10-28-13 Common Council Agenda & Packet

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• Near northwest resident want a walkable connection to amenities in downtown South Bend. They believe an opportunity to develop safer walking and bike lanes would increase the foot traffic from the neighborhood into downtown. • Near northwest residents believe there is a need for more support for parents raising children. Residents feel opportunities such as moms or parenting groups would help strengthen family values and provide support to parents with young children. Those interviewed were also asked about threats to the neighborhood. Another way to consider threats is as challenges. The comments made during the interviews were grouped and summarized into themes that communicate similar comments. The themes identified were: • Neighbors believe crime, drugs and prostitution create an environment that is unsafe for neighborhood residents and fear it threatens the neighborhoods ability to attract residents and businesses to the area. • Neighbors believe the current high volume of vacant and abandoned properties in the neighborhood and throughout the entire community has created a level of disinvestment that threatens the neighborhood. They feel this coupled with the view that Code Enforcement is ineffective as an enforcement agency has led to lack of community pride. • Neighbors feel there is a high amount of substandard rental properties and reluctance by those in ownership to maintain the properties. This combined with the lack of any actionable oversight has created a lack of basic property maintenance, is threatening the neighborhood environment and creating conditions for irresponsible investors and renters to thrive in the neighborhood. • Neighbors believe the lack of job opportunities and businesses in the surrounding area threaten the economic vitality of the neighborhood. • Neighbors and stakeholders believe that a lack of financial resources for neighborhood improvements threaten the potential revitalization efforts of the neighborhood. • Neighbors believe there is a lack of support from city government and no plan for improvement of the neighborhood. Residents feel if it is not addressed it will threaten the neighborhoods future revitalization efforts and ability to transform. • The deteriorated condition of the neighborhood infrastructure such as curbs, sidewalks, streets and lighting make residents feel that a message is being sent to the community that no one cares about the neighborhood and it is not worth investing in. • Neighbors have observed a lack of police presence and slow response time in the neighborhood. Residents feel the perception of the police department is that the area is bad, so neighbors should not be surprised crime is occurring. A lack of understanding of the neighborhood environment and communication with the police department threaten its safety. • Neighbors feel that diversity is a key value of the neighborhood. Without a concentrated effort to bridge the gap between race, social, economic, gender, age and cultural differences comprehensive neighborhood improvement will be threatened and gentrification could occur. • Neighbors believe the opportunity for business development is occurring everywhere around the neighborhood, but feel threatened that the neighborhood is not considered in discussions of the vibrancy of downtown. 28