Passing the torch

Back in 1990 a group of neighbors living near Meany Middle School formed the Miller Park Neighborhood Association, in response to rampant drug dealing around the school. The neighborhood association prospered and I became the newsletter editor, then a co-chair, then the website guru, then the blogger. We participated in the City's Urban Village planning in the late 1990's, helped design the Miller Community Center, and built the fountain next to it. (And along the way we fought off a TV tower and lobbied for better ballfield lights and a better ballfield). Eventually the neighborhood became so quiet that the need for a neighborhood group sort of tiptoed quietly away.

Back in 2013, neighbors expressed a desire to organize again, and we had an initial meeting (having stated our goals on this blog), and a committee meeting and declared ourselves to be Miller Park Neighbors. Not a lot has happened since then, other than the now completed Greenways project, and the new neighborhood group quietly languished, other than a few blog posts (see blog archive, on the right margin).

A group of neighbors is now concerned about the impacts of the City's HALA proposals on our neighborhood, and is working to inform the neighborhood of the issues. One of Miller Park Neighbors' co-chairs (Julianne Anderson) has left the neighborhood, and the other (Guillaume Mauger) is too busy to continue, but has agreed that we hand the reins of "Miller Park Neighbors" over to this new group, which includes several members who've been active in the neighborhood for the last 30 years that I know of.

We hope that this new group will:

• educate us about HALA and what to do about it, via several meetings, etc.
• appoint some temporary neighborhood association co-chairs
• have a meeting to formalize the revived Miller Park Neighbors and formally elect some officers.

They already have a blog editor and a core group of neighbors working on the HALA issues.

I wish them all the best in their efforts to maintain the health of our quirky little neighborhood.

Andrew Taylor

(former) Lord High Everything Else