This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Are the police under orders to leave Main St. alone?

As I said once before the only offence I see RO taking seriously in our CBD is an expired parking meter. I realize that every PD needs to pick its battles and crime is number one with any small police department,  But I greatly suspect that there is a hands off the bikers policy originating from city hall especially now that we attract mc enthusiasts from all over and not just locals.
However, I do proscribe to the broken window pane theory of if you take care of the little things the rest will follow.
I cannot believe how our Main Street has changed ever since we opened it up to motorcycles, and I want to say that I am not against their presence. Most of them do not go crazy revving engines, blasting boomboxes, and playing pass the leader of the pack, or doing wheelies on Main (wheelies usually confined to North Main). Logic also tells us that the reason they love RO is that other cities would not tolerate them, and obviously for good reasons. Could you envision this in Frankenmuth, Rochester, or Birmingham? Even Ferndale seems to have little problem with their visiting bikers. This is why I lay this debacle squarely at the feet of our mayor, manager and commission whose laissez -faire policies when it comes to our downtown has led us from out of control party buses to this. Is it no wonder that for anyone wanting to build a bar that RO is their first choice? 
Now that we have motorcycle nights up to five days a week during the summer why can't we have a few cops on Harleys to patrol Main? Its called fighting fire with fire and I am sure the majority of the middle age crisis biker crowd would appreciate a little more civility so they can hear each other discussing the pros and cons of their cycles.
Back to the window pane theory. While I am at it why is this city about to spend MILLIONS on replacing cement flags, most with minor cracks or blemishes while it permits spitting, tossing butts, and tons of gum spots mostly in front of bars where spitting smokers stand outside disregarding diners and passers with eyes glued to their phone pads.
What we need are posted fines for loitering and spitting just like good old New York where TB and other diseases are known and feared. Nothing stimulates my appetite more than seeing punks lob their reserves of saliva in front of me. "I'm cool." they think. All RO businesses whether occupied or not need to by law take responsibility for the gum spitting, butt tossing on Main on their frontage. Honestly, Washington and many of the side streets such as West Fourth are becoming more attractive. Why? Fewer bikers? fewer pan handlers and out of control drunks? Cleaner sidewalks?  I mean look at Gayles Chocolate, Luigis, and Lillys all now receiving more business than just a couple of years ago. Its a shame its losing retail but it can come back if only city hall would force some of the bar owners who are mostly the problem to clean up their frontages and keep them clean!. Residents can't get away with half of what the CBD does. If the fines are large enough the city cannot lose if it put our PD, and code enforcement on this job. Wh0 are they afraid of?  The big bad bikers? Anyway, we need to go back to attracting families in cars if we want to foster diverse businesses and fine dining. Families do not generally arrive on Harleys and crotch rockets and that is what is slowly disappearing from our downtown sidewalks. 

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?