[image-1]We all know about Linndale, the I-71 speed trap otherwise known as a small Cuyahoga County village with, like, eight streets. Now, This American Life listeners have been treated to the horrorscape that we’ve driven through for decades.

It’s a 440-yard stretch of freeway with a degree of policing unmatched anywhere else in the state. Perfect fodder for TAL.

“If you ask people who live in the Cleveland area, Linndale is basically a speed trap masquerading as a town,” producer Sean Cole says.

Yup.

Listen here.

The heart of the episode, of course, is more about the macro-level look at what Linndale represents — and what sort of political context we can draw from the ongoing Statehouse battle over its existence.

“Linndale has always been the burr up somebody’s ass, ever since I can remember,” former Linndale mayor Mike Toczek says.

This article appears in Oct 18-24, 2017.

Eric Sandy is an award-winning Cleveland-based journalist. For a while, he was the managing editor of Scene. He now contributes jam band features every now and then.

One reply on “The Linndale Speed Trap Got Its Own ‘This American Life’ Episode”

  1. Linndale is the cockroach of communities, as the 25-mph limit on four-lane Memphis Avenue amply demonstrates. No traffic engineer would set such a low limit, but the cockroach council does.

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