trouble is something new along W110th haven't been paying attention for the past 15 years. People have been dealing drugs on Detroit Avenue near 110th since at least the early 1990s. The funny thing is that there is often a CLeveland police car a few blocks away toward Berea Road, just sitting there waiting to trap speeders.

I'm not trying to paint a dim picture of Lakewood. To the contrary. I feel it's pretty nice here, and much of that is due to the GOOD police dept we do have.

Regarding the racial "thing". Yes, it upsets the hard-core white suburbanites, or some of them. So do the white guys and girls, where the white guys are wearing "urban" clothes, pants that hang down so their butt-cracks are showing, walking with the "urban walk" ...Shirts XX Large, on a 150 guy, and girls who might be able to peel off their jeans at night, listening to rap which is talking about "slamming the bitch to the ground"...etc. Ooops..man that sounded like my parents ranting about MY group back in the day. (except the garb details, as ours were different.)

One big difference. I don't mind it much since I know where that comes from. Clothes/music doesn't make the violence, and I'm still a musician, among a couple other things. BUT....
I was part of that group that upset the "Leave it to Beaver" type people in Lkwd, back in the late 60s. "WHAT...that guy is wearing a leather coat, and his hair is combed BACK!....GREASERRR!!"...

In 67, 68, 69 summers, there were fights. Not alot but there were, between Lkwd and other burb teens or what have you. What did LPD do? They were all over the "IVY" and the "RACKS aka greasers" ...until we had to stay IN the places we hung out at, rather than hang outside anywhere. If we did, we got pulled over, and while treated politely, we were made clear if we didn't be "nice guys" ...THEY might have to "help us be nice".
They didn't have computers back then, they had themselves. We respected them, and what they said to us. They seemed to be EVERYWHERE. Drunks that staggered or drove were escorted to the "greybar hotel".

A small "sidebar": What did I do, I got out of LHS, in '68, and in 69 went into the AirFoce, and became a cop. lol. I did get lied to tho'' by the recruiter. He said the AirFoce still had motorcycle police officers, but in reality, they had discontinued them a year or so before. At 50 bucks a head, tho' he said what he wanted to say. heh. ( my bud was in the Army and WAS a motorcycle officer).

Anyway..enough of history....but the point being LPD was visable on every turn of a corner on fri and sat nites. The fights came to a screeching halt, due to Tom O'Grady and his Posse..*who my wife and I have been good friends with for years now" made it known, play nice or PAY nice.

Wondering if this little parable makes a point?

Regarding block watches, again I'd like to cite a plan I mentioned that is a derivation from when we had our Security and PI company. Residents on the west side of Cleveland, and parts of Lkwd, paid our company to patrol their areas. We did this for over 15 yrs. A company I was with before forming ours, did for 10 yrs.

We did not replace or augment the police. We served a purpose of having our presence known. It seemed to work. Since we closed, there has been a few other companies that are doing the same thing, so it still must be in demand.

The plan now however, that has been discussed since before the LO was born, is for a citizen patrol of people trained to WATCH. A "moving Block watch". Would it work in Lkwd? That's not up to me to decide. I know it would "work" since it has all over the country, but for it to exist here, we need some blessings from certain parties.

Let me repeat that, for the doubting.... it HAS worked all over the country. *one can google for this info*.

Back to my point. I see a BRIGHT future for our city. From a bunch of guys who do the work, they see what works and what hasn't over the years for other burbs.

I'm not talking doom and gloom. I'm talking "lets keep it nice and do what is needed to assure that" type of thing.

Mark Crnolatas wrote:
Regarding the racial "thing". Yes, it upsets the hard-core white suburbanites, or some of them. I was part of that group that upset the "Leave it to Beaver" type people in Lkwd, back in the late 60s. "WHAT...that guy is wearing a leather coat, and his hair is combed BACK!....GREASERRR!!"...

This is why it's important to get this out in the open.
There's an implicit thinking that people who get nervous when they see a trio of African-American youth on the street must be "hard core white suburbanites" or the "Leave it to Beaver type people." In other words, "racist."
That makes the people who are already living in Lakewood the bad guys.
Instead of addressing their concerns head on, we chalk 'em up as being racist. And while we're busy swooning over "diversity," and dismissing those who get concerned, they're packing their bags for Westlake.

Whether the people who participated in "White Flight" of the 50s and 60s were right or wrong, it happened, and it left dozens of Cleveland neighborhoods a shell of their former selves. If anything, I hope we've learned how to manage things better.

It doesn't mean stepping up "DWB" pull-overs or mindless "profiling." It DOES mean smart uses of resources and a tough attitude that says, "you WILL obey the law when you come to Lakewood."

My gut tells me that people will accept racial and ethnic diversity PROVIDED they feel safe about it. That takes patience, dialogue, facts, more dialogue, leadership. and yes, cops on the streets. It also takes time. Shaker and Cleveland Hts again, provide some good guidance. We can even look to Rudy Giuliani for a bit of inspiration.

(My gut also tells me that your greaser appearance probably didn't inspire too many people to sell their houses, but I could be wrong. How scary WERE you?)

The critical strategy is to focus on standards for civil behavior, community norms, and crime prevention. Focus on behavior and not the race card. The narratives of diveristy and privilege versus underprivilege are not the point.

The street norms of Cleveland are very different than those of Lakewood.

Litter, graffiti and on...

Bottom line is: "Lakewood Homie don't play that."

Can Lakewood back that up?

Nobody who can afford otherwise wants to suffer chaos-making and disorder, no matter the race or ethnicity. That's where sprawl begins.

Community building in a city of mixed economy, class and race depends on law and order, decent schools, safe streets and humane neighborly vibe.

I believe the police models in Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights are different.

Look at the ratio of police per population. Have the trend lines in those cities gone up over the past three decades or down?

Bringing order to chaos-making that spills into streets, schools and civic space are always the challenges in communities where the social classes are mixed.

When the bad middle school dudes - black, white, upperclass or underclass, any other - walk down the middle of the street, blocking traffic, attempting to menace drivers with choice expletives and unsavory language- civic squads might inform the dudes of the rules on the street or the police will need to do something to reduce their self-esteem.

It's about norms, order and turf. Always was.


Kenneth Warren

Kenneth Warren wrote:The critical strategy is to focus on standards for civil behavior, community norms, and crime prevention. Focus on behavior and not the race card. The narratives of diveristy and privilege versus underprivilege are not the point.

I agree with everything you say. But it's naive to think that race/ethnicity is not part of the dialogue.
I don't doubt that there are bona fide racists out there who just don't want to live within 25 miles of an African-American. (Isn't the Domino's Pizza guy starting a town just for Catholics?) But I believe far more people do have natural concerns when a community experiences a racial or cultural shift. The concerns can either be confirmed and inflamed by unchallenged perceptions and covering them with a "race isn't the issue" blanket,

Or they can be changed (in some cases at least) by facts, dialogue, and action, but they DO exist.

You don't have to be David Duke to make a subconscious, maybe involuntary. connection between Ludcaris and the kids hanging out in front of the C-store on Bunts and Madison at 1 a.m.

In contrast, I started thinking about the Black friends and acquaintances I have who are contentedly living in western suburbs, and I surprised myself with how long the list actually was. They were searching for the same "norms" that Lakewoodites consider important, and while most can recount at least one DWB-type story, they also seem very committed to the communities where they live and have no intention of leaving.

My point is that the dialgoue is going to go on privately, in bars, living rooms, and across "real" backyard fences, no matter what. If we can acknolwedget it, face it squarely, and make it part of our PUBLIC discourse, we'll be light years ahead.

Joan Roberts wrote:But it's naive to think that race/ethnicity is not part of the dialogue.

Joan


I think it is politely called "high taxes" in Lakewood in this day and age.

The call we got about the "Bad kids" in Kaufman Park was more about diversity.

The war zone on Cove and Detroit again diversity.

Old Lakewood is not yet comfortable with new Lakewood on any level that I see right now.


.

I was catching up on this thread, and halfway down, I thought, "Yeah, block watch," but as I continued to read, I couldn't help but imagine hordes of 'Wooders with torches and pitchforks. Either way, I'm all for it. Lakewood Militia patches will be in all of your mailboxes in 4-6 weeks.

Anyway, speaking on behalf of the statistically-least-voting age range (which has nothing to do with this), I have to say that I pick my driving directions based on which cities have good vs. bad cops. Like I said before, I'm what every Brooklyn cop looks for. There was a time when I wouldn't come to Lakewood because there is a stigma among my age group, with Lakewood cops. What I'm trying to say is, Brooklyn has successfully blanketed my peers and me, and basically said, "We don't care if you don't make trouble; the way you dress and present yourself won't allow us to trust your actions." And so we don't go there.

Is this a tactic that Lakewood wants to avoid, as to promote diversity; or is this a tactic to promote, to keep out the riff-raff?


Dick

(By the way, I lived in southern Parma for 2 years before Lakewood, and Canton for 8 years before that, so if any of you are wondering: No, I have no personal ties with Brooklyn, they are just a perfect example of that police force that is on every single street corner.)

By the way, is it safe to assume that crime is worse on the east-side of Lakewood? I just moved from near 117th to West Clifton and Detroit, last month and it seems ten-times as safe over here.

Dick