Hoards of Heights thugs spoil Coventry Street Fair

For those few of you who haven’t heard, a “flash mob” of youths disrupted the Coventry Street Fair on Sunday. This is the second time this has happened in two years. This is another black eye on Cleveland Heights’ reputation as a safe community for kids and adults. That reputation is now long in the past. Last year, there were two incidents at Severance Center: one in the walkway that cuts through the strip, the other at Walmart which involved dozens of kids riding bikes in the store. This is one of many serious incidents at Severance going back decades, including a shooting in the food court that brought about the closure and tear down of the original mall.

Defensive Heightsters are claiming the youths responsible were not from the Heights. How do they know that? Did they personally card each offender? Geography dictates that the majority of the youths involved were local. Especially on a Sunday when the buses weren’t operating on a full schedule.

Coventry used to be a charming bohemian neighborhood. I remember seeing students play hackey-sack on the corner of Coventry and Euclid Heights Boulevard in the 80s. But in the 90s, the neighborhood changed from the artsy area it was to a commercial more generic place. The movie theater closed. A new corner building was built and chain restaurants moved into the neighborhood. The area has lost much of its charm, not all of it but most of it, and this can be seen by the type of people who walk the streets. Urban thugs. When I say “thugs” that is not a code word for “black.” Thuggery comes in all colors. Just take a look at Parma to see that.

Part of the problem is Cleveland Heights’ police force. They spend too much time watching for speeders and issuing parking tickets before the meters expire. But assaults at Nighttown and Coventry are overlooked, rape kits are not examined, innocent dogs are euthanized. There is a serious mix up of priorities in that city. Cleveland Heights has been going down the tubes for 20 years and we can only pray it doesn’t take South Euclid and other nearby communities with it.

That’s why I have to laugh when some claim that Oakwood Commons will bring more thugs to the area. Bring them here? They already are here! Rioting at Severance, and now at Coventry two years in a row! Cleveland Heights: get your cops out of their cars and walking the streets and shopping centers. Get your priorities in order!