The Bissett Neighborhood Association is conducting a survey of neighborhood needs, and while we are still open to receiving more responses, we’ve compiled some of the early findings. In the past, top needs focused on chronic nuisance properties, but this issue has moved down the list.
Today, the top need is to reduce property crimes such as vandalism and burglary. Next are needs to help those in poverty and a desire to have a closer engagement between the neighborhood and Bissett Elementary School. Fourth is dealing with nuisance properties and rounding out the top five is a need to reduce family violence.
While none of these issues are new in and of themselves, they do show a shift. The fact that nuisance property issues have dropped suggests that the work done in recent years by the City to streamline nuisance property-related ordinances and step up enforcement is working. As an example, the improvements along Nichols Street are quite significant.
Burglary and vandalism have also been on the list in the past, but are now center stage. We certainly appreciate having our PAR officer come to our monthly meetings to hear our concerns. Beyond this, we are looking into speakers who might come and talk about steps we can take to address the issue. For example, what we can learn about home security options. Some new inexpensive systems are available that can provide alerts on smartphones, and of course there are various contracted services. We might also look to see if there is more interest in neighborhood or block watch programs. We’ve never had much interest in the past to really launch such efforts. We also want to learn if there are challenges that the police face in trying to do their jobs.
Last year, BNA conducted its annual Neighborhood Night Out in conjunction with Bissett Elementary’s Open House, and it was a great success with about 400 attending. BNA has also raised money and provided donations to the school and supports the PTA activities. We expect there will be opportunities to advance this relationship further as the pavilion gets built this year in L.A. Wise Park which is right next door to the school.
When we think about helping those in poverty and reducing family violence, the plight of individuals and their loved ones are central. They are often persons trapped in difficult situations. As a neighborhood association, we’ll be looking to explore ways that people may find escape or at least temporary respite. We’ll also want to learn more about the key stressors that result in poverty and violent behavior, and what can be done to help mitigate them.
We encourage those in our neighborhood or interested in it to come to one of our monthly meetings. The pot luck dinners before the meetings make for a nice night out and an opportunity to talk about some of these issues. Maybe we can work together to help those in need. After all, our motto is “Neighbors helping Neighbors.”