Town Hall meeting notes

Here's a wrapup of last Saturday's town hall meeting about crime (more from memory than notes).

It was a really good turnout, especially for a beautiful Saturday afternoon in the Christmas shopping season. Perhaps 50-60 people, standing room only. I thought Fenty did a good job of directing the meeting and keeping things on track. Ronald Moten of the group Peaceaholics and Kenny Barnes, Sr. of ROOT (Reaching Out to Others Together) spoke and gave their insights into causes and possible solutions for the youth violence that, while certainly not unique to Petworth, seemed to be most on peoples' minds.

There was some frustration vented but also a lot of positive energy, directed towards coming away with a concrete action plan. The main tangible results were:

- a resident 'task force' (see below)
- getting Peaceaholics, ROOT, et al active in engaging Petworth youth (how this will proceed seems a bit vague, maybe I missed something)
- matching funds for ANC 4C community projects, amounting to about $140K, pledged by Deputy Mayor Brenda Donald-Walker
- a followup meeting at the end of January to assess progress

There was a big emphasis on getting residents involved, that cure-alls won't magically come from the top down. At least twenty people signed up for the 'task force' (for current lack of a better name). This will be a loose, completely independent roster of concerned residents who agree to contribute their talents and energy to the community - as they can, when they can. It will provide a human resource of bodies and skills that can be tapped for a range of neighborhood actions as needed, like cleanups, citizen patrols, mentoring, assisting other community groups, planning special events... whatever. Let the ideas flow (including a better name?). The first meeting to get organized will be in early to mid January. In the meantime, please feel free to email me to add yourself to the list.

Bill Crandall
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Comments

[chris]

bill--thanks for keeping us updated on this.