Inquiring Thug Minds Wonder "Why You Taking Pictures, Man?"

Now that I'm settling into East Cleveland, expect to see posted to REALNEO and my other communities many amazing pictures of urban cores of this NEO-Plum... healthy, ill and dead.

Today's REALNEO header features a typical Saturday midnight at a particularly lawless place in NEO, at the intersection of Euclid Avenue and Lakeview Road... a few blocks from the UCI Police HQ, CIA, Case and UH... in a no-mans-land that is both in East Cleveland and Cleveland and so subject to no authority save the manager of the Marathon Gas Station there, which is the community-center of this dead-zone.

When I was there, last night, there were 100s of thugs lurking, bitching, dealing and hustling in and around the Marathon and surrounding slum-lorded apartments lining this dead-end stretch of Lakeview, terminating at the cemetery. Do not make the mistake of ever driving this street if you are faint of heart.

I was there to get gas as I was patrolling East Cleveland looking for such crises in my neighborhood (I live a few blocks from here), to begin thoroughly documenting the failures of our community. There are many forces and tools available to end such outright lawlessness, and in the process educate the community on proper conduct and provide valuable resources and services, not to mention much higher quality of life, property values, health and prosperity for residents.

I believe effective use of Information Technology (IT) holds the key to eliminating the blight of such lawlessness and I am in the process of proving that. In this instance, the fact that I was taking photos made everyone at the Marathon very nervous, and one thug asked me why I was taking pictures and I said "for the Internet" - his buddy said "You'd better watch yourself... they are pictured below, and probably on "Wanted" posters in police stations all over NEO. Perhaps the cops should start reading REALNEO!