My wife and I along with several our our neighbors made the short trip down to the Lodge of the Great Northwest to attend the monthly Great Northwest Watch meeting. And tonight, it was more of a free for all, dig in and eat some vittles type of meeting. We had brisket, burgers, dogs and a multitude of side dishes including my wife's famous chili and numerous desserts.
Are you seeing a pattern here? I can't even do volunteer work unless it has some sort of connection to food! I'm sorry I don't have a picture of the "before" on this brisket. My wife talks about meat that can stand on its own without a sauce, and Richard's Brisket passed the test with flying colors - Tasty Treats all around!
We had about 40 folks including several of our newest Block Captains show up for the event. In addition to good food, we had Mr. Sean Fitzgibbons from District 6 Councilwoman Delicia Herrera's office and Officer Danny Robles, our SAFFE Officer field questions from the audience.
Of specific note was a series of questions one resident had regarding reduction in Section 8 payments the city is paying to landlords. The same resident had some other issues regarding water bills and CPS issues. I appreciated the way Mr. Fitzgibbons was able to immediately accept the complaints, offer his card and put her in touch with the appropriate person in his office to deals with those issues. People, this is why we have representatives, so we can get answers. Kudos to our District 6 staff.
Officer Robles fielded several questions from tagging to drug concerns and all matter in between. He talked to us about the Cellular on Patrol program and how we can put together a group of residents to have a class (you need to be certified to get the secret handshakes and such). I'm going to begin putting together an interest list of people that would be willing to take the course. If we can get 15 people, we can do it. In fact, I'm going to contact some folks from neighboring associations and see if they would like to form a joint class. Wanna be in the next COP class? E-mail me and tell me if you would rather do it in an evening (say 6pm to 9pm) or on a Saturday (maybe 9am to noon). You do not need to be a resident of The GNW or a member of the GNWatch to do this. We just want to make the class worth the officer's time.
We talked briefly about the National Night Out and what a great deal that is. If you were eagerly anticipating the heat of August for the next NNO, hang tight. It will now be in October (we think October 7th - more on that soon). If you want a good way to meet your neighbors, do like we do: Set up a table out front with a pot of chili, some hot dogs, a cooler full of refreshments and a yard full of lawn chairs. You'd be surprised at how easy it is to have fun! Our coordinator, Ms. Betty Hood is already working on obtaining door prizes. More to follow on this.
I was very pleased to have most of our members of the GNWCIA Board of Directors present. These people put in a lot of hours of their own time and it was super awesome to have them come as members of the GNWatch and meet and mingle with our Block Captains. We appreciate the hard work you do for the association.
Finally, I'm going to approach the Board concerning maybe changing the meeting times to begin earlier - even 6:30PM or 7PM (we normally start at 7:30PM). Tell me what you think about it. Would you come to the meetings if you thought we could get in by 6:30 and be out the door by 7:45 or 8PM? If this was your first meeting, I should tell you that we usually are a bit more structured. I walked in the door tonight with no agenda at all and literally shot from the hip the entire evening, fitting in the speakers as they arrived and such. My guess is that many people do not want to attend a meeting that drags on and on (like my blog posts). So please, tell me what you think.
If you only show up here just to get the latest details of the Great Northwest Community Improvement Association (GNWCIA) then I've been a pretty crappy correspondent in the last few weeks, wouldn't you say?
Well, herewith the latest news available to anyone with two functioning fingers and an account on the Google: Our sitting board of three remaining directors appointed three more folks to take the open positions good through 2011. They are (in no particular order) Lee Besing, our former Chair, Janet Doherty, our former vice-Chair, and Ida Rodkey, one of the five folks who ran in the recent failed election attempt. I offer my personal congratulations to them all and hope they will continue the good work and progress the board had been making in spite of the buffoonery that some of the other directors had attempted to inflict upon the association.
And of course, comments like that can often upset folks, so I am pledging to myself to limit such observations in the future. I've never tried to be some sort of rebel voice attempting to sway opinions one way or another for issues faced by my HOA, but I can tell you when I see stupid.
A year or so ago, through no input or request from me, the fine people in charge over at the office added a link to my friendly neighborhood Blog on the front page of our HOA's official site. That decision was almost immediately attacked by a few board members who felt I was a threat to good order and discipline, certainly sophomoric in nature and quite often in bad taste. I don't know those to be actual quotes by the way, but I certainly accept them all as accurate descriptions of what I do here.
Upon hearing rumors of the complaints, I immediately contacted people in the know and suggested the link be removed to avoid any problems. You people should not be subjected to someone like me but, I'm happy to report that those critics were denied their requests and the link remained for some time (almost a year, really).
But all good things come to an end. Just as a matter of normal updating and such the link to the page was removed and I harbor no regrets or ill-feelings as a result. I'm just glad that a lot of my neighbors who looked over the community-sponsored web page followed my goofy picture to this page, and as a result, my wife and I have met quite a few neighbors we may have never met before. So thanks for the exposure.
Different topic: I received word from Councilwoman Delicia Herrera's office that Mr. Sean Fitzgibbons, aide to the Councilwoman, will begin attending our Neighborhood Watch meetings instead of the GNWCIA Board of Directors meetings, because they felt it was better for interaction with the community. Ya think? I'm sure the idea is that he won't have to wait for a lawyer to be consulted if he asks a resident "How's it going?"
So if you live in the GNW and think you'd like to get involved with things, why not try to do it by becoming a Block Captain? It's fun and, next Wednesday the 28th of May, we are going to precede our meeting with a cookout - burgers, dogs, chili, sides, dessert! Want to know more? E-mail me!
I'll be honest with you - I didn't even take notes so this may be a bit sketchy. Several of my neighbors joined my wife and I along with Block Captains, concerned residents, board directors and folks from other neighborhood associations to listen to a great presentation from the City of San Antonio Parks Police Department.
Several people told me they had head counts of 40 or more people not including the assembled police and representative from District 6.
Kudos to Chief Steven Baum and his officers for answering the tough questions from several irate residents who are simply fed up with the ongoing taggers in our area. He didn't have any miracle answers but he gave us what we needed; the truth. The truth is, he has one officer (for our area) that patrols a huge area that includes OP Schnabel and Friedrick Wilderness Parks. When they catch the little taggers (and they do catch them), the court system is not set up to hang the taggers or their parents. I know it is a tough pill to swallow, but if I understand it correctly, we will not be blindfolding taggers and executing them with a cigarette in their mouth and a bullet to their head, as much as many residents would like.
So, what can we do? First, we have to take ownership of this problem. I need every resident of San Antonio to purchase a disposable camera and keep it in your car. Put down your cell phone and start watching for taggers. As Chief Baum said, "These taggers are not Houdini". The tagging is taking place, often in broad daylight but we simply aren't tuned into our surroundings as we drive down the street talking on the phone, listening to talk radio and trying to remember if we were on our way to the HEB or to the liquor store!We have to focus on our surroundings, and if we see some little bastard tagging, take pictures and call the police. 207-SAPD is the non-emergency number. Get a description of the kid, the location you are at and call them.
But you know all that. We had some great questions and comments and complaints from the crowd. Unfortunately, many of them in my opinion were based on the frustration of the situation. Ask the questions you want - that is why we are all there, but it doesn't help to complain to the police about the lack of action in the courts, right? I talked to Chief Baum and he told me that he gets the frustration and often, he is happy to simply provide a forum to let people vent.
So now what? I was happy to see that Mr. Sean Fitzgibbons from District 6 Council member Delicia Herrera made it to the meeting to listen to our concerns and answer questions. I think it would be an awesome idea to call or send e-mail to Ms. Herrera's office and let her know of the appreciation, and of our continued concerns. Squeaky wheel and oil theory.
I'll send some more notes and comments to the Block Captains and the people at the meeting who left me their e-mail addresses but the bottom line is - we had a pretty good meeting to get people thinking about the problem. Now, let's see if we can parlay the excitement into some action.
Wanna learn more about the A-Team? E-mail me. Wanna join the watch? E-mail me!
If you get bored and got nothing to do tomorrow evening, Wednesday the 27th of February, why don't you take a little jaunt down to the Lodge of the Great Northwest at 8809 Timberwilde in The Five Oh, and join us at 7:30PM to hear Chief Steven Baum and a few of his folks from the San Antonio Park Police. They'll be telling us what they know about Oscar Perez Memorial Park and the happenings in the world of vandalism and tagging, and what they are doing to address the problem.
I have invited our city council member, Delicia Herrera, but have not heard from her or her staff; but hold out hope that she might send a representative to listen in on the meeting.
If none of that interests you but you need some cookies and coffee, come on down!
We stayed up until almost 2 in the morning visiting with friends and singing (if that's what you call it) a few Karaoke tunes, so getting up well after 9:30 is something totally out of the norm for me, but very necessary this morning. I put on a pot of coffee and checked a few e-mails and before long, our big dog, Gracie was ready to go out and visit the backyard for a little while.
After such a crappy weather day yesterday - you know, when it refuses to just come right out and rain, but keeps misting as if we had suddenly moved to England or someplace wet all the time - it was a stunningly beautiful morning today, with just the slightest of breezes to ease the warm sun. So, my dog and I threw the ball around for a little while. Well, technically, I threw the ball, and in return for a few kibbles from her treat bag, I'd get the slobbered over dirty tennis ball back so the entire process could start again.
I thought to myself how much I loved the mornings like this and how much I appreciated living in Silver Creek and in San Antonio. If the weather would stay like this forever, life would be perfect, at least in my backyard.
But sadly, people all over my neighborhood, and people in neighborhoods throughout our city will eventually leave their homes and be greeted with what I saw as I drove by the local library just down the street. One person; one incredibly inconsiderate, selfish and malicious punk who for whatever reason finds himself to be so self-important, that he must leave his mark in five-foot tall letters on the brand new addition to a place shared by everyone.
You might suspect that this kind of thing really gets on my nerve. It does. I do a lot of research on the Internet and participate in discussion boards where Tagging is a topic of interest. I'm so sick of reading that these people with their cans of spray paint are simply future artists trying to express themselves. One guy wrote that we should allow these taggers to use the world as their canvas, and eventually, they will become good enough to have their "art" displayed in galleries. Why is it that people with this forgiving attitude never give directions to their personal privacy fence, mail box and home?
If they want to be seen in a gallery somewhere, let's start with their face up on a wanted poster in the Post Office. But that won't happen because, even though everyone agrees that this vandalism is against the law, it is not nearly the infraction that going 5 miles per hour over the speed limit is. That is not a jab at our police either. But it is a jab at our city council and the people responsible for directing the Police Chief in where they want emphasis placed on enforcing laws.
Speeding tickets generate revenue; trying to find some 16 year-old with a can of spray paint tucked in his pants costs money. I get it. But what I don't get is why with all the money spent to build new public facilities, we don't have the sense to add in the extra minimal amount of money needed to outfit each new building (and hopefully retrofit existing buildings) with surveillance cameras that could first, alert someone to the fact that someone is doing something, or if not, at least provide evidence of who the culprit was after the fact?
Industry is already on to this. Construction companies have figured out that it costs them less money to spend cash up front to provide surveillance to construction sites to deter and/or catch the vandals and thieves, than it does to constantly react to the problems that occur when building anew home. So you can imagine that people in the security industry have come up with ways to help.
I drive by Wolfe Stadium every morning on my way to work. On one side of Callahan Road is a neighborhood of older, modest, homes. There was one house, obviously abandoned, that was so tagged up that to tag it any more would require the "artist" to use a roller just to clear off an area before he could then deface the property with his latest work.
On the opposite side of the road, behind the stadium, they have turned an empty field into what looks like some sort of concrete baseball diamond. I really have no idea what it is, but apparently, someone realized that given the proximity to the vandalized homes across the street, they should figure out how to protect this new thing.
So as I drive by one morning, I see this little trailer like thing with tall spot lights, flashing sirens, speakers and cameras. The logo on the side of this thing says "Pro Vigil" and of course, I looked it up. You can too, here. The bottom line is, this equipment can detect movement in the area being protected, then it lights up the place, gives an audible warning that the police are being called, takes pictures of everything that happens and if the intruders do not leave the site, police or whoever (private security) are called to the scene.
I don't expect the city to go out and purchase something like this for every public space - can you imagine the outcry from the "This is Big Brother" crowd? But how hard is it to use a little common sense in planning to consider physical security of buildings as a factor when funding projects? Blame it all on 9-1-1 and say you are trying to catch terrorists, maybe that will get us some federal funding to assist. But for how much longer are we going to sit back and just live with the continuous, daily barrage of new tagging everywhere around the city?
I do know that the city has tried to take action on a small scale. They have already used surveillance cameras to identify and arrest several taggers. Great. Now that you know what works, let's step it up.
If you live in my part of town, or if your part of San Antonio is watching the value of your home drop because of the increased tagging, I urge you to send a message to your district councilperson. We need a little less of worrying about what entrepreneurs do in their restaurants, and a little more concern with the blatant vandalism.
Or you can confine yourself to beautiful days throwing a ball to your dog in the comfort of your backyard. If we don't get a handle on this situation, that's about as good as it is going to be.
Tell me what you think about it.
Are you seeing a pattern here? I can't even do volunteer work unless it has some sort of connection to food! I'm sorry I don't have a picture of the "before" on this brisket. My wife talks about meat that can stand on its own without a sauce, and Richard's Brisket passed the test with flying colors - Tasty Treats all around!
We had about 40 folks including several of our newest Block Captains show up for the event. In addition to good food, we had Mr. Sean Fitzgibbons from District 6 Councilwoman Delicia Herrera's office and Officer Danny Robles, our SAFFE Officer field questions from the audience.
Of specific note was a series of questions one resident had regarding reduction in Section 8 payments the city is paying to landlords. The same resident had some other issues regarding water bills and CPS issues. I appreciated the way Mr. Fitzgibbons was able to immediately accept the complaints, offer his card and put her in touch with the appropriate person in his office to deals with those issues. People, this is why we have representatives, so we can get answers. Kudos to our District 6 staff.
Officer Robles fielded several questions from tagging to drug concerns and all matter in between. He talked to us about the Cellular on Patrol program and how we can put together a group of residents to have a class (you need to be certified to get the secret handshakes and such). I'm going to begin putting together an interest list of people that would be willing to take the course. If we can get 15 people, we can do it. In fact, I'm going to contact some folks from neighboring associations and see if they would like to form a joint class. Wanna be in the next COP class? E-mail me and tell me if you would rather do it in an evening (say 6pm to 9pm) or on a Saturday (maybe 9am to noon). You do not need to be a resident of The GNW or a member of the GNWatch to do this. We just want to make the class worth the officer's time.
We talked briefly about the National Night Out and what a great deal that is. If you were eagerly anticipating the heat of August for the next NNO, hang tight. It will now be in October (we think October 7th - more on that soon). If you want a good way to meet your neighbors, do like we do: Set up a table out front with a pot of chili, some hot dogs, a cooler full of refreshments and a yard full of lawn chairs. You'd be surprised at how easy it is to have fun! Our coordinator, Ms. Betty Hood is already working on obtaining door prizes. More to follow on this.
I was very pleased to have most of our members of the GNWCIA Board of Directors present. These people put in a lot of hours of their own time and it was super awesome to have them come as members of the GNWatch and meet and mingle with our Block Captains. We appreciate the hard work you do for the association.
Finally, I'm going to approach the Board concerning maybe changing the meeting times to begin earlier - even 6:30PM or 7PM (we normally start at 7:30PM). Tell me what you think about it. Would you come to the meetings if you thought we could get in by 6:30 and be out the door by 7:45 or 8PM? If this was your first meeting, I should tell you that we usually are a bit more structured. I walked in the door tonight with no agenda at all and literally shot from the hip the entire evening, fitting in the speakers as they arrived and such. My guess is that many people do not want to attend a meeting that drags on and on (like my blog posts). So please, tell me what you think.
