Linndale Is Really Concerned About Traffic Safety (And Money)

With boundless creativity and financial panache, Linndale Village Council green-lit a plan to rebuild the local economy.

Speeding tickets. They’re doing the speeding ticket thing again.

Earlier this year, State Sen. Tom Patton’s vendetta against Linndale’s black hole speed trap (shared by, uh, everyone) came to fruition via a rider he slapped on an unrelated bill. Communities with populations of fewer than 200 residents could no longer host mayor’s courts and, ipso facto, could no longer reap the local collection of speeding ticket revenue.

And then we all cheered and floored it down I-71, brandishing a sturdy middle finger to the traffic cop still stationed alongside the roadway and still fully capable of writing tickets (though also fully aware that the cash would be diverted to Parma Municipal Court, meaning that this year’s ticket-writing op became more of Linndale’s own vendetta against Patton et al. and less of a money-maker for the village). After brandishing that middle finger, we usually had to cough up an apology to the officer.

ANYWAY, all of that meant Linndale needed to hit the drawing board and rewrite its approach to income.

This brilliant new plan, born out of Mayor Ashlee McLaughlin’s realization that Linndale cannot survive without the nourishing blood of casually speeding commuters, involves installing traffic cameras at various points withing the community’s sprawling one square mile. All of Linndale’s voting residents will have a shot at approving or rejecting the plan via the ballot in November. All of Northeast Ohio’s driving public will have a shot at voicing their disdain on all sorts of local media outlets, like Scene’s website, for example.

This article appears in Aug 7-13, 2013.