Cleveland Heights area - safe? (Lakewood, Fairview Park: 2013, crime, law)

[Cleveland_Collector]

People seem to always bring up East Cleveland and then gasp in horror. While by no means is it a nice area, it's also a fairly empty area and has less people living in it now than it did in 1920. For the most part, it's just a crappy 3 square mile dot on the map which happens to be adjacent to CH. The part that mostly draws certain areas of CH down is the fact that portions of CH share a school district with East Cleveland. The farther away from that area you go, the better it gets.

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by Cleveland_Collector

People seem to always bring up East Cleveland and then gasp in horror. While by no means is it a nice area, it's also a fairly empty area and has less people living in it now than it did in 1920. For the most part, it's just a crappy 3 square mile dot on the map which happens to be adjacent to CH. The part that mostly draws certain areas of CH down is the fact that portions of CH share a school district with East Cleveland. The farther away from that area you go, the better it gets.

Agreed, East Cleveland just kinda sucks. But I don't think it's the worst in the Cleveland area in terms of actually being a dangerous place to live.

[Cleveland_Collector]

Originally Posted by tribecavsbrowns

OK, since you prefer objective facts, and you apparently missed my Cleveland Heights-Lakewood comparison earlier on this thread, I'll just post it again:

Robberies per 100,000 population
2011 Cleveland Heights 221, Lakewood 67
2010 Cleveland Heights 152, Lakewood 77
2009 Cleveland Heights 155, Lakewood 66

2012, more of the same, Lakewood with a 50,000 population had 35 robberies through November. Cleveland Heights with 45,000 population had around 100:

Cleveland Heights Police Make 70 Arrests in 97 Robberies - Cleveland Heights, OH Patch

My position on this is not that Cleveland Heights is unsafe. It's not unsafe, for its demographics or for my personal taste (the neighborhood I live in is more dangerous than Cleveland Heights). It's also probably safer than Oak Park or Evanston, to stay with the theme started by the original poster.

But I also despise the fingers-in-the-ears mentality in Cleveland Heights, a mentality that I have heard actual Cleveland Heights residents complain about (usually jokingly, but still). I also despise when people think they're entitled to their own facts. And I think all of that is in particularly poor taste on a relocation forum. That's not to say there hasn't been a lot of really good info on this thread, but I'd really like to see Cleveland Heights do away with the fingers-in-the-ears stuff for good.

That's all well and good, but statistics like this are essentially just misrepresentations as they take a relatively small swath of area and generalize it. For instance, I could say that, for 2012, Chardon had a murder rate of 100 per 100,000 and a shooting for 160 per 100,000. I have now made an ordinarily super-safe town into a murder capitol. It's wholly untrue. But, those are the statistics.

The fact is, Cleveland Heights is, for the most part, as safe as any inner-ring suburb in just about any city in America.

[Clevelander17]

Originally Posted by tribecavsbrowns

OK, since you prefer objective facts, and you apparently missed my Cleveland Heights-Lakewood comparison earlier on this thread, I'll just post it again:

Robberies per 100,000 population
2011 Cleveland Heights 221, Lakewood 67
2010 Cleveland Heights 152, Lakewood 77
2009 Cleveland Heights 155, Lakewood 66

2012, more of the same, Lakewood with a 50,000 population had 35 robberies through November. Cleveland Heights with 45,000 population had around 100:

Cleveland Heights Police Make 70 Arrests in 97 Robberies - Cleveland Heights, OH Patch

My position on this is not that Cleveland Heights is unsafe. It's not unsafe, for its demographics or for my personal taste (the neighborhood I live in is more dangerous than Cleveland Heights). It's also probably safer than Oak Park or Evanston, to stay with the theme started by the original poster.

But I also despise the fingers-in-the-ears mentality in Cleveland Heights, a mentality that I have heard actual Cleveland Heights residents complain about (usually jokingly, but still). I also despise when people think they're entitled to their own facts. And I think all of that is in particularly poor taste on a relocation forum. That's not to say there hasn't been a lot of really good info on this thread, but I'd really like to see Cleveland Heights do away with the fingers-in-the-ears stuff for good.

I didn't realize that robberies were the only type of crime.

Here are the recent OVERALL crime rates (from C-D):

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS:
2007 - 85.8; 2008 - ???.?; 2009 -152.7; 2010 - 137.8; 2011 - 224.5

LAKEWOOD:
2007- 187.2; 2008 - 186.5; 2009 - 125.0; 2010 - 133.0; 2011 -156.0


This isn't about anyone being in denial, it's about reality, particularly as to how it relates to a faulty perception. Although there is some variation in those statistics, they bear out that, overall, it's no stretch to say that Cleveland Heights is no less safe than Lakewood.

[Clevelander17]

Originally Posted by Cleveland_Collector

People seem to always bring up East Cleveland and then gasp in horror. While by no means is it a nice area, it's also a fairly empty area and has less people living in it now than it did in 1920. For the most part, it's just a crappy 3 square mile dot on the map which happens to be adjacent to CH. The part that mostly draws certain areas of CH down is the fact that portions of CH share a school district with East Cleveland. The farther away from that area you go, the better it gets.

This isn't even entire true. Some of the areas in East Cleveland bordering Cleveland Heights are actually very nice, particularly the parts off of Lee in the Forest Hills development. The most troubled and depressed areas are those along Noble and Superior, IMO.

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by Marty711

I'll admit CH has its share of petty crimes.

I don't consider being robbed at gunpoint while walking down the sidewalk a "petty" crime. And I was reading of at least three or four such incidents in the CH section of the Sun Press police blotter every week.

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

I wonder how many people Andrew knows in Cle Heights?

Quite a few, actually. People who either lived there at some point or who still live there now.

My cousin's ex was once your typical Cleveland Heights liberal, but even he finally threw in the towel and left and moved to Lakewood so his daughter could have "better schools".

[Clevelander17]

Originally Posted by andrew61

I don't consider being robbed at gunpoint while walking down the sidewalk a "petty" crime. And I was reading of at least three or four such incidents in the CH section of the Sun Press police blotter every week.

Expert on CH, you are not. So rather than use data and produce actual evidence to support your argument, you're relying on your memory of a blotter that you used to read?

I sincerely want to thank you for once again adding your invaluable input into a Cleveland-related topic. The more you post, the more apparent it becomes to everyone else that your credibility is seriously lacking.

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by tribecavsbrowns

OK, since you prefer objective facts, and you apparently missed my Cleveland Heights-Lakewood comparison earlier on this thread, I'll just post it again:

Robberies per 100,000 population
2011 Cleveland Heights 221, Lakewood 67
2010 Cleveland Heights 152, Lakewood 77
2009 Cleveland Heights 155, Lakewood 66

2012, more of the same, Lakewood with a 50,000 population had 35 robberies through November. Cleveland Heights with 45,000 population had around 100:

Cleveland Heights Police Make 70 Arrests in 97 Robberies - Cleveland Heights, OH Patch

My position on this is not that Cleveland Heights is unsafe. It's not unsafe, for its demographics or for my personal taste (the neighborhood I live in is more dangerous than Cleveland Heights). It's also probably safer than Oak Park or Evanston, to stay with the theme started by the original poster.

But I also despise the fingers-in-the-ears mentality in Cleveland Heights, a mentality that I have heard actual Cleveland Heights residents complain about (usually jokingly, but still). I also despise when people think they're entitled to their own facts. And I think all of that is in particularly poor taste on a relocation forum. That's not to say there hasn't been a lot of really good info on this thread, but I'd really like to see Cleveland Heights do away with the fingers-in-the-ears stuff for good.

Nice balanced post. I tried to rep you but could not.

You're correct that Cleveland Heights is safer than Oak Park or Evanston. But Mayberry it is not. (And Lakewood is no longer Mayberry either, IMO.)

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by Clevelander17

Expert on CH, you are not. So rather than use data and produce actual evidence to support your argument, you're relying on your memory of a blotter that you used to read?

"Used to" as being within the past year or two, so my perceptions of Cleveland Heights crime are based on fairly current events.