Homewood Nation

Last night, Operation Better Block, Inc. hosted its first monthly Homewood Community Meeting of 2013.

Despite the cold, a crowd of at least 60 people came out to hear from more than a dozen speakers representing businesses and agencies in Homewood. You can view videos of all of the speakers who were on the agenda on Homewood Nation's YouTube channel. Here's a sample - Deborah Skillings of the Port Authority of Allegheny County introducing the Connect Card, which will replace weekly and monthly bus passes: 

 I don't know yet what causes the occasional blurriness on my videos. I'll investigate.

Other speakers included DeAnna Vaughn, mortgage loan originator with  PNC Bank; Denise Graham of the Carnegie LIbrary of Pittsburgh - Homewood; and Taylor Wyman, of the Homewood Early Learning Experience Network, which recently set up shop in Homewood.

The format of the meetings allows elected officials and audience members to make announcements after the agenda speakers are done. No elected officials did so last night, but a few audience members did. More about them next week

One shortcoming of last night's meeting, for which I take personal responsbility, is that it did not include a update from last Thursday's meeting of Block Watch Plus. I need to make sure going forward that that is a regular part of the Homewood Community Meeting agenda. Residents who attend the HCM, but who missed the BWP meeting the week before, need to know what their fellow residents are doing - specifically at this point that we are hatching plans for a membership campaign, a think tank and a newsletter - among other projects. Knowing about those things could also motivate more people to attend future BWP meetings.

When OBB first announced the monthly communications meetings, I envisioned those meetings becoming part of a neighborhood wide strategy of having different types of community-building meetings happen each Thursday.

I still think that such a schedule could vastly improve the flow of information in Homewood. What do you think?