After a hard day’s work, it takes alot to get me to move from the house. Enter The Youth of Coventry, whose well-thought out, well-approached redress of grievances at Cleveland Heights City Council meeting on Tuesday, July 5th deserved to be supported. The group spoke concerning the amendments to the emergency ordinance youth curfew and presented solutions, not simply complaints, in an effort to work with the city to preserve the novelty of the Coventry experience.
As I traveled home this afternoon, I was greeted by crew trucks preparing for the filming of Fun Size, a Paramount Pictures project set in Cleveland Heights. Though I don’t know the specifications of how this area was chosen, I bet I can churn out a few reasons as to why this area was chosen. An economically viable area, accessible streets, appealing neighborhoods, convenience of business district, and so on. These reasons mimic why many families reside in the Heights – and reflect the by-products of the experiences these families seek for their children.
I am still concerned about the burden this ordinance puts on child and parent to disprove their violation of curfew in a number of potentially misunderstood exceptions. However I concur that we all want Coventry to remain viable for business owners and a valuable community asset for all to enjoy and that Council must start somewhere. As we move forward, I would implore as much communication and inclusion as possible with parents, business owners and our youth as we all seek to measure the long-term effects of the recently added amendments and its consequences. I applaud City Council for listening to our young adults and ask that they honor their statement that the ordinance serve as a starting point – Council must continue to seek the assistance of all community members and acknowledge areas of improvement as this ordinance is fine-tuned and vetted.
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