Wards Corner Civic League

The December 2009 meeting will be held on the 21st at 6:45pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center.
The Agenda includes the election of Officers and speaker, Michelle Parker of the law firm Decker, Cardon, Thomas, Weintraub & Neskis, P.C, who will be speaking on the topic of Elder Law.

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The Civic League will be having a candidate forum at its October meeting.

The meeting is scheduled for October 19, 2009 at 6:45pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center.

The following candidates have been invited to the forum:

87th District House of Delegates

D  Paula J. Miller, Incumbent

R  John N. Amiral

89th District House of Delegates:

D  Kenneth Cooper Alexander, Incumbent

I  Anthony J. “Trip” Triplin

Sheriff  – City of Norfolk

D Robert J. McCabe, Incumbent

I  Sean C. Jones

Commissioner of the Revenue  – City of Norfolk

D Sharon M. McDonald, Incumbent

I Douglas E. Knack

Treasurer – City of Norfolk

D Thomas Moss, Incumbent

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CIVIC LEAGUE MEETING

MONDAY

September 21, 2009

6:45 PM

NORFOLK FITNESS and WELLNESS CENTER

Agenda

“What You Need to Know About Swine H1N1 Flu”

Presented by John Monroe from the Norfolk Health Department

ALSO: There will be a neighborhood Adopt-A-Spot cleanup on October 26, 2009 at 8am at the corner of Little Creek and Ruthven.

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Anthony Burfoot has been invited to come speak at our next civic league meeting on June 15, 2009 at 6:45pm at the Fitness & Wellness Center.

Here is the President’s message for June:

Dear Neighbors,

The June meeting will mark the last meeting of the first half of the civic league year until we resume our schedule again in September. Summer is just around the corner and schools will be out and hopefully we will all enjoy some vacation time. Over the summer, please continue to enjoy the Norfolk Fitness and Wellness Center. There are over 7000 members now. If you are not a member please consider joining. Please take advantage of this facility in our back yard. Also we will be distributing Flags on the Fourth thanks to the efforts of our Treasurer Ray Duron. The flags come to us courtesy of Senator Ralph Northam and Delegate Paula Miller. We need your help on this endeavor as well, so please contact Ray if you would like to help distribute flags on the 4th. Ray, thanks for coordinating this effort. I know you will once again do an outstanding job for this patriotic event, as we will see all of our streets impressively lined with American flags.

I wish to thank Barbara Ross for her continued dedicated service as our newsletter editor. She has done an excellent job preparing the newsletter each month for the past five years. This takes a significant amount of time to complete and Barbara’s newsletters are informative and always on time. Barbara, we thank you for your service and look forward to your newsletters again in the fall. Enjoy your two months of newsletter free time. Also a special thanks to Joan Griffey and Ray Duron for keeping the records of our meetings and ensuring that our finances are in order. Joan, also thank you for your great efforts as Chair of the Beautification Committee with the Greater Wards Corner Partnership. Your tenacity does pay off. A thank you to Sue Classick for organizing the delivery of our newsletters each month with our many newsletter carriers. This also is no small task. Finally, a special thanks to Martin Thomas Jr. for his service as Vice President, providing us needed guidance at our Executive Committee meetings and for keeping our website up to date. Thank you all!

Mega kudos go to Shahana Magee and the neighbors in the Pinehurst section of our civic league. These folks know how to organize a petition drive and get action from the city of Norfolk. Through their efforts and addressing a problem the right way they were able to get the city to approve several stop signs at the cross streets of Cedar Level and Colonial Ave. with Burleigh and Maycox Avenues. This is the way problems and action to correct those problems should be addressed and accomplished. The power of the action is in the coordinated effort of a group of vocal citizens. While the role of the civic league is to assist in addressing neighborhood problems and to stand behind neighbors seeking relief from those problems, it is the group that is immediately affected which speaks out and gets the job done. My congratulations go to you all for a job well done. Let all of us learn from your coordinated efforts.

For those of you attending our last civic league meeting where Councilman Winn and Williams spoke to us, I want you to think about what you heard from them. Were you happy and satisfied with their words to us about their efforts to improve Wards Corner? If you were, so be it. If you were not and did not like what you heard or thought it was a repeat of what has been said time and time again, please let them know that you are not satisfied with the attention being given to Wards Corner. Remember the power is in the group and only by all of us speaking out and demanding improvements for our area will that action happen. I know I will continue pushing for improvements for Wards Corner but we need to do this together.

Your job over the summer is to think about what improvements you would like to see in your and our neighborhood. Please let any member of the Executive Committee know what these improvements should be. Do you want improved lighting at the North Shore playground? Do you want more enforcement of cars parking on lawns? Do you see areas of city infrastructure (streets, curbs and gutters, etc.) in our neighborhood that need addressing? Is crime a problem that needs to be addressed more aggressively? Think about what improvements you would really like to see in the entire Wards Corner area. When we meet in September, hopefully we will have a list of these needs that we can share with you.

Finally please have a safe, relaxing and enjoyable summer. We will continue our work to improve our area throughout the summer. We hope to see you again in the fall at our September meeting.

Thanks, Jim English

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Dear Neighbors,

I don’t know if you are as fired up and frustrated as I am about what I see happening in the Greater Wards Corner area lately, but I believe you should be. This area needs attention immediately before things get worse. Summer is almost here and given the rash of criminal activity in the area recently, I am very concerned that this will only get worse as the summertime progresses.

At the May civic league meeting Councilmen Barclay Winn and Don Williams will be present to speak to us. This is the first time in many months that they will be joining us. I have asked them to update us on Wards Corner and where they see the revitalization efforts going in the short and long term. I have also asked Don Williams to brief us on SPSA and our trash collection policy for Norfolk. Many of us have been at this revitalization effort for over 10 years now and while there have been some improvements over those many years, those efforts seem to have slowed or even stopped. Quite frankly, I am getting fed up with up with this inaction and especially with our city leaders who represent us. We have a comprehensive plan, studies have been done and recommendations have been made for the Greater Wards Corner area improvement. It seems now that the city is not following that plan and consequently we are beyond the point where we should be questioning this action and why things are not improving. The recent rash of murders, shootings and home invasions in the Wards Corner area or near us is indicative that we are going nowhere with improving the area and perhaps even moving backward. The overall crime rate has been increasing with most of that due to robbery and burglary in the area. Please understand this is not a criticism of the police as they can only do so much given the resources they are allotted for our area. But that is the point, we need to shout loud and clear that more of the city’s resources should be allocated for the Wards Corner area. Every day and or night when I drive by the property in the northeast corner of the business district (you know which one I am referring to) I get more and more disgusted seeing all of the empty parking lot spaces and vacant store fronts. Last week when I drove by Nutty Buddies I saw several transvestites plying their trade walking up and down the sidewalk in front of that unwelcome establishment. This entire area is beginning to look like the other declining areas of the city of a few years ago before they received assistance from the city. Of course, those areas are Ocean View, Broad Creek and Downtown. Our area is beginning to look like a ghost town. This is beyond ridiculous and totally unacceptable. We need things to start improving immediately.

I don’t like to be negative when I write these articles and I try not to be. However, my intention is to try to fire you up to speak out about what is not happening in our area. We have been patient, cordial and accepting of the assistance we have gotten from the city and support we have received from our elected city leaders over the past years. But for whatever reason we are not moving forward now or if we are it is not fast enough.

I would ask all of you to attend our next civic league meeting on May 18th at 6:45PM at the Wellness Center and challenge our councilmen with your questions as to what they are doing for our area. We should be civil but tough. They need to hear from us that we are fed up with the lack of progress in the area. Also, please get involved with our efforts, as we need many voices to get the improved outcomes we desire.

Thank you for letting me vent my frustrations and I hope to see you at our next meeting.
Jim English

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The next civic league meeting is on May 18, 2009 at 6:45 PM at the Norfolk Fitness and Wellness Center. The agenda includes our City Councilmen, Barclay Winn and Don Williams.

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The next civic league meeting is on March 16, 2009 at 6:45 PM at the Norfolk Fitness and Wellness Center. The agenda includes our Virginia General Assembly Delegation. The following have been invited: Delegates Paula Miller and Kenny Alexander and Senator Ralph Northam.

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The next Wards Corner Civic League meeting will be on January 26, 2009 at 6:45pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center.

The agenda includes Greg Underwood – Candidate for Norfolk Commonwealth Attorney’s Office and a Representative from Northside Civic League – Mason Creek

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The next Wards Corner Civic League meeting will be on January 26, 2009. The agenda includes the election of officers. Our City Council representatives have been invited.

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The next Wards Corner Civic League meeting will be on December 15, 2008. The agenda includes our Holiday Party. Congressman Bobby Scott has been invited but will most likely be required in Washington D.C. that day.

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