The lush meadows of Ward 2
It might sound like an insignificant concern, but properties with overgrown grass present a serious danger to Lakewood’s neighborhoods. They are like a flashing neon welcome sign for copper pipe thieves and other troublemakers.
The city has more than a hundred vacant, abandoned, and otherwise empty structures that absolutely nobody is keeping a close watch over. As far as I have been able to tell, there is no effective program in place to facilitate quality levels of communication and coordination between residents and city employees in regard to preventing and treating tall grass.
Last weekend, I toured the streets of Ward 4 to get a hold on the number of properties with overgrown grass. I figured of all of Lakewood’s wards, Ward 4 would be the worst because it has some of the city’s highest total number of vacant, foreclosed and Section 8 properties. I spotted around 26 residences with grass over 6 inches tall.
This weekend, I traveled through just about every street in Councilperson Thomas Bullock’s Ward 2. The bulk of the problems I saw were south of Detroit. To be fair, it was only a couple of days after a heavy rainfall. I ignored borderline violations, and focused on flagrant cases.
14613 Bayes
2249 Emily
14917 Delaware (Lawn)
14940 Delaware
2146 Mars
15021-23 Athens
14959 Lakewood Heights Blvd
2051 Warren
2249 Carabel
2111-13 Morrison
2152 Morrison
2192 Morrison
[Update: Cited 5/28/2009, reinspect 6/3/2009. Neighbor called 6/1/2009, front mowed, back not mowed]
15611 Delaware
2240-38 Northland
2359 Woodward
One north of 1538 Northland
1626 Northland (Lawn)
1427 Rosewood
1578 Mars
1678 Victoria
1591-93 Victoria
[Update: Cited 5/29/2009,reinspect 6/5/2009]
1597 Victoria
1601 Mars
[Updated: Cited 5/28/2009, reinspect 6/3/2009]
1274 St. Charles
1267 Gladys
[Update: Cited 5/29/2009, reinspect 6/5/2009]
1179 Gladys
1254-52 Westlake
One south of 1289 French
The most overgrown yard in Ward 2
There were 29 cases altogether, with 2240 Northland being the worst. The Northland address best symbolizes the failure of the current system of dealing with tall grass. The grass was staggeringly high — cadaver compost high. How could the neighbors not be moved to call the city to complain? How could the city not be aware of it? I’m sure the refuse department noticed it on garbage day. I bet the police have driven down the street at least once in the last two weeks. Why didn’t anyone do anything?
There are laws on the books to prevent this kind of situation. The manner in which they are being administered is a failure.
Similarly, I saw dozens of unwanted complimentary copies of the Plain Dealer in yellow plastic bags in all manner of locations: sidewalks, tree lawns, front yards. It looked terrible.
Again, there are laws on the books to prohibit this nuisance, and it’s not being administered properly. Would that kind of behavior fly in Brecksville or Beachwood? Would the PD be permitted to drop its unsolicited junk wherever whenever? Doubtful.
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