St. John Neighborhood Assoc Mtg - 03-03-09

Notes from today's meeting of the association:

Attendees: (need list)

Welcome and Invocation by Pastor Hendricks

Community Reports:
* Ms. Taylor gave the senior report. A couple of seniors lost a close loved one. One son and one husband. The folks are doing "ok" as the group and their network/churches comfort and support them. She gave the seniors a report our on last Saturday's planning meeting where she encouraged them to participate in future meetings/discussions.

* Paola made a couple of brief announcements for library about upcoming events including a movie nite. Folks should check with library on schedule and upcoming events.

* Mike Roberts reported that another clean up is coming in April. Details and organization to follow. The recent clean up was a great success, although there is one spot at Wheatley and Bennett where alot of overflow has occurred and dumping has continued. Allen Weeks indicated that city has been asked to bring another dumpster.

Other key dates:
* March 9 Community Forum on Education at Dell Children's hospital - change the law update/discussion
* March 10 Webb MS Health Night
* March 10 Pickle Math Night
* March 11 "We Are One Big Melting Pot" night at Reagan HS
* March 16 Rally at State Capitol for Pearce and Reagan
* March 16-20 Spring Break Camp for Kids at Ebenezer Church (near Westheimer)

Report on Neighborhood Planning:
Brief discussion on take-aways of meeting. Agreement that a single meeting for all community is best approach versus having separate meetings for subsets of the neighborhood. We all need to encourage attendance by all at the updates. Encouragement that "west of I35" St. John and the historical heritage of the neighborhood should be key parts of the planning process. Some of the areas of highlights and focus are expected to be Safety (including fear and intimidation), Crime, Security, and general appearance of neighborhood.

Possible Community Development Corporation:
Larkin Tackett presented a follow up from the Housing Summit held several months ago that included other information and data from the UT grad students that did the study and made earlier presentations to the neighborhood. Coming off of this with goals to preserve to the neighborhood's history/character, provide opportunity for affordable/low income housing, and facilitate family stability. Neighborhood Housing Services has played in role to some extent in this area, however, their financial position has placed them in a situation where they realistically can not continue and serve this need. Therefore, a suggestion of considering the establishment of a non-profit Community Development Corporation (CDC) for St. John. There is a close in opportunity to that may be able to be taken advantage of on a property that the city now owns on 7212 Providence Ave. that they may be interested in an organization like that renovating and turning into affordable housing. An advantage of the a development corporation is that it is a non-profit and could slow other developers from coming into the neighborhood buying up property and inflating property values, taxes, etc...

Allen Weeks pointed out that the Association by-laws would need to be amended to describe the interaction between the Association and potential CDC.

There was consensus that it sounds like an opportunity St. John should explore. A motion was made by Marion Morris that next steps be taken to form a CDC, including ensuring there is a broader base information/communication plan to the neighborhood before anything is established. Ms. Taylor seconded and verbal vote take with no opposition. We agreed that a neighborhood check point would be scheduled for March 21.

No other new business was presented. Meeting was adjourned.