23rd Avenue Corridor Action Team

23rd Avenue Resident Engagement Meeting
April 12, 2004
12-2pm – EBAYC

NOTES

Attendees:

Elena Serrano, ESAA
David Kakishiba, EBAYC
Ray Colmenar
Jess ___ and ____, Urban Ecology
Randy Tillery, EBALDC
Don Davenport and ____, SACDC
Bill Wong
Junious Williams, USC
Mara Guccione, USC

Agenda

• Add TA piece from Deb to next month’s meeting; check in with Deb to see if she will come.

Announcements

• POWWOW at Mills College, this Saturday at 10:00am; best time to attend is 1:00pm.

Reports

• Constituency Building group
  • Background summary is in meeting minutes. It came from concerns about the work and UE plan. Large convenings that engaged residents but since then, engagement has fallen off. Danny Wan raised questions about the constituency. We need to demonstrate resident support. We should look at what happened and shape the report into a resident-friendly format. Think about what tools are effective in engaging residents.
  • Elena – Robert, Dave, Susan, Fred and Elena were at meeting. They talked about directions to take the plan from here. Bite off piece of plan and focus those for particular groups (ie, for Garfield, focus on what is happening in and around Garfield). Bigger convening – organizing action where plan is presented. Newspaper, block party on 23rd Ave. Which agencies can help it move forward?
    • Garfield PAC, staff, EBAYCorganizing 10 house meetings
    • ESAA – cultural center and youth from YEP and ESAA
    • Merchants and NCPCs – need presentations
  • We need to figure out who’s role it is in taking on these responsibilities. Is it the role of the new hire from EBALDC?
  • Re-presentation of plan – we need to balance reconfiguration of plan and belief in the total plan.
  • Moving forward – modify plan and figure out where the new hire fits in.
  • Randy – There are 3 or 4 work groups. Hook organizing up with other groups. Concern: how do we get groups organized? Leadership should come from entities most interested in topics.
  • Hiring: EBALDC has six resumes and they are pursuing one person in particular. They would like to have people help review resumes.
  • Junious – we have the proposal with a set of strategies. EBALDC staff couple provide support in implementation.
  • Target dates? UE plan ready June 1 st.
  • Danny Way is unclear about public support for cultural center and has to see the interest in order to support it.

• Proposal and Strategy Development Group
  • Jennie updated on PAC schedule. April 28th is the final meeting before submitting. May 3rd are final decisions on priority projects. The PAC does not want more input from non-PAC members. Can David or Isabel make sure to attend the meeting?
  • Junious – we will probably not be able to impact the 4/28 or 5/3 meeting. We won’t be able to show a constituency.
  • Randy – Danny sees the public support for safety piece. We need to concentrate on why we want/need a cultural center.
  • Elena – the cultural center was presented as a public safety piece as well. It’s a small amount of $ we are asking. We need to keep focus and energy around it and frame it in the larger issue (safety).
  • Strategy is two-pronged. Want to go to the City Council but not make it seem like we are circumventing the PAC.
  • Don – Danny is focused on safety so the street improvement and safety should be done fast. Cultural center is continuously coming up. We should lock safety in with arts to establish the power base.
  • Randy – one thing achievable and concrete will help to open the door for others.
  • David – as a group, our top priority is being re-engaged with residents and merchants. Our top political target is Danny Wan. PAC needs to do the political work of talking to Danny about their priorities. David will talk to the PAC about this. It would be helpful to have Randy know exactly what they are saying and vice versa.
  • Junious – There is an intermediate set of strategies. Begin by staking out a consistent position; button hole other PAC members; coordinate to know what David and Randy are doing. Lobbying strategy – may need a revision but will submit the document so that they know.

• Long Term Strategies
  • Urban Ecology needs a timeframe
  • David – Materials could be produced in June and the door to door could happen in the summer.First installment of PAC money is small. We need to look at DPW and other funding sources. We have to build a local constituency of residents
  • Elena – we need to let them know that we are not going away. Don – we should coalesce the PACs together around likenesses.
  • David – Is there a form of organization for neighborhood that we want to fold people into?
  • How can workgroups best support the work plan? There is going to be a learning curve on this work. How do resident engagement efforts talk to each other? Is this in the context of 23rd Avenue or is it broader? Randy – any sub areas are going to have to speak to something larger.
  • David – it is better to start small and let them emerge. Randy- keep people as part of the network and let them stay in the loop. Don – include each groups representative in the larger group meetings.

  SUMMARY - Short Term

  • target Danny Wan and Ignacio de la Fuente, PAC
  • David will coach Jennie and Isabel on how to lobby PAC
  • Randall – coordinate what is being said
  • UE - Rewrite or do a summary of the tool to give to people (cultural center is not a stand alone)

  SUMMARY – Longer Term (3 months)

  • Lobbying City Council
  • Resident constituencies formed to do this lobbying but in order to assemble materials and constituents, it might take until the fall.
  • Resources needed: EBALDC hire, retooling communications suite
• Elena – not ready to subsume cultural center under safety. Putting street scaping strategy first is fine.
• Randy – traffic safety; prioritize what people want and give this to
• David – we need a short strategic menu. Bring this to the Council. PAC can choose their pieces.
• Ray – suggestion by David to keep the frame but be more strategic about how we organize our priorities.
• Don – does this fall into RWJ? We could say that some of these have been (show matching funds)
• Ray – volunteer Victor for _____(?) Can we get the parameters from proposal? It may help the team to think about how to pitch the proposal. Can we submit now and hash through priorities later?
• Junious – next steps: Work group reconvene to refine the proposal; combine with David’s coaching for Jennie and Isabel.
• Need a summary about the facade improvements from Don.
• Keep as a goal – resident engagement network. Where does this happen? David – start reporting back and talking about resident exchange and where it is happening.
  
• EBALDC Hire
  • Elena – how much of the organization are we getting with the new hire? Randy – the new hire will compliment and coordinate but not take over the _____.
  • Elena – do you see EBALDC taking on lobbying around these issues?Randy – person will be a cheerleader for the group. _____________. We will have to hold EBALDC accountable.
  • David – couldn’t recommend anyone for ________ to talk about 23rd Avenue. No anchor, no one to be held accountable.
  • Will bring back recommendations and have everyone sign and make sure that everyone knows who is being hired and for what goals and how that person takes direction.
  • Issue- how to balance leadership between EBALDC and the 23rd Avenue Work Group.

• Summary
• Position description – next iteration, selection and reporting
• David’s comment on strategy conversation on resident organizing in corridor. Discussion about how this happens.

Next Steps

• Convening of work group – proposal and strategy development
  • Position, revisions to document
  • Tentative time/date – Monday April 19 th, 12-2pm
  • Let Ray know to let Victor or others from PolicyLink know.
• Work group report on constituency building
  • Get materials group together
  • Communications group meeting (Karen, Susanne, Newspaper rep, Elena) – brainstorm and get some ideas together.
  • Friday April 16 th, 1:30pm

Next Meeting – Monday May 10th, 12-2pm EBAYC