We had a -uuuge meeting last night, one of my last big ones as an organizer in Chelsea. Sad. I didn't do anything workout wise, but because half of my posts concern leaving a workout early or getting to a workout late becuase of my job and for the reason that I think my job is interesting, I will give a little breakdown of the night.
I direct the Community Engagement Department of a Community Development Corporation called Chelsea Neighborhood Developers. For the past 9 months we have been working with staff of the City's Planning and Development Department to think of ways that we can improve three of the most challenged streets in Chelsea. They have some of the highest crime and poverty rates in the city and Chelsea's averages are high for the state to begin with. We have gone through all of the challenges facing the streets from trash and safety to overpopulation and poor neighborhood design and come up with some solutions we think possible. In order maximize, 1st our ability to assess the situation correctly and 2nd our ability to develop solutions we are having community visioning sessions or charrettes as they are known in the biz....nasss world or something. We were lucky enough to partner with CDRC, a non profit that matches non profits like us to architects and urban designers and they hooked us up with some professionals who have been helping us work through some potential ideas. In order to bridge the neighborhood knowledge gap we host these community visioning sessions where residents and stake holders give the architects information on what is and isn't working in the neighborhood. The architects then come back with ideas on how to improve on what is not working. Here is lead architect David Gamble talking about how to improve the litter situation.
The residents then brokeout into groups to discuss the merits of these ideas. Once we convene all these ideas the CDRC group will put together a document that along with their design ideas will contain other social and economic plans for improving what is not working in the neighborhood.
I guess I am writing about it because it was a great meeting. Over 40 residents attended from streets that have been noted for their lack of civic engagement. The Chief of Police came, as well as representatives from city hall.
Imagine how much i could deadlift if I had a regular job? Sometimes/sometime soon I wish to have more of a 9-6 job where I can leave work at work a little more, but the highs and lows of this job are what make it so interesting. It is unique to have a job where if you are unsuccessful you feel like it's because people don't like you. You become very familiar with a very large group of people 300+ who you tend to trust and rely on to take time out of their crazy lives so that your work is successful. So when people come to events you organize you feel like people like you, like you had a party and that evite you sent out with an amazingly long invite list was fulfilled.
I ultimately won't be a part of whether or not the charrettes work, which is hard, and there is so much more to my job than these charrettes. No matter what CND does with the groundwork I have established, I can always fall back on some great relationships I've made over the years.
Just some thoughts on a non-workout day that I wanted to save on the WWW.
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