Crimewood: Quality of Life Issues in Lakewood, Ohio

Neil Whiteamire, 27, has been an East End homeowner for nearly 5 years. After he e-mailed me Web site feedback, I asked him to share some of the experiences he’s had living near the intersection of Franklin and Coutant.

You can take a virtual tour of Whiteamire’s corner of the city by going to Google Maps. The Street View feature now covers about half of Lakewood.

Visit Google Maps, type in your Lakewood address, click “Search Maps” and then click “Street View.” It can be addictive, so beware.

1. What factors made you decide to purchase a home in Lakewood, when you could have found a comparable home in another city?

I already rented a 1/2 home in Lakewood for $725 a month when I found out about the Lakewood HOME program. I decided to buy a home and received a great interest rate (4.5% fixed 30-years) and down payment lien ($7,500 repaid to the city upon changing residence).

I had just lost a fortune in my 401K, so I figured with interest rates so low (2003) a better investment for my future would be equity in a home.

I wanted to stay in Lakewood because I wanted to meet a woman my age. Lakewood also fit the bill because of its night life. In the end, I ended up owning a house two blocks from where I was renting for $100 dollars less a month.

2. You’ve been a homeowner in Lakewood’s East End for about five years. What kind of changes have you seen in neighborhood during that time?

Well, let’s start with the positive. They restriped Franklin, turning it into a 2 lane boulevard with a suicide lane in the middle. Prior to this change, an accident at Coutant and Franklin happened monthly with cars nearly ending up in my front lawn.

When I moved in, the house next to me on the corner of Coutant and Franklin had full occupancy with rent-paying occupants. Then one day, they all left. It briefly went Section 8 with some very loud and bad tenants who loved to come over and ask to borrow my phone and park in my driveway.

Some sort of police incident occurred there and the residence sat empty and decayed for quite awhile. It was stripped of its copper pipes and wiring. A friend looked it up and found that it was stuck in Probate. Last year, that house was purchased and the new owner did a complete rehab. The house does look nice; however, his tenant choices and money motivation run contrary to my goals of my home valuation.

My other neighbor was evicted soon after I moved in and the house went Section 8. The wonderful Section 8 tenant broke into my house and stole approx $1,000 worth of things that could be sold quickly. However, I could not prove it in a court of law.

The next tenants were Cleveland State swimmers. Man, were they fun. I met my girlfriend through them. They, along with the tenant that followed them, moved because landlord simply would not fix anything.

When I moved into my home, the Frances Apartments across the street was owned by an older gentleman who selected his tenants poorly. There was always noise and drugs flowing across the street. I think some busts and arrest where made. The house has been sold to some immigrants who have slowly built it up some and plan on doing some major porch renovations soon, so that is somewhat positive. They seem to be new at being landlords and made a big mistake with one of their first tenants, but the tennants are gone and things are quite over there now. They seem to want to do the right thing.

The biggest problem I’ve had is people cutting through my driveway and over to Coutant. I had to set-up a surveillance camera after my house was broken into to log the foot traffic until I could afford a privacy fence. The fence eliminated the cut through, however it provided a cover for youths that lived in Section 8 housing on Coutant to sell drugs. That property has since been bought, remodeled, and is currently occupied.

I’ve noticed a slow and steady decline in people’s respect of one another in my neighborhood. There has been a rise in instances of groups of kids walking in the streets, cussing at cars, littering and basically needing an ass-beating from their parents.

3. What are top three things you would like to see improve in your neighborhood?

I would like to see trash cans installed on the tree lawn to give pedestrians an opportunity to throw out trash. I would like to see jaywalkers and other littering parties ticketed to offset the cost of maintaining and emptying the garbage cans. More owner occupancy is a must for any kind of property value appreciation, and elimination of landlords accepting Section 8. I’ve confronted trouble-makers and eliminated problems simply by calling them out on the carpet without fear.

4. How do you feel about the future of your neighborhood?

I see it in a steady decline and I will be lucky to get what I paid for my house, taking yet another loss as far as long term savings is concerned and making a safe retirement less of a possibility.

If the local economy and housing market can still recover there may be a small window of opportunity to dump it, or else I may just join the Section 8 crowd when it comes time to leave Lakewood. That’s unsavory, but from a business perspective why sell a house for far less than you have in it, when you pay $650 or so a month for it, and can get twice as much from the government and still receive the tax advantages?

This is preciously the formula for a neighborhoods destruction. At some point you adopt the adage, “If you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em.” I also see a possibility of rezoning in this area if it’s blighted enough for a development similar to what’s happening north on Detroit.

5. Have you attended a Lakewood City Council meeting recently?

No, because it’s easier to bitch than to do anything. But seriously as I age, I recognize the importance of being involved in your community and if I could actually make a difference and do something positive, a city council meeting will not kill me.

The property manager of Imperial House Apartments at 11900 Edgewater Drive — which incidentally has had 3 occurrences of grand theft auto in March – sent this e-mail:

As a property manager at one of the high-rises on the “Goldcoast” for the past 8 years, I have seen the area change for the worse. I mostly attribute it to single or private owners of rental properties who rent to just about anyone without background checks and the acceptance of HUD vouchers. It is getting harder and harder to keep good residents when they are afraid to go out at night or fear that they may have their vehicles stolen.

I have in the past bragged about our area being a “walking community.” When the weather is nice most people prefer to walk or ride bikes, although you have to watch that also – I had one resident whose bike was stolen when they stopped at the McDonald’s on Detroit. I hope more residents band together to do what we can to make Lakewood a proud and safe place to live, again!

Kathy Hendricks - Imperial House Apartments

Hendricks said in a follow-up e-mail that she runs credit and criminal background checks on all of her residents.

I ought to be able to get copies of the mugshots of the individuals recently arrested for the Merl copper pipe theft and the murder/assault incident at Johnny Malloys. The death of victim was noted in the crime blotter, although the LPD mis-identified his age and there was no mention of a link to the Malloys assault. The Malloys assault was mentioned in the crime blotter, but was not issued an incident number because the victim declined police involvement.

The victim’s death on Sunday was issued an incident number, so I will request that report. It may only be a few sentences long.

The arrest of the copper pipe thief was a multi-agency effort, according to the LPD press release, which might explain why it won’t appear in the media log — similar to the large cocaine seizure earlier this year.

Time permitting, I might try to request the court documents for the murder incident.

A map outlining the Lakewood residences that participate in Section 8, now known as the Housing Choice Voucher Program, has been added.

The March 17, 2008 Lakewood City Council meeting lasted about an 1 hour and 45 minutes. There were approximately 17 people in attendance. Councilperson Kevin Butler was a no-show.

Much of the evening’s events revolved around the impact proposed budget cuts will have on city services. There is still some horse-trading underway — trying to extract union concessions, examining possible cost savings through outsourcing services, etc. A final budget agreement should be reached within a few weeks.

Mayor FitzGerald offered an extended explanation on the matter basically indicating that this situation was the result of a reluctance on the part of previous Lakewood administrations to handle “really difficult decisions.” He said the new budget, which allocates more money for information technology and law enforcement, will be the first structurally balanced budget since 2003. He also said that the city is working with area companies, like the Cleveland Clinic, to find employment for city workers who will be terminated.

Council had the third and final reading of some bond, finance, and zoning ordinances. Some numbers: $140,000 for designing costs associated with replacement of traffic signals on Detroit Ave. with LED traffic signals, $201,000 for the city’s 2008 sidewalk replacement program, $60,000 for city reforestation efforts.

The Mayor briefly touched on the city’s snow removal performance during the recent storm. He felt it was good, but will “try to be better next year.” Councilperson Mary Louise Madigan said she received “quite a few phone calls” about the snow ban and “most were very understanding.”

Police Chief Timothy Malley received approval from council to participate in the Northern Border Initiative. Cleveland, Euclid and Lakewood are sharing federal funding (800 hours at $40 per hour - divided three ways) to support patrolling and education initiatives. Councilperson Madigan hoped the city could “use it as creatively as possible” arranging railroad and park patrols. “This is just what we’re all about” during the budget crunch, she said.

Council approved a $1,720 grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to purchase supplies and recruit over 200 volunteers to participate in a citywide clean-up of public property. Clean-up is scheduled for April 19.

Residential wind turbines might be coming to Lakewood. Council had the first reading of an ordinance to adjust the zoning code to address their existence.

Discussion of liquor permit applications for Europe Mart and Sapells was deferred. No reason was provided.

Several residents registered for public comment.

Mrs. Young of Victoria Ave. spoke in favor of preserving Lakewood’s current Human Service offerings. She singled out The Family Room as having particular value. She said she is a new Lakewood resident, having purchased a duplex with her in-laws using the city home program. She and her husband, who is a Cleveland school science teacher, chose to move to Lakewood rather than Parma because of the superior quality of Lakewood’s Human Service programs. She hoped the proposed budget cuts wouldn’t lessen Lakewood’s investment in its children.

Mayor FitzGerald said the challenge is to preserve the city’s financial position, while still providing superior services. He said that city employees provide Human Services that are provided by non-profits in other cities. This arrangement is now causing problems with Lakewood’s budget. He wants to try and push some of these services to non-profits and possibly create a settlement house, or neighborhood center. FitzGerald said Human Services will be “excellent” and “objectively superior” to other cities, even after budget cuts. Dottie Buckon, Director of Human Services, said the city is “still committed to community services from cradle-to-grave.”

Katie O., a Cohassett resident, communicated her concern after seeing some requests for proposals (RFPs) from the city that seemed to indicate the city might outsource garbage pick-up. She was also concerned about budget cuts that might affect senior citizens.

Norma, a resident of Lakewood for 38 years and school nurse, said we “need to save our services.” The Elmwood citizen was concerned about budget cuts.

Clifton apartment dweller Edward McCartney spoke in favor of physically beating people as a punishment when they commit crimes. His parents disciplined him with spanking when he was a child.

Quail resident Sandra complained about the two traffic tickets she received during the snow ban. “I was hot about it then, and I’m hot about it now,” she said. When she lived in Chicago, the city had the courtesy to tow cars to the nearest school parking lot during snow storms. She recommended turning Thrush and Quail into one-way streets to aid in snow removal and traffic flow.

Councilperson Madigan apologized for not calling her back and said, “I appreciate you coming down here.” Councilperson Michael Dever, who was out of town during the storm, said, “I sympathize.”

Mayor FitzGerald was surprised by the lack of existing protocol for handling the snow ban. FitzGerald revealed Lakewood’s reversal-dial 911 system used to broadcast emergency communications is not functional. There is money in the new budget to correct it.

He encouraged Sandra to appeal her tickets in court. He said the city is “trying to make some amends” and make allowances for people who made a good faith effort to move their car. The service director said the municipal lots were about 2/3 full and very slushy.

I added some images of the 3/16/08 disturbance at the Symposium Nite Club on 11794 Detroit. These pictures were provided by Eric Crawford. Thank you, Eric. I requested the police report, and will post it when it becomes available.
From the crime blotter:

Obstructing Official Business. Large fight. Multiple fights inside the bar. Officers shutting the bar down. 2 males arrested for obstructing and disorderly conduct.

I added the incidents for 3/14-3/16. In an effort to get the data up quickly, I excluded reports of car accidents, radar locations, etc. A recap of the 3/17 city council meeting will be posted soon.

Crime blotter update status
The Friday, March 14th Lakewood police incident data wasn’t available for review on Saturday. The crime blotter will be updated as soon as the LPD makes the information available. The media incident log binder is usually up-to-date — this is only the second instance since I have been checking that it was not current. Update: I checked on Sunday, March 16th to review the incidents for March 14-15 and the binder still had not been updated. The LPD officer said she would print the new pages. I’ll follow-up tomorrow.

Limitations of the crime blotter
I’ve learned that there are some instances in which the initial incident blurb that appears in the media log report can be somewhat misleading. For example, on February 27, 2008, a Lakewood resident report being robbed:

Robbery. States several minutes ago a black male wearing all black tried to rob her. She said she started to yell and he jumped into listed vehicle. She states he showed a gun and said “give me everything.” Got in a car with a white female driving and went southbound on Reveley. She also states he threw pop in her face.

I received the police incident report several days later with hand-written notations indicating, to my surprise, the “victim” had essentially lied. My concern is that had I not reviewed the extended police incident report, I would have never known the robbery claim was bogus. And, more the point, may have unnecessarily contributed to a general sense of alarm in the community. Not a good thing. All things considered, the best compromise I can reach right now is to include a disclaimer with the crime blotter indicating that while the information provided is believed to be accurate and true, sometimes other facts emerge that change the reality of events.

Incidentally, the Lakewood Sun Post also included the robbery in their police blotter, and to my knowledge have not run a correction. They also incorrectly reported in their March 13, 2008 edition that a residence on Chesterland was burglarized while its occupant was in the house. In fact, the resident was in the hospital when her house was robbed. I make mistakes, too, though. To be fair, I incorrectly wrote that the resolution to put tasers in LPD patrol cars would require three readings before council. Wrong. The taser resolution only needed one reading.

Items omitted from the crime blotter
I do not copy every single item out of media incident log. Among the items I omit due to time constraints are: car lock-outs, traffic stops, subpoenas, car accidents, car tows, missing dog reports, and missing children reports. Although, when there is something unusual going on, like a snow storm, I do make an effort to include relevant information, like the location and frequency of snow ban-related car tows.

How do I figure out which police incident reports to request?
Robbery, burglary, sex offenses, etc. are no-brainers. No one wants that stuff in their community. We need to know the Who, What, Where and When. Domestic violence is a concern. Stolen copper plumbing is an ongoing problem that probably isn’t getting enough attention. Sometimes, I will learn of an incident from a random source and check into it. I once caught wind of some strange happenings outside of the CVS on Clifton by reading a vague description someone posted on Craigslist, of all places.

I learned yesterday that the individual at the LPD responsible for providing police incident reports to the public will be out of the office for a while longer than originally anticipated. Therefore, I won’t be able to post any new police report PDFs until probably the middle of next week, depending upon what kind of a backlog they’ve got. The regular crime blotter will continue to be updated in the meantime.

The March 3, 2008 Lakewood City Council meeting lasted an hour and 25 minutes and was attended by about 17 people. Retired former public works director Anthony Beno was honored by council for his three decades of service to the city. As with previous honorary resolutions, each council member said some kind words about the honoree, and the honoree gave a brief speech of acceptance. Beno indicated he “planned on stayin’ here” in Lakewood as a resident. Reflecting on his tenure, he said, “It was an enjoyable time, it was a rough time.” He took a couple of pictures with council, stuck around for 10 minutes, and then left. Patricia Majeski and former law director Brian T. Corrigan were also honored with resolutions, but did not show-up to receive their honors.

Jean Yousefi was appointed to the position of Human Services Director. Mayor Ed FitzGerald said that her addition helps “create a meritocracy” in regard to how city employees are hired.

The liquor permit transfer for Bottoms-Up was approved. Council received the report summarizing police activity at the establishment. Councilperson Tom Bullock observed that the bar experienced a marked increase in the recorded number of disturbances from late 2007 to early 2008. Police Chief Tim Malley said, “it hasn’t been a good start” in the new year, but there are no grounds to object based on the Ohio Revised Code. Ward 4 councilperson Mary Louise Madigan said, “I have no objections.”

There was a fair amount of minutiae on the docket regarding zoning, bond issuance and budget issues. As Lakewood citizen, I need to do a much better job of understanding what it all means in the context of the city’s fiscal health and future. It would be helpful if council spent more time explaining the significance of ordinances during the meeting. Sure, it would make council meetings longer, but citizens need to understand what’s going on.

The 2008 Lakewood General Fund budget was approved at $36,300,00. “We are in a crisis in our budget,” said councilperson Nicki Antonio. The “devil is in the details” and “it will be a painful process,” she said. Councilperson Bullock explained the city inherited employee contracts that “have straight-jacked us.” The Mayor added the city is “heading towards a smaller workforce that’s more agile.”

Mayor FitzGerald plans to unveil the city’s law enforcement initiative next week and will have a public meeting.

Councilperson Madigan said 12 people attended the Friends of Madison Park meeting held at the Madison Branch of the Lakewood Public Library. One of their goals is to make the park functional, fun and safe. There will be another meeting in March.

Two Lakewood citizens spoke during Public Comment period. Edward McCartney (formerly known as The Bible Guy) of Clifton Blvd, spoke on the subject of Freedom of Speech in the Press. He rambled for about 10 minutes, saying absolutely nothing related to Lakewood, city council, or the bible. He seems to be on the path to becoming the Zuma Dogg of Lakewood.

Colleta Graham, who, as you may remember, had her rental home stripped of its copper plumbing by thieves, asked the Mayor if he was “sincere” about building a jail in Lakewood or if the talk was just rhetoric. The Mayor indicated he was serious about building a facility — likely on Berea Rd. — to house misdemeanor offenders. His preliminary discussions with corrections officials have been “pretty encouraging.” The trick, he said, is “how are you going to fund it?” His goal is to follow the Bedford prison model, which turned a $1.7 million dollar profit. By securing contracts with other cities to hold their prisoners in advance of construction, Lakewood can help raise finance bonds. The quickest construction could be completed is two years.

Graham asked the police chief why the recent large cocaine bust in Lakewood wasn’t widely reported. He explained that Cuyahoga County law enforcement had the lead, and the LPD was in more of a support role.

Graham gave an update on her copper pipe theft situation. Her insurance company declined to pay for plumbing replacement because the house was unoccupied at the time of the incident. 3 days later, after 27 years of coverage, Westfield Insurance canceled her policy. She was having difficulty finding coverage. One company told her it could not offer her a policy because “the area was deemed high-risk.” She finally found coverage through an insurer for only 6 months at a time at a cost of $1,022. Council President Michael Dever said he was sorry for her loss.