November 2009

Hi Neighbors!

Thanks for your patience. Sorry this blog update is so overdue.

We had 35 neighbors attend the meeting on November 2nd to hear 2 guest speakers present an overview of grant money available for home improvement projects. If you qualify, these programs are incredible opportunities to do free home improvements! And havc someone else do the work, especially with the Senior Program. If you want brochures, contact me.

First, Sherry Hanson, City of Redding, told us about the Minor Home Repair Program for Seniors (62+). This grant applies to leaky faucets, light fixtures, weatherstripping, window replacements, all sorts of small projects that you just don't want to pay a contractor for. Contact Sherry (225-4040) with questions and income guidelines, or email me if you want a brochure (moniquegaido@gmail.com). Next Kimberly Parker spoke about the Self-Help Home Improvement Project (SHHIP) which is running several programs to assist lower income families with home weatherization. They will check out your heating system until May or your cooling system from May to Oct. This group has $2.6 million in stimulus funds that they would like to put to use. Kimberly may be reached at 378-6904, or again, email me for brochures.

Mission Statement: We completed a brief survey to voice personal priorities for our neighborhood organization. Our steering committee will use these votes to guide us in drafting a Mission Statement for our group to vote on in January. High-scoring issues are promoting safety and security in our neighborhood and developing a stronger sense of community among our neighbors.

Update on Project Daffodil: The Garden Tract Society purchased 240 daffodil bulbs, plus a few small packages as door prizes and all are planted. We worked with the After School Program at Sequoia to plant around the trees at the auditorium and with the After School Program at Cypress to plant around the tree by the parking lot and the trees near the playground. We planted at the crosswalk on Locust St as well.

Update on Cleanup and Traffic Committees: We have 3 new signs in the neighborhood that say Adopt-a-Street by the Garden Tract Society (South St at the canal, Placer at the Health Center, and Continental St near South). Also we began collecting speed data for traffic on South St, Locust St, and Garden St. Most areas showed over 85% of the traffic at least 5 miles over the speed limit.

Update on Crime Data and Issues: Crime data analysis will be completed in early 2010 for the most recent 3 years. The GTS and the Parkview Neighborhood Association hope to plan a joint meeting in the spring to discuss crime data and trends. Home and car breakins are still occurring regularly, but I am not receiving information regularly. Please call Dispatch (225-4564) if you see suspicious activity in the neighborhood. The RPD needs our support. And please email me if you know of specific breakins so that I can help keep everyone informed.

Our next meeting is a COOKIE SOCIAL on Monday, December 7th, at Cypress School at 7 pm. There will be no serious speakers or data presentations. Please bring a treat or drink to share and bring a neighbor! We'll do our best to get flyers out for this one!

Thanks everyone, and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Monique

Post-Cleanup News

Hello Garden Tract Neighbors!

What a beautiful weekend we had before this storm! We had a small, but strong turnout for our cleanup this past Saturday, Oct. 10th. There were 14 adults, 2 infants, and my 2 kids, ages 5 and 2 whose sharp eyes didn't miss a single cigarette butt! The RPD picked up our loot and reported it weighed 220 lbs. So there you have it, our neighborhood is 220 lbs cleaner! Here are a few photos.

We had a very pleasant potluck in my driveway afterward and discussed some neighborhood news. We presented Gil Murray with an honorary certificate for helping to refurbish all 14 of the Crime Watch signs in the neighborhood and saving us lots of money! We also discussed the idea of a neighborhood planting theme. Wouldn't it be fun to have the whole neighborhood, or just random lots of those participating, sprout up with daffodils in the spring? We are looking into having OSH give our neighborhood a discount for bulbs to encourage this effort. It would be great to use our "Garden" theme and make our name more known in the Redding community. We gave out 3 raffle prizes (daffodil bulbs).

The idea actually came about after Jim Kennedy and I met with Randy Smith, Commissioner, to discuss the possibility of traffic calming measures in the neighborhood. He pointed out that any pedestrian or traffic counts, any hard data will all have to be recollected and evaluated once both bridges are completed, which is 2 years out. In the meantime, art or gardening may visually attract motorists and slow them down. Our thoughts are 1) even if it doesn't slow down motorists, we can show our community spirit by using our garden theme and 2) in this way, we can start setting ourselves up for pursuing traffic calming measures and encouraging pedestrian activity in the neighborhood. Mr. Smith also suggested we look into commissioning a "mosaic ball" like those at City Hall and in the Parkview Neighborhood. We'll see if this is affordable, feasible, and where we could place it if everything else might work out.

Jim Kennedy and I also discussed the issue of foreclosures in the neighborhood and what can be done to improve appearances of unoccupied lots. He suggested we learn more about the City code enforcement standards and that pursuing these issues will also count in our favor down the road if we hope to pursue traffic calming measures.

Our next general meeting will be on Monday, November 2nd, 7 pm, Cypress Elementary School. We will complete a survey to develop our Mission Statement. We want your input, so please try to attend this one! We may also have a speaker on the Highway 44 Bridge project.

Hope to see you in November!

Sincerely,

Monique Gaido

795 Lincoln St

moniquegaido@gmail.com

October 9th, 2009

Hello Neighbors!

Our October 5th meeting had an unusually small turnout, most likely because I forgot to send out a group email to remind people. (Also there was an event at the Cascade that drew several neighbors.) We had planned to conduct a survey to help us derive a mission statement for our group, but we decided to postpone this until the next meeting in hope of a bigger turnout. So mark your calendars for November 2nd! To make it very easy and painless, we want to spend about 15-20 minutes on the survey, collect your ideas, and then compile a mission statement to vote on and fine-tune wording at the following meeting. The mission statement will allow us to focus our energy where you all would like to see it happen!

Our second Neighborhood Cleanup Day is tomorrow, Saturday, October 10th! Those who are available and able, meet in my driveway - 795 Lincoln St at 10 am with some gloves. We'll provide bags, maps, and pickers. It will not be strenuous! The idea is to walk the neighborhood, greet people and invite them to our potluck and get to know each other. It's also nice to pick up a little litter along the way, of course! Please encourage everyone to join us for the potluck at 1 pm. We're keeping it simple and there will be some raffle prizes! Grab a neighbor and join us! - 795 Lincoln St.

I'll update you with a photo of our potluck group next week! Thanks for your interest, support, and enthusiasm. It keeps me going and it has been so wonderful to get to know more of you. We have a great community and it has even more potential. It is and will be what we want it to be!

Stay tuned!

Monique

September 2009

Hello Garden Tract Neighbors!

I want to share what happened at another good meeting on August 31st. We had 43 neighbors present, began with a slide show of our past meetings and activities, and thanked Cypress School for their partnership and support. Teacher Molly Stimpel told us about her progress on the school garden and said they have managed without utilizing the neighborhood help we have offered. She does still hope to call the names on her list when the next big push comes - possibly in the spring.

Monique Gaido, yours truly-and chairperson, mentioned there are some easy ways for us to support Cypress School with very little effort. 1) Save boxtops from cereals and other grocery products that say "Boxtops for Education." I keep a baggie on my bulletin board and bring them to the school office. Teachers can redeem them for classroom materials. 2) Escrip.com - go to this website and register your Safeway club card number to donate 10% (I believe) of your spending to the school of your choice. Cypress Elementary is registered and Sequoia's band and choir are registered. I do not carry my Safeway card and did not know the number. This problem is remedied by calling the 800 # on every Safeway receipt and giving them your phone number. They will give you your club card number. Please encourage your whole family and friends to register their cards. It's a one-time 15-minute project and all schools will benefit!

Next on the agenda, our neighborhood organization has won the attention of others in the community! The Churn Creek Bottom Homeowners Organization was represented by Mary Ocasion and Michele Schroeder. They spoke about their opposition to another potential commercial development near I-5 and Knighton Rd. This is potentially productive agricultural land and they do not wish to see it paved for a new Costco when so many empty warehouse buildings (Mervyn's, Gottschalks, etc) are available. Also the new development would apply its wastewater to another 6-10 acres, potentially impacting groundwater quality. Now I made it clear to our Churn Creek friends that our group is new and we would love to hear about their efforts and become more informed about the activities of other homeowner groups, but that we have not yet defined our voting structure and priorities. Several neighbors agreed we should establish our group's structure and priorities before endorsing efforts outside our neighborhood. These issues will be discussed at our next group meeting (October 5th).

Also in terms of community development issues, Shasta Forward is a group funded by Caltrans and the City to formulate 50-year development scenarios and encourage the community to vote on which priorities they would like to see in the regional development and planning. Ballots are available at the library, Turtle Bay, City Hall, among other key locations. Everyone must vote by September 30th. One neighbor informed us that KIXE runs a show that explains the Shasta Forward effort. This show is run quite often.

Jim Kennedy spoke for the Neighborhood Cleanup Committee about his and Gil Murray's efforts to improve our existing Neighborhood Watch signs. They have now all been refurbished and look great. Our next Neighborhood Cleanup Day is Saturday, October 10th. Meet at Monique's (795 Lincoln) at 10 am to get gloves and a walking route. This is first and foremost a laid-back, easy and fun event. We'll have prizes for the most unusual and most disgusting piece of garbage found, and above all, (after we all wash our hands thoroughly) we'll have a potluck in our driveway (795 Lincoln). Please join us for the potluck, even if you can't help earlier (12:30 pm). We will distribute flyers for this event sometime next week.

Crime Watch Groups: The crime throughout Redding has been a sad reality. There have been many day-time breakins all over our neighborhood, and all over Redding. The police advise us to report suspicious behavior and call 911 immediately if you see someone entering a home or backyard when you know your neighbor is out. Be a good neighbor and pick up mail or newspapers if your neighbors are out. Change your lighting, move your cars, keep a radio or TV on when you are not at home. Change your routine. Some neighbors felt there was a homeless camp along the canal. This has since been investigated and any folks sheltering their have been cleared out to the best of my knowledge.

Land Use committee - Our neighborhood traffic patterns are going to change. The Community Health Center on Placer and Continental is expanding, the new medical facility on Continental is in progress, the West Venture building may be leased by CalTrans in the near future, and a new Social Security office building is planned for the lot by the Dollar Store. These changes and potential increase in traffic flow through our neighborhood may give us an edge to push the City toward traffic calming solutions on South, Locust, and/of Garden Streets.

Thank you all for attending and caring about our community. We look forward to our next social event (the Cleanup day on October 10th) and to establishing our goals for the next 1-2 years at our next general meeting at Cypress School, on Monday evening, October 5th, at 7 pm.

Sincerely,

Monique Gaido
Chairperson

Don't forget our next meeting is Aug. 31st!

Hello Neighbors!

I hope you had an enjoyable summer and am excited to see you again at the Cypress Elementary School cafeteria on Monday evening, August 31st at 7 pm. We have a lot of great things on the agenda. If you cannot attend, a summary of the meeting will be posted on this blogsite and more formal minutes will follow in an email.

We will not distribute flyers for this meeting because the effort drains our energies, both in terms of cost and time. Please tell your neighbors about the meeting, especially if they are not on our email list. Our email distribution list is at 83 entries. We will distribute flyers for our next non-meeting event, which will be a Neighborhood Cleanup Day, complete with a Fiesta before your Siesta, on the first or second Saturday in October. (Details to be discussed on Aug. 31st!)

Our gatherings have won the attention of several groups in the community and I have been approached for endorsements and support of various projects. I look forward to sharing these with you and believe it is time that we draft a mission statement to keep help us stay focussed on our priorities. We will focus on the mission statement and our goals for the year at the October 5th meeting.

This is an exciting time to grow a neighborhood organization like ours. In a time of police force cutbacks and economic stress, our local crime watch groups and community-building efforts are more relevant than ever. We want to continue to support local businesses and among other things, would like to create a "Neighborhood Skills Bank," or a way for any interested neighbors to market their skills. The next time you need a plumber, you could call a guy down the street. This would be just another way to support our neighbors and get to know one another better.

We hope you can attend a meeting, or at least join our mailing list. If interested, please email me at moniquegaido@gmail.com or call me at 229-9348.

Sincerely,

Monique Gaido
Chairperson, Garden Tract Society

August 09

Hello Neighbors!

National Night Out was a great success! Gold St and Lincoln St had good neighbor turnouts and also enjoyed visits from the police, firemen, and City Council. Here are a few photos taken on Lincoln St.

Our next group meeting will be held at Cypress School in the gymnasium on Monday, August 31st, at 7 pm. We will discuss and plan our a Neighborhood Cleanup Day complete with a little fiesta before your siesta afterward and we will hear about Cypress School's garden project.

We will also meet on Monday, October 5th, same time and place, to outline our 1-2 year plan and mission statement, primarily focussing on building community (social events) and making our neighborhood a safer place both in terms of crime awareness and prevention and pedestrian/cycling safety, aka traffic control.

We would love to have your support and look forward to meeting more neighbors!

Sincerely,

Monique Gaido, Chairperson,
795 Lincoln St

JULY 13th UPDATE

Hello Garden Tracters! ...or should I spell that "Tractors"?

National Night Out is Tuesday August 4th. I am pleased to say we now have 8 unofficial or semi-official crime watch groups in our neighborhood. Could there be more that I don't know about yet? The Redding Police may have terminated their Crime Prevention Officer position and reassigned our friend, Mike Leonard, but he was as friendly and helpful as ever when I finally reached him.

There will be police units visiting crime watch groups on National Night Out, so please welcome them if they are in the neighborhood. We hope you can all stop by your nearest block party and say hello, even if you live on a block that does not have a crime watch group started yet. Gold, Lincoln, and Canal, possibly even Verda St may have block parties that evening. We are excited to see our neighbors out and about. Feel free to visit the Lincoln St group after 7 pm that Tuesday at 795 Lincoln.

The ice cream night was enjoyable. Approximately 15 neighbors joined us, more if we count the babies. I should have documented the event with a photo so I could post it here. I'm leaving room for improvement, as always!

Hope you're enjoying the summer!

Sincerely,
Monique Gaido

June 23rd, 2009 UPDATE

Our first Neighborhood Cleanup took place on Tuesday evening, June 16th. We had 12 neighbors attend, divided into several groups to cover different "zones" and picked up litter. Afterward we rendezvoused at Shelly's house for refreshments, thanks to our friendly neighborhood SAFEWAY! We shared stories and noted a few larger items and issues we may want to address in the future. It was the perfect way to end the evening.



We contacted the Public Works department and learned the City is responsible for trimming trees located between sidewalks and streets. We need only to provide a list of addresses for them to trim branches to make street signs/stop signs more visible and improve our head clearance on the sidewalks. You may see the City trimming trees soon.

Lastly, we are having an informal ICE CREAM SOCIAL on Friday, July 3rd from 5to 9 pm at the SHAMROCK Ice Cream Parlor on Athens. You can see it from the Subway by the Cypress Bridge. Invite a neighbor or a friend and walk, bike, or drive to the shop. It would be great to see a flood of support from the neighborhood. We hope you can make it!

Sincerely,
Monique Gaido
795 Lincoln St

June 14th - Post Yard Sale

Hello everyone!

It was great to see our neighborhood come alive yesterday. We had over 30 yard sales and a great turnout overall. Thanks for participating and helping to make our first community effort a success!

Our first NEIGHBORHOOD CLEANUP DAY is this Tuesday, June 16th, at 6:30 pm. If you'd like to participate, meet at 620 Lincoln St. You may want to bring some clippers of a rake to clean alleys and we'll supply bags. We'll rendezvous at 805 Lincoln for refreshments at sundown... Hope to see you there!

If anyone has photos you'd like to post on this blogsite, please feel free to post them yourselves or email them to me.... moniquegaido@gmail.com

Thanks!

Report on Meeting 3 (May 18th)

Hello Neighbors!

We had a smaller group, but everyone present was part of the action. Here's the report:

Land Use Committee - Erin Salazar has started a blogsite (gtalanduse.blogspot.com) to follow the potential use of the West Venture Building as the future police headquarters. Please check it out. Also, we're interested in changing traffic and pedestrian issues as the Shasta Community Health Center expands and the new medical building is constructed on Continental, just across the freeway. We are also hoping to obtain a list of home foreclosures in the area, so that we might know where a little lawnmowing and yardtrimming would be a welcome effort to keep our neighborhood looking nice. Please contact Monique by phone or email, or post to this blog if you'd like to help.

Traffic Control/Pedestrian Safety Committee - I received news of a grant opportunity for neighborhood organizations interested in assessing and improving pedestrian safety, but have since decided the effort (short time frame to prepare application) and focus of the project (evaluating a handbook) are not well-suited for our group. However, we will use the guide to help us create a pedestrian safety assessment and plan our future actions.

Neighborhood Cleanup Committee - Our first annual Neighborhood-Wide Yard Sale is on Saturday, June 13th, from 8:00am - 1:00pm. It will be advertised in the newspaper, and signs will be put up. Please spread the word to your neighbor and collaborate to make sure a few yard sales are on each street! Also, we will have our first Neighborhood CleanUp Day on Tuesday evening, June 16th. Interested neighbors can meet at 620 Lincoln St at 6:30 pm to participate and we will conclude with a small party at 805 Lincoln St. We will focus on collecting garbage or any items left at the curbside for City pickup the following day. We will be equipped with orange bags from the City. Please contact us by email or phone (229-9348) if you would like any help moving something or to have something picked up. This will be a small fun cleanup day in preparation for a larger effort we hope to make in late September when it is cooler!

Crime Prevention Committee - We are very excited to report our newest Neighborhood Crime Watch Group on Canal St. Don Jacobs, Canal St's fearless Block Captain, noted how much he enjoys knowing all his neighbors for the first time in the few decades he has lived there. Our Crime Watch Groups will celebrate National Night Out on Tuesday evening, August 4th. Canal St, Gold St, and Lincoln St will have block parties. We would love to have more streets/blocks participate. Please feel free to coordinate with a few neighbors and have your own block party. This would be a great opportunity to start your own Crime Watch Group or begin discussing it. Also discussed at the meeting was the collection of funds to replace Crime Watch signs. Because this is a street-specific decision, we decided to discuss this with our neighbors at the block parties and take up a collection for a new street sign order. The signs cost $31/piece, but we will make a group order in September to bring the price down a few dollars per sign. Please contact me at 229-9348 for info on this.

Starting in September we will begin holding monthly meetings on the first Monday of every month. To avoid Labor Day, our first meeting will be on August 31st, followed by October 5th. I do hope to send out reminder emails a few days before our future meetings.

I look forward to getting to know more of our neighbors and I hope you are beginning to see and enjoy the fruits of our efforts as well.

Sincerely,
Monique
moniquegaido@gmail.com

April 15th

Hi there, Garden Tracters!

There are some great opportunities coming up in our neighborhood. For all of you excited about spring cleaning, several upcoming events may be of interest.
May 1st - a Frugalista Flea Market at Cypress School, sponsored by Doni Greenberg and her website, anewscafe.com. You can google Doni's name or "A News Cafe" and you should be able to find more details.
May 16th - Curb Day, bring your unwanted valuables to your curb. By doing so, you’re donating them to others. And if you need something, take a walk in your neighborhood – you might just find it for free. For questions, email mike@curbday.com.
May 18th - Garden Tract meeting
June 20th - Garden Tract Yard Sale and Cleanup Day. Everyone is invited to have a yard sale from 8 am - 1 pm. We will put up signs and advertise in the newspaper. After 1 pm, Garden Tract volunteers will be equipped with garbage bags and help cleanup whatever we can until evening. Followed by some very simple refreshments at a location yet to be determined!

Mark you calendars!
Monique

April 5th

Hello again, Garden Tract Neighbors!

For those interested in an April meeting, several folks involved in the small committees are meeting at the library in the Fireside Room on Thursday, April 9th from 6 to 7:30 pm. All are welcome to attend. We'll discuss the agenda for our next meeting, the City's Adopt-a-Street program, and the Crime Data team will crunch some numbers to report at our next meeting.

We'd love to see you this Thursday...

Sincerely,

Monique Gaido

Mar 14th

Greetings, Neighbors!

We had our second meeting this past Monday, March 9th and had approximately 30 residents present. We discussed the concerns submitted by neighbors at the last meeting and the progress made on them since. They are as follows:

1) Crime Prevention
No new Neighborhood Watch Groups (NWGs) have been started. We received crime statistics from the RPD for 2008 and 2007, and met with a representative from the Parkview Neighborhood Association (PNA) to learn how they analyze their stats. The PNA is having a meeting on Wed, 3/18 at 7 pm at Juniper School and will focus on their crime stats if anyone is interested in learning how they use their data and how their organization operates.

2) Street lighting
If additional lighting is needed and all neighbors are in agreement, write a letter expressing the need and location, have all neighbors sign, and call Ron Hofer, REU, 339-7322 to find out where to deliver or send the letter.

3) Speeding/traffic calming
We have several areas where stop signs, crosswalks, and/or speed humps might be beneficial. The City is extremely cautious about these issues. This is a long-term issue that we will require significant organization and planning before a successful request can be made.

4) Code Enforcement - RVs, boats, trailers, sidewalk obstructions
5) Alley Cleanup, storm drain cleanup days
6) Block party, building the relationship between renters and owners

Our new business consisted of listing our neighborhood's strengths and assets. The entries were: Seniors, trees, soil, location, river, neighbors, family homes, character, walkability, Safeway & local businesses, schools, fireworks, library, Turtle Bay, community activities.

Speaking of our local businesses, I took the initiative to present letters to several local businesses describing our neighborhood group and inviting them to attend, distribute promotional meetings, or offer a door prize. I let them know we would continue to support our local businesses as much as possible.

Next we discussed our concerns and issues to improve. These included: land use issues (the vacant West Venture building adjacent to the Shasta Regional Medical Center which has been considered for the RPD headquarters, the building addition onto the Shasta Community Health Center), alley cleanup, code enforcement issues, crime prevention, traffic issues (stop signs, crosswalks, speedhumps). We assigned small teams to each area so others can communicate and decide how to proceed and report back to our group.

The teams are: Land Use, Cleanup, Crime Prevention, Traffic, and Code Enforcement. If you are interested in being more involved in one of these areas, please contact me (moniquegaido@gmail.com, 229-9348) and I will help connect you.

We also discussed the importance of having active liaisons between our GTS and the City Council to remain informed. We have some volunteers and I am excited to report that positive feedback was received from our Land Use group and our Cleanup group less than 24 hours after our meeting! I should note here that the City plans to request the Council's permission on April 7th to apply for Safe Routes to Schools funding for sidewalks along the west side of Sequoia St from Yuba St to Lee St. If successful, which the City feels is about a 30% possibility, it would happen in 2010 or 2011.

In addition to our lists, goals, and team development, we had a guest from Cypress School, Molly Stimple, tell us about a garden project at the school. The Cypress School Health Committee is looking for neighborhood volunteers to help plan, develop, and maintain this garden. You can call Cypress School at 225-0040 if you are interested.

Our third meeting will be on Monday, May 18th, at 7 pm, Cypress School Library. Note we will meet in the Library for better acoustics. We hope to see you all then! Thank you, Neighbors, for building the sense of community for the Garden Tract.

Sincerely,

Monique Gaido
Chairperson
moniquegaido@gmail.com

Mar 8th

Hello Neighbors!

'Twas the night before the meeting, and I am too excited to wait. Some great things are happening. We are connecting people and learning about new projects in our neighborhood. We'll discuss them in more detail tomorrow night, but I wanted to outline them here.

1) The City of Redding wants to apply for funding to put in additional sidewalks along the west side of Sequoia St from Yuba St to Lee St. The City will request permission to go ahead with the application at the Council meeting on 3/17. The City would also like a letter from our neighborhood organization supporting the effort.

2) Cypress School wants to start a garden to teach students about growing vegetables and fruit and about nutrition. Teacher Molly Stimple will attend our meeting to ask if there are master gardeners or just regular old gardeners in the neighborhood that would like to help plan the garden.

3) The Shasta Community Health Center on Placer and Continental is interested in expanding with a 10,165 square foot addition at 1035 Placer. This will be discussed at a Redding Planning Commission meeting on Tuesday, March 10th, at the City Council Chamber at 4 pm.

We look forward to other neighborhood news and ideas for our discussion tomorrow night. Hope you can all make it. If not, please check this site for our minutes.

Thanks!
Monique

Feb 22nd

Hello Everyone!

A few folks met this afternoon to discuss our next meeting date, time, and agenda and we've decided to try Monday, March 9th at 7 pm. I will confirm the availability at Cypress School and compile our next flyers to distribute this weekend (Feb 28th-Mar 1st).

Our March 9th meeting will focus on our ideas, developing action items, and priorities. We invited everyone at the first meeting to submit one concern which Erin Salazar kindly entered into a spreadsheet. This was helpful, but we need to collectively discuss these issues to develop goals and priorities. Here is a summary of the concerns submitted on Jan. 7th:

1) Form neighborhood crime watch groups
2) Improve street lighting on Lowe St, Lincoln St
3) Speeding/traffic calming on Garden, South, Locust, Gold, Verda Sts
4) Pedestrian safety at intersections (Canal/Locust, Locust/Civic Cntr Dr, Sequoia/South, Canal/South, Sequoia/Butte, access to Turtle Bay/Sundial Bridge)
5) Abandoned/unoccupied homes
6) Alley, storm drain cleanup
7) RVs, boats, trailers in yards
8) Sidewalk obstructions
9) Relationship between owners and renters.

We also hope to discuss possibilities for regular communication between the City of Redding/ City Council and the GTS so that we are more aware of City activities which affect our neighborhood (i.e. moving RPD headquarters, sidewalk improvements, etc.).

Your presence and input can only serve to strengthen the GTS and we hope you will follow this blogsite and/or attend our next meeting. This group represents everyone in the neighborhood (from Pine St to the ACID canal, from Butte St to Cypress Ave). That means renters as well as home owners. Please help us to better represent the neighborhood.

See you soon!
Monique

February 2009

Hello Neighbors!

We are planning to have another meeting on Thursday evening, March 12th. Those interested in helping to plan the agenda and flyers will meet this Sunday at the Country Waffle House at 1 pm, (Feb. 22nd). Once the flyers are ready, I'll contact the volunteers for distribution around March 1st.

Anyone is welcome to join us at the Country Waffle House this Sunday if you're interested in contributing!

Also, Erin Salazar informed me that the RPD is still considering moving their office to the large building adjacent to Shasta Regional Hospital. It may be discussed at the City Council meeting this Thursday evening (Feb 18th). We'll include a brief update of the situation at our next meeting.

Thanks, everyone and I look forward to our next connection!
Monique

Jan 7th, 2009

Hello Neighbors!

We had our first meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 7th at the Cypress School Cafeteria. Over 50 neighbors attended and our distinguished guest speakers included:

Peter Hansen, Chief of Police
Mike Leonard, Crime Prevention Officer-RPD
Roger Moore, RPD Officer
Jim Hamilton, Director of Development Services-City of Redding
Cindy Bishop, Cypress School Principal
Maureen Lewis, Traffic Advisory Committee-Redding School District and
Elin Klaseen, Chairperson of the Parkview Neighborhood Association (PNA).

Several of our speakers mentioned how encouraged they are to see neighbors who care about their neighborhood and are willing to work with the city and police officers to improve our community. We have a great neighborhood, and some talented people with good ideas.

We discussed the importance of getting to know our neighbors and working together in areas of mutual interest. Our initial goal is starting Neighborhood Crime Watch Groups, as we are observing increases in crime around the city and decreases in social services (i.e. police officers). In this time of economic change, getting to know our neighbors and communicating more with the RPD and City can only serve us in a positive way.

Please talk to your neighbors, exchange phone numbers and crime histories, and, if possible, identify a block captain for your street. Have a meeting with Mike Leonard, RPD - 225-4209 and he will provide crime statistics for your street and information on how you can better protect your home. It is so easy to do, I spent very little time and, although I'd like to catch everyone, I hope to catch up with the ones I missed in the next few weeks. You can have a meeting with just 4 or 5 individuals. Also, if you observe unusual individuals checking car doors, or driving slowly with lights off at night, please call RPD Dispatch to report them at 225-4564. We need to be the RPD's "eyes and ears" because only we know who belongs on our street and what is unusual on our block.

Also at our Jan 7th meeting, we collected ideas from everyone for key action items which we will list and prioritize before the next meeting (March or April). We are excited to receive our neighbors' input and develop mutual goals to work toward.

Elin Klaseen, Parkview Neighborhood Association (PNA), invited everyone to attend their next meeting on January 21st, 7 pm, at Juniper School. Their speakers will be Supervisor Mark Cibula, and Supervisor David Kehoe. It is a great opportunity to work together with the PNA to learn more about our local government and how we might better work with it to serve our community interests.

Thank you for all those who attended the first meeting and we look forward to see more support and enthusiasm as we decide our goals and next steps. We hope to contact those interested in planning meetings for a small group meeting in February. Our next Garden Tract Society meeting will take place in March or April and the same flyers will be distributed approximately 2 weeks prior.

See you next time...
Monique