Right outside Father's Dream

Submitted by Lee Batdorff on Fri, 03/25/2011 - 16:35.

Today I went to Father's Dream Appliances, which repairs and sells used appliances from their store at 9520 Woodland Ave. on the East side of Cleveland. I purchased a washer and dryer for $484.88, tax and delivery and 90 day warranty included. Just as the paperwork was completed, the owner of the business came in and told me that someone had hit my car.

I went out and saw a crowd of people around a screaming man on the ground next to two totaled cars. Neither was mine. My car was scraped a bit over the left rear wheel.

An early report from the crowd was that he had a broken arm.

Firemen spread powder over a pool of leaked gas. An emergency crew arrived and tied the convulsing man onto a gurney.

As they lugged him into an ambulance, the driver, (who was white), pounded his chest and screamed. "It doesn't look like he has a broken arm," someone said. I told someone, "everytime I park on the street I wonder if it is a good idea."

"Was this guy drunk?" someone asked. "I think he had a seizure," a lady said. "I think you hit on it ma'am," I said.

After they loaded the ambulance I asked one of the EMS guys if he smelled alcohol. "No. I did see evidence of meth-amphetamine on him," he said.

Both the injured driver's car, a Honda (as is mine), and the Father's Dream owner's car, were heavily damaged, having suffered a head on collision.

A police officer took our drivers' licenses.

While the cop worked our licenses the owner took me into their lunchroom where I read this morning's Plain Dealer and a letter to the editor from much admired Tom Bier, a retired urban affairs professor from Cleveland State University. It was about a couple shaking down the health care system by giving their house to a daughter.

The policeman came into the lobby at Father's Dream and gave us our licenses and answered our questions. "You can find the police report online under the address of this building," he said.

A call came through to the cop from Metropolitan Hospital. I over heard that they found some white powder on the driver and the Police needed to pick it up.

"The important thing is that the driver is ok," said the store owner. "He'll be alright," said the cop, reassuringly.

"He'll have some questions to answer," I said.

After the cop left to orchestrate the towing of the bashed Honda, the store owner sat, slumped, on a table and said, "I've got bigger worries than this." His car was drivable, but definitely will cost much more than the deductible to repair. Mine was something I could live with without repair. I patted him on the shoulder and said, "I also have bigger worries than this."

My philosophy about an urban car is one that is less likely to be stolen. My recently purchased used Honda, already has a cracked bumber placed there by the previous owner. Now with this scrape over the rear left wheel, my car has even more anti-theft chops.

Later, I talked with Gary, who had told me about Father's Dream. "Oh, no!" he said. "Meth is getting into Cleveland now!"

"I thought it was already here," I told Gary, "It seemed to me that this isn't the first time this EMS guy had seen evidence of meth."

Apparently no one took valuables from the poor guy while he lay there screaming, and the cop didn't shake us down to give our driver's licenses back, which I image happens in some places.

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I'm a couple of states and

Submitted by greatboldworld on Fri, 03/25/2011 - 16:59.

I'm a couple of states and many years away from Cleveland and | didn't need this post to learn that meth was in Cleveland.  Please tell me that this isn't new news to you.  For God's Sake, where are Realneoans living?

Rural Ohio could be meth central

Submitted by Lee Batdorff on Fri, 03/25/2011 - 17:10.

I've heard plenty about meth out Portage County way, and read about it in many other semi-rural areas of Ohio. I figured it was happening here too and now apparently I've witness first hand evidence of the results of smoking meth while driving, if the lab report rings true.

We need these posts

Submitted by lmcshane on Fri, 03/25/2011 - 17:09.

GBW--thanks for visiting REALNEO, although you are out-of-state now--I am glad to see Lee posting his slice-of-life story here.  The drug element of the story is of peripheral interest to me. 

I am more interested in this:

Today I went to Father's Dream Appliances, which repairs and sells used appliances from their store at 9520 Woodland Ave. on the East side of Cleveland. I purchased a washer and dryer for $484.88, tax and delivery and 90 day warranty included.

Not a bad deal. 

Fathers Dream Appliances

9520 Woodland Ave
Cleveland, OH 44104

216-421-1570

McShane, I'm not quite sure

Submitted by greatboldworld on Fri, 03/25/2011 - 17:43.

McShane,

I'm not quite sure what you find so unusual about Fathers Dream.  It's always nice to see business providing the needed basics of life in Town.  I hope they prosper.  But, these kinds of businesses were pretty common as I remember.  The W. Side had plenty of used appliance stores.  Some gave cheap warranties.  Most treated their customers well.  A  couple getting started could buy used (and sell) and be set up in their flat for cheap. 

And, I suspect Woodland Ave. is still pretty dicey for investing.  Are those projects still there on Woodhill, above 93rd I think?

Thanks

I enjoy that any small business

Submitted by westward on Fri, 03/25/2011 - 22:51.

is existing. Long gone are the days of owner held neighborhood business establishments. Now we have the large box stores, flung together so that One can do it all at one location. 

Dicey areas: the entire city. How many years has it been for you, GBW, that you were able to spend a good amount of time here?

Do you live in a neighborhood that is walkable in terms of shopping and buying stuff all the way from a loaf of bread to fabric to a set of screws and bolts and then walking back home?

  I hope it is an overly

Submitted by greatboldworld on Sat, 03/26/2011 - 11:17.

 

I hope it is an overly broad statement to call the entire city "dicey" for retailers.  But, for decades the trend has been bad.  Mom and Pop stores are wonderful, but they have to compete on price and service, like any other place.  Weinman's hardware used to do that very well, against places like Home Depot.  They did it best because they knew construction and household materials.  They were doers, like Miss Jerleen.

But, before you go praising those neighborhood retailers too much--ask, how many people did they employ?  Does the guy who isn't family there have any health insurance?  Look, at least the bigger joints usually give some of that.  I want a choice.  Give me the big box store with cheap prices where the 17 year old kid usually doesn't know where Aisle 4 is, and give me the sharp neighborhood store where the old guy in the back has exactly what I need and will tell me how to do it.

In Manhattan, we have decent choice...but it's all pricey.  The trendy and silly can charge more than the solid and useful--so, we have art galleries, overpriced coffee shops, etc...and fewer laundries and shoe repair shops.  So, the moneyed classes can make it more difficult for those of us who have to be more practical.  But, yeah, Manhattan is walkable.  But, that doesn't necessarily mean convenient.  People go to an Ikea store down below the Newark, NJ airport to buy their stuff.  Ikea runs a shuttle.  The only home depot charges $15 for delivery.  Sure, you can get in a cab with your paint, rollers and tarps.  Or, as the locals say, you can schlep it.

Lived in Trenton before--the NJ capital.  A pretty city that was a real hole.  Dangerous and deserted.  Retailing was a dangerous thing.  A small core of businessmen and decent folk were putting up the struggle.  The police seemed to be trying.  But the school system recieved just GOBS and GOBS of money to no effect.  75% of the city's yearly operating budget was provided by the state.  This omits the school budget, and, the fact that its the county seat and state capital--with more money rolling in.  Truely, it was a city on the dole.  I hope Cleveland isn't headed there.

I think McShane wrote in praise of a new shop in Little Italy.  I loved that area.  He seemed to praise that they had no parking.  That will limit their customer base.  Hope it works.  But, I've known some businesses in Cleveland that made a point of providing just a few spaces real close for customers to drop in and out quickly.

I was curious you wanted to know this.  I thought you'd "blocked" replies from me.

Good weekend.

Not overly broad to say all Cleveland is "dicey"

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Mon, 03/28/2011 - 16:40.

Hey GBW, you can read more about the upper Woodland area in the Street Conversations with Reza January 2008 report.  Since 2008, of course, everything's considerably worse. 

Just going into these areas to conduct a little commerce like Lee did, takes some gumption and probably a bit of dumbness too.  

Personally though, when it comes to second hand appliances, I prefer A to Z on E55th.  

 

The drugs of choice

Submitted by cj on Fri, 03/25/2011 - 17:36.

Common choices are crack and heroin in the city. Heroin use is increasing at a rapid clip.

And there is meth?

Submitted by Lee Batdorff on Fri, 03/25/2011 - 17:38.

I didn't quiz the EMS guy if he knew the difference between a meth smoking rig and one to smoke heroin or crack.

And now there is meth

Submitted by cj on Fri, 03/25/2011 - 17:52.

Meth can be smoked or injected. Heroin users discard their works, uncapped needles, so watch out and wear shoes. EMS would know about the drugs coming into Cleveland. They are on the front lines of response. 

Meth = death?

Submitted by Lee Batdorff on Fri, 03/25/2011 - 18:05.

Someone just told me that the recovery rate for Meth addiction is 1%. "If you do meth, you might as well buy a gun and ammo and blow your brains out." If so, Meth = death.

meth, before and after

Submitted by savcash on Fri, 03/25/2011 - 20:42.

before and after

just a few images to show people, how sick of a habit this is in what it does to your looks.

Why people start this, without knowing what grief it will bring their lives, is beyond me. Shaking head, Betty 

PS...  for more info see  http://www.barelyhangingon.com/ugly-people/meth-head-pictures/

and stats in Ohio on cleaning up the meth houses (dangerous work, a whole thread could be about this just alone.)

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/crime/cut-in-funds-for-meth-lab-clean-up-will-cost-local-law-enforcement-1117150.html

The problem is, America is NOT a Democracy - it is a Republic! As our Founding Fathers established, can we keep it?

Cutback on funds to shut down meth labs

Submitted by Lee Batdorff on Fri, 03/25/2011 - 20:51.

Thank you for these informative links, especially the Dayton Daily News story. Our government's responce to Meth is chilling. How many drug battles have been lost? How many drug battles will be lost?

grealtboldworld...

Submitted by mytown55 on Fri, 03/25/2011 - 23:17.

sometimes...when I feel like "traveling" around...I go to the google map site and type in the address of "my friends" or my old addresses or just type in cross streets with a zip code and " traveling down" to the area in a street search...yes, the projects are still there on Woodland Ave.....go check them on google map...if, you travel down the street...you can see, alot, of changes.

Old as the hills: Winter's Bone

Submitted by Lee Batdorff on Sun, 03/27/2011 - 22:49.

As a friend said, "It is a Greek tragedy on speed."

In the early 1970s, around the time I turned 20 years old, I recall black on white photocopy signs started appearing on utility poles and other public places in Coventry Village, University Circle and elsewhere stating in large staked typseset words, "Speed Kills," and nothing else. I didn't know who put them up and wondered who put them there. An organization or an individual? I believed the signs, and stayed away from Speed.

While it might be cooked up in clandestine labs, speed is old as the families in the hills in the film Winder's Bone, released July 2010, (http://www.wintersbonemovie.com/).

Clearly the inhabitants in our civilization have not yet come to terms with many addictions. What can be done to turn basic drug addition from a criminal problem to a medical one?
 

Careening car's driver from outer ring suburb

Submitted by Lee Batdorff on Fri, 04/01/2011 - 12:55.

It can't be said that Cleveland brings all its troubles on itself. For instance the driver of the car careening into two vehicles mentioned above is from North Royalton, which is in far southern Cuyahoga County, many miles from Cleveland. This is according to the insurance adjuster on my side of the case. Not only was the car involved not stolen, it was covered by insurance. Not so fast however. The adjuster said that the car's insurance company is balking at paying for damages in such a case.

Accident just outside Father's Dream is a rare event, says tech

Submitted by Lee Batdorff on Sat, 04/02/2011 - 14:19.

Darnel, the technician who came to my house to straighten out a thump in my referbished dryer from Father's Dream Appliance said, "I've worked there 10 years and this is the first time anything like last week's auto accident has happened in that time."

Two ambulance chasers call me

Submitted by Lee Batdorff on Mon, 04/04/2011 - 23:35.

I returned two messages on my home phone on Monday. Both said they represented doctors and wanted to know how I was after the automobile accident. It was so kind of them. This was my big chance to feign injury and make big bucks in the swindle the insurance company racket, except I wasn't in the car at the time of the accident. I told the second person, "Now you can let go of my little toe."

Many ambulance chasers are after me

Submitted by Lee Batdorff on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 10:41.

More calls and lots of mail coming in from doctors and attorneys who have my welfare on their minds. One of the attorneys sent me a copy of the Traffic Crash Report and of my rights. A handy service I didn't have to trouble myself to do.

Dream Crash takes up time

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 11:53.

Hello Lee,   In my opinion, you do have a legitimate claim – perhaps not a physical health claim since you were not in the car at the time it was struck, but you do have a claim for your time consumed in reacting to the crash the day it happened, and your time consumed in taking your car for damage estimates, to the repair shop, etc. (am I correct in recalling that your car was slightly damaged?).
 
Besides the damage to your car, put a bill together for your time – it is owed to you.

Best, Jeffb

Wheels of justice at my front mail slot

Submitted by Lee Batdorff on Thu, 04/21/2011 - 11:14.

This morning I found a hand-delivered subpoena for me to appear in Cleveland Municipal Court in my mail slot. They requested I bring estimates for damages done to my vehicle as a result of this accident. As you suggested Jeff, I'll also write up a bill for time of waiting around at the accident site, talking with the police officer, attending the pretrial hearing for the case and taking my car in for damage estimates and include it too. However I won't include the time I took to write this blog posting.

What does this attorney know?

Submitted by Lee Batdorff on Thu, 05/12/2011 - 13:00.

On Tuesday May 10th at a criminal pretrial hearing I stood in the dock in the courtroom of soft spoken Judge Angela R. Stokes across from a young man from North Royalton, the driver of the Honda that scrapped mine before smashing into and destroying another car on Woodland Avenue on March 25th.

Before the proceedings the young man's attorney spoke to me saying that "you'll be covered for this damage. Either the insurance company will pay for it, or my client will." Then he asked me an odd question. "What do you know about the disposition of my client's insurance company about this?"

I pulled out the letter I received from State Farm Insurance dated April 19th that said their investigation is pending. This is something I though an attorney in his situation would know before asking me.

Soon the baliff approached and introduced me to him as "the man whose car was only clipped. The other car in the accident was totaled." The attorney look chest fallen. What does this attorney know?