You could walk Linndale's stretch of I-71 in about 30 seconds. Small as it may be, that patch of pavement has been extremely lucrative, and extremely controversial, for just about five decades.
The Linndale speed trap is notorious, not only in Cleveland, but statewide, for the sheer numbers raked in by cops who treat their small highway fiefdom like a toll road.As a 2008 Scene story noted: "Thanks to a legal quirk that Ohio shares with only one other state, mayor's courts — traditionally presided over by the mayors of cities too small to have their own judiciary — are allowed to keep nearly all of the revenue from the thousands of $90 fines they levy each year. That's how a 117-person village like Linndale can afford a police force with as many cars as blocks they patrol. Last year [2007] alone, the city raked in almost $1 million."
There have been countless attempts at ridding Northeast Ohio of the pesky and well-known trap (many of which are detailed in the article above), but being like most pests, it has survived every assault, like a cockroach that just won't friggin' die. Yet another recent move to squelch Linndale's domain failed recently.
