Monday, March 24, 2008
Neighborhoods....the real connections (new photos at end of this post)
Three hook and ladders, two ambulances and two or three smaller fire trucks (I lost count, but was impressed) wailed up to the front of Polly’s Coffee Cove (on Payne Ave.). This seemed an apt welcoming as I made my first visit to grid 34 to listen to another neighborhood group and learn what they are doing to improve their area.
I stood outside and watched the firefighters enter the frame ‘for sale’ house next door, evacuate the young resident, and disperse the smoke. On the sidewalk Polly’s Saturday regulars gathered; some took charge of two dogs from the house and calmed them inside Polly’s. A young woman from the apartment above Polly’s then took charge of the woeful animals and took them upstairs to her apartment.
A man within the sidewalk group acknowledged me as if he knew me. I flipped though my mental facebook and contact list and was pretty sure I hadn’t met him before, but find that with involvement with a number of diverse groups around the cities I can’t always instantly place people. …instead I start what a friend calls my friendly interrogation, asking what kinds of groups is the person in, and reel off some of mine; where does the person live or work; and disclose mine. Usually we find the common ground and more memory.
He thought I was a person who lived a few blocks away. I explained I had been in this neighborhood quite often, but had never stopped at Polly’s. He gave me his name and I exclaimed, ‘You’re the reason I’m here!’ A colleague from the Wilder Neighborhood Leadership Program I’m in thought Larry would be a helpful connection for me with my neighborhood efforts. I spent the rest of the morning listening to their initiatives, grid planning, neighborhood boundaries, and resident activism. Side conversations took on quiet, unobtrusive lives outside of the primary dialogue.
On the periphery a chess tournament with prizes was being pulled together for youth at the Arlington branch library; two persons brought in prizes and chess sets. The subject of serving on a board briefly surfaced; then a swapping of gardening books. An exchange of nformation reached out to several within the group, and was then enhanced when two new arrivals were identified to me as master gardeners. Larry shared their ideas on fundraisers and the influence they’ve found in applying ideas from Jay Walljasper’s The Great Neighborhood Book: a do-it-yourself guide to placemaking. One of Walljasper's points was that a great neighborhood has boundaries and a coffee shop. I've got the book and am moving it to the front to read.
Finished with their call, firefighters came in for coffees and lattes. Several of us expressed our thanks for their quick response and the work they do. One told me he used to live in Dayton’s Bluff; for various reasons, we tend to see more than our share of fire department responses in my area.
I considered my Saturday morning both fruitful and enjoyable. Joining the Saturday Polly’s group was like visiting with my parents and three sisters at the table years ago. My then husband couldn’t understand how we could all talk at once and still hear each other, let alone carry on several conversations and not be enveloped in any sense of chaos. Polly’s group felt like family…and all are welcomed!
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