Block parties

in community engagement, Ideas, Place-based communities, Resident Associations

Sources: Block Party Guide, Oakland CA and Block Party Planning Tips from Block Party NYC. These resources include forms and other tools. For local restrictions and guides, try searching the term “block party permit” and the name of your city/town. Click on this, for example.

10 Reasons To Have a Block Party

  1. To have fun – no excuse or reason to celebrate!
  2. To meet your neighbors.
  3. To increase the sense of belonging in your neighborhood.
  4. To organize a city-sponsored group such as Neighborhood Watch.
  5. To make connections within the community. When you know people, you can exchange skills or resources and perhaps organize a book club, baby-sitting co-op, share walking to school duties, or find new friends for your children.
  6. To plan a campaign for traffic slowdown, get better lighting, or address other interests.
  7. To “use” the street for one day, for example to roller blade, set up a kids jump house or to practice bike safety skills.
  8. To meet some of the old-time residents in the neighborhood and learn about its history.
  9. To have a neighborhood clean-up day, play some good music and barbecue once all the work is done.
  10. To start a tradition of getting together at least once a year.

broome-street-block-party-160

How to start organizing

  • Gather a few neighbors and divide up the tasks. A block party is too big a production for even the most highly-skilled organizer to accomplish alone. If you don’t already know you neighbors, reach out to them by organizing an introductory meeting and planning session.
  • Decide on a possible theme, activities, etc. Decide what to do about food.
  • Start knocking on doors to find out if there is enough interest and, if so, which day would be the best for the most people
  • Pick a date and time (mid-afternoon to evening works best). Respect neighborhood quietness after 9:00pm. Think of an alternate plan in case of poor weather.
  • Go door to door. Hand out invitations. If you plan to close off the street, you’ll probably need to complete Block Party application form.
  • Recruit volunteers to help with the planning.
  • Decide if this will be a block party restricted to those on the street/block or will people be able to invite friends/relatives
  • Post signs the day before reminding everyone to remove cars and that the street will be closed.

Ideas

  • Invite a city council member, school principal, or city staff member.
  • Call the Police Department, Fire Department, Environmental Services or other city departments to obtain literature, give-aways, or to request a presentation.
  • Make a record of everyone who attends and everyone you contacted; after all, the idea of a block party is to connect neighbors.
  • Identify special talents your neighbors might have – you may be living next to a magician, singer, dancer, artist, radio host or prize winning cook.
  • Plan lots of activities for children.
  • Food: if you’re looking for the least fuss, work, and cleanup, the hot dog is for you. The standard charcoal grill is a cheap, easy, portable way to go. Someone on your block probably owns one if you don’t.
  • Lots of block parties have great luck getting food donated from local grocery stores or supermarkets.
  • Have an environmentally friendly party. Ask everyone to bring their own reusable plates, cups and cutlery to limit paper garbage and litter.
  • Include activities that encourage people to meet each other. Use nametags and include children by asking them to create the tags.
  • Make sure that people with disabilities can participate in the activities and include their attendants (those with seeing eye dogs or in wheelchairs).
  • Institute a bathroom policy “Everyone to use their own” so that home security is maintained.
  • Trash: have at least one trash can at every table/location where food is being served. It’s also a good idea to have several elsewhere on the block.
  • Inspire clean up after every party by rewarding children with a prize for packing up garbage.
  • Have a block/street clean up as part of the party. Also, neighbors may want to contribute towards the cost of a truckload to the dump and use this to clean out gardens, garbage or alleys.
  • Distribute an evaluation form to participants (to get a good response, number the forms and have door prizes for returned entries).

Getting to know your neighbors

  • Identify any special people that lived in your area such as the longest resident, politician, artist, eccentric, hero, etc. Have partygoers guess who, what, where through charades and other games.
  • Have everyone bring his or her favorite family dish.
  • Use a map to indicate where everyone originally came from.

Family-friendly activities

  • Water balloon or egg toss
  • Hide and seek
  • Face painting
  • Organize a kids talent show or parade
  • Sidewalk chalk
  • Pictionary or charades
  • Musical chairs
  • Invite a clown, balloon artist or magician
  • Rent a popcorn or snow cone machine

Neighborhood action

  • Discuss what issues/concerns people may have (keep this to a predetermined time: remember, a block party should be fun).
  • Establish teams to explore how to resolve the concerns.
  • Have a clean-up time.
  • Build a bench, plant a garden, and paint street numbers, etc. as part of the block party activities.

Typical restrictions

  • Alcohol is only permitted on private property, not on city streets or in parks.
  • Residents should observe security precautions, for example lock back doors to houses and keep equipment in sight.
  • Food cannot be sold on city streets unless the proper permits have been obtained. Give the food away (and there’s nothing to stop you from putting a “suggested donation” sign on the table).
  • Loud amplification of music is prohibited.
  • If you set up tables and chairs on the street, leave room for emergency vehicles.

Other resources:

Neighborhood-based community building handbooks recommended by Jim Diers

in community engagement, Ideas, Place-based communities, Resident Associations

“Few people in this country know as much about community building as Jim Diers,” said  Fred Kent, President of Project for Public Spaces (PPS). From 1988 to 2002, Jim led Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods which is “widely known as the most innovative effort in the U.S. to empower local residents” (John P. Kretzmann, Co-director or the Asset-Based Community Development Institute).

Jim’s been dragged all over the world by people and orgs keen to learn from his real-world experience as a community builder. He’s currently on a tour through Ireland, England, Australia, New Zealand, India, Canada, and the US. (It’s not really a book tour, but a lot of the discussions revolve around the ideas and practices detailed in his must-read book Neighbor Power.) Yet he somehow found time to answer my request.

In my own experience as a community organizer, I’ve found that it’s so much easier to get things moving when people don’t have to first invent the wheel. So I like workbooks. Our Blocks recently featured one workbook,which I thought was the best I’d seen so far. I asked Jim if others came to mind. He said he’d give it more thought when he had more time, but off the top of his head:

  1. The Organizer’s Workbook, published by the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center -  a roadmap to discovering, organizing and engaging your neighborhood. (This is the workbook we’d previously featured, as noted above. Incidentally, I corresponded this week with INRC Executive Director Anne-Marie Taylor, who said she’d “love to hear how folks outside of Indianapolis are utilizing this Workbook”.)
  2. The Great Neighborhood Book, by Jay Walljasper, published by PPS. (In the Great Minds Think Alike category, this book was also recommended to us by UMass Professor Emeritus Bill Berkowitz, Development Partner at the Community Tool Box.)

Not a workbook, but something Jim brought up in relation to my plans to do community-building work in the Philippines: From Clients to Citizens – Deepening the Practice of Asset-Based and Citizen-Led Development (pdf) – Conversations from the ABCD Forum, July 8 – 10, 2009. Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. Edited by Alison Mathie and Deborah Puntenney. December 2009. The Coady International Institute published this under a CC-ANSA license, very nice of them.

Thanks for your recommendations Jim.

Other recent articles on Jim Diers by friends of Our Blocks: Jim Diers on citizen action by Kevin Harris at Neighborhoods; Getting back to Government Is Us at Socialreporter (which includes a beer-powered interview by David Wilcox). You can also find Jim’s talks on The Youtubes, three of which (so far) we’ve added to our Videos collection. Not recent but still fresh, this hour-long conversation on KUOW (note: turns out there’s a difference between mating calls and meeting calls).

Superbia! : 31 ways to create sustainable neighborhoods (with links to resources)

in community engagement, Ideas, Place-based communities, Resident Associations

[ The resources linked below are those referenced in the book, p179ff ]

Easy Steps

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Bolder Steps

[more links to follow]

Boldest Steps

  • Create a community energy system.
  • Establish alternative water and wastewater systems.
  • Establish a more environmentally friendly transportation strategy.
  • Create a common house.
  • Create a community-shared office.
  • Establish weekly entertainment for the community.
  • Narrow or eliminate streets, converting more space to park and edible landscape, walkways and picnic areas.
  • Retrofit garages and rooms in your homes into apartments or add granny flats to house students or others in need of housing.
  • Establish a mixed-use neighborhood by opening a coffee shop, convenience store, and garden market.
  • Promote a more diverse neighborhood.

From Dan Chiras & Dave Wann (2003). Superbia!: 31 ways to create sustainable neighborhoods. Gabriola, B.C.: New Society.

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Web site aims to unite Mo’ili’ili

in community engagement, Ideas, Place-based communities, Resident Associations

moiliili matters

Area resident Derek Kauanoe launched moiliilimatters.com at the end of May as a way to connect neighbors and create dialogue about issues in the community.

The site offers many of the same functions as Facebook or MySpace — personal profiles, photo and video galleries, live chats, discussion boards, groups and blogs — along with a community calendar and directory of local businesses and organizations.

“There are not a whole lot of formal opportunities for neighbors here to get to know each other, so I thought a social network might help us get a better idea of who our neighbors are,” said Kauanoe, a 2008 University of Hawai’i Richardson School of Law graduate. “Just from creating the site, I’ve met people I probably wouldn’t have met (without it).”

Kauanoe hopes the Web site will become a place for residents to dialogue and organize to address issues of illegal dumping, homelessness, graffiti and infrastructure.

Kauanoe has also set up a Twitter feed used to post community alerts, events and site updates.

This month, Mo’ili’ili Matters teamed up with Kamehameha Schools to help tackle the neighborhood’s illegal dumping problem, sending out 15,000 postcards educating residents about proper disposal of bulky waste.

Mo’ili’ili Neighborhood Board member Greg Cuadra is an active member of the Mo’ili’ili Matters Web site, posting photos of illegal dump sites and participating in discussion forums and small groups that have formed to work on community issues.

“It’s helped me make more contacts not only for illegal dumping but for other issues that the neighborhood has,” he said. “It’s a good resource.”

Read the full story: Web site aims to unite Mo’ili’ili | HonoluluAdvertiser.com | The Honolulu Advertiser. By Caryn Kunz, Advertiser Staff Writer

Neighborly Networking: Web Sites Foster Friendship

in community engagement, Ideas, Place-based communities, Resident Associations

[ takeways: listservs (what's that?) still work. blogs and facebook are good too. anonymity breeds contempt. community online <-> community on earth. but of course there's catch ]

When a small fire suddenly sparked in one wing of the high-rise, it set off the sprinkler system, which, in turn, caused damage in many units. Unlucky residents in that part of the building might not normally have had much interaction with their neighbors at that point, but the community’s Yahoo listserv came to the rescue. Almost instantly, messages of good tidings flooded the listserv as neighbors offered help — and their homes — to those in need. “It really helped create a sense of community, and it has sort of drawn us together,” says the listserv’s moderator Mike Dembski, 54, an information technology professional.

Dembski describes the online group as a no-frills way for neighbors to communicate — one in which the usefulness of the medium indubitably ebbs and flows over time. But if the fire incident taught the condo owners anything, it’s that when emergency strikes, having an online network in place is essential.

In some condo communities these days, neighbors are just as likely to rub shoulders virtually as in the hallway. Chalk it up to long workdays and increasingly mobile and plugged-in residents. Clarendon 1021 features a password-protected Web site for residents that showcases upcoming events and security alerts, an official listserv — and an unofficial Yahoo group discussion board — and a Facebook group for publicizing social gatherings. “Half of it is stuff they could answer with a quick question to the management office, but they’d rather ask their neighbors,” says LLosa, 35. “Instead of being this sole person who pops his head into the management office, [each resident is] building relationships.”

That critical mass can act as an enhancement or a detriment to condo life, depending on the topic and tone of the discussion. Like in any neighborhood, squabbles can — and will — happen. Matthew Humphrey, founder of the homeowner association management Web site HOAleader.com, says online chatter can make a condo association twist from civil to ugly as quickly as you can click the send button. “Conflict happens between neighbors, online or offline,” he says. “But everything happens faster and more publicly online.”

Dembski can vouch for that notion. In the first several months of the Rhapsody’s listserv, members remained anonymous. But before long, a couple cranky listserv trolls “took it upon themselves to lambaste people,” Dembski says. Eventually, he decided to hit refresh. Now the listserv allows only residents to join using an owner ID, a move that put a halt to the negative tone.

On the flip side, discussing a policy issue online can be a more thoughtful way to hash out the many sides to a debate. About a year ago, the condo board at Clarendon 1021 considered adding more speed bumps to the parking lot, a topic that led to much heated debate on the listserv. Opinionated online debaters eventually became formal members of a real, live committee to determine the building’s policy.

Just as listserv topics occasionally edge onto board meeting agendas, some condo owners take the initiative to use online tools to enhance their community. A few years ago, Lee Hernly, 45, a resident of Alexandria’s Carlyle Towers, transformed his post as a community affairs committee member — which involved writing a monthly article for the newsletter — into that of resident blogger. He launched Carlyle Community News (Carlylecommunity.org), a blog for residents of Carlyle Towers and the neighboring condo and apartment buildings. Readership has swelled to about 15,000 page views per month, with blog posts zooming in on hyper-local topics such as street closures, overnight flooding and new businesses.

Carlyle Towers also has a Facebook group where happy hours are planned, an effort spearheaded by resident Shelu Patel, 30, who works in project management. She set up the online group in hopes of meeting more of her neighbors from the sprawling complex. “I have friends who never had Facebook profiles but got on Facebook just because we had this page,” Patel says.

So, what’s the catch? Most online interaction includes just a self-selected subset of the condo community who have chosen to connect virtually.

“You think everyone is participating, and you get this wonderful warm feeling about the inclusiveness of it all — but often it’s an illusion,” Humphrey says. “Let’s face it: Most large condos and communities will have groups within them that will be underrepresented or underserved by a social network. Once you get lulled into believing the social network is a … full representation of the entire community, you’ve developed a blind spot.”

Read the full article: Express Night Out | Digs | Neighborly Networking: Web Sites Foster Friendship Among Condo Owners. By Katie Knorovsky. Photo by Kevin Dietsch

Meriden neighborhood associations thrive

in community engagement, Ideas, Place-based communities, Resident Associations

When the Action 13 neighborhood association held a meeting Thursday to provide information for residents looking to start local block watch programs, a crowd of 30 people came out to join the discussion.

Earlier this month, nearly 50 people attended the Dutch Hill association meeting to discuss quality-of-life issues and the largest annual event for the associations, the National Night Out program held at City Park in August, has drawn 3,000 people for two consecutive years.

Neighborhood associations in Meriden have been thriving in recent years, with participation increasing steadily since 2006 and groups, including West Siders, Action 13, City Park and Dutch Hill, have seen increasing numbers of regular attendees at their meetings.

Presidents of the local associations said a shift from crime to quality-of-life issues, such as keeping up good appearances and preventing kids from throwing parties on dead-end streets, focusing on children and a strong partnership with the Meriden Police Department and the police Neighborhood Initiatives Unit have led to the resurgence of these neighborhood associations. As they move toward the future, they said these factors will play a key role in the continued success of these associations.

Officer Fred Rivera, who works on patrol in both the Action 13 and West Sider neighborhoods, said it wasn’t always this way. Just a few years ago, many of the associations were struggling to maintain any regular membership.

“When I first came on to join the department seven years ago, there really weren’t many members and most of these groups weren’t even meeting regularly,” Rivera said. “Now every meeting you come to, neighbors are out and want to get involved.

Johnathon Henninger / Record-Journal Dave Swedock, president of the Council of Neighborhood, talks at a gathering at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Meriden Thursday night. Recent vandalism was discussed.

Johnathon Henninger / Record-Journal Dave Swedock, president of the Council of Neighborhood, talks at a gathering at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Meriden Thursday night. Recent vandalism was discussed.

Declines in participation

Standing on stage during the 2009 National Night Out event, overlooking a crowd that included nearly 3,000 people and more than 60 vendors from organizations across the community, Meriden Council of Neighborhoods president David Swedock couldn’t help but smile. Just five years ago, Swedock could only dream about having that sort of participation at any community event. By the summer of 2004, membership in neighborhood associations was so low that many of the neighborhoods did not host monthly meetings, had no real leadership and in some cases were in danger of going defunct.

Swedock said there were several reasons for the disconnect, but the toughest challenge was finding interested members when police were no longer involved. “Our main problem was the disbanding of the community policing unit in 2001,” Swedock said. “When the officers were no longer involved, it changed the way these associations were able to operate. Without police, these groups are nothing more than a social network.”

What had allowed the associations to thrive was the direct involvement of officers who were dedicated to their neighborhood communities, Swedock said. When the community policing division was cut in 2001, Swedock said that all nearly came to a screeching halt, but several dedicated officers helped keep the associations on life support, explained Swedock. Police officers, including Otero, Timothy Topulous and Michael Zakrzewski volunteered their own time to attend meetings and prevent the neighborhood associations from dying off completely.

The resurgence

When current Police Chief Jeffry Cossette took over, one of his first moves as chief was to work with union members and re-establish the community policing efforts with the new Neighborhood Initiatives Unit. With a strong line of communication re-established between the Police Department and local residents, the department was able to address the petty crimes and nuisances that mattered most to residents.

Meanwhile a move by several associations in 2006 and 2007 to address quality-of-life issues and not just crime has helped foster participation at regular meetings once again. Proactive functions and events help provide positive entertainment for today’s youth and sends a strong message to the community that there is a commitment to happy, healthy living. The associations are also giving informative presentations that can teach residents to protect themselves and their property or can introduce neighbors to the political candidates in their district, said Lisa DeDominicis, president of Action 13.

As associations move to the future, City Park association president Ethel McQuiller said attracting regular participants remains a top priority and said participation is critical in allowing these types of organizations to host annual events. In areas such as Lewis Avenue, associations have also combined efforts to deal with lower participation often triggered by resident turnover when short-term renters move out. By pairing with the Kensington area and Grove Street associations, Swedock said the Lewis Avenue association has maintained active participation.

All of the neighborhood groups have also come together to form the Meriden Council of Neighborhoods, a nonprofit group comprised of members of neighborhood associations throughout the community. Swedock said this collaboration has allowed for funding to support events that would improve quality of life, including National Night Out.

Read the full article: www.MyRecordJournal.com – Meriden neighborhood associations thrive. Jason R. Vallee, Record-Journal staff

Superbia! : 31 ways to create sustainable neighborhoods

in community engagement, Ideas, Place-based communities, Resident Associations

click here for an updated version of this post: we added links to resources cited in the book

Easy Steps

  • Sponsor community dinners.
  • Establish a community newsletter, bulletin board, and community roster.
  • Establish a neighborhood watch program.
  • Start neighborhood investment clubs, community sports activities and restoration projects.
  • Form weekly discussion groups.
  • Establish neighborhood baby-sitting coop.
  • Form an organic food co-op.
  • Create car or van pools for commuting to and from work.
  • Create a neighborhood work-share program.
  • Create a mission statement.
  • Create an asset inventory.

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Bolder Steps

  • Tear down fences: opening back yards to create communal play space and a space for neighbors to mingle and a community garden.
  • Plant a community garden and orchard.
  • Establish a neighborhood composting and recycling facility.
  • Plant shade trees and windbreaks to create a more favorable microclimate.
  • Replace asphalt and concrete with porous pavers and greenery.
  • Establish a more edible landscape—incrementally remove grass in front lawns and replace with vegetables and fruit trees.
  • Start a community-supported agriculture program in which neighbors “subscribe” to local organic farm’s produce.
  • Create a car-share program–purchasing a van or truck for rent to community members.
  • Begin community-wide retrofitting of homes and yards for energy and water efficiency.
  • Solarize your homes.

Boldest Steps

  • Create a community energy system.
  • Establish alternative water and wastewater systems.
  • Establish a more environmentally friendly transportation strategy.
  • Create a common house.
  • Create a community-shared office.
  • Establish weekly entertainment for the community.
  • Narrow or eliminate streets, converting more space to park and edible landscape, walkways and picnic areas.
  • Retrofit garages and rooms in your homes into apartments or add granny flats to house students or others in need of housing.
  • Establish a mixed-use neighborhood by opening a coffee shop, convenience store, and garden market.
  • Promote a more diverse neighborhood.

From Dan Chiras & Dave Wann (2003). Superbia!: 31 ways to create sustainable neighborhoods. Gabriola, B.C.: New Society. This list courtesy of Terrain.org, a journal of the built and natural environments. Visit Dave Wann’s website.

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