The community is coming together!

After our initial meeting with City Council person, Dwaine Caraway, I have heard great things about how people have been stepping up and coming together in order to present an accurate picture about city services that we pay for, but that haven't been addressed in our Turner Courts/Rochester Park neighborhood.

As I was browsing the internet and preparing for our Town Hall Meeting on January 5, I found this link: http://www.dallascityhall.com/services/streets.html.

I thought this link would be helpful as we move forward and become more efficient at reporting city services that need to be addressed. If you have any problems with the online system, I'm sure Sylvia, in the Educational Outreach Center at Turner Courts, would be happy to help you report any issues.

PLEASE JOIN US AT THE NEXT
Town Hall Meeting!!
Time: 10:00 a.m.
Date: Saturday, January 5, 2008
Place: After-School Academy/Community Room

What will be addressed???
The community of Turner Courts has created an agenda of issues including police patrolling, playground safety, street lighting, adequate sidewalks, transportation (DART), and much more.

Who will be there???
Dwaine Caraway (our City Council person) along with representatives from the police, code compliance, public works, and other city offices.

Why do we need you there???
Dwaine Caraway is bringing everyone to the table so that we can point out the issues we face in Rochester Park. We want as many from the community as possible so that the city will see that, just like other neighborhoods, we are concerned about ours and our family's safety and well-being. We want to be a collective voice that is willing to work with the city, but also expects the city to work with us.

Please invite your friends and neighbors and come join us! We are all learning. As we learn what the city is responsible for and what we can do, we plan to build a stronger relationship with our city council and get better at holding the city accountable to things that we pay for with our tax dollars.

Making changes

Thank you to Wyshina, Ms. Haynes, Monique, Sylvia, Bernard, Lori, and Dana coming out to the meeting with Dwaine Caraway today! I hope everyone felt like they got to voice their concerns...and I hope you were satisfied with the response. (I hate that I forgot to take pictures!!)

Though Dwaine said he was going to get right on those issues, we need to make sure we get our part done so the city is unable to make excuses for the repairs they are responsible for. We want the city to see that we want our neighborhood to be better and we are willing to do our part to make it happen as long as we have their support…even if we’ve tried before (as I know many of you have made calls before).

We have tentatively planned a
Town Hall meeting
January 5, 2008
10:00 a.m.
Location: After-School Academy

Please write this down and plan on attending!

Before that meeting, there are several things we need to accomplish…
1) Writing down the specific address of EVERY street light that is out—Who wants to be responsible for that?
2) Ms. Haynes calling about the DHA change in paying rent
3) Getting the word out about the Jan. 5 meeting—inviting friends, neighbors, etc. We want to begin showing the city that we will show up…but we also can’t get discouraged when people don’t. We just need to persevere. People will start coming out when they see that things are actually happening.
4) Visit the churches across the street and find out what community efforts they have…and just get to know them in general…begin building a relationship with them (maybe invite them to visit the ASA or the EOC)—Who wants to be responsible for that?
5) Begin our own meetings/conversations.

We need a Resident Council here at Turner Courts. But, we don't have enough people to make it work--President, Vice President, Treasurer, Chaplain, Sergeant at Arms, and 2 alternates. I suggest that we just start having lunch/community conversations and begin talking about the issues and working on them. As we attract more people and create leadership within our own group, we can advocate for a resident council.

Wyshina had a great idea I think would be great for us to start working on…I am going to look into getting us all trained and deputized to be people who can register voters. If we can do that, we will probably do it during our ASA staff development meeting (anyone can attend though). I’ll let you know when we get the person to train us.

I want to hear your comments about the meeting. Make comments below. (Ask Sylvia if you need help doing this)

Thanks again for coming today! I look forward to the possibilities!!

I Still Have Hope!!!!

On Monday the meeting I think went rather well. I know that we can't conquer all the issues but when you get to talking about all that we face as residents, it's hard not to want to conquer them all. My hope for this meeting with Mr. Carroway is that he at least will show up, then maybe he will let the other committee member know our concerns. See! I found that a lot of the residents here have truly given up on changes to this community. Me, I have not. My plan for the future is to move but I still want to be involved with the residents of Turner Courts. My days have not always been pleasant living here but I have come along way in my perceptions of the residents. There really are some nice people here. I just wish that the people that have a say so in how things can be better, tell us what we can do, and maybe that would give the people hope. And that there are people from City hall that does listen and care!!!