Mayor says recycling rate up 10% to 20%
Around 30 residents were on hand for Mayor Edward O. FitzGerald’s August 26th Listening to Lakewood community meeting. The session, held at the Lakewood Armory, was open to all residents, but specifically targeted people living in the Bonnieview, Webb, and the West End neighborhoods of Ward 1. Two ward police officers, Councilperson Kevin Bulter (Ward 1), and Public Works Director Joseph Beno were all present.
The event was filmed by a student at Virginia Marti College of Art and Design and will be posted on YouTube and linked on the city’s Web site.
The meeting lasted only an hour — the Mayor said he needed to pick-up one of his children from football practice. FitzGerald spent 30 minutes on his standard deceptive immodest self-congratulatory PowerPoint presentation.
Mayor looking to slice $2 million from city’s 2010 budget
FitzGerald said he is looking to cut $2 million from the city’s 2010 budget. This amount is $1 millon more than he identified at the last Listening to Lakewood meeting a little more than a month ago.
Recycling participation rate increases
After months of teasing, the mayor revealed the recycling rate among residents receiving municipal refuse service has increased by 10% to 20%. It is estimated about 35% of homes recycled prior to the mandatory recycling ordinance, so 45% to 55% of eligible residences are now recycling.
Question and answer period
A Northwood resident said she was very unhappy with the curb appeal of her neighborhood — weeds, tall grass, overflowing garbage cans, litter — and said it was beginning to look like the near-West side of Cleveland. She asked the mayor what was being done about it.
“We do have a process,” he said, and outlined the various resources she could use to report problems. “I’ll be honest, it’s a work in progress.”
Another resident was displeased about the seedy appearance of the city between Discount Drug Mart and Warren Rd. She was worried about the safety of senior citizens who need to navigate through groups of shady characters. She said her co-workers know she lives in Lakewood and refer to it as Slumwood. The resident also commented that she’s turned off by the poor attitude she sometimes encounters from police dispatchers when she calls in complaints.
FitzGerald said there have been some disciplinary actions taken against police dispatchers based on how they’ve handled calls. He told the resident to contact him if there’s a problem because all of the calls are recorded.
“It’s a matter of perception and experience,” FitzGerald said regarding the situation near Warren Rd. He’s meet with owners in the area and some of them believe the roaming packs of kids are a problem, while others welcome their business. The mayor said when the police were sent in to break-up loitering groups, he received phone calls from concerned parents complaining about harassment.
The mayor said downtown businesses pitched-in to hire off-duty Lakewood police officers to patrol the area with the expectation it would lessen the problem.
The most pointed question came from a resident concerned about the amount of crime in the city and the alleged success of the mayor’s crime initiative.
FitzGerald said ever since he moved to Lakewood in 1989 he’s been hearing about how the crime situation is getting worse and worse, and more so in the last three or four years. He said he looked at crime data going back to 1990 to identify trends and found that property crimes and drug crimes have increased while other crimes have remained stable.
The resident asked FitzGerald what evidence he had to prove his crime initiative is working. “[The numbers] are leveling off and and in some cases going down,” FitzGerald replied. “I’m very careful in how I say it.”
The mayor made brief reference earlier in the presentation to the recent shooting near the corner of Elmwood and Madison. He did not mention the reported armed robbery of Moon’s Food Store on August 23rd or the alleged robbery outside of Einstein Bros. Bagel on August 25th, though.
One resident, who said she moved to Lakewood in March from Ohio City, inquired about the status of the money the city got from the state for homelessness prevention. The money needs to be allocated soon, or it might be lost. She also wondered what kind of training police officers receive in order to be able to correctly identify pit bulls. She owns a dog that looks like a pit bull and is concerned about the scrutiny she receives.
FitzGerald said the city was still talking with the county and a couple of other groups to figure out how to disperse the homelessness prevention funding.
His response to the pit bull question wasn’t entirely clear, but he did mention that a DNA test on Otis the Dog proved that it was part-pit bull.
Another resident complained about a string of 30 houses in her neighborhood owned by a landlord who was neglecting them and renting to troublesome tenants. The mayor suggested she speak further with the ward police officer.
The final comment came from a West Clifton resident who wanted to make the mayor aware of a serious drainage problem near the railroad trestle. The area floods after hard rain storms and creates a giant stream. The mayor wasn’t aware of it, and referred him to the public works director.
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