Going out at night can be a problem. If there is any doubt, Lakewood resident Joe Simon, the self-published author of “Observations from the Door”, would like to assuage it. 

“Well, the book is a reaction towards the violence that's been going on in the nightclubs in the city,” said Simon who has been a doorman at the Metropolis nightclub for 18 years. “Within the last two years there's been a dramatic increase in people getting shot or mugged or beaten severely.”

To illustrate his point, he told the story of one night club patron who was shot and killed outside of Metropolis at the end of last year. He witnessed the aftermath of the unsettling event: the chaos, people trying to save the man, and trying to figure out what was going on. 

“I stood there and I thought that this isn't how things should be; they could be different,” Simon said. It was then that he started to write the book “Observations from the Door”, which seeks to explore the causes and solutions to the ongoing violence in the nightclub scene.

In this book, which he claims is one of the first of its kind, Simon talks directly to the reader. He not only outlines specific incidents that he witnessed (like the arrest of an Uzi-wielding aggressor) but he also explains how these situations can be avoided and who has the power of change. 

That is why in every copy of the book, Simon included a petition that he hoped would be part of his campaign to improve night life safety.

“[The petition] enables people to sign themselves up and other people up to encourage the government to listen to what I have to say,” Simon said. “It's not going to only be my ideas that I approach the city with.” 

Simon has already set up a website, observationsfromthedoor.com, that will have a mailing list and forum, thereby allowing people to send or share ideas.

“I'm also going to be having a tour of public gatherings where people can come and suggest things,” he said. “It will be my ideas and the ideas on the website that I take to the government.” 

He made it very clear that this task was not one that only one person could accomplish and with that he seeks to encourage participation in this movement, even if it's by the “dorkiest” of means. One of his other ideas to get people involved was a “Petition T-Shirt”.

“I'm hoping the people that wear them go with me to the city or state,” he said adding that another idea was to distribute journals for people to record their thoughts, take notes, or write down questions. “Other people add different experiences and different viewpoints.” 

Among the other things that he talks about in his book, he clearly asserts that there is not one single party that can be made to shoulder all the blame for the situation. Even hip-hop music is not always to blame.

“I do not cast blame specifically as blame. Life happens,” Simon writes in the book's long introduction. 

And while this book could easily be labeled as an expose, much of what is written, or at least the conclusions that Simon comes to, are not startling except perhaps in their frankness. More than anything, he evaluates the effectiveness of the enforcement of certain state laws, like underage drinking.

But his book does more than complain. For one thing, he suggests that there be more cooperation between the individual night clubs and the city. 

“Right now every organization that is out there interacts with the night club industry is one the penalizes them like liquor control,” said Simon. “These are not really working with the club to make it safe for the patrons.”

And this problem of safety is not only limited to the night clubs in the Flats. 

“The ideas that I suggest aren't just for night clubs, they're for any business open after 10 p.m.,” said Simon as he added that even Lakewood has issues with violent crimes. “A friend of mine was killed in the Drug Mart Parking lot outside the Fantasy a couple of years ago.”

And that is not the only violent crime that has effected his life. A couple of years ago he witnessed the shooting of a man as well as the results of numerous beatings and even a kidnapping. 

“People's attitudes have changed,” said Simon about the cause of this upswing in violence. “ Going out at night 10 years ago, a nose bleed was a big thing. And now making someone bleed from a bullet or a knife is acceptable.”

To try and jump-start his attempt at change, Simon sent out copies of his book to many of the politicians and police commanders in the Cleveland area to give them a heads-up on the book's release this Friday on the West Side. 

“Any change that does happen can happen throughout the city, the state or the nation,” said Simon about what can be done. “Over the years I've seen [Lakewood] become a lot more lenient towards this kind of thing. I think the city up until the new mayor has been a lot more lax. There was an increase in crime, it became a poorer place to live, condition wise. The new mayor is making an honest effort.”

So with the release of his book, Simon hopes to instigate a wave of change that will make the area a safer place for people to go out and have fun at night. 

“There's a lot to it, but it all starts with the book,” said Simon. “Hopefully the book instigates other people to come up with ideas or read what I've written and think about it and how it effects them and what they might say to the situations I've described.”