Friday, May 8, 2009

ALL OUT, ALL OUT, ALL OUT FOR SPRING CLEANING IN HAWTHORNE, JORDAN NEIGHBORHOODS!!!!

Photo By John Hoff

Tomorrow, Saturday May 9 is one of the most important events of the year in the Jordan and Hawthorne Neighborhoods: the spring clean up, which involves citizens going out in hardworking crews to pick up all the accumulated litter and trash they can find, some of it rather....er, interesting.

People wear gloves for this. Enough said.

Individuals who have obtained property in Hawthorne and Jordan--or who are actively trying to buy property and anticipate being super-involved in neighborhood activism, once they MEET everybody--should arrive with bells on to pull their portion of the collective burden and show their new neighbors what they are made of.

Hawthorne's event starts with a breakfast at the Farview Park building at 8 a.m., followed by everybody walking the streets at 9 a.m. And by "walking the streets" I mean in a good way, but did I mention people wear gloves? Yeah, I think I mentioned it.

The Jordan neighborhood's event starts later and ends later. Here is a non-live URL that will take you to the information about that event in Jordan.

http://jordanlivability.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/clean-sweep-this-weekend/

This will not only be a cleanup but...

...a "sister neighborhood" event with Jordan, which has in effect borrowed money from Hawthorne to pull off its event in the wake of (alleged) financial shenanigans with the "Old Majority" executive board and former executive director, Jerry Moore, now actively involved in the Kenya McKnight city council campaign.

In addition to picking up litter, participants walking around on the street are known to get very active calling 311. Last year, the tough and gritty aspect of the Eco Village area was obvious to volunteers, but this year we have seen two months with no reported crime in the wake of extensive demolition in that part of Hawthorne, so it is anticipated litter pickup will go easier since "pro litter forces" are now in what might be best described as panicked headlong retreat, with a triumphant revitalization army hot on their heels.

Be there tomorrow! And, in response to the inevitable question which will arise in the wake of this blog posting: No, we will not be serving Wild Irish Rose with the 8 a.m. Hawthorne breakfast event.

3 comments:

Jordan Neighbor said...

NO WILD IRISH ROSE???

Forget it - then I'm not coming...

Anonymous said...

Wish I could help, but while cycling day before yesterday I got my wrist broken in two places by one of Minneapolis out of control drivers who pulled right out in front of me. To add insult to injury, today (friday) I received no less than three violation notices from Housing Inspections demanding that I move some stuff and pave a driveway before tuesday. I should be able to move the stuff, with the exception of some heavy items that require two hands to move. But pave a driveway by tuesday!? Even if I could afford it, I doubt I could get estimates by then.

So John, you suggested at Connie's party that I should have bought 2515 and 2519 and and prevented the slumlording going on there. Well, Minneapolis is already harrassing me for the one property I own here, why would I by any more? While our city can't seem to kick slumlords out, the city is chasing out law abiding homeowners such as myself.

So the city has given me an unreasonable deadline to pave a driveway by tuesday. As I have no way of meeting that deadline, the city will fine me. I can't afford to pay the fine, so the city will fine me more. The city will then tack those fines onto my taxes which I can barely afford now. And when I can't pay those taxes plus fines, the city will take my home.

So I'm debating whether I should bother paying my property taxes next week- heck, if the city's gonna get my home anyway, why bother? Half the block is already abandoned, so I might as well go with the trend and let the city care for another abandoned property forever.

Dyna

Johnny Northside said...

No, Dyna, it won't be "forever" because we are turning this place around.

You need to go through the system, ask the city for forbearance and, if necessary, seek help from whatever help is available from the neighborhood association or whatever. Heck, get yourself a roommate who can perform fixes in exchange for rent.

You can't leave us, Dyna, nor give in too terribly much to cynicism.