Yard sales, a creek walk and a party

Saturday, April 18, is MONA Day for the Merry Oaks Neighborhood Association. Yard sales, a creek-cleaning walk along (and in) Briar Creek and a party are on the agenda.

Details, from the Google group:
8 a.m. Shopping locally. About 10 yard sales are going on through the neighborhood. Take a walk and visit your neighbors for some good deals.
2 p.m. Creek walk along Briar Creek. Meet at the bridge on the greenway. Wear old
shoes, waders or boots and clothes that you don't mind getting dirty. Bring gloves if you have them. Long sticks are helpful too. Neighbors will furnish garbage bags, some gloves and at least 1 trash-grabber tool. Even if you don't want to wade in the creek, you can come help pick up trash on the greenway. (If you can't make this date, try to remember to bring a trash bag every time you visit the greenway to pick up trash.)
6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Party at Cate's. (See the Google group for location). Bring an appetizer to share. BYOB.

Art and branding on Central Avenue

As mentioned earlier, the Arts and Science Council has a call to visual artists for public art on Central Avenue near the Merry Oaks neighborhood. It specifically asks for art to help brand the area as an international corridor and is seeking murals for the area, encouraging entries from Latino or Asian artists.

Neighborhood advocate Nancy Pierce has been asked to serve on the review/selection committee, which meets Nov. 10. Before that meeting, she's seeking ideas and answers to some key questions. From her note to the neighborhood Google group:

&ldquo While I support public art, I am concerned that some art, in time, just adds to visual clutter. I am also unconvinced that we should welcome certain branding unless we first decide exactly how we want to be branded, in consultation with adjacent neighborhoods. In fact, there is no formal city initiative to brand Central as the International Corridor. Do we want this?

&ldquo What about the &lsquo green’ branding some of us have discussed, building on the greenway, bridge art, ped/bike/transit focus of Merry Oaks? Could public art work support that?”

Merry Oaks has a developing greenway along Briar Creek, and over the years it has attracted people interested in bikes and short commutes as well as a diverse group of artists among its residents. Nearby neighborhoods have similar personalities and a stake in the discussions as well. I suspect most people in the area are very proud of our diverse businesses and population.

Are they separate brands? Can both internationalism and a &ldquo green” brand be sustained?

This particular call for artists is Part II of a project. Part I involved a team of young professionals with the Knight Creative Communities Initiative, who commissioned ceramic artist Amy Sanders for a residency at Garinger High School challenging students to explore visual imagery appropriate to the international flavor of Central Avenue, according to the Arts and Science Council. Sanders created ceramic designs for trash receptacles.

For ideas on Part II, visit the Merry Oaks Google group to let Nancy know what you think, or leave a comment here.

Some background:
Carlos Herrera Burgos received a grant earlier for a mural as part of the international corridor idea, but had difficulties finding a place to display the work. It appears that the art was part of the Central Krawl in June at Pura Vida; I'm not sure where it is now.

Chapel Hill has some excellent murals, but the town is more condensed than Central Avenue, with alleys and tall brick walls. They're working on freshening them up and preserving them.

Central Avenue updates

Check out "The Naked City" for a post about zoning and urban design. You'll have scroll down for the moment to "The Central Avenue Challenge." Direct hyperlinks don't seem to work as The Charlotte Observer blogs prepare for a site redesign.

And also check out CLT Blog for a wrapup of the Central Avenue International Corridor work through the Knight Creative Community Initiative. The post has links worth bookmarking to a new creative community Google group as well as news about Garinger High School's involvement in planning improvements along Central Avenue.

Neighborhoods unite to fight crime

From the Merry Oaks Google group comes word of a Thursday night meeting in Plaza Midwood with police. Edited slightly:

"From: Timothy Griffin

Two armed robberies -- at Fuel Pizza and Snug Harbor -- occurred in the last month here in the Plaza Central area. We need to address this issue with the police department and the city. I am holding a meeting with representatives from the Morningside Neighborhood Association board, Plaza Midwood's board, the merchants, Patsy Kinsey and the Eastway Police Department. We need more police presence in the business area immediately.

I am going to contact the PM Library at Central and Plaza and book the meeting room for an emergency safety meeting with the Police Department at 7pm for Thursday Evening.

Please let me know if you can attend.

Tim Griffin, president
Morningside Neighborhood Association
1508 Morningside Dr.
Charlotte, NC 28205
704-371-3025"

Merry Oaks communications: a quick guide

Here's a quick guide on the various ways that Merry Oaks neighbors talk with each other online. It's for newcomers, old timers and anyone who wants more clarity and transparency on our current ways of communicating. It might be edited over time as I talk with others. Please feel free to share your ideas in comments.

The Google group: The neighborhood association has had a Google group for awhile with a couple of moderators. The discussions are widely read by at least one city council representative and one county commission representative, as well as a law enforcement representative. It's moderated by a couple of different people. You can post pages and documents there as well, though we haven't gone that far with it yet. The Commonwealth Park Neighborhood Association has used their Google group for the posting of files (including police "mugshots" of people working the streets in their neighborhood). This is the most active and quick way to communicate with each other; just remember you're broadcasting to a large audience of elected officials, police and perhaps potential home buyers and real estate folks. I have not seen any ads there; if there were any, the revenue would go to Google.

Neighborhood Link: This is a free long-standing website initially funded by a private company in partnership with Mecklenburg County or the city (I can't remember which, it's been so long). It's part of a network that provides the websites to neighborhood groups. It has excellent reference material about local government, schools and other neighborhood associations, as well as a discussion area and PDF documents of current and old newsletters. Those newsletters include contact information for all the current neighborhood association board members. The site requires a Neighborhood Link signon to participate in discussions. It has no ads. It has ads, and it's unclear where the revenue goes -- not the neighborhood association.

Under Oak blog: That's where you are now. This is a personal blog, run by me, a board member of the neighborhood association. It is not an official vehicle of the neighborhood association. In that respect, it's similar to Under the Water Tower in Elizabeth. That neighborhood has an official website, and that blog is a personal endeavor by a resident of that neighborhood. Under Oak has no ads.

Facebook Neighborhoods application: This is the newest way I know of. Eight people are now members of the Facebook Merry Oaks neighborhood -- for the longest time, I knew of only three. This method seems to have potential for posting event information and meeting new people. It's free, but any ad revenue goes to Facebook.

All these methods might be a bit confusing. My point of view: It's good to have a variety of ways to talk with each other, though we all need to continue to work on being transparent so that people know how to use these ways to communicate well. In addition, I suspect that the folks running these various communication methods would love to have help.

To quote a co-worker recently: "Where there's no logic, there is history." In some cases, these methods evolved because neighbors didn't want to share their email addresses publicly, or wanted to be able to comment anonymously. As tech tools and the neighborhood evolve, I'm sure we can continue to improve.

And of course, there's always a chat along the sidewalk. Sometimes, that's the best way.

Thoughts? Let me (Andria) know at akrewson45c AT mac DOT com.

Merry Oaks update tidbits

Deer
They're here, late and early on our neighborhood streets and back yards. Be careful driving after dark, for your sake and the deer. Nancy Pierce spotted one on Flynnwood Drive on a recent evening. They've also been seen in the greenway.

Outside.In
The place-blogging organized aggregator has interesting news and ideas here.

Local business recommendations
Good recent car care recommendations at the Merry Oaks Google Group at the Merry Oaks Google Group.

Merry Oaks events
You don't have to sign up or log in to see events at Neighborhood Link. If you'd like to add an event, you do have to sign in or sign up.
It's here.

Keeping track of neighborhood events

Merry Oaks is definitely cool. A neighbor posted to the Google Group about several recent events involving artists in the neighborhood, and another neighbor responded by asking about calendar tools to keep track of all the cool stuff people are doing.

As online tools continue to improve, friends and neighbors struggle to keep up with the technology and choose the right tool. Newspapers and other media are in the same boat.

No matter the technology, the truth is the biggest hurdle is the inputting of data, just like keeping your own calendar at home.

Artists want to create and perform, not promote. And some like to live quietly in the neighborhood under the radar. And while we all like to keep up with political and community events nearby, as 2008 approaches, we don't just want inbox politician spam.

But sometimes you're just proud of your neighbors and want to share. And sometimes you want help from others to keep track of all the great stuff people are doing.

To reach everyone, we ought to use several tools in these days of fragmentation. And sometimes, word of mouth on a sidewalk or a low-tech flyer posted at Dish still work best. Or sometimes, forming partnerships with nearby neighborhoods like Commonwealth Park and Elizabeth and Noda would make sense. Or maybe we should use all those methods.

Some possible tools:
Facebook. Two "applications" would work: Events and the neighborhood page. (Yes, we have one. Laura Paynter, Marcus Williams and I are there so far). It's not just for teens and college students anymore.
Google calendar. I don't know much about this yet, and I wonder how it integrates with Google Groups. We need a neighborhood expert to explore.
Yahoo events. Also something I don't know much about yet.
Blogs linked to outside.in. Makes an automatic feed of news and blog postings geographically. The real estate blog Hip Hoods feeds to this, and it has stayed remarkably up to date over time because it's someone's actual job instead of a volunteer activity.

Have ideas? We can evolve faster if we share.

Tuscan development and The Vyne

Background and opinions are flying about the planned Tuscan development, Duo at CBC, at the Merry Oaks Google group. The development has gone back to the drawing board because the city wants an extension of Briar Creek Road through the property, according to Tom Poston, Merry Oaks Neighborhood Association president.
Try Urban Planet forums as well if you're seeking details about other nearby developments. Posters there are discussing The Vyne, also at Central Avenue and Briar Creek, and how it has billed itself as a gated community.
The quote from The Vyne's website, under "Specifications":
--social space for gathering on the hilltop.
--Opportunities for unstructured play and other activities like picnicking, sunbathing and reading.
--South of The Lawn are lushly planted gardens with plants of a human scale that provide seasonal interest.
--The perimeter edge is softened with hedgerows informally planted with redbuds and dogwoods within a field of wildflowers.

Briar Creek-Independence rezoning update

Here's an update from our neighbors in the Commonwealth neighborhood Google group. This is from a posting by Ted Cleary, about the May 21 rezoning hearing for development at Briar Creek and Independence Boulevard:

"There were several Commonwealth Park neighbors in attendance; one
spoke at the podium to express our consensus that we approved of the
project and its style, as shown in their architectural rendering and
especially based on the specified materials and details shown in the
construction drawing set they shared with us (which should eliminate
any down-grading in details due to 'value-engineering' that often
occurs in projects once construction begins). No neighbors, if any,
opposing the project had come forward in any lead-up meetings with
the developer, or at the re-zoning hearing last night.

The developer's attorney asked that Council approve the project last
night (rather than the normal procedure of a vote at next month's
meeting), due to delays already forced on him by incorrect
information from the Planning Dept.; one Councilmember expressed
concern about this break from procedure (perhaps because he wanted to
make sure nothing was being 'slipped by' them with a project he was
not fully familiar with); therefore, Council will vote next month
(approval is expected). You may begin to see marketing start before
then, but not construction till it's official."

Notes: Zoning committee is scheduled to meet at 4:30 on May 30 on the 8th floor of the Government Center to make a recommendation on the petition. That is not a public hearing, but the meeting is public. Full city coucil meets June 18 at 6 p.m. at the Government Center to vote on the petition, though that could always be delayed. Rezoning petition is at the rezoning site and it's Petition No. 2007-059.

Keeping connections strong
Listening to neighbors talking with neighbors through Google Groups is an amazing way to keep in touch with what's going on nearby.

It's almost as good as chatting with Mr. Bookout during his daily walks in Merry Oaks.

Smart politicians are active in these groups as well -- reading and posting as a way of staying in touch with local voters.

So the update: a German shepherd is roaming the Merry Oaks greenway, and neighbors are helping each other figure out whether the dog has an owner.

A zoning hearing on development at Briar Creek and Independence was scheduled Monday, May 21. At least one resident had signed up to speak in favor of residential condo development, but several residents are keeping an eye on the quality of the building plans.

Details at the Google groups for Merry Oaks and Commonwealth Park. The links were broken for awhile, but should be fixed. Please let me know if something does not work -- the tools can be hinky, to use a technical term.

And if you want to travel further away, check out a newsy blog by David Boraks for Davidson.

Closer to home, it's always good to check in periodically with John McBride at Under the Water Tower for Elizabeth news. You might find some local ice cream.