RECENT COMMENTS
Second Annual First Precinct Community Training Day
The goal of the Second Annual First Precinct Community Training Day was to get the community residents and local police officers to identify issues in their neighborhoods and to formulate a plan aimed at alleviating the issues. Towards really making this happen, representatives of various city agencies were present, to offer assistance and infomation on code violations, safety issues, truancy, etc, and probably 50 police officers, including all of the folks in charge. The city council representatives for the 6th and 7th districts, Reva Trammell and Delores McQuinn, also stopped by.
I was with a group assigned an area that included lower Fairmount, and the lil’&big Mosby areas. This worked, but it seemed like the issues up the hill on Mosby were a bit different that the issues that most of Fairmount has to deal with. We were tasked with identifying one issue and putting together a plan. Having to choose but one issue led us to focus on problems in Mosby, while if given a smaller area there are still enough fragile areas in Fairmount that residents of that area would have liked to have addressed.
As it were, an issue that we could all get behind ended up being that of truancy, with a large number of truant students being highly visible in the upper Mosby area during the day. The representatives from the Mosby Tenants Council reported that a significant numbers of young people wearing the CCP uniform are usually hanging around the street and the basketball court. Beyond the mere benefit of having these teends getting an education, there is also a connection seen between these truant teens and area vandalism, violence, and drug activity.
Each sector of the First Precinct was broken into 3 sections for this, so there should’ve been 6 groups for the East End. I saw other folks from around the area present, in other groups, hopefully they will chime in with some feedback on how it went.
Were there any materials, actions plans or resources revealed that you can share with us? I had another obligation today and I couldn’t make it, but I really wanted to go.
Sector 111 table 2 chose the Government and Williamsburg intersection. The Problem of disorderly juveniles in the area. Suggestions were to work with the Powhatan Community Center to make the kids more accountable for their actions outside of the center just as they are in the center.
We also want to get more lighting around the Hamidi Mart and address the Barber Shop, which seems to be a focal point for the group there.
We’re meeting again on May 10th at 7:30 pm at First Police Precinct, located at 25th and Q Streets. If you live on the Hill in Fulton or Oakwood please come by and meet your neighbors and share your thoughts. It doesn’t have to be about Government Rd., we’ll listen to all who care to come by.
Thanks to all who came out,
Kenny