October 2010

Hello, Hello, Neighbors!!!!  Our blogsite updates are coming quarterly.  Please apply pressure if you'd like updates more often!  Volunteers are always welcome. I love ideas and willing neighbors....

There's much to tell!  First, our National Night Out celebration, hosted by the Kennedy-Winterschiedt family houseful, was a lot of fun.  Thank you, Gold St neighbors, for sending the fire truck over!  Here are a few photos of our evening together in August.  (I'd love a Gold St photo if someone has one...)

Next, we had a great meeting in September.  Over 30 neighbors were present and we had several speakers, which reminds us how important our little neighborly forum can be.  We discussed our neighborhood cleanup schedule, meeting schedule, the upcoming Planning Commission meeting for the future Turtle Bay Hotel (associated bikepath and sidewalk issues), the City noise ordinance (and the ice cream man), and the future ballot issue of building a large mall in Churn Creek Bottom.  For more info on the last issue, visit the website: http://www.savethebottom.org/ .   

The outcome of the Planning Commission meeting was the Commission voted to go ahead with the "change of use" permit for Turtle Bay's land to allow them to proceed with plans to build a hotel.  This is a hot topic in the community for several reasons, but as a neighborhood, we focussed on bike and pedestrian access to the Sundial Bridge, TB Museum, and the Convention Center. Access will improve dramatically with the proposed development and these improvements are long overdue!  Many questions remain: will the parking be sufficient, will the hotel be a success?  I, for one, want to support Turtle Bay and what it provides for our community.
Some neighbors joined Cypress Elementary School to celebrate Walk to School Day.  It was great to see most of the school and parents walk from the City Hall, across Cypress, up to Grape Ave, down Locust, and to the school.   Rainy weather did not deter THOSE walkers!  In fact, the puddles were fun!  Many thanks to our neighbor, Stacy Gandy, who organized this event...

We hoped to celebrate the opening of the Highway 44 trail across the bridge.  Its opening was postponed, so our celebration fell through.  The trail is finally open, as of last Friday!!!  Yay....  Noah Gaido and Sophia Ross celebrated on Monday, Oct. 25th.  (See photo)

Wet weather last weekend forced us to postpone our semiannual Neighborhood Cleanup to this Saturday, October 30th, from 9 to 11 am.  Meet at 620 Lincoln for a nice stroll around the neighborhood with your neighbors.  Yes, we will pick up small garbage items!

And the Cypress School Garden Party was postponed from last Friday to tonight (Wednesday, October 27th) from 4 to 6 pm.  Please join us to help Cypress School ready their garden for winter.

On Saturday, Nov. 6th, the City is planning a grand opening for the paved trail connecting Shasta Dam to the River Trail system.  Meet at the Turtle Bay parking lot at 9 am with your bike, helmet, water, sunscreen, etc.  RABA will bus people to the dam and you'll bike back to Turtle Bay.  You do need to call BLM at 224-2100, to reserve a spot on the bus.  Contact me at moniquegaido@gmail.com if you'd like the flyer. 

We are once again entering bulb season.  If anyone's interested in planting daffodils themselves, or helping to plan a group event, please contact me.  I'm afraid my time is too limited this year to coordinate with Sequoia and Cypress School's after school groups as we did last year.  It was a lot of fun, and I'd love to help someone take the reigns on that....

Please remember to keep doors and windows closed when you're gone as there have been seve

ral house and car break-ins in the last 3 weeks.  We'll continue to share crime information via email.  For anyone interested in knowing more about our neighborhood watch groups, or just joining our email list to be informed, please contact me at moniquegaido@gmail.com.  Thanks!!!

Our next neighborhood meeting will be Monday, November 8th, at 7 pm in the Cypress School Library.  We hope to discuss medical marijuana licensure and how it affects our neighborhood.  We hope you can join us! 

Thanks for everyone's continuing support. 

Monique Gaido, Chairperson

July 2010

Hello again, Neighbors!
Is it August already?!!  Sorry I've gotten a little sidetracked.  My kids are 6 and 3 now.. Need I say more?

We've had some great events to celebrate:

April and May - two organized tours of the Highway 44 Bridge project, thanks to Phil Baker of Caltrans.  They were well-attended and very informative.  We look forward to using that pedestrian/bike lane. 

May 3rd - "Dessert in the Driveway" at 795 Lincoln It was easy to invite neighbors over and host something like that!  I loved it!  We discussed our letter of support for the City of Redding as they apply for Safe Routes to Schools funding to improve a pedestrian crossing on Locust St.   And... we discussed Jim Kennedy's efforts to improve our neighborhood with the next Neighborhood Cleanup Day and contacting Code Enforcement on some abandoned run-down buildings in our midst.

May 22nd - our third Neighborhood Cleanup Day and lunch at our local San Francisco Deli. 

June 5, 2010 was our Second Annual Garden Tract Community Yard Sale.  We had just over 20 yard sales this year and absolutely gorgeous weather. 

July 2010 - We helped gather community support and, hopefully, a reprieve from the police and code enforcement officers for Michael Roberts as he remodels his home at 1110 Gold St.  His troubles and our support won him (and the Garden Tract!) a little press with Doni Greenburg's A News Cafe article "Will Garden Tract Homeowner Throw in the Trowel?", July 8th.

Smaller successes include finding a lost chicken and neighbors celebrating the July 4th holiday together.

Please join us for an awesome community celebration for NATIONAL NIGHT OUT at 620 Lincoln St. 

Hope to see you all there!

Sincerely,
Monique Gaido
Chairperson

April 2010 Update

Hi, Garden Tract Neighbors!

I'm sorry that I've been a little slower to post this year. Time just goes by so fast! We have some great stories to tell. I never got to show off the results of our Project Daffodil so here are some planting photos from Nov. '09 and blooming photos from Feb-Mar'10. First 2 photos are on Locust St, Nov/Feb.

The next two photos are at Sequoia School, Nov/Feb, and the last photo shows the Sequoia After School students who helped us plant, along with two of our Garden Tract neighbors who volunteered, Debra Wright, and Melanie Lander. The daffodils really looked nice in front of the school. It was a great experience to connect with the after school students at both Sequoia and Cypress Schools. We hope to do this again in Nov. '10.

We also got some recognition for this effort in an article written by Mr. Randy Smith, City Commissioner and published on Doni Greenburg's website, anewscafe.com. Here is the link, if you'd like to read the article: anewscafe.com/2010/03/16/citizen-your-neighbor-wants-you/.

In March, the GTS met with the Parkview Neighborhood Association to discuss crime statistics. Redding Police Chief Hansen was present as well as Officer Mike Leonard, who is back in the position of Neighborhood Crime Watch Coordinator. Chief Hansen and Officer Leonard pointed out that proper lighting around our home and being an active member of a Crime Watch Group can help to improve our safety. GTS neighbor Gil Murray has arranged with the owner of Biggins Lighting to obtain motion detector lighting at a discounted rate for our neighborhoods, if we can coordinate a group sale. The cost of materials, including the bulbs is about $42 including tax. Contact Gil at 246-7925 before June 15th, if you are interested. Chief Hansen also reminded us not to rely heavily on crime statistics which are easily skewed by police staffing changes, neighbors moving, etc. Our neighborhood organizations analyze the stats simply to remain informed and to track any major changes.

Our Highway 44 Bridge Tours are scheduled for Monday, April 19th, and Tuesday April 20th at 6 pm. We still have a few openings, so contact me at moniquegaido@gmail.com if you are interested. It looks like both tours may get postponed due to weather, but we'll email everyone by noon to confirm. The groups will meet at the Viking Skate Country parking lot.

The GTS is pleased to announce we have a Mission Statement to report!

The Garden Tract Society is a not-for-profit volunteer neighborhood organization for those who live, work, or play within the Garden Tract boundaries. The GTS is committed to promoting and protecting the beauty, safety, stability, cleanliness, and social and economic viability of the neighborhood by fostering alliances with local residents, merchants, and government officials. We plan to finalize a letter to welcome new residents of the neighborhood as well.

Upcoming events:

May 3rd - Purely social meeting, 7 pm, bring a dessert or drinks to share, 795 Lincoln St., in the driveway, weather-permitting.

May 22nd - Neighborhood Cleanup, 10 am, meet at 620 Lincoln St (near Canal) to walk part of the neighborhood and pick up litter. Potential for evening potluck as well!

June 5th - Neighborhood Yard Sale, you can have your own yard sale or visit others, or both!

Aug 3rd - National Night Out, 6 pm, driveway party at 795 Lincoln St, or host your own. Register with Officer Leonard for visits from the local firemen, police, and City Council reps.

Thank you, Neighbors, for your continued interest and support in our community and neighborhood-building efforts. Please continue to submit your thoughts and ideas.

Sincerely,

Monique Gaido

Chairperson, GTS

229-9348

moniquegaido@gmail.com

February 2010

Hello Neighbors!

We had a great beginning for 2010 with a presentation by Mr. Phil Baker, Caltrans, on the Highway 44 Bridge Project. He offered to give us a tour (see below). It will be an hour long and we will reschedule if the weather does not cooperate.

HIGHWAY 44 BRIDGE TOUR - Tuesday, April 20th, 6 pm, Meeting place - to be announced.

February 1st we had a business meeting. The following topics were covered:

Mission Statement -- It will be emailed to everyone prior to our next business meeting for review before our vote.

Cleanup Committee -- Our 1st Cleanup Day will be in late April or early May. Lend-A-Can. The GTS wants to encourage neighbors to get a 2nd green bin from the City and to share bins with your neighbors. More details will be provided.

Community Events -- Neighborhood-Wide Garage Sale (1st weekend in June), National Night Out (Tuesday, Aug. 3rd), Ice Cream Social (summer!), & more!

Crime -- We believe it is best to be informed about our local crime and to know our neighbors! Please continue to email me about any house or car breakins so that I might forward the info on to our other neighbors. We encourage neighbors to start a crime watch group on their own street. We have obtained 3 yrs of crime data from the RPD. We'll present crime stats in March.

Traffic & Pedestrian Safety -- Several GTS members will attend a Bike & Ped Planning Workshop on 2/10 and a Safe Routes to Schools workshop on 2/11. We hope to work toward traffic calming goals to make our neighborhood safer for pedestrians. We're also looking into improving safety at the Calaboose Creek crossing at Grape Ave.

School Support -- We want to support Cypress School for providing our meeting place and serving our neighborhood. Three ways to do this are: register your Safeway Club Card with escrip.com, save boxtops for education (Campbells Soup, and other products), volunteer to read on Feb. 26th on READ ACROSS AMERICA day.

Our next neighborhood meeting will be on March 17th, provided that we can meet with the Parkview Neighborhood Association. I will finalize this plan this week. We still have Cypress School reserved for Monday, March 1st, just in case the plans with PNA do not work out.

Thanks for your support and enthusiasm! It has been wonderful to get to know my neighbors over the past year.

Sincerely,

Monique

January 2010

Dear Neighbors!

We had a great time socializing at our Christmas party in December. As luck would have it, it took place just a few hours after the bank robbery across the street. Cypress School was in lockdown for a few hours and there was some confusion when the janitors told me our party had been canceled!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are optimistic about the coming year! Just to look back briefly at 2009 with the Garden Tract Society, we had some great milestones:

January - RPD speakers introduced Crime Watch Group information
March - inquiries made into Shasta Community Health Center expansion & potential for RPD to move into the West Venture building
June - Community-Wide Yard Sales, First Neighborhood Cleanup, Refurbishing Crime Watch signs throughout the neighborhood
July - Ice Cream Social
August - National Night Out parties (Gold St and Lincoln St)
Sept - Kickoff meeting for the school year
Oct - Second Neighborhood Cleanup Day, Project Daffodil
Nov - Project Daffodil - planting with afterschool students at Sequoia & Cypress, Mission Statement survey
Dec - Christmas party

Our next meeting is on Monday, January 11th, at Cypress School at 7 pm. I have invited two City Council members and speakers for both local bridge construction projects to update us on their progress.

Also, we would love to help you register your Safeway club cards on Escrip.com to raise money for our local schools. Please bring your Club card, or call 877-723-3929 to get your club card number and bring it to the meeting! It would be incredible if we could have our friends and relatives all register to help the schools.

We look forward to seeing you on the 11th!

Sincerely,

Monique Gaido
229-9348