Email List - Upgrade Nearly Complete

I think the upgrade of the email list is nearly complete. It may take a couple of posts to work out any bugs. If you didn't receive an invitation to the email list, let me know by posting a comment.

Email List - Upgrade Coming

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm working on an upgrade for the email notification list. If you have signed up for email notification, you should be receiving an invitation from Google Groups in the next couple of days. If you would like to remain on the Neighborhood Watch mailing list, simply accept the invitation by following the instructions in the email. If you have any questions, feel free to post comments here, and I'll be sure to answer them.

DA Soares' Landlord/Drug Prevention Program

This might be a good agenda item for a future Neighborhood Watch meeting.

Town Forum On Albany Public Schools

Yesterday about a hundred people filled the large community room at the public library with the goal of discussing the schools and proposing solutions that would help. Personally my wife and I were asked, and consented, to be small group facilitators in the process. The process that was chosen by the sponsoring groups - the Youth Taskforce (that grew out of the forum done a couple of months ago on youth) and Citizen Action - was an open process of the type that is often done for "priority setting". The point, I think, was to select by a public process, a set of issues to "work on" by these sponsoring groups.

On the plus side I believe this process and meeting added some public energy to a continuing discussion in the community on the schools and the problems that the schools face. It surely brought in additional people to the public side of the discussion. Among the things that were identified as directions that might help improve the schools were increased cultural competancy by teachers and other staff regarding inner city communities, increased minority recuitment of teaching staff, more engagement on the part of the schools with the community. There were other points I do not recall.

There was not a great deal of discussion as I experienced it in the small group I facilitated and in the general meeting regarding the recent violence in the schools though there was some significant discussion of it at the end of the program. Organizers of the program stressed that the focus of the night was not the violence in particular since the program had been organized long before the violence happened. But there was a feeling that the solutions identified would contribute to a reduction or elimination of school violence.

On the minus side the "solutions" identified did not have the appearance of anything new. There were no revolutionary solutions. They sounded alot like what many people have been saying for months, or years. They are the same solutions that emerged as the the public discussion in the election campaigns for school board in many ways. In other words the public has already identified these priorities. Perhaps the value of the evening is that they were brought to a new audience.

The Town Hall Meeting did not come up with a game plan for approaching these proposed solutions. There will be another meeting on December 7th of the Youth Taskforce at the Women's Building at 79 Central Avenue where an attempt will be made to digest the proposed directions and develop advocacy plans.

As I am sure you all saw in the papers, the Center for Law and Justice held a press confernece earlier to make the point that they felt the schools erred in calling the police regarding the brawl at Albany High. Almost needless to say the police responded by saying the arreests were necessary. The police assert that some school security personnel and staff were assaulted in the scuffle.

-Paul

Meeting On School 18

The meeting went forward yesterday. There was Shawn Hamlin from the School District architecture office, Bill Moriarty the District Construction Manager and Paul Irish the Construction Site Manager from Pike-Heery. Eleven people from the neighborhood turned out, mostly from Bertha Street but one from second Avenue, one from Summit, and Cathy Fahey was there. I was disappointed that only two people (from the same household and also connected with the church) were there from Hurlbut Street. I also wondered about others who had expressed interest at earlier times. I am aware there were other important things going on that evening too.

The water is scheduled to be turned off on Bertha Street today in connection with the construction.

Among things reviewed at the meeting were: Construction work started June 27, the old building was demolished in August, they are currently in the foundation and concrete phase of work. Starting November 28 they will start the structural steel phase. They plan to work through the winter. By spring they should have a good deal up and begin work on the inside. They plan to open school in January 2007.

The school will have a cafeteria and gym that will be available to the public for meeting or other use. The building will be designed for 450 students K-5.

There was significant discussion regarding the lawn at the south side of the building. There was concern that early and constant use would turn it into a dust bowl. While the constant use potential was acknowledged it was pointed out that the new building will have an airconditioned usable gym which the old building did not and thus allow for more indoor use on hot summer days and give the lawn a degree of respite from use.

There was discussion of what might be future issues for public discussion with the school once it opens: 1) maintenance of the lawn to avoid the dustbowl effect, 2) keeping the gate open for passage through from Hurlbut to Bertha, 3) evening use of the lawn area, 4) will there be playground equipment in the lawn area?, 5) building use by the community.

There was also discussion of the rationale for creating a new building when the maintenance of the old building was compared with the present demands for educational settings.

At the beginning of the meeting a few questions were thrown out about the proposed bond issue for renovations of Albany High School. There is a planned May 2006 vote for a bond issue for fund to renovate Albany High. Plans are unfolding on that at this time.

Thanks to all who attended or helped in putting the meeting together.

-Paul

Email Notifications - Test

This is just a test of the email notification for the Neighborhood Watch.

Email Notifications

There seems to be a problem with the automatic email notifications from this blog. Just wanted to let everyone know I'm looking into it and hope to have the problem resolved soon.

School 18 Meeting Site Approved

So Holy Spirit Church voted tonight to approve the use of its space for a meeting regarding the progress of construction on School 18. The meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 21st from 7pm to 9pm (or so). Please come and bring your questions and observations. My personal opinion and motivation for working to have the meeting is that we who live around the site should get together with the School and construction company and "check in" with each other. If we see problems we should tell them so. If we see good progress and harmony we should say so too. I did get concerned when the four youths (I confess to slight exageration - they were probably 10 years old) were seen having entered the construction site and spending quite a bit of time looking around. When I approached them they really seemed quite harmless but it is a concern. I have spoken to the construction site manager and he has said he would be at the meeting. I was also told that representatives from the school district would also be present. I think it should be a good meeting. I look forward to seeing you there. (Oh yes, I have asked Cathy Fahey if she would come too.)

-Paul

Next Neighborhood Watch Meeting

Since November and December are likely to be busy months for just about everybody, what do people think about putting off our next Neighborhood Watch meeting until January. Looking at the calendar, maybe we could shoot for Wednesday the 25th (1/25/2006) at 7pm at the Ultraviolet Cafe. Any thoughts?

I know Ford and others have suggested getting someone in to talk about Safe Passage. Anybody willing to volunteer coordinating this?

Thank You

I just wanted to post and thank the participants of the Neighborhood Watch for the moral support. With the exception of bringing it up as a legitimate proposal in the campaign, I tried hard not to politicize this blog or the NW. However, I stand by my firm belief that organizations such as ours will play a critical role in preventing and reducing crime and maintaining high standards for behavior in our community.

We should invite Cathy to our next meeting, buy her a cup of coffee at Ultraviolet and see how the Watch can be involved with her specific plans for community oriented policing. I called her right away on Tuesday and told her I'd help where I can. This could be a good first start

for us and her.

To be respectful of the fact that the campaign is over, I have changed my blog name to Citizen McLain.

Congratulations Kathy Fahey

Congratulations Kathy Fahey on your win for the Common Council seat! I am pleased that our community will be represented by a thoughtful, commited and honest person who has integrity. I am glad that our community has shown itself to be above being represented by someone who gave many indications of being a challenge to the well being of all our neighborhood's residents.


Thanks also for a good and thoughtful campaign by Ford McLain. His campaign was issue oriented and constructive.

Community Meeting On School 18 Progress

I am working to set up a community meeting on the progress of the School 18 construction. I think this is important becuase it is a really big thing happening in our neighborhood. I know the other households adjacent to the project are interested in such a formal update. Likely those who live about a block or so around the project are very interested too.

Final approval for the use of the meeting room at Holy Spirit Church will not come until the 17th of November but the planned date for the meeting is November 21st from 7pm to 9pm. I am expecting that Paul Irish, the construction site supervisor (I think that's his title) will be there. There should also be other representatives of the school district.

I hope all of you will be there too.

-Paul on Bertha Street