WED, 9/21/05 Saint Johns Place MEETING

SAINT JOHNS PLACE (between Classon & Franklin) is having a community block meeting TOMORROW, September 21st! Starts at 8pm... taking place at FIVE MYLES gallery.

I personally haven't attended one before, but I'm looking forward to it. Get off your bum and come!

I didn't make it to the meeting, but I did talk to some of my neighbors who went. They saw it as a success. I met the president, and he seems like a really great guy.

One of the things he said that I found really interesting -- he does not want to discuss the drug dealers on the block directly at this point. He would rather deal with small, resolvable problems like the sidewalk in front of the parking garage, the lighting situation toward Franklin, etc. This was, he said, so that people could see successes coming from the block association and gain some momentum before they started tackling something as big as the "situation on the corner." Which he says has its roots far, far deeper in the neighborhood than that corner.

Also, he said that drugs have been dealt on that corner for 40 years, and that people that come to the meetings probably have kids on that corner. If people start talking about that at meetings, the parents will go home and tell their kids to "watch out for this or that neighbor," and that raises concerns of retribution, etc. His position was that it would be much better to deal with things like this indirectly for the moment, using tactics like good lighting, block cleanup, etc.

Makes sense to me. What do you guys think?

He sounds like a really smart guy. That is definitely a good plan of action.

Is this just for that specific block of St. Johns Place, or further on? I'm on SJP between Rogers and Nostrand, and trying to find a block association or some such to get invovled with...