10-28-13 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING OCTOBERT 28, 2013 neighborhoods in Indianapolis. A neighborhood in Ft. Wayne and one currently in Elkhart and Evansville are currently engaged in the work in addition to the work being done nationally. The Near Northwest Neighborhood started about a year ago, with leader training, then engaged in those 130 one on one interviews, hour long interviews where people from the neighborhood asked people from the neighborhood what are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities in the neighborhood and recorded that. That complied information was shared in a kick-off meeting report back session then that led to a visioning event where people were able to generate ideas around specifics themes that came out of the interviews. Action planning teams were formed and spent the entire summer working to draft goals, action plans, that became the quality of life plan and at the beginning of this month, the Near Northwest Neighborhood celebrated their roll out which is the end of the beginning. Their work has only just begun and then they can begin the implementation and evaluation of their plan on an on-going basis. (She noted to the Power- th Point Presentation) As you can see it has been a year, it was November 10 last year when we started the process with interviewing training. Took a slight respite for the Holidays, and hit it hard with the interviews early in the year and the report back was held in March, visioning in May, train the action team chairs in June about the smart goal framework and the action planning that they would be using all summer working on it. We reviewed the draft plan in September and as I mentioned it rolled it out in October. At each of these points there was more and more engagement by people in the neighborhood participating in their planning process. (Referring to the Power Point); a couple of pictures of the different events going on. Jim (inaudible) from the Institute for Comprehensive Community Development was involved in the beginning to kind of structure how this work was going to be done and then turned it over to resident work. It was residents that did the remainder of the work throughout the process all they through roll-out and voting to support their plan. The vision is kind of likely, but can be summed up in the last sentence; The Near Northwest is a neighborhood of choice that is seen as a highly desirable place to live, work and play. There are six goal areas in the plan connections in communications, quality housing, economic opportunity, redevelopment, safety, infrastructure and connectivity and youth and families. This covers the holistic comprehensive range of issues that need to be addressed in the neighborhood for the residents to believe that it is a neighborhood of choice. She stated that she is not going to go over the goals that are in the plan. The action plans are very detailed as well, but in connections in communications developing block captains for positive interactions establishing the landlord contact list is improving communication between the neighborhood, the residents and the landlords. Under quality housing, looking at our comprehensive redevelopment initiative and improving 95 properties in census tract 6, looking at the knowledge base of landlords and tenants and making sure that they understand their rights and responsibilities and can improve rental properties and improving the appearance of three to five structurally sound properties each year. Economic Opportunity and Development engaging in the city’s initiative for Lincoln Way West which is the southern border of the neighborhood. Adopting a Portage Corridor vision plan with a particular focus on Golden Avenue and Van Buren. Restoring the Ford Distributing Building to affordable rental housing and first floor commercial development bringing that property back into active use. Creating a neighborhood safety campaign, porch lights, awareness, and crime awareness training seminars for residents, infrastructure and connectivity looking at walkability between the neighborhood which is adjacent to South Bend’s downtown and the downtown area itself, improving bike and pedestrian safety at key intersections. Also improving the character of the neighborhood and establishing a tree planting program part of that character building sort of activity and then sidewalk and curb hazard repair which is something that was discussed earlier. Youth and families; engaging the youth in structured activities and promoting healthy lifestyles and facilitating connections among that diverse group of Near Northwest neighbors. Each of these goals has an action plan of what will be done to advance the goal, the timeline of when it will be accomplished, who is primarily responsible for making sure that will get done, not whose necessarily doing the work, but who is making sure that, that work is getting done and a performance measure so everybody knows when they are done. And that work was done by the neighbors for themselves for implementation by residents and stakeholders, we merely served as the facilitator and partner who have experience in this type of process in other places, the plan was developed by residents and stakeholders. The neighborhood sees the city as a partner for safety, code enforcement, housing and infrastructure, which are existing relationships that the neighborhood has had with the city over the time and formal adoption is a way that the city can support the work of the residents and stakeholders who engaged in the important planning process for themselves. If you have any questions I and or Karen would be happy to answer them. Council President Dieter: Are there any questions from the Council. 27