26 Strong at 2nd Meeting!

Thank you everyone for making it to the second meeting! And thank you to the neighbors that helped distribute the fliers - we tripled our numbers and couldn't have done it without you. Honestly I am a little blown away that so many of us have the same concerns and a willingness to get involved - it's great and I don't want to loose the momentum.

So since we had 26 attendees I came up with 26 things that you personally can do to help out this group. If you want to volunteer for something send an email & I will mark you down - especially if it is for materials or to offer skills, and post your name next to the item.

I am adding another meeting to the month, specifically for group project events. Jim graciously offered to teach us how to repair our historic stone curbs ourselves as a first project - so even if you don't feel like shoveling you can come learn how it is done and bring the people who are shoveling something to drink or tell us jokes. These project meetings will take place the 2nd Sunday of the month, we will have to determine a good month for this project - TBA. We will need supplies, volunteers, location, and photos to get it done. The meetings on the last Sunday will be for open forum discussions.

Since our first project has been to do something about the burned down home at 936 Washington - I would like to follow up our efforts in this by an email letter campaign to the President of the bank that took over ownership of the property in Sept. 2009. This project is on the list below - click it and it will link you to the copy of the letter I sent. You can copy and paste if you wish - but please add something to make your voice distinctive and make sure to change the name.

26 Ways to Help Out in Our Group/Community

Email Coast Capital Group – about burned down home – 936 Washington

Distribute fliers for next meeting

Turn your porch lights on at night

Check your street for lights that need to be fixed – contact Edison with pole #

Count number of lights your street has compared to the # on 2nd street

Materials needed for first project - bags of cement, shovels, wheelbarrows, rocks

Location for first project, send in photos of your curbs ASAP (no high traffic streets)

Homeowner to contact city to repair their stone curb – comparison

Photo of burned down home on Washington

Call Graffiti hotline when you see it

Check out district map and history links on website - New

Photo of Pleasant View Historic sign (close-up)

Contact city about Earth Day Event – shade tree for meeting spot anyone??

Join Arbor Foundation for $10 – get 10 free flowering trees as gift

Submit photos to Shutterfly photo site – help with event planning calendar

Suggestions for group: projects, areas of concern, local events

Neighborhood Watch volunteers

Walking Group coordinator

Note taker at meetings

Need Street Lighting map – can get through Jeff Starkley (909) 930-8483 - $13

Become a member of our website and email list

BYOU – bring your own umbrella & chair to next meeting

Potluck at meetings – bring something easy to share with neighbors

Code enforcement education

Ideas for dealing with rising # of empty homes in area

Find better way for us to interact on the web – Facebook not an option

pleasantviewneighbors@gmail.com

Come to Our Next Meeting!

Welcome to the site - it is still under construction, but you can get an idea of what this group is about from the below posts. We plan to have monthly meetings the last Sunday of each month - the next one will be

Sunday, March 28th 2010

3:00 - 4:00 PM

Bike Trail Tables at Washington and 8th Avenue

Bring something easy to share with your your neighbors and get acquainted. If you plan to come you can send me an email and I will send you the evite invitation so that you can see who all is coming and what they are bringing. Hope to see you there!

Email: pleasantviewneighbors@gmail.com

Some issues we will go over are:

Crime Watch - Safety

Gardening Group - local beautification projects with landscaping - flower boxes

Food Drive - work with Treasure Box organization to help community

Neighborhood Photo Scrapbook Collection - contribute photos of what you like about this neighborhood - can be architecture, landscaping, shops and so on

Home Improvement Projects - code enforcement might be good source for ideas

Local Schools in area - Box Top Drive contribution and other ideas

Anonymous Concerns - give neighbors way to voice legitimate concerns to group without revealing their identity

And anything else people want to look into to help our neighborhood

Hopefully we can figure out who should head up some of these functions and areas within the group and how we can rotate activities among them and how to prioritize.

First Meeting a Success!

I want to thank all the neighbors for coming to the first meeting, and if you weren’t able to make it – here are the notes about what we discussed. TEXT IN BLUE SHOWS ACTION TAKEN OR PROGRESS

Things that we would like to work on –

Safety

Increase Road Safety

Bike Path intersection at Campus and Washington

No crosswalk/Pedestrian signal or warning lights to oncoming cars –

Would like similar warning signs with flashing lights as located on Bike Path intersection with East Arrow Hwy – right before Cherokee Lumber

Safety Investigation to be conducted now by Rene Gurierro 931-4235 Monthly Traffic Safety Advisor Committee Mtg Discussed the best type of warning signal - might conduct monthly mtg with other officials to figure out solutions

East Arrow Hwy and San Bernardino fork

Very dangerous intersection

Cars need more warning, or speed bumps installed

Safety Investigation to be conducted now by Rene Gurierro 931-4235 Monthly Traffic Safety Advisor Committee Mtg Discussed various ways traffic might be slowed such as issuing more patrols to monitor speeds, increase street lighting so bend in the road in more obvious - Speed Bump are out because they cause issues for emergency vehicles

Increase Street Lighting

Research process to follow through city and Edison

Might need to get petition going or signatures for households 500 ft. from installation sites

Would like to be provided with historical looking lighting to match downtown

Historic type lighting is a redevelopment issue that might lack money to support from general fund

Bike Parking

Lack of parking area for bicycles downtown

Community Group Projects

Neighbor Home Improvement Outreach - Exterior

Educate community about city and county programs available Most are incoming qualifying or require equity

House Focus - Burned house at 936 Washington between 9^th and 10^th – Can group help with Demolition or encourage owner to so something

contacted Code Enforcement - Sandi Bare 946-3613, quotes from her email follow: I don't want to paraphrase this "The address for this property is 936 Washington. I took the owner to court almost a year ago and got a guilty verdict regarding the neglect of this property. Unfortunately, he appealed the verdict and his appeal keeps getting passed around to different attorneys which delays compliance. In the meantime, the owner has gone through a judicial foreclosure, so now I am sending notices of violation to the lender that repossessed the property. He informs us that because it was a “judicial” foreclosure, his attorney has advised him to do nothing with the property for the one year period that the court gives the previous owner to reclaim the property. I wish you could do something to help, but unfortunately the legal process has tied our hands. I will be meeting with the Community Development Director on Wednesday to discuss other options and hopefully there is something more we can do besides wait for the court

Community garden – beautification projects 1 Flower Box Gifting idea, find city owned locations that might work in neigborhood with water

Create forum to discuss projects on –

Neighbor can post problem or home improvement project they need help with

Create a tool and skills set collective for community so we can evaluate proposed

projects realistically in relation to our abilities and available equipment

Will need to come up with a fair way of choosing projects –

Jay proposed follow model of Habitat for Humanity

Tool Share – if large tool rented can maybe split price with a neighbors working

on same project (ie – tiller, stump grinder, rotor rooter, paint sprayer)

Heritage Home Street/District Tour

Divide tours by historic districts/seasons – to promote walking tours – smaller more frequent