President’s Message Karen Emerson It’s the time you spent on your rose that makes your rose so important…People have forgotten this truth, but you mustn’t forget it.  The Little Prince I received a handwritten letter in the mail the other day. I did not recognize the return address or the name of the sender. It was a thank you card for the time I spent volunteering. This short note, just 3 sentences, confirmed that my efforts were appreciated, valued and celebrated. I realized that my part in volunteering was tending, caring for the mission of the organization. This reminded me of the quote above that it is important to spend time caring and tending to the things that are important to us. “Our Beloved Community” needs to be tended, watered, inspected for aphids and other things that can destroy it. It is in the tending, caring, weeding and feeding that we build and sustain our neighborhood and our neighbors. Your time, talents and ideas are valuable. Over the next few months we will be calling on our neighbors to help us tend our rose. Please be generous with your time and talents.  Happenings The Westside Farmers Market is in full […]

President’s Message Karen Emerson Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. – Barack Obama This quote from President Obama speaks loudly about what we as a city, county, country, and individually need to be doing to make the 19th Ward our Beloved Community. We are the people making change happen. That change happens by being involved, seeing something that needs to be done and setting about doing it. The 19th Ward Community Association has been supplying our food pantries, picking up trash monthly in mini clean sweeps, and meeting our legislators. The Rotary and Kaboom has invested time and talent to the garden at Kenwood and Kirkland. This garden will be a sensory garden for neighbors, especially children to enjoy. The Neighborhood Service Center and our Street Liaisons are working with our small businesses, especially our small corner stores to prevent loitering and improve the street appeal. The business associations are working on improving the image of our business corridors with events like Ease on Down Thurston. The History and Archives committee is continuing to work on […]

President’s Message Karen Emerson Happy Summer! What a great beginning to the season with an absolutely perfect day on Saturday June 4th  for Square Fair. The sun was shining and the people were out and having a great time. Many thanks to the Co-Chairs Tyrese Bryant and LaShay Harris and so many others, you made the day just perfect! Many bags of garbage were collected from Arnett Blvd, Thurston Road, Brooks, Chili, Genesee, and West Main Streets at the annual City Clean Sweep on May 7th. There were at least 4 teams that cleaned up our major business corridors. It is important for us to keep up the efforts started with this annual event. We started our monthly Mini Clean Sweeps in October 2021. To date, close to 100 volunteers have worked to make the neighborhood just be bit more tidy. Many of our neighbors and business owners notice the efforts made by the monthly teams that pick up garbage. There is always someone who stops by to thank us and to wonder how they can become involved. Please consider joining us June 11, 2022 from 10am-12noon – we will clean the Genesee St. area and will meet at Brooks […]

President’s Message Karen Emerson “When you see bad things in the world you can either do nothing or do something. Well, I tried ‘nothing’…” Capt. Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), Wonder Woman Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could call on the Black Panther, Wonder Woman, Spiderman or any of the other super heroes to help us with the increase in violence in our city!!! I have to confess, I am not a superhero movie fan. My first super hero movie was Spider Man at the IMAX theatre with enhanced Dolby sound. I fell asleep before Peter Parker got bit by the radioactive spider at a science demonstration and well, I just couldn’t  suspend reality for long enough to enjoy. Call me a realist but that how I roll.  If we want to see change we have to become active and do something because as Captain Steve Trevor says we have already tried nothing. This month I have been meeting with representatives from the city, police, business and social associations in the southwest. We are working on proactive ways to prevent or mitigate violence.  If you have ideas or want to become involved with the issues of public safety please call […]

President’s Message Finally, the snowdrops and crocus are blooming! Have you seen this bunny? He has been traveling around the neighborhood. Hope you see him on your street soon. Please join in the fun and if he arrives at your home, keep him moving around. COVID and influenza continue to plague us, causing much illness. The latest trends show COVID and influenza cases increasing again. The encouraging news is that the hospitalizations are less. COVID continues to mutate and infect many of us. I am very encouraged to see that the vaccination rate for 14619 and 14611 increasing steadily at 69.4% and 64.5% respectively. So as much as we would all like to be out without masks, I fear it is still too unpredictable to meet in person. We had a Meet and Greet with the President of the Monroe County Legislative, Representative Sabrina LaMar at the Arnett Library on Saturday March 19th. Unfortunately, I was under the weather and could not attend. Thankfully Josie Mc Clary was able to step in and host. I understand it was a good experience for all who attended. I am very pleased with these Meet and Greets. We have had Mayor Malik Evans, […]

President’s Message Karen Emerson There are hints of spring in the air! The end of the winter is just a few weeks away. I have not seen my snowdrops yet, but it will not be long. What’s going on? There are 2 programs that need citizen input, the Annual Action Plan and the Downtown Revitalization Initiative.  The Annual Action Plan is deciding how the city will use the $12 million from HUD.  There are public meetings April 20th and May 5th. Please go to the city website under Annual Action Plan and see how you can comment.  The Downtown Revitalization Initiative is a $10 million state program. Citizen input is being requested. Please go to the city web site for more details. If you have been down Thurston Road you have seen the construction site at 555 Thurston Road. This is part of the very important lead abatement program of our water lines. The neighbors and adjacent businesses have raised concerns about appropriateness of the placement of this construction site. We are working with our street liaisons, Neighborhood Service Center and city officials to have the site relocated. I will keep you posted. Wondering about GREENLIGHT? Many of you will […]

President’s Message As I reflect on the beginning of February and Black History month the idea of the “Beloved Community” kept coming into my thoughts. Martin Luther King Jr, spoke often of the Beloved Community. What is a Beloved Community? Per the King Center, a Beloved Community is a place where there is comprehensive healthcare, safe streets, affordable housing, nutritious food, strong schools, access to jobs, and meaningful employment. King did not believe that thisBeloved Community would be without conflict or strife. He recognized that conflicts and challenges were an inevitable part of human experience. He believed that conflicts should end with reconciliation of adversaries cooperating together in a spirit of friendship and goodwill. I believe our small Community Association has been working for over 50 years to create stronger schools, safer streets, employment opportunities, affordable housing, and access to healthcare and nutritious food. I believe we ARE building a Beloved Community. I know neighbors (all volunteers) who work endless hours on creating the pieces of this dream. The concepts of the Beloved community are at the forefront of the work we do with our city, county and social organizations. Please consider offering your time and expertise. Some ways to […]

President’s Message Karen Emerson Karen Emerson, President Happy New Year. I am always so glad I live in the 19th Ward because amazing things happen. We could focus on the all sorts of disturbing things but I choose to cherish the small things that make this feel like a small town. The tree on my tree lawn is new. While putting away Christmas  decorations last year I found some plastic bulbs and realized I had missed my chance to decorate my tiny tree. Christmas had passed but then I got the idea I didn’t have to wait until next Christmas I could decorate it with other seasonal things. Since it was close to Valentine’s Day, I had my great nieces make some hearts to put on the tree. I had ideas for shamrocks, flags, easter eggs but never got around to that. The hearts stayed on the tree until I took them off to decorate for Christmas. I started to decorate it with two random bulbs and fully intended to complete it. Well the wind came and blew one of the bulbs away so there was one. The one bulb stayed on there for a week or so and finally […]

President’s Message Karen Emerson Karen Emerson, President John Perkins in his book Dream with Me states that “American society has lost its capacity for pluralism. We have begun to believe that if others don’t agree with us, we don’t have to listen to them. We dehumanize people who don’t think like we do and, consequently, justify our violence against them. …We live in a county that proclaims freedom of speech and freedom of expression and we must be willing to listen to and try to understand the thoughts and ideas of others. This is the way to make change happen without violence.” I could not agree more. It can be discouraging to hear constant bad news of the hatred and violence that is being portrayed at all levels of our government and in our families. It is easy to think that nothing good is happening in our city, county or country. The fact is there is a lot happening. Since I took this position as 19th Ward Community Association president, I have had my eyes open to the hard work and dedication of city workers. Our Neighborhood Service Center has staff willing to help us.  They can supply neighbors with […]