The Observation Deck

Below is photographic evidence of the decay in Ward 3, mostly along Madison. In fact, the majority of this graffiti and decay is within a few blocks. This is all stuff that the city has been aware of for months and has apparently done absolutely nothing about.

It would be ideal if someone from City Hall could post actual, tangible documentation showing what they have done about this (letters to owners, etc.)

Better yet, it would be great if the ward councilman, John Litten, could:

A. Go take a look at this stuff (if he hasn't already).
B. Report back on his findings and explain them (either here or at a council meeting)
C. Get the people at City Hall moving to abate the nuisances

Actually, maybe Butler should be looking into this too:

1306.99 FOR FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH A NOTICE OR NEGLECT OF MAINTENANCE.
(a) Whoever refuses, neglects or fails to comply with an order to stop work issued under the provisions of this Code or other applicable Codes of the City; or refuses, neglects, or fails to comply with a notice to repair, rehabilitate, or demolish a building or other structure declared to be unsafe under the provisions of this Code, or refuses, neglects, or fails to comply with a notice requiring the abatement or removal of a violation or requiring compliance with any provisions of this Code or other applicable Codes or any rule or regulation hereunder within the time limit set forth in such notice, or maintains a use or occupancy prohibited by this Code; shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars ($25.00) dollars nor more than one-thousand dollars ($1,000) for a first offense, and for a second or subsequent offense shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree. Each day such violation occurs or continues shall constitute a separate offense.
(b) The imposition of any penalty shall not preclude the Director of Law from instituting an appropriate action or proceeding in a court of proper jurisdiction to prevent an unlawful repair or maintenance; or to restrain, correct or abate a violation, or to prevent the occupancy of a building, structure or premises, or to require compliance with the provisions of this Code, or other applicable laws, ordinances, rules or regulations, or the orders or determinations of the Building Commissioner, the Mayor, the Board of Zoning Appeals and Board of Building Standards and Building Appeals. (Ord. 68-97. Passed 4-20-98.)

If I am reading this correctly, Butler can initiate a court proceeding to allow the city to go in and correct these nuisances, no?

In my opinion, simply bringing the owner to court MIGHT be enough to spook him or her into abating the graffiti. Carroll has been known to put people on probation and house arrest for not fixing their properties, although this appears to be typically reserved for working-class homeowners, and not businesses.



The solutions and options are very simple if you read the code.

FWIW.

Once again, this appears to be a city administration that is not interested in operating the city, but instead in privatizing and selling it off for personal gain. Hospitals, trash, graffiti, decay, and code enforcement all take a back seat to this exciting agenda of crashing the city economy, laying off city workers, and privateering.

Let's not forget his cohort that got tough on graffiti, NEVER.

Posted this on his FB page and bragged about it.






Any wonder why graffiti on upswing as tax base plummets?


.

Jim, C,

I agree with you both. On a positive note, I will say that the city workers are usually pretty good about getting it off of public property, like traffic light poles, signs, etc. Nevertheless, even they are now backed up with so much graffiti that they can't keep up. We must bear in mind that we only have one man making and maintaining every single traffic sign in the city. We also only have one man maintaining every single traffic signal, crosswalk signal, and traffic light pole in the city. Not only does he have to maintain the traffic lights himself, but he must also time them, keep track of timing, etc. If you read my previous thread, you will see that this lack of manpower may have contributed to at least one car accident where a person was hurt.

Another idea: we have countless people in Lakewood's parole/probation program. The only thing I ever see them doing is walking around the parks and picking up litter with a little grapple while their supervisor sits in the van talking on the phone, not appearing to pay any attention to the prisoners. I feel we could expand upon this program by giving them some of the "elephant snot" and having them take care of the graffiti. We could even bill the property owners of the graffiti-covered buildings for the cost of the materials. We could also have them cut grass.

If Summers, council, and Beno would be willing to put in a little bit of time and give city workers the manpower and stuff they need, the solutions are very simple.

There also appears to be drug activity in this area, especially by Waterbury. The other day, there was some guy standing outside one of the vacant buildings. In a little under an hour's time, three people walked up to him and appeared to do the "slide". They were also bickering back and forth about owing money. One guy owned $800. You can also see the same people walk back and forth down the same stretch of road three or four times in ten minutes.

There is also a bar between Lewis & Elbur with an alleyway between the buildings. You can see three or four people going back there and standing real close to each other.

Decay in Councilman Litten's Ward 3 - Madison Still a Mess



This is only some of the worst of it folks. Currently, there are, at the bare minimum, at least forty (40) instances of graffiti on the streets of Ward 3. This, for the most part, only includes stuff that is plainly visible from the street. Of course, graffiti is not the only form of decay. For example, the floors of the balconies on the apartment building at Lewis & Madison are rotted out. They have been rotted out since at least last March. Then we have the old Donnelly's building, which has been a disaster for years. Numerous rental properties have rotting, falling apart porches. In fact, one rental property, owned by a flipper and alleged mayor friend, has been having its porch held up with a jack post for months and months.

Actually, the entire stretch of Madison from Bunts to Clarence looks like a disaster. If I wanted to look at buildings with graffiti all over them, junk cars, and rotting buildings, I would move to Cleveland and pay less taxes. Then again, I was over on W. 130th off of Lorain last week and many of those houses and buildings looked better than Lakewood's.

City Hall and Lakewood City Council all read the Deck. They cannot deny it. They have been well aware of these problems for months. Why the delay in rectifying them?

Lori,

John Litten ran for city council, in part, to see the big hospital giveaway proceed as planned.

It seems he feels "his work is done here".

Don't hold your breath that he'll do anything about any other issue in Lakewood.

I'm not.

Cameron,

Finally, someone gets it. That has been the whole point with many of these posts. It appears that these council people are indeed too concerned about the hospital giveaway to worry about anything else.

There are indeed individuals that just absolutely hate the fact that I am pointing out everything that our city council is not doing. I can only imagine two reasons for this:

1. They are mayor fans
2. They are "closet" mayor fans for lack of a better term

Basically, I have proven that: they haven't done anything.

cameron karslake wrote:Lori, John Litten ran for city council, in part, to see the big hospital giveaway proceed as planned. It seems he feels "his work is done here". Don't hold your breath that he'll do anything about any other issue in Lakewood. I'm not.

Interesting that Litten is embedded in the Catholic Church as Executive Director of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, which is devoted to charitable work. Yet he's complicit of destroying Lakewood's most significant business and its charitable care. I struggle with those who don't walk the walk.

CMager,

Agreed. It is my opinion that Litten ran his campaign, at least in part, on religion. It is my opinion that this sent a subliminal message to many Catholic voters that they should vote for him simply because of his religion. Lakewood and the Cleveland area in general has always had an above-average population of Irish and Eastern-European Catholics. I believe this gave Litten an advantage from the get-go.

Also, his membership at Saint Luke's Church (located in Ward 3), probably helped him gain even more support among church-goers. Also, we can't forget that Saint Luke's seems to be the church that is most populated with members of the "Summers Establishment".

For these reasons, I don't believe that many voters knew or cared that he appeared to be complicit in the hospital destruction. It is worth noting that according to several ward 3 residents, Litten rarely disclosed his affiliation with LHA while campaigning, until the very end.

Getting back to decay, I will say that Ward 3 has some of the worst streets in Lakewood, in my opinion. While some of this was former Councilman Shawn P. Juris' doing, Litten is not without sin. Take a drive down these Ward 3 streets and you will see what I mean:

- Olivewood (south of Franklin)
- Lincoln (especially south of Madison)
- Garfield east of Lincoln)
- Lewis south of Madison
- Waterbury south of Madison
- Parkhaven Row
- Jackson
- Bayes east of Lincoln
- Athens between Bunts & Brown
- Waterbury north of Franklin

This last street, Brown Road, really boils my blood. Brown is probably the roughest street in Lakewood. From what I gather, the mayor was finally able to cough up the funds to pave Brown Road and replace the water main this coming summer, but only between Lakewood Heights and Athens. On the stretch from Madison to Athens lives a 93 year-old gentleman and WWII veteran, I believe. This gentleman has gone to council meetings on several occasions to complain about the storm drainage on Brown Road. However, City Council appears to ignore his complaints. From what this gentleman has said, he has been escorted out of City Hall by armed guards on more than one occasion, simply for demanding answers about his streets.

Long story short, this gentleman's section of Brown Road is, as of now, not being paved this year.

Ward 4 has some decaying roads too, but that is for another thread.