The most reliable annual events in South Euclid are the Memorial Day Parade and Joseph Jerome Liptow running for office. He ran for city council in 2009 and lost. He’s running again this year and will probably come in dead last. Liptow ran for Cuyahoga County Council in 2010 and failed to get the nomination. He ran as a Republican but claims to be non-partisan. His political views come straight from the Tea Party. He deviates from the Tea Party dogma when it’s convenient for him. In other words, he’ll say anything to bash South Euclid’s elected leaders. He does just that at nearly every council meeting, and you can see council’s and the mayor’s eyes roll when he approaches the mike. They must wonder “Is my salary worth dealing with this nut?” There are times he can manage to keep a level head, but often as not he shouts and screams and scares the hell out of everyone in the room. Back in August Liptow went as far as to assault South Euclid employee Keith Benjamin, spitting on him.
It’s obvious that Liptow’s political agenda is to serve his own interests. As the owner of a home he inherited from his parents, he wants to abolish estate taxes. His family sold part of the land which is now the Cutters Creek development directly across the street from Liptow’s home to a developer. Another part of the land was sold by St. Gregory’s church. But Liptow, a Catholic, fails to note this. He blames the elected leadership of South Euclid for the development, as if they had the power to veto a private real estate transaction. Liptow fought the development of that parcel tooth and nail. He has cited various reasons for this, including the tax abatement being used as an incentive to buy. But he has never come clean about his own family’s involvement in this matter. Nor the fact that the Liptow family allowed the abandoned buildings to deteriorate and the land to lie fallow for decades. Liptow's actions delayed the development breaking ground for over a year. By the time the first units were built, the financial meltdown of 2008 had begun and the rest is history. So Liptow personally cost a local developer hundreds of thousands of dollars. LIPTOW HAS HURT OUR LOCAL ECONOMY.
As the parent of parochial school students, Liptow has fought against every public school levy ever put on the ballot. He’s also supported school board candidates whose agenda was to cut cut cut.
But there is another agenda to Liptow’s rants: He automatically opposes everything the current South Euclid leadership favors. His big issue this year has been, you guessed it, Oakwood. He’s spoken against the development both in public and using a number of sockpuppets. On Cleveland.com he’s known as cautiousman and SoEUCLIDFOREVER. At South Euclid Oversight, which is run by a cohort named Emilie DiFranco, he’s posted under his own name and anonymously. There is one frequent poster there who types in all CAPITAL letters, and I’ve suspected this is Liptow. That suspicion was recently confirmed in a recent post, where Liptow did everything but state his name to drop hints that it was him. It seems that Joe is hell bent on getting his message out, whatever that is. His rants in capital letters and normal case have bemoaned the presence of minorities in South Euclid, called the transaction at Oakwood a Jewish insider deal, and accused councilperson Jane Goodman of being a hypocritical environmentalist. Agree with Jane Goodman on Oakwood or not, but she lives what she espouses. She does not drive a giant SUV and live in a giant energy consuming house like Joe claims. She drives an older Toyota Prius and shares a small bungalow with her sister. Joe drives a Ford Excursion although technically he’s not supposed to be driving anything. More on that later.
I’m sure that if South Euclid’s leaders had been opposed to Oakwood, Liptow would be for it and complain about the city blocking progress. He’s that obvious.
Liptow has also foamed at the mouth over speeding cameras. This is understandable, since his license was suspended at least once! It’s not easy to get your license suspended in Ohio, you have to be either caught for DUI or build 12 points on your license within three years. But Joe has managed to do that so at least he’s accomplished something. Joe is the friend to leadfoots everywhere. I wonder if he would still be opposed to cameras if his kid was hit by someone’s speeding car!
Here’s a link to a South Euclid Oversight video of Joe speaking in 2009. Look at the eyes. They’re crazier than Michele Bachmann’s.
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