While Garland faces many challenges, I've long been convinced the greatest is building community and preserving neighborhoods. It is the issue that prompted my involvement with city government a dozen years ago. Neighborhoods will either strengthen the city or drain our resources, either attract home buyers and investment or lead a decline, either fill the needs of employers or force them to move, either succor relationships or repel them, either promote health or drain it, either give us hope or bring disparity.

To face these challenges and to conquer them will not be from the efforts of the City Council or the city staff or city and neighborhood leaders, but from an army of involved citizens that take ownership of their own destiny. I know Garland is doing a number of things that show we as a community are moving in the right directions—that we lead most other cities—however, the best intentions of the city and all the available leadership are only catalysts toward the actual effort of transforming some neighborhoods and preserving others.

We Want You! Join your neighbors and start the process that makes your neighborhood the place you want to live and to protect your investment in your property and community. The upcoming Neighborhood Summit will be the best one yet, I guarantee it. I know because Jim Diers, a new friend from Seattle, will be there and I know it is impossible to be pessimistic about your neighborhood's future when you look at what other more-challenged neighborhoods have accomplished.

I don't mean to sell you on this conference but I believe we have got to work together for our community to affect positive change and this is the best time you'll have to get started. Several directors from Texas Neighborhoods Together will be assisting or observing…so the Eyes of Texas will literally be on Garland!

Registration Deadline Approaches for
Garland’s 2007 Neighborhood Summit

Garland, Texas – The last day to register for Garland’s annual Neighborhood Summit is Friday, October 19, 2007. The theme for the October 27 event is “Built to Last.” As Garland nears buildout, ensuring the health and sustainability of neighborhoods is a high priority. What all healthy neighborhoods have in common are residents who connect through shared commitment and shared responsibility. Building social capital is as important as protecting the physical environment of neighborhoods.

 

“Last year, the Summit kicked off the City’s new Strategy for Vital Neighborhoods. This year we want to share what we’ve learned during this first year of the Strategy and offer Summit attendees the chance to dig deeper into some of those issues,” says Felisa Conner, the City’s Neighborhood Vitality Manager. “We hope to provide participants with insight and tools in building neighborhoods that last.”

 

The Summit will offer workshops on several topics including managing change in diverse neighborhoods, community policing as a neighborhood management tool, goal setting for neighborhoods and more. Noted neighborhood developer and advocate Jim Diers from Seattle, Washington, will present a workshop titled “Neighbor Power”. Diers will share real-life examples of how neighborhoods have worked together to develop community-driven plans and neighborhood self-help projects. He will offer practical applications and invaluable lessons for ordinary, caring neighbors who want to make a difference. It also provides government officials with inspiring stories and proven programs to help them embrace neighborhood activists as true partners.

 

“Mr. Diers has shared his experiences with audiences all over the world,” says Ms. Conner. “We’re very excited about the opportunity to share the lessons he has learned with Garland neighborhood leaders.”

 

The Neighborhood Summit will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Atrium at the Granville Arts Center, 300 N. Fifth Street in Downtown Garland. The Summit is open to the public. Registration is $20. The registration deadline is October 19, 2007.

 

To register or for more information, call 972-205-3864, log onto the City’s website at www.ci.garland.tx.us, or e-mail fconner@ci.garland.tx.us.

 

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5 comments

Comments:

Comment from: Les Cook [Visitor]

Doug, how much is the City paying Diers and what does he know about my neighborhood? Are you not qualified to talk to neighborhood meetings yourself? Why is Staff not qualified? I personally prefer to walk my dog in the mornings and visit all the other dogs, kids, neighbors, crossing guards, Verizon workmen, etc. on a one to one basis without all the politics & politicians getting in the mix. My opinion.

10/10/07 @ 10:24

Comment from: Ann [Visitor]

It's always good to get the viewpoints/experience of someone NOT a part of the neighborhood. We can learn a lot by looking through someone else's eyes.

They see what we're oblivious to; they've encountered problems in the past we might be experiencing now; they've learned what works and what doesn't.

Personally, I don't want to have to reinvent the wheel - let's learn from they're experience.

10/10/07 @ 11:51

Comment from: Les Cook [Visitor]

Ann:

But, I thought Mr. Athas was highly educated & experienced in this field. If he is not then it appears to me some of the Professional Staff should be. Should the taxpayer be paying people to do a job and have to hire a consultant to do the work? I was just wondering how much the extra cost of consultant is going to be. Do you know? I know we only pay the Council $400 per month and they already go down to Austin and spend time & money talking to legislatures as Consultants, I guess so should we just pay Doug more and let him consult us if Staff don't know how. Any ideas on what would be more cost effective for the taxpayers. This Consultant may be working for free and we are getting a deal. I don't have enough facts to judge and was trying to get better informed.

10/11/07 @ 13:00

Comment from: Douglas [Member] · http://www.douglasathas.net

Mr. Diers is a SPEAKER, not a consultant (although he probably does consulting). He was the director of the office of neighborhoods in Seattle and has already walked many of the paths that we are just now walking. As with most things, there are best practices and there is spending time learning what others already know. It is much simpler to follow the best practices that others have pioneered than to spend years figuring out for oneself what was readily available for the asking. I have tried to learn as much as I can in some of these areas but I try to be smart enought to rely on teachers and others that are experts, rather than reinventing the wheel millenia later.

10/11/07 @ 23:46

Comment from: Dorothy Brooks [Visitor]

I heard Mr. Diers in the Dallas Neighborhood meeting and he offers an expert's advice and new and innovative solutions to neighborhood issues. I applaud Felisa and the city's neighborhood organization for trying to bring us new information.

Next year. I hope that we DO have speakers who can speak to our needs specifically rather than to best practices generally. For example, we have a noose hanging in a home owner's yard. If we can't discuss how we, in Garland, are going to address increasing diversity and sensitivity using Garland organization strengths (the city's Community multicultural Commission) and city employees along with neighborhood groups...then we will be like other city's REACTING to negative public relations.

I hope that we have Garland organizations like Code Compliance come and talk to us about their change in organizational structure and how they plan on responding to neighborhood concerns and how they will work with older neighborhoods in turning them around in a resident sensitive manner.

I want to see power point presentations about Garland neighborhoods that have improved and I want the details of how they did it in plain but specific English so their successes can be emulated.

10/24/07 @ 07:36

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