Tipping Point

Times are a changing. Work on the train quiet zone has quietly progressed and should be completed within weeks. Soon the sound of train horns will be silenced. I'm going to miss the sound of those horns. All of of sudden some of our streets are getting repaved. Hays Street from Pine Street to the old bridge recently got a face lift and couple of more streets are showing signs of work in progress. That's encouraging and I'm hoping that it's the start of breaking a cycle of neglect that has long plagued this old neighborhood. Many of us that live in the neighborhood want to see our community shine. We want to see responsible property ownership not absentee landlords. We want better street lighting and well maintained streets. We want to see old misconceptions and myths about the Eastside buried. We're still have a little ways to go to make that vision a reality. There seems to be a historical and prevalent attitude of benign neglect towards our old Eastside neighborhoods from the City. Some of the complaints from neighborhood residents about the lack of code compliance enforcement tend to be valid. City services tend to be slow to respond or not respond effectively. The one bright spot I've noticed lately is the increase of police presence and that's a good thing. But to really change things it will be up to us who live in the neighborhood to create a tipping point. In his book "The Tipping Point" author Malcolm Gladwell writes about how little things can make a big difference. All it takes is one simple idea and one simple act of action to create a tipping point towards something great. Think about it this way: the simple act of picking up trash or just keeping your yard mowed or painting your house can be become contagious. And pretty soon before you know it, things are better.