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Category: Event

One-time events and ongoing activities (public and ticketed) in the Emerson-Garfield neighborhood.

Emerson-Garfield’s $20,000 Question

Emerson-Garfield’s $20,000 Question

The reconvened E-G Neighborhood Planning group will be meeting on Wednesday, January 9 at 6pm (an hour before the regular neighborhood council meeting) to discuss what planning manager Jay Cousins is billing as “Emerson-Garfield’s $20,000 Question.”

The amount refers to the money that is allocated to each of the neighborhoods that take part in the planning process. If the stakeholders opt not to continue, that funding naturally ends too.

In an e-mail to all stakeholders, Jay wrote:

We are facing a bit of a dilemma regarding neighborhood planning: The process has been started, so the clock is running (we have two years). After that time, results or not, the Planning department moves on.

Or, we can stop the process now and go to the back of the line, where we will wait about ten years before we could start again.

What to do? Continue planning or bag it? Something else?

We need to make the decision as a group.

Please attend a planning chat for about an hour.

We can hear folks’ thoughts and kick around some options.

Bring your opinions and options with you (maybe it helps if you drink heavily beforehand).

If you have thoughts on the matter but are unable to attend, please leave a comment or get in touch using the Contact page.

Materials for the Jan. 9 EGNC Meeting

Materials for the Jan. 9 EGNC Meeting

In a break from recent custom, the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council is holding a meeting this month. It will take place on Wednesday, January 9 in the usual place (Corbin Senior Center) at the usual time (7pm). Brave the cold in exchange for the warm, fuzzy feeling of doing good for the neighborhood.

The agenda for the upcoming January 9 meeting and the minutes from last month’s meeting on December 12 are now available. Grab them on the “Downloads” page or just get them here:

We’ll be getting a head start on 2013 by discussing the ever-popular Spring Cleanup, planning for a summer concert series in Corbin and Emerson Parks, and suggesting possible logo/branding ideas for the neighborhood to snazz things up.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Winter Potluck 2012

Winter Potluck 2012

The Emerson-Garfield winter potluck will take place on Wednesday, December 12 at 6pm at the Corbin Senior Center. If you live, work, or own property in the neighborhood, you’re invited!

We’re hoping that the attendance will be as high (or better yet, higher) as it was for the summer potluck back in August.

Got a favorite Christmas cookie recipe? A seasonal salad? Bring it along! Since we won’t have the added bounty of the community garden during the winter months, everyone is encouraged to bring a dish to ensure there’s enough food to go around.

The regularly scheduled neighborhood council meeting will follow at 7pm.

Hope to see you there!

Materials for the Nov. 14 EGNC Meeting

Materials for the Nov. 14 EGNC Meeting

We’ve just posted the minutes (often imitated, never duplicated) from the October 10 meeting as well as the agenda for the upcoming November 14 meeting. Get ’em here:

We’re still waiting on confirmation that this month’s Neighborhood Planning meeting will take place as usual. As stakeholders and attendees of last month’s neighborhood meetings will know, E.J. Iannelli has stepped down as planning manager for a variety of reasons (some of which are noted in the above minutes); Jay Cousins has stepped up to fill the role.

As always, the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council meeting will start at 6pm at the Corbin Senior Center. We’ll be discussing how to allocate the approximately $57k in funding that the neighborhood will be receiving as part of the Community Development Block Grant in 2013. The process and stipulations for CDBG funding have changed this year, and there are a number of issues to address if we want to ensure that Emerson-Garfield sees the same (or greater) level of attention as in years past.

One of the big changes is that much of next year’s CD funding is designed to be used for capital projects (i.e., bricks and mortar). Some examples of what other neighborhoods have done — as well as some of the facts and figures behind 2013 CDBG funding — are outlined in the previous post.

And remember: the neighborhood council isn’t a cabal of insiders. It’s open to everyone and anyone who wants to attend. Please come to find out what’s going on and help shape Emerson-Garfield for the better.

Now, Where Do We Go from Here?

Now, Where Do We Go from Here?

Thanks to everyone who took the time to follow the story about The Hoods and our response to it, we’ve had hundreds of new visitors to this site over the past 48 hours. We hope that it won’t be a one-off and that many of you will return to stay abreast of much less incendiary news about neighborhood developments and events.

Whether you agree with our point about The Hoods or not, we want to invite everyone with a stake in Emerson-Garfield to participate in our ongoing efforts to improve the neighborhood from the bottom up. Contrary to stereotype, Emerson-Garfield’s neighborhood council and planning committee aren’t a cabal of grumpy old men griping about kids on their lawn — the groups are diverse, they’re vibrant, they’re active, and they’re always looking for ways to become more of all those things.

Some of the biggest challenges we’ve historically faced are ignorance and apathy, but The Hoods has shown that people can become informed very quickly if the incentive is there, and that those people are anything but apathetic about their neighborhood.

So, where do we go from here?

Don’t limit your concern to a single of outburst of controversy. Don’t limit your comments to a single blog post. Don’t sour on an issue because of criticism. Instead, show up to neighborhood council and planning meetings. Speak your mind. Offer your input. Make suggestions for improvement. Help with the legwork. Because neither the individual councils nor The Hoods are the sole arbiters of what our neighborhoods are or what they can be. That takes all of us working in concert.

Here in Emerson-Garfield, there are two meetings this week that would welcome new faces, new voices, and new ideas:

  • Neighborhood Planning, 6pm on Wednesday at Corbin Senior Center. This is an initiative that is working toward a documented vision that could guide the neighborhood for the next decade and beyond.
  • Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council, 7pm on Wednesday at Corbin Senior Center. This focuses on practical issues and improvements such as crime updates, new playground equipment in the parks, and event planning.

If you’re fired up and live, work, or own property anywhere in Emerson-Garfield, we hope to see you at one or both of these meetings.