Dignowity Farmer's Market

I went to the organizing meeting for the Dignowity Hill Farmer's Market last Sunday. I was impressed with the turnout and also pleased to see friends from Government Hill. What a great idea and what a great way to bring neighbors and friends together. With the Dignowity community garden a success I have no doubt that this venture will also be successful.

For anyone interested in being a part a farmer's market in Dignowity Hill, then join us on August 15th at the Dignowity Center on the corner of Nolan and Pine at 3pm for the next meeting of the Dignowity Hill Farmer's Market Steering and Planning Committee. I posted a Face Book link to the Farmer's Market in the "Links to Explore" section of the blog.

Can We Keep this Going?

This past Saturday we had a gathering of Dignowity Hill residents and city officials at the Carver Center to celebrate the completion of the ACTION (Advocacy to Combat Threats Impacting Our Neighborhoods) program in our neighborhood. The city's Neighborhood and Housing Dept organized the ACTION program as part of the Eastside revitalization initiatives to improve and address quality of life issues. Dignowity was chosen as the pilot neighborhood. It was a relatively successful program which brought together code compliance, animal services and waste management services to the neighborhood in a concentrated focus. One statistic that really struck me was that in 4 months almost 9 tons of trash and brush were picked up in the neighborhood. So far since the beginning of the year when the quality of life initiative for the Eastside was started in February over 180 tons of trash and brush have been pick up. That's pretty impressive but when compared to 2009 when only 6 tons of brush/trash were picked up in all of District 2, I have to wonder what happened in 2009!

Well, I don't want to dwell on the past, obviously not much was being done. So moving forward can this effort be sustained? The only way we can happen is by residents proactively in engaging code compliance and other services and by city departments being actively responsive to our needs. Otherwise, we will surely slip back to old habits.