Neighborhood
Transformation Strategy
The Community Development Strategy
fosters leadership and addresses community issues through community clean-ups,
community projects, and public policy advocacy.
- Community
Clean-Ups: These high impact projects provide a sense of accomplishment and
incentive for larger tasks. On October 17, 2005 for example, the youth of 22nd Street, men from
the I-CAN transitional housing facility, and members of the Barclay Leadership
Council cleaned, mowed, and planted the vacant lots throughout the neighborhood.
Monthly house meetings and weekly clean up efforts headed by Michael Partlow
on 22nd Street and Miss Helen on Barclay Street will provide follow
up.
- Community
Projects: Building on the momentum generated by the community clean-ups, GCPC
is working with the House Meeting leaders on larger projects, including,
for example, lobbying for a new bus stop on Greenmount and North Avenue, establishing
a storefront farmer's market, and hosting a community wide street fair in the
summer.
- Public
Policy Advocacy: Community projects can attract the attention and commitment
of policy makers. With this in mind, GCPC is initiating a long-term media and
outreach campaign to engage public officials in the work of the organization.
Physical
Development Strategy
Rehabilitation, where possible, is the
first line of defense against demolition. The Physical Development Strategy draws
on the People's Homesteading Group's 19 years of experience in the field of nonprofit
housing development. The strategy focuses on affordable housing development, through
rehabilitation, self-help housing, and historical designation phases.
Community
Economic Development Strategy
The Community Economic Development Organizer is working with existing businesses,
government, and new investors to harness untapped neighborhood markets. Projects
currently being developed include a commercial strip and parking lot on the 300
block of North Avenue to capture the Board of Education market on the adjacent
block; a commercial development in conjunction with a bus turn off being proposed
by the MTA at the corner of Greenmount and North Avenue; and façade improvements
to the existing businesses on the Greenmount corridor.
Open
Space Development Strategy
Many community members have identified
vacant lots as a priority for community revitalization. In response, Parks and
People has proposed developing an open space strategy to develop interim uses
for vacant lots while permanent uses are being determined. Sites for interim development
may include three lots at 22nd and Barclay, eight semi-contiguous lots on 21st
and Boone, and one lot on the corner of Greenmount and 22nd Street
Volunteer
Residents
The GCPC is blessed with a large pool of volunteer residents who steward small
but significant spaces in the neighborhood.
Residents
Michael Partlow and Miss Helen are both conducting weekly, small-scale
community clean ups within a two to three block radius of their homes.
Their
sanitation work overlaps with Ms. Willis's community garden on the rehabilitated
lot at the corner of Barclay and 22nd.
On
the opposite side of Greenmount, John Taylor and Ms. Fentress have been
holding sporadic house meetings over the last two years to address specific neighbor
concerns on their blocks. As these House Meetings grow and multiply, new resident
anchors will emerge.
Additionally,
seven PHG homesteaders reside in the neighborhood, promoting the stabilizing
force of homeownership.
