RECENT COMMENTS
Eric S. Huffstutler on What is up with the Church Hill Post Office?
Eric S. Huffstutler on What is up with the Church Hill Post Office?
Yvette Cannon on What is up with the Church Hill Post Office?
crd on Power Outage on the Hill
neighborhood teams no longer part of the process
12/01/2005 6:26 AM by John M
“The city’s Department of Community Development this week notified the chairmen of all nine teams that their groups would no longer be officially recognized. Instead, the Wilder administration wants to open new channels to reach out to residents and to reorganize the way neighborhoods share their concerns and proposals with city officials”. [via]
I’m dubious about this one… I don’t see this as being enacted in the best interest of the communities. It has been my experience that the neighborhood team meeting has been a great source of information about what is going on in the area, something to which having a directly elected mayor is irrelevant (a connection the source article makes). It would seem to me that the “new channels” should’ve been put in place before the teams were disbanded.
‘Official’ recognition isn’t necessary if a group does good work and does it well. Perhaps the groups will continue to do what they’ve done before and disband themselves if the ‘new channels’ prove to be effective….or perhaps choose to keep going even if the ‘new channels’ prove effective. Community involvement is touted as a benefit but if official recognition is necessary to get things done in Richmond we’re all in trouble.