Where I’ve Been
Posted By Carlo on April 6, 2007
Okay, it’s been three weeks since last I wrote. It’s not that things haven’t been happening, because they always do. But I haven’t had much to push this period: The activity around Cleveland Rock & Roll Memories has died down some, I’ve been working really hard at my full-time job, and I’m way ready for winter to be over (yeah, sure, March 21 was the official spring start date, but the season hasn’t sprung forward quite yet).
So here’s what’s happening: I’m going to spread my (and the CRRM) word at the city council meeting in South Euclid April 23, thanks to Sunny Simon, the councilperson who publicizes local writers (I live in South Euclid). A few days later, Karen and I are going to the Indians game (they’re playing Baltimore), and from May 5 to 10, I’m traveling to EuroDisney, outside Paris, France, for a hotel conference. On May 16, I’m doing a CRRM-related taping at Hudson High School, preparatory to a signing at a Hudson bookstore June 9. Before I drop into the Learned Owl, however, I’m doing a signing at a Barnes & Noble in Geneva-on-the-Lake on May 12.
So maybe things aren’t that quiet on the CRRM front.
In other developments:
I’ve gotten three $95 “speeding” tickets in East Cleveland in the last two weeks. This is the electronic variety, consisting of snapshots of my car, allegedly going too fast, “validated” by an alleged policeman. I’m getting dunning notices for these from a Providence, Rhode Island address, which makes me think they’re not city notices. Rather, they’re coming from the company that installs these surveillance cameras, and I don’t think I’ll respond to them. But I might go to East Cleveland in late April to contest them. They accuse me of going 24 in a 20 mph school zone one day and 25 in a 20 mph school zone the next day. This zone is a stretch of about 150 yards just west of Coventry Road, where Cleveland Heights ends and East Cleveland—arguably the most corrupt and primitive of Cuyahoga County’s cities—begins. Can you spell speed trap?
Before I battle these local injustices, however, I’m taking a week off. Starting tomorrow, my family will be in Fort Lauderdale in south Florida, where we expect to enjoy the sun, the beach and the water. Temperatures there look like they’ll be around 80, which will be great (particularly considering how cold it’s been in familiar, grey Cleveland).
Until we meet again.
Marvin,
Leah really appreciated your appearance this morning on her behalf. I agree with you, any further action taken would could expose Leah to further cost (time/money)as well as your time. I reminded her that although she still had to pay nearly the same amount in court costs as the original fine, she was vindicated by the dismissal of the charges which further resulted in no marks on her insurance (hopefully). I believe it is reasonable for Leah to feel that she stood up for herself when she felt that she had been mistreated. The whole experience was instructive to me.
When all said and done, the trip through that poorly marked… at best (intentional?), school zone cost Leah $260 and me $95 (when I followed her down to make her plea) for a total of $355. Quite a profit center for East Cleveland, don’t you think. It kind of reminds me of the old 1960’s B-Movies where a bunch of “city folk” were taken to appear in front of the small southern town’s magistrate who was also the police chief, prosecutor, mayor and leading land owner. They were only allowed to go on there way with paying numerous fines or risk indefinite incarceration.
It is most interesting that the City of East Cleveland, which is policed by police officer that pulled Leah over who said, {Leah Quote}: “You rich (explicative) bitches from Gates Mills and Pepper Pike with you fancy Starbucks coffee, drive down to East Cleveland and kill our children (sic: traffic accidents)”, would not take the first $10,000 from this scheme, that obviously nets the city at least $100,000 per year and invest in adequate signage to protect their children. By not improving the traffic signage with this money, could it be said that they are actually purposefully exposing their school children to serious injury to maintain a valuable revenue stream. This by its face value seems to define an immoral policy, that must run deep through that city’s administration, judicial and council.
The City of Brecksville, obviously a more prosperous community, when faced by the same circumstances, where a child was killed by a speeder in a school zone, which was notorious for speeding, installed automated radar cameras to ticket violators. However, these cameras were supplemented simultaneously by substantial new investment in automated signs, street markings etc. I understand that the warning lights alone could be seen from great distances.
Sincerely
Larry S.