The Observation Deck

It was time for my afternoon/evening walk so I went down to Edgewater Park, on the way there Cleveland Police Car after Cleveland Police car was speeding past me, on West 25th, Detroit, even the Shoreway. When I arrived at the entrance of the park, the police had shut it down. First really perfect day of the year, and Edgewater already over crowded. But wait, more police cars coming!


Without the 10+ police cars this would have been a wonderful image of the sunset at Edgewater Park.


By the time we had gotten there the park was closed, and police were asking people to leave.

I turned to the police scanner channel, and listened.

7:47 - 100+ kids hanging around. Metro Asks for assistance.

7:49 - the kids are all fighting now.

7:52 - “there are 6 Park Police Vehicles, and now 300 juveniles.”

8:09 - Chopper says, “I just see people standing around.”

8:15 - "Has Metro Parks closed the other entrances down?"

8:20 - "Come over to the tunnel on West 76th, juveniles headed to the beach."
"Rangers pushing everyone off the beach"
“Lakewood is sending cars too!”

9:00 - No one causing trouble anymore.



I pulled over and Deb took these photos of the action. Hard to tell what is going on.













You can see all the photos here: http://lakewoodobserver.com/photoblogs/ ... water-park

Enjoy Summer, it will be an interesting one I am sure.

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Well….

ryan costa wrote:Well….

While most of the kids in this story were at the beach having fun. Some were not, and before anyone goes into how mild this was, listen to the taps, and listen to what was stopped.

When the event happened, there were 5 Park rangers there quickly, but it escalated, and police were pushed around when trying to investigate a fight.

Within 10 minutes, police from Cleveland went to the beach, and quickly saw if it escalated further, they were outnumbered about 50 kids to one officer. At this point kids were streaming into the park from the tunnels. A reported 100 kids kept out of the park by police.

Nothing? It seemed calm with 15 police there. I reported the police chopper gave an all calm about 1 hour into it.

Nothing? When have they emptied and closed the park before?

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Things could have been worse. I commend the Police and most of the kids involved for quickly calming down the situation.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8E4znu82XhE

An American philosopher has pondered the nature of violence.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=in3Ppk9NG9U

It’s unfortunate something like that happened down there at Edgewater Park. I was there an hour before the fracas and saw nothing out of the ordinary.

I’ve kind of made Edgewater Park my bike riding “exercise” destination the last 2-3 years. I ride down there almost every day that’s at least 45 degrees and not rainy. Maybe 150+ times a year. There’s lots to see and do there, and folks are nice. There’s a pull-up station by the marina entrance where the bodybuilders work out pretty much every late afternoon / early evening. They more than tolerate my utter lack of muscularity. If I’m feeling motivated I ride on to Wendy Park, go over the new bridge and take the “south” way back along the Shoreway, through Battery Park, back to Edgewater Beach, then home.

What I’ve always liked about Edgewater Park is that it provides lake access to anyone who can get there, and that as a result lots of folks make the trip. But I have noticed, especially the last year or so, a lot of unaccompanied young people. And I guess it got out of hand last Friday. And after reading what Jim wrote and photographed above, it did occur to me that I rarely see any security down there at all. No Metropark security and no Cleveland police. Invisible. Hopefully what happened will be a wake-up call.

But overall the Metroparks has done an outstanding job operating and maintaining Edgewater Park. The new playground that went in up the hill a couple years ago is fantastic! Yesterday the whole Park was freshly mowed and every tree was freshly mulched. And my workout buddies were there….

I do wish the Thursday live shows were back at the pavilion. But starting this Thursday, the Whiskey Island Still will be open again. That’s a great place to hang out, listen to a few songs, and get some fresh air. Ted Riser this Friday, he’s fun. And Butch Armstrong on Memorial Day afternoon. No better blues-rock guitarist in CLE. Weather permitting. Shows five days/evenings a week into the fall.

So get on down there sometime if you haven’t been lately. It’s fun. But no fighting!

(((And PS to Lakewood City, you put the bike lanes in on Lake, so please keep then clean. I’ve gotten two flats this year already. I finally put two Schwalbe Marathons on the bike. I’m not sure the Lake Road bike lane / curb lane gets any special attention. Please.)))