I guess it had passed between my ears a while ago that Hawthorne EcoVillage won an award from Metlife for the incredible crime reduction that took place, what some policy wonks referred to as the "18 month EcoVillage Miracle."
The award was in 2010, or heck maybe it was early 2011 for the 2010 time period. In any case, it was a couple years ago. But the case study, authored by one Chandra Conway, was published in January of this year and didn't really hit my radar until somebody studying the "EcoVillage miracle" sent me a link today. I would have thought ubergeek "Hawthorne Hawkman" would have written about a report of this nature, but searching his blog and the rest of the internet leads me to conclude our North Minneapolis grassroots blogger media has not obtained the actual case study, though Jeff did write about the award itself, click here.
This case study is an incredibly frank document and makes mention of the colorful tactics used to turn the EcoVillage around. It names myself, Jeff Skrenes and Peter Teachout and discusses some of the tactics we used. Jeff gets the lion's share of the credit but this is, after all, a geeky document written by geeks, for geeks, and mostly about geeks. So I forgive Jeff for speaking to the author of the study about his, oh my god, SPREAD SHEET. (Finger down throat gesture)
It's a fantastic case study and my name is spelled right. Bring on the movie version, I say.
Thanks for the post and the kind words, John. It's a great (albeit geeky at times) document and an even better story. Pam Patrek, Valeria, and I did another round of interviews recently, and a photo/audio diary should be coming soon. We tried to get the authors in touch with you and Peter because your work as residents and property owners was more essential than mine. In any case, more good words about the "EcoVillage Miracle" are forthcoming.
ReplyDeleteThe report mentioned that the police considered 31st Avenue and 6th Street North as the epicenter of the problem. Just out of curiosity, I looked that up on Google maps and went to street view. Of course I can't be certain, but I think the camera truck recorded a drug deal taking place as they went by.
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