It seems a lot of what we hear on the Manassas blogs is a lot of bitching about Georgetown South, either implicitely or explicitely. Some City residents have even suggesting bulldozing the place over every time there is an incident over there. Insidenova.com reports the flip side of all that negativity:
MANASSAS, Va. —
Shovels, post hole diggers, rakes, brooms, trash bags, gloves, garbage cans and wheel barrows were the tools for the day on Saturday in Georgetown South.
Volunteers, many from the Manassas Assembly of God, showed up for the inaugural Georgetown South Community Cleanup to help tidy up the townhouse community off Grant Avenue in Manassas.
Pastor Doug Dreesen said the Manassas Assembly of God had “kind of adopted Georgetown South as a neighborhood we want to help.”
Church member Rich Rosene said he came out to help clean up “out of obedience to my lord and savior, Jesus Christ.”
This is what we call Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk. Hats off to the Manassas Assembly of God as well as the many other volunteers for Walking the Walk. I bet Cindy was over there somewhere also. Its just so refreshing to see and hear the folks with the solutions. Neighbors got out and met each other and lent each other a hand.
Meg Carroll, the community manager of Georgetown South Homeowners Association, organized the event and said the cleanup was just a start for Georgetown South.
“This isn’t quite the whole idea. The whole idea is to show people how to do things at their own homes, but I think first we have to get this place cleaned up from the outside,” said Carroll, a retired Manassas police lieutenant.
Carroll said she’s operating on the “broken window theory,” which holds that if broken windows remain unfixed, it becomes OK for others to be broken.
The Homeowners Association also also donated 400 bags of mulch. This week’s target was people who can’t help themselves. Further efforts will expand those who receive help. Do yourself a favor and read the entire article. You will walk away feeling good about the efforts made in GTS.
Meanwhile, over at Point of Woods 1 & 2, they have scheduled their Neighborhood Cleanup for May 12th and 13th. Larger area so two days of Spring Cleanup. As Councilman Jon Way said the other week at City Council, with the cleanup at GTS and upcoming one at Bristoe Station, the City is going to start looking good. (paraphrasing him I be)
No, I wasn’t over there, and that’s the point. These residents are doing this themselves, with the community partnerships they continue to nurture, and the resources to which they are being connected. Point of Woods is doing the same, and the Bristoe Station neighborhood is about to do their Big Day of Serving Manassas this Sat., May 5. Guess who’s helping out? Ian Lovejoy and Nikki Ebert of Point of Woods 1 & 2, and Father Ramon Dominguez, with a group of his youth from the Don Bosco Center that meets in Georgetown South. They’re paying it forward. If you see the residents of one neighborhood pointing a finger at the residents of another neighborhood, realize they have three fingers pointing back at themselves. Meg Carroll walks the walk. She gave a presentation at the county’s neighborhood conference was phenomenal, but she’s also out there with her sleeves rolled up. There are good people making things happen.
I am so proud of the neighborhood leaders who are emerging from the city’s neighborhoods. If you want to be a part of the change, contact Christen Zenich in Neighborhood Services at 703-257-8315 or [email protected]. She still needs a few crew leaders for the Saturday project to oversee the work that the crews will handle.
In the county, there is a strong neighborhood leaders group as well – they just had a presentation on residential hoarding, and there’s going to be an event in the fall – contact Evan Jones, PWC neighborhood coordinator at 703-792-7018 or [email protected].
The Virginia State Neighborhood Conference is going to be in Charlottesville this fall – a great place to meet people from around the state to see what they’re doing to revitalize their neighborhoods – the issues are the same, but there are some real cool and different ways to approaching them. http://www.vsnc.org
Well, it’s great to see it happening and cheers to all the volunteers involved.
I have gotten disgusted reading some of the blogs. yes, there are problems in some of our more challenged neighborhoods. Hell, my own hood is 40 plus years old. We just can’t take a bulldozer out and blow under everything that offends us.
Meanwhile, where are my street lights? That will be my eternal question.
Is street lighting a VDOT issue or a county issue?
That’s Moon’s dept. For the most part in the case of the county. Each supervisor get a street light allotment. I beleive it’s four lights per year.
We never got any during the entire Stirrup reign. Scott just talked about it. I did what I was asked to do.
It is a lot cheaper to subsidize getting a group rate for electric ‘gas’ lights.