latestdish
06-02-2005, 05:41 PM
Hi! I run a block watch here at a large apartment community in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, PA. We had several successful National Night Outs, in cooperation with management. We had one last year. Attaching article from a local small publication called New Courier (aimed at African Americans) after my rant. This place has seen a lot of crime, including in the past few weeks. They started in August of 2001. We were told another one would be this year. Just found out that there was no night out scheduled for this year. :( A lot of county agencies here in Allegheny County, PA (things like Early Head Start, Head Start, et al) were represented at our event. It also had a lot of food, entertainment, etc. Sad that this place still has a lot of crime, but no scheduled crime prevention event this year. In fact, when I had my block watch meeting tonight, not one person showed up.
I try very hard to publicize my meetings. Little interest. As far as what National Night Out is, please see http://www.natw.org/. Article on Night Out is attached. Literally been taking my daughter to crime prevention meetings since she was born. When she was a newborn, a lot of this affected her. We had people across the hall who were high all the time, and played their music so loudly, you could see the walls shake all 7 days of the week. Why didn't I move? They were evicted two months later, liked most of the neighborhood, and could not afford moving costs. I tried to take a stand, and ran a block watch. I inherited the block watch from another lady, who felt frustrated, and wanted to fold it up. I saw it as letting the bad guys win, and took it over. Examples of local crime I am still talking about:
http://www.gatewaynewspapers.com/southhillsrecord/47744/
Also long, long list of crimes ranging from drug use to drunk driving from people with addresses in these apartments and general area in the actual paper itself. Now people want to whine that things in the apartments are bad around here. And management says they want quality tenants, but axes a lot of things that could keep them here, out of the blue, with no warning. A lot of our playgrounds are also in rough shape, with no sign of them being rehabbed this summer. The best part? This place has been for sale for three years. That is now the current excuse for a lot of things sliding. And the lady I inherited the block watch from passed away suddenly this week, at 62. She was a strong pillar of strength and inspiration to me. Not sure if there is a place to move Night Out to. Not sure if I should fold up my block watch, or just get smarter ways of promoting it, or move it town wide, to a different location. Feeling sad, which is very unlike me. I have seen a lot of tough times, and am a fighter. Not a good sign, or helpful to dd, when I feel like it is hard to get out of bed. (I also have a lot of other issues: divorce, health problems, dd's health problems, et al.) Please pray for me. DD deserves way better than that. Think maybe I should go to kaboom.org, and apply for help, and organize my own playground rehab/etc, and fight harder for this neighborhood? Or am I barking up the wrong tree? Thanks for listening. BTW, block watch has been run out of my home. The best part? Ex put on his resume that he took credit for all the work I did, that he never did. Go figure. It stopped me from getting a job I should have qualified for. The employer told me my ex sent a resume to that company first, and put down what I put down. *mope* Can anyone share a hug please? TY, Joy
Green Meadows Night Out fest signals turnaround
by Christian Morrow
Courier Staff Writer
Two murders in Squirrel Hill, a stabbing in Mt. Washington, shootings in Oakland and Rankin—this is what occupied police during National Night Out Against Crime, an annual event that encourages anti-crime efforts.
But in Baldwin’s Green Meadows housing community, once a hotbed of crime and racial strife, residents celebrated unity Aug. 3 with a pool party, barbecue, bicycle safety inspections and four hours of activities for children and adults.
Green Meadows’ 1,100 units consist of efficiencies, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and townhouses. It is a mixed-income community offering considerable amenities to both market-rate and Section 8 residents.
The community also has a significant senior population.
“Baldwin wasn’t really accepting of Green Meadows at first,” said Mickey Bradley, an administrator with the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, who helped coordinate the event. “But the new management has done a much better job of screening potential applicants and there is now a police mini-station here.”
Stephanie Valentine, who moved to Green Meadows when relocating from Virginia likes the community.
“Green Meadows is really nice,” she said. “It’s got Head Start, a health club, swimming pool, but it is remote.”
Valentine’s friend Vernessa Knight moved from Manchester on Pittsburgh’s North Side to get away from violence and drug activity.
About 2,000 people turned out for this year’s event, and though there were a variety of health and safety-related service providers taking blood pressure and related screenings for adults, Bradley said the children had the best time.
“We had a rock-climbing wall and there had to be 100 kids waiting in line for that,” she said. “It was pretty tall, but that didn’t stop them at all.”
Joy Dore, chair of Green Meadows’ neighborhood safety committee said the National Night Out events have really helped bond community residents with their neighbors and foster community pride.
“It promotes people looking out for each other because they get to know Mary next door,” she said. “Once you know her, if there’s something wrong you’ll know that too because she’s not a total stranger.”
The event also included visits from the Pirate Parrot, McGruff the Crime Dog and Mr. McFeeley from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. Residents also heard from Baq to Baq, a jazz band made up of volunteer county probation officials.
Even the weather cooperated.
“It rained everywhere but here until we were done,” said Davis. “We were here from 4-8 p.m., and at 8:05 it rained.”
Bradley said the school district and police have helped include more residents in the event each year.
“It gives people an opportunity to come to Green Meadows and interact, and to see the incidental things they may have heard isn’t what this community is about,” she said. “This community has made great progress in terms of crime prevention and awareness.”
(Send comments to [email protected].)
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I try very hard to publicize my meetings. Little interest. As far as what National Night Out is, please see http://www.natw.org/. Article on Night Out is attached. Literally been taking my daughter to crime prevention meetings since she was born. When she was a newborn, a lot of this affected her. We had people across the hall who were high all the time, and played their music so loudly, you could see the walls shake all 7 days of the week. Why didn't I move? They were evicted two months later, liked most of the neighborhood, and could not afford moving costs. I tried to take a stand, and ran a block watch. I inherited the block watch from another lady, who felt frustrated, and wanted to fold it up. I saw it as letting the bad guys win, and took it over. Examples of local crime I am still talking about:
http://www.gatewaynewspapers.com/southhillsrecord/47744/
Also long, long list of crimes ranging from drug use to drunk driving from people with addresses in these apartments and general area in the actual paper itself. Now people want to whine that things in the apartments are bad around here. And management says they want quality tenants, but axes a lot of things that could keep them here, out of the blue, with no warning. A lot of our playgrounds are also in rough shape, with no sign of them being rehabbed this summer. The best part? This place has been for sale for three years. That is now the current excuse for a lot of things sliding. And the lady I inherited the block watch from passed away suddenly this week, at 62. She was a strong pillar of strength and inspiration to me. Not sure if there is a place to move Night Out to. Not sure if I should fold up my block watch, or just get smarter ways of promoting it, or move it town wide, to a different location. Feeling sad, which is very unlike me. I have seen a lot of tough times, and am a fighter. Not a good sign, or helpful to dd, when I feel like it is hard to get out of bed. (I also have a lot of other issues: divorce, health problems, dd's health problems, et al.) Please pray for me. DD deserves way better than that. Think maybe I should go to kaboom.org, and apply for help, and organize my own playground rehab/etc, and fight harder for this neighborhood? Or am I barking up the wrong tree? Thanks for listening. BTW, block watch has been run out of my home. The best part? Ex put on his resume that he took credit for all the work I did, that he never did. Go figure. It stopped me from getting a job I should have qualified for. The employer told me my ex sent a resume to that company first, and put down what I put down. *mope* Can anyone share a hug please? TY, Joy
Green Meadows Night Out fest signals turnaround
by Christian Morrow
Courier Staff Writer
Two murders in Squirrel Hill, a stabbing in Mt. Washington, shootings in Oakland and Rankin—this is what occupied police during National Night Out Against Crime, an annual event that encourages anti-crime efforts.
But in Baldwin’s Green Meadows housing community, once a hotbed of crime and racial strife, residents celebrated unity Aug. 3 with a pool party, barbecue, bicycle safety inspections and four hours of activities for children and adults.
Green Meadows’ 1,100 units consist of efficiencies, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and townhouses. It is a mixed-income community offering considerable amenities to both market-rate and Section 8 residents.
The community also has a significant senior population.
“Baldwin wasn’t really accepting of Green Meadows at first,” said Mickey Bradley, an administrator with the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, who helped coordinate the event. “But the new management has done a much better job of screening potential applicants and there is now a police mini-station here.”
Stephanie Valentine, who moved to Green Meadows when relocating from Virginia likes the community.
“Green Meadows is really nice,” she said. “It’s got Head Start, a health club, swimming pool, but it is remote.”
Valentine’s friend Vernessa Knight moved from Manchester on Pittsburgh’s North Side to get away from violence and drug activity.
About 2,000 people turned out for this year’s event, and though there were a variety of health and safety-related service providers taking blood pressure and related screenings for adults, Bradley said the children had the best time.
“We had a rock-climbing wall and there had to be 100 kids waiting in line for that,” she said. “It was pretty tall, but that didn’t stop them at all.”
Joy Dore, chair of Green Meadows’ neighborhood safety committee said the National Night Out events have really helped bond community residents with their neighbors and foster community pride.
“It promotes people looking out for each other because they get to know Mary next door,” she said. “Once you know her, if there’s something wrong you’ll know that too because she’s not a total stranger.”
The event also included visits from the Pirate Parrot, McGruff the Crime Dog and Mr. McFeeley from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. Residents also heard from Baq to Baq, a jazz band made up of volunteer county probation officials.
Even the weather cooperated.
“It rained everywhere but here until we were done,” said Davis. “We were here from 4-8 p.m., and at 8:05 it rained.”
Bradley said the school district and police have helped include more residents in the event each year.
“It gives people an opportunity to come to Green Meadows and interact, and to see the incidental things they may have heard isn’t what this community is about,” she said. “This community has made great progress in terms of crime prevention and awareness.”
(Send comments to [email protected].)
Home | Metro | World | National | Forum/Opinion | Business | Sports | In The Spirit | Lifestyle | Entertainment | Youth | Columnists | Health | Education | Poets Corner | Courier 411 | Classifieds | Psychic Readers | People Talk | Politics | Courier After Dark
Design by Interservers.com