19 News gets results after neighbors on Cleveland’s West side complain about high grass on vacant lot

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - Tim Burgin has been fighting with Cleveland to get the grass cut at a vacant lot on West 89th Street for the past two summers.

“I realize that it’s a vacant lot,” says Burgin, who’s lived in a rehabbed house for the past two years near Edgewater Park. “Since I’ve moved in, it’s just not being maintained.”

19 News called the mayor’s office and the Cleveland Land Bank . Within an hour, a crew showed up to cut the grass.

The city of Cleveland Land Reutilization Program owns the lot after demolishing a house on the property.

The city had released a statement earlier saying they were behind in the maintenance of vacant lots due, in part, to COVID-19 preventing the hiring of seasonal workers.

But it was the same last year, according to Burgin, who says he’d cut the grass himself, but he’s a renter and doesn’t own a mower.

“I don’t think they’re paying attention to people like me,” Burgin says after 19 News made several calls and the city cut the grass immediately. “It’s mowed today. I bet you come back in a month, it’s going to look like it did before.”

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