The Observation Deck

Phil Florian wrote:My hope is that Councilperson Demro was there to learn more about how to run such a meeting for our Ward and maybe skip a bit of the chaos.

Phil, Councilman Demro has been organizing these for some time. Feel free to contact him. 288.8092/ ryan@ryandemro.com

Suzanne

Phil Florian wrote:So when will my Ward (2) get such a meeting? Or did we have one already and I missed it?? Grrr... I have been off the LO Deck for a while until recently and am just getting caught up on the swing of things.

I'm in Ward 2 and my street started a block watch earlier this year (Lakeland Ave. between Detroit & Hilliard). It appears that having a whole Ward block watch is a little much...too much to keep organized and be manageable. Ours is working quite well...although it would be nice to see more neighbors at the meeting.

Last night's meeting sounded like a fiasco.

Council member Mary Louise Madigan has been on the block watch forefront.

She's in Ward 4 and can be reached at 228-9578.[/url]

Dee Krupp wrote:

Phil Florian wrote:So when will my Ward (2) get such a meeting? Or did we have one already and I missed it?? Grrr... I have been off the LO Deck for a while until recently and am just getting caught up on the swing of things.

I'm in Ward 2 and my street started a block watch earlier this year (Lakeland Ave. between Detroit & Hilliard). It appears that having a whole Ward block watch is a little much...too much to keep organized and be manageable. Ours is working quite well...although it would be nice to see more neighbors at the meeting.

Last night's meeting sounded like a fiasco.

Sounds like they are trying to break the Ward up with Block Captains to organize the smaller portions of it. I agree, a whole Ward would be tough to coordinate. I am curious to see what comes out of this next meeting. Hopefully it will avoid fiasco level.

Phil,
I'm a Council candidate for Ward 2 and held a town forum on neighborhood safety on July 24 at the Woman's Pavilion in Lakewood Park. It was a full house (75+ attendees) and we held a panel-moderated discussion with questions from the audience for 90+ minutes. Note the attendance was not limited to Ward 2, but to any interested Lakewood resident.

The point of the meeting was to begin the community discussion about tough issues and begin the process of forming a consensus for dealing with them.

Rather than control the meeting with a rigid agenda, we allowed for people to speak in their own voices about the problems they've experienced on their streets. It's important to listen and not assume we know the answers before we understand the problems.

As specific outcomes, I've already followed up with several residents who are dealing with problem neighbors. I've also signed up more than 80 people interested in forming Block Watches--or rather, as I would suggest, Good Neighbor Networks (which are more than just Block Watches and focus on more than just crime prevention).

I'll hold a follow up forum in early September to dig into the solutions and get into the problem-solving. We may have a more structured agenda at this second meeting to allow for smaller groups to decide upon action steps.

Phil, can I sign you up, too? Call me any time, 216-337-1318.
Thanks,
Tom

Mr. Bullock.

Thank you for your efforts on this issue.
However, may I suggest to all of those who will be office holders come January and to future candidates, that you NOT wait until July or August of 2009 to hold your meetings on community concerns?

I am sure you are sincere in your concern, as are the other candidates and their supporters but it would send a clearer message to the citizens of this wonderful place if all of these meetings didnt somehow coincide with an election campaign.
Any problems we have will likely stil be there come January, but the cynic in me has the uneasy feeling that the community meetings wont be.

Dee,

Let's not see cynicism where none belongs. It's appropriate that candidates who seek to represent the people respond to their concerns. Clearly there is growing concern about crime, noise, trash, and absentee landlords.

As you can see from these pictures, many concerned Lakewood residents turned out to share their thoughts at the neighborhood safety forum we convened on July 24 at the Woman's Pavilion in Lakewood Park:





In addition, politics can be more than just the marketing of a product (i.e. a candidate) to consumers (i.e. voters). Done right, politics can be the beginning of a community conversation about difficult issues, and initial steps towards forming a consensus can be taken during the campaign. It can be substantive policy, rather than partisan shilling.

We're all bored by the stale, canned, risk-averse presidential marketing efforts. There, the message is controlled to shield the candidates from risk.

That's not what we're doing in Lakewood. Here, we're opening up the conversation to the people to speak in their own voices. We're not trying to control the conversation, but rather to convene a venue in which the authentic concerns of residents can see the light of day and begin to find a solution.

Here is the panel of experts who fielded questions about absentee landlords, enforcing standards for Section 8 housing, courtesy and respect between neighbors, and organizing a Block Watch (or a "Good Neighbor Network", which focuses on more than crime) as a first step to dealing with neighborhood problems:



The panelists (sitting) from left to right are Greg Graham, Keith Benjamin, Sean Wheeler, and Mara Manke.

I'll be holding a follow up forum in early September to dig into the solutions. (The first meeting on July 24 focused on hearing about the problems.)

In the end, however, democracy works by blending politics with policy, so there are shades of gray generously mixed in with our community discussion. So I do understand your concerns.

Sincerely,
Tom (Mr. Bullock is my dad!)

So does anyone know what the next steps are since the meeting? I know I signed up on the sheet, I'm just wondering when we'll hear something next?

Bryan Schwegler wrote:So does anyone know what the next steps are since the meeting? I know I signed up on the sheet, I'm just wondering when we'll hear something next?

Bryan

There is another meeting being planned. Tom thought it would be best to look for solutions to the problems that were brought up at that meeting then just having bitch session after bitch session.

He has stopped in the office for some help with police calls.

FWIW


.

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The resources from last nights meeting are available at
http://www.colleenwing.com then click on Block Watch.

The resource packet I put together is available to print.

http://neopolitics.com/wing/blockwatchpacket.pdf

From my experience, once any resident has an overview of the program the best next step is to set a meeting date and circulate a flyer notice on their block.