Neighborhood Congress

Our neighborhood does something interesting, something I've never heard of or seen before. They have a 'congress' three times a year, where the residents get to meet and vote on quality of life initiatives. They call it the 'Neighborhood Congress', and it started through the CDC (Community Development Corporation) for the area, SEND (SouthEast Neighborhood Development).

A little background. I had never heard of CDC's before, but at least in Indy, they essentially help the urban areas grow and develop. At least that's their mission. It's much more that an HOA or Neighborhood Association, as it pursues commercial growth, as well as general economic health. Eric has served on other CDC boards, and is currently on SEND's board. He digs these kind of non-profits.

So anyway, we had our first neighborhood congress of the year earlier tonight. It's interesting how they are run, since the point of these is NOT to solve problems or stir debate. In fact, the only point it to brings issues to the forefront to be discussed outside of the congress in a separate committee, and vote on items previous committees have resolved or written language for as an initiative to go into our quality of life standards (a document, so to speak, that tracks the area's goals). There's nothing really shattering or outlandish at these meetings, and sometimes it's hard not to start debate - some people just sound like idiots when they get up there and seem to have no clue. But more than anything, it interesting to see what other parts of the SE side has concerns with.

Eric and I are lucky with where we live. We really don't have a lot or problems with anything, as our neighborhood is essentially a gateway into downtown, as well as located at the front steps of three major company headquarters. So we're pretty well taken care of as far as what we have around us. But these meetings keep us a little more in check with reality - sidewalks are falling apart in other areas, and they have neighbors that don't care about how their yard looks. We have awesome neighbors around us who want the neighborhood to look as good as we do, so we all try to make that effort apparent.

Now, I'm not sure how effective these congresses truly are and what they really accomplish, long term. Not sure if, in general, these quality of life initiatives go anywhere beyond the document. But then I guess that's the point of the CDC - the take this and prioritize their focus areas and actions. But it's a good idea, if it works. If nothing else, it makes the neighborhoods feel like they have some say in their future. Which will generally bring more pride to the neighborhoods and maybe set off a chain reaction of 'care' for the neighborhoods' own individual initiatives. But maybe that's just me living in my own little world, not accepting reality. But I'd like to think things pay forward that easily.