MID CITY STUDIO

As the event approached, it seemed like we would never be finished in time.  The event would be some tables and chairs in an empty lot with only the studio present.  No one would show up; a tropical storm was passing through and the Saints game started at the same time as our event.  It seemed that was going to be true at first, we had set everything up and noon rolled around.  We had our programs and surveys ready to give out and to interact with people from the neighborhood, but no one stopped by.  Then church let out and there was a huge wave of people coming to the site, eating sandwiches and filling out surveys and asking questions.  So many people came that we ran out of food and had to get more.  It was a hundred times more popular than I had expected and more than I dared hope.  My expectations made me critical of how the event might turn out and less than willing to do more when there were so many idle hands, but I was very pleasantly surprised when we had to rush to get more food for all the people.  If I had to do the event over again, I would not put it on a day that the Saints were playing unless we had a TV or projector to show it.  I would also prepare twice as much food from the start.

I learned that the people in the neighborhood are more or at least want to be more involved in their community.  They are interested in a grocery store and especially in after school programs for their children and work force development, but they do not want housing projects. They feel that new housing pushes the residents out of the area and alienates them from their neighborhood and only serves as a temporary fix for the low income and homeless people of the area.  Many of the answers to the "what does the community need" question concerned sports, but there is a sports center right on the other side of the overpass.  That place either needs to be publicized more so that the children in the neighborhood would go to it, or there needs to be one on the other side of the overpass as well because parents probably do not want their children to go past a major road like that, even if they do not have to physically cross the road.  Maybe having a private drop-box type of input option like our original idea available to those who want to share their input without publicly writing on the chalkboard.  It might not have any different input, but at least there will be the option.