The Observation Deck

Before I give some constructive criticism, I will say that there are some beautiful homes in Lakewood and good people that keep their homes up in every corner of Lakewood. Also, I will commend the city for renovating a couple of houses recently. However, you have to move faster than the current pace to keep up with Lakewood's aging housing stock. Many of us keep our homes up nicely. It is not fair to people that keep their homes up to have to live next to blighted properties like these for years. Over the past several years, the neighborhoods have deteriorated to the point where you feel like if a grip is not gotten, the homes will have to be torn down. Many of these properties are owned by absentee landlords and reality companies that really have no excuse for not fixing things.

Early and late trash set-outs remain a problem. Many of the early and late set-outs lay out for a week until the next garbage day. This is also not fair to those who maintain their property. However, I cannot fault the garbage people for this. I was told by an employee today that they had three garbage trucks break down. Some of the Thursday collections will not get picked up until tomorrow. How can we expect them to baby-sit people who can't figure out their garbage day when they can barely keep up with their regular routes due to constant truck breakdowns?

I will say that I have always been impressed with our garbage pickup ever since I moved in. My kids and nieces and nephews have all waited to see the trucks for the last 32 years and the garbage people have always been very friendly with them.

If you want to see what I mean, download the file below.

I also forgot to mention that if this continues to be allowed, more people will continue to move out of Lakewood and property values will decline.

Lori,

I have read with interest several of your postings concerning other people's homes and garbage on the tree lawn etc. I have also seen the photos that have been put up regarding some of this.

While your intentions are certainly good ones, and I understand your concerns, I think that it's important to look at the situation from another angle here. See, virtually all objects placed on the tree lawns indeed DO show that improvements ARE being done to Lakewood homes.

While in a perfect world, we would hope that the letter of the law is followed regarding putting out trash on the right day, the fact of the matter is that toilet and hot water tank replacements, mattress replacements, and numerous other older home crisis events do not always conveniently occur on the day before the trash goes out.

When we add to those concerns, the fact that municipal equipment does break down from time to time, then we do see what can happen regarding curb residue.

Emergency situations happen to all of us from time to time, especially with older homes and businesses. I would not have undue concerns about this unless a particular problem was getting out of hand. We still have a very nice place to live here.

The problem of abandoned properties and absentee landlords is not a new one. There are procedures regarding those issues that take time as they wind their way through the courts, but I would opine that Lakewood has done a very good job handling these sorts of things overall.

Back to the banjo...

Gary,

Thanks for adding your observations. However, I think I must disagree with you. When homes sit for one, two and sometimes three years boarded up, with no improvements made, I do not think this would classify as a renovation. The city ordinance for trash pick-up is put out on tree lawn between 6:00pm the night before and 6:00am the day of. I feel that garbage should be kept in the back yard or out of street view or stored inside until trash day. If a person has special circumstances, they may the call the Refuse Department and they will make arrangements to help them out. When cans and trash are put out early or left out after collection, it makes the neighborhood look, well, trashy.I don't think that Citizens that pay high taxes to live here should have to put up with their front porch view being trash, trashcans, toilets, mattresses, etc. for a week or more.

As far as absentee landlords and reality companies go, you are correct, some have to go through the courts. However, if properties are left vacant or boarded up, a judge can usually issue a warrant to go inside the property and check the inside as well. I believe the city then has the authority to fix the property and then put a tax lien on the property. Also, there have been several police calls regarding kids, drug addicts, homeless people ,etc., breaking into these homes and camping out. Abandoned properties also look attractive to arsonists.

I believe that these homes bring down the property values of the other homes in that neighborhood and make it difficult to sell because the neighborhood is undesirable.

Even though we disagree, I appreciate your side. When are we gonna have that campfire sing-a-long?

Lori,

I'm not sure we have a disagreement at all.

As usual for me, I was only pointing out the positive.

Stuff thrown outside homes often means improvements made within them.

I also agree that normally, the unwanted stuff should stay in the backyard until trash day, or indeed one could call for a special pickup circumstance.

Ah, the world of perfection we seek....

Campfire sing-a-longs? Yeah!

Back to the banjo...