Gadfly wraps up today’s long “neighborhood” thread from last Tuesday’s City Council meeting here.
He loves the real down-to-earth people from our town, and they are no more compelling than when they are in need.
He spun this thread out hoping you would linger on each of the resident testimonies.
You don’t want to depend on summaries and soundbites.
You want to hear the live voices. And recognize the common humanity.
So, where do you go when you are in need? When you are in trouble. When you need help.
You go to City Council, of course, which, as I always say, though administratively powerless, is to our residents the “face” of City government.
So these people came to City Council looking for someone to help.
Gadfly doesn’t mean to slight the other Council members, but he senses that in her short time on Council Grace Crampsie Smith, who has a family background in law enforcement, is focusing on such neighborhood issues as block watches, policing, housing.
So he brings this thread to an end (for now) with Councilwoman Crampsie Smith’s concluding remarks on the issues these residents brought to Council’s attention.
- While we want every single neighborhood in the City to be safe, we are seeing certainly an increase in drug problems and poverty and homelessness and affordable housing, but I think this area needs to really be given attention because of the number of drug and criminal activities that have occurred in the last five years.
- I really would ask that the City Administration and the Police Department and especially the Zoning do everything they can to try to rectify the problems we’ve been seeing.
It may not be clear from Gadfly’s clips that the main focus of attention in the resident comments has been on the 900 block of Main St., with some reference to Garrison St.