When we decided to live in the Westpark neighborhood of Cleveland I was very excited. I thought “what a better way to get to know and love this city then live in it?”. We were charmed by the neighborhoods, the convenience to shopping, and the proximity to downtown. We love the West Side Market, Gunning Park Recreation Center, the hipster bars and multi cultural restaurants, and all of our cool diverse neighbors; Police, Fire, blue collar, white collar, white, black, Hispanic. The taxes are low, and our yard is huge. And then the sun went down….
Our beautiful neighborhood by day turns into a street-fighting arena at night. About 2 weeks ago, a party held by one of the local “youth” (I say youth because even though I am still in my 20s, 18 seems so far away) got out of hand about 2 am. Being summertime, the windows were open and we had just gotten home about an hour beforehand. Raised voices and arguing turned into a full-blown beer bottle throwing 10 on 1 fight in our front yard. My husband went out to “break it up” and after yelling for them to take it elsewhere, the fight dissipated leaving behind a bloody victim. The police (with all due respect and we love them dearly) were dealing with other problems elsewhere that evening and were unable to come out right away, so there were never any repercussions for the attackers. This evening, the people across the street got into it, and while it was at the more respectful hour of 10:30, I can’t help but wonder how these people don’t know that they are putting on a show for the whole neighborhood.
We love living in the city and I hope more people try to make a difference and make it a great place to live, unfortunately most people do not abide by the philosophy "don't shit where you eat" to be blunt. With a baby on the way, we are now questioning our longevity in a house that we love. Cleveland, prove me wrong and don’t make me move to the ‘burbs.
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