Painted street posts..we'd like to pretty up ours in GG
Notes from the Goss-Grove Neighborhood Gathering
January 15, 2014
NEIGHBORHOOD GATHERING DATES FOR REMAINDER OF 2014:
Tuesday April 15,
Wednesday July 16
Thursday October 17
7 P.M. 1919 GROVE
STREET
The meeting was opened by co-chairs, Jenny and Stephen, to a
full house at Mary and Maria’s. Fifteen neighbors were there. It was great to
see everyone. We were especially happy to have Derrick Jones join us; he is the
new resident advisor at Snow Lion Apartments, the Naropa dormitory. Keith Steinman, our long-time neighborhood
police office, was also there to update us on the crime situation in our
neighborhood. Great to see him again; it has been a long absence. Two new
neighbors, Alex and Natalie, attended.
They had just moved in and saw the orange notice on the Little Library
alerting passersby to the meeting. We
enjoyed meeting Patty, the owner of the lovely, newly painted little house on
20th between Arapahoe and Grove.
Jerrie brought a fantastic selection of her photographs of the
neighborhood houses for us to browse.
She will be submitting the collection for showing in a public
space. We look forward to seeing our
lovely neighborhood showcased for others to appreciate what we have here. As usual,
there was something sweet (chocolate!) and lots of excellent wine. Thanks to
all who took the time to attend and to our hostesses.
Keith, our neighborhood police officer, alerted us to high
levels of bike thefts across the city. Heroin usage is on the rise and the
thefts are brazen; one theft was observed by a neighbor in the middle of the
day from someone’s front porch. It
happened so fast and was so unbelievable. The bikes are sold immediately for a
fix and the thieves jump back on a bus, often to Denver. Keith had just picked up a stolen bike at the
Circle K on 15th. Police are
seeing an increase in violence amongst the homeless; the numbers are up and
there are turf wars between them. Keith says, “Call if you see anything that
makes you suspicious. We would rather
have a false alarm than let something bad happen.” Good idea to record the
serial numbers of your bikes and have them in case your bike is stolen. You can also provide that information to the
police for them to have on record.
Diane gave a report on the Water Resources Board meeting.
They are completing mapping of the flood damage over the next few months and
have a master plan to do a variety of flood-related projects. The Boulder Slough is now on the map, which
is the irrigation ditch that hit our neighborhood. They will do an environmental assessment,
then discuss mitigation projects. They welcome
input from us as to what is important to us. She and Susan will continue to
participate in the meetings and let us know if we, the neighbors, need to show up
at a meeting to represent our interests.
Dave talked with the City about their emergency management
plans and how they might be used as a model for neighborhoods. They are working on improving their plans,
too, so not much to be gained there. One thing important for us to know is that
the loudspeakers/sirens are more to alert us that something is happening, but
in order to know what to DO, go the Boulder Office of Emergency Management (http://boulderoem.com/emergency-status).
Reverse 911 worked for some people, not for others. You can sign up for
“reverse 911” notifications and get more emergency preparedness information at http://www.bouldercounty.org/safety/emergency/pages/default.aspx
Mary followed up on the very tight parking situation some of
us had last fall. At that time the
parking patrol was understaffed, and Goss-Grove had been combined with another
district. Partly spurred by our complaints,
Parking Services is now fully staffed and has made the Goss-Grove NPP Zone its
own district again. They are patrolling
three times a week. In a sample period from Jan. 8-10, they issued 142 tickets
to violators. The City issues permits
for two commuters per block in Goss-Grove (other neighborhoods have four). If you find there is true parking scarcity on
your block, you can petition for a traffic count to get a survey on spaces
available during the day. If a
significant problem exists Parking Services can take away commuter permits to
open up space, something they’ve done in other areas. If your block is over-parked, post a note to
NextDoor, please.
It was a pleasure to meet
Derrick Jones, the new residential advisor at Snow Lion. He can be reached at djones@naropa.edu. He is interested in pursuing a community
project in the pocket park at 19th and Grove and said he would poll
the students and see what ideas they might have. One idea was to paint the
blank wall on the south side of Snow Lion with a mural!
Paige reported on the door hanger project. She needs the dragonfly logo and ideas of
what to include on the door hanger. As I
recall, we felt it could be pretty bare bones, but have the info on
NextDoor.com and some neighborhood info.
We proposed that she put something together for next meeting. She is working on this with Dave.
Jerrie brought a spectacular portfolio of photographs of the
neighborhood in a collection called Painted Ladies of Goss-Grove. We enjoyed
going through them. You can purchase
prints directly through her for a very reasonable price.
Jerrie is also pursuing a project to paint some of the posts
that “decorate” our neighborhood. An example of what has been done in another neighborhood is shown in the picture at the top of this post. We all like the idea of increasing neighborhood
art. Art Counsel, Green Streets, Transportation Department and the City are all
potential or current partners.
Community Garden will have some open plots this season. Currently, only Jenny and Michele are representing
the Garden, but there needs to be a permanent, larger group to oversee its health and maintenance for
continuity, and shared workload. Garrett and Kristi proposed three different
levels of repairs to the Garden plots.
The feeling was that we plan to do the most extensive/permanent repairs,
and raise funds to do that. Next step is
to get estimate of costs so we can plan for that.
Treasurer’s report.
$650 balance. Upcoming expenses:
$250 for Garden compost bin, $TBD for Garden repairs
