Decency code in Shaker Heights ... hahahahahahahahaha!! What most folks don't realize about Shaker is that while it is an affluent suburb in many parts, portions of it (namely the portion where we live) are in spitting distance of Cleveland proper, the result of which is that some of the city inevitably comes blowing into town. It's weird, and nearly inexplicable. Like I've never for a moment felt unsafe in our neighborhood, but weird stuff happens on our street all the time. Every so often, (I swear this is true) a swat team or similarly-armed law enforcement will turn up and create all sorts of havoc outside one of our neighbor's houses. It's never clear what's going on, and nothing ever turns up on the evening news. We don't ask questions, and none of the other neighbors seem particularly upset by it. There was one day when the Shaker Heights PD set up shop across the street from our next-door neighbors' house. They asked several of my housemates questions about one of the house's inhabitants (a guy who we know and are actually pretty fond of). Steve said he got the impression that the police suspected he was running drugs out of the house, to which the general housewide response was, "Really? So what? He's obviously not bothering anyone, so why do they care?" They have that no-garages-facing-the-street thing in quite a few cities in Summit County, too. When I was working for the paper, I had to sit through approximately 9,000 suburban zoning meetings where residents would come and beg the zoning commissions for permission to let their garages face the street. Really newsworthy stuff.
posted by Kate at 9:21 AM link/comments
