Facebook Group

Hey everyone! 

Just a reminder that Park Avenue Neighborhood now has a Facebook Group. We currently only have 5 members. We would love to have YOU, too. 

Facebook is quick & easy to join. Log on to Facebook.com to signup for a free account & then search for us under groups, "Park Avenue Neighborhood". 

This format is more interactive. Get to know your neighbors! 

If you have any questions, you can email me at shelleythornton@msn.com. Thanks!

Correction to 2009 Calendar of Events - April Meeting

The previously posted Calendar of Events is wrong. The meeting date for April 2009 is April 21st. I guess it helps to look at the correct year.

Extreme Neighborhood Makeover: Tacoma Edition is coming to Park Avenue Neighborhood

Extreme Neighborhood Makeover: Tacoma Edition is coming to Park Avenue Neighborhood. Keep an eye on this blog for further developments. Or, if you can't wait, email parkavenuenueneighborhood@gmail.com for more information.

2009 Calendar of Events - Proposed

March 17th Monthly Meeting: Neighborhood Patrol
Innovative Grant Application

April 15th Monthly Meeting: Community Based Services (CBS) Arrives?

May 9th 1st Annual Neighborhood Spring Cleaning & Adopt-a-Spot Clean-up
May 19th Monthly Meeting

June 6th Annual Pacific Avenue Business District Spring Festival & Car Show
June 16th Monthly Meeting: Neighborhood Walkabout

July 21st Monthly Meeting

August 4th National Night Out (& Silent Auction to benefit Park Avenue Neighborhood?)
August 18th Monthly Meeting

September 15th Monthly Meeting

October 20th Monthly Meeting
October 24th Adopt-a-Spot Clean-up

November 17th Monthly Meeting

December 15th Anniversary Party & Success Awards Celebration

Neighborhood Patrols are Starting Now

Neighborhood patrols are starting now. Keep an eye on this blog for reports and other information. If you'd like to learn how you can get involved in your neighborhood patrol, contact Safe Streets at www.safest.org or (253) 272-2824. Or, you can contact Park Avenue Neighborhood at parkavenueneighborhood@gmail.com. You can also join us at our next monthly meeting to learn more about our patrol and what's happening in your neighborhood.

Extreme Neighborhood Makeover video

Here is the link to the video describing the Extreme Neighborhood Makeover: Tacoma Edition. It is featured right after Zoo Lights. This is what we are proposing to do in Park Avenue Neighborhood in May. Just click on the title "Extreme Neighborhood Makeover video" above and then click on "December 2008".

January 2009 Meeting Minutes

Meeting started at approximately 6:35pm

Neighborhood Reports (crime and other activity from the past month)
Home break-in at corner of 59th & Park, on 1/4/2009, in the afternoon
Vehicle break-ins in alley between 58th & 59th, West of G Street, in evening approximately 1 week ago

Speed Watch Report
Worst areas are Park Avenue and S 64th Street.
Will continue speed watch for a few more weeks.

Report from CLO? (Don Williams, CLO of TPD)
Yes, our CLO will continue to attend our meetings, City and TPD feel it is really important to maintain involvement with neighborhood watch groups.

Officer Williams presented crime statistics for December 2008 (3,541 formally reported crimes)
comparisons were also given for Sector 4 vs. all other sectors, Sector 4 was higher than any other sector.
Expecting our sector (4-3) to become part of Community Based Services (CBS) area in April. What does this mean to us?
Better access to Tacoma Police Dept., Tacoma Public Utilities, Tacoma CARES, Code Enforcement (Building Inspector, Building & Land Use), Crime Prevention through Environment Design (CPTED).
CBS can also help with community clean-up and neighborhood “Call to Haul.”

Discussed manner of home break-ins: most common method - back doors are kicked-in.

Addressed questions regarding increased crime and break-ins, mainly feeding drug habits.

What can we do? Keep on eye on neighborhood, monitor problem homes & suspected drug homes, continue to report activities to 911 and use “House Watch” forms to track vehicle descriptions, license plate numbers and suspect descriptions, submit “House Watch” forms to neighborhood group, block captains, Safe Streets, and so on.

Report from David Cantlin, Safe Streets Coordinator Neighborhood Patrols
This is the best way to actively reduce crime throughout our neighborhood.
We become an extension of the Police Department’s eyes & ears in our neighborhood.
This is an effective tool for maintaining a presence throughout our neighborhood.
We will become better at documenting and communicating with TPD what is happening here.
Our neighborhood will be better recognized by TPD and be able to work with us more effectively.

Neighborhood Patrol Academy will be held 1st, 2nd, & 3rd Thursday each month.
Classes are free and are held at TPD Headquarters.
Differences for 2009: Each academy student will have Washington State Patrol background check (no charge).
Patrol involvement? Patrol members average 3-6 hours per month

We now have a Neighborhood Patrol Leader for Park Avenue Neighborhood, patrols will begin within next month.

Kathleen Merryman of The News Tribune is very interested in what our neighborhood has done and what we are currently doing. She would like to meet with us to discuss our group and our activities.

About Bounty Food Bank (at Bethany United Methodist Church):
Now serving more members of the community.
Need donations of paper goods, cleaning supplies and toiletries. These are items they are not able to buy with food stamps.

Several members donated to Bounty Food Bank and Bethany U.M.C.’s heating fund.

Meeting ended at 8:10pm

December Meeting Minutes

Gathering started at 6:30pm and meeting started at 6:45pm.

No formal agenda tonight, meeting kept informal with plenty of open discussion and time for cookies, etc.

Neighborhood & CLO reports :
Speed watch program is progressing…plenty of speeders on Park and 64th, also witnessed many cars “blowing” thru stop sign.
Officer Williams presented statistics for calls in 4th sector for November (4,598 calls for service). Burglaries are still rising.
The “Yard Girls” home is apparently a meth house and is being monitored by neighbors closely.
Two more of our residents have graduated the Neighborhood Patrol Academy.
Alley between Yakima & Park, south of 61st Street is finally getting cleaned-up.

Darren Pen, Community Mobilizer of Safe Streets reports
Requested report of our neighborhood’s volunteers hours for meetings, clean-ups, flyer distribution and “donation” from church since they let us use their meeting room.
Reminded us Neighborhood Patrol Academy continues in January.

Reviewed Park Avenue Neighborhood’s successes for 2008:
Our neighborhood watch group is now over 1 year old.
Know more of our neighbors and stay in contact with them (our roster includes over 70 neighbors).
Building neighborhood phone trees.
Know and work openly with our neighborhood’s Community Liaison Officer (CLO) of Tacoma Police Department.
Know and work openly with our neighborhood’s Building Inspector with city Code Enforcement
Adopted spots in the neighborhood and have completed two neighborhood clean ups through Adopt-a-Spot program.
Conducting Neighborhood Speed Watch Program.
Participated in march against drugs and crime on Pacific Avenue at 64th Street (with Mayor and other public officials).
Have several residents in neighborhood who have graduated the Neighborhood Patrol Academy. Completed neighborhood walkabout in September.

Meeting ended at 8:15pm, after consumption of many cookies and other goodies

November Meeting Minutes

Meeting started at approximately 6:30pm

62 residents formed Pac-Yak Neighborhood Watch Group, just to the south of us. Their boundaries are south of 64th Street to 72nd Street, between Pacific & Yakima.

Jennifer Kammerzell – City of Tacoma, Traffic Engineering
Presented information for us to begin speed watch with radar gun.
We record speeders’ vehicle description and license plate number and send to her.
Info on speeders given to Tacoma Police Department, TPD mails letter to speeder.
If speeder is a chronic offender, TPD hand delivers the letter.

Other ways we can reduce speeding in our neighborhood?
EVERYONE should drive 20-25mph throughout the neighborhood, set a good example.
Use moveable “drive slow” signs, place at various locations in neighborhood and move them frequently.
Sign-up to borrow mobile “radar trailer,” which displays your current speed from SENCo.
Consider working toward speed humps by using data from speed watch program and paying with City’s innovative grant.
Plant street trees, these become an effective visual barrier causing speeders to slow down.

Neighborhood Reports (crime and other activity from the past month)
2 murders occurred in our area over the past weekend
1 at a party at 5620 S Yakima
1 at the South End Community Center
58th & D, brawl Saturday night, 2 arrested

Report from CLO? (Don Williams, CLO of TPD)
Officer Williams presented statistics for calls in 4th sector for last October (4,851 calls for service).
He noted burglaries are up.
The vehicle burglar mentioned last month, Johnny Bonner, has been arrested and is awaiting trial.

Adopt-a-Spot clean up will be held on Saturday after Thanksgiving, starting at 9am

Meeting ended at 8:05pm

October Meeting Minutes

Meeting started at 6:35pm

No formal agenda tonight, meeting kept informal with plenty of open discussion.

Successful neighborhood walkabout in September
25 neighbors participated, along with CLO from Tacoma Police & Building Inspector from Code Enforcement (Tacoma CARES)
Learned much about issues in certain parts of neighborhood, many of which exist throughout entire neighborhood
Neighborhood decided actions to be taken will be as follows:
Occupied properties will receive letter from neighborhood,
draft of letter to be reviewed during next meeting, if time permits
Vacant properties will be turned over directly to code enforcement for action

Neighborhood Reports (crime and other activity from the past month)
Suspected drug activity at 520 S 59th Street, frequent brief visits throughout day and night, from street and from alley
Numerous reports of vehicle theft & burglary in the area south of 64th and Park, suspect has been identified by TPD, warrant has
been issued but he has been successful in alluding TPD, so far
Illegal dumping continues in the alley west of Park, between 61st and 64th

Report from CLO? (Don Williams, CLO of TPD)
Officer Williams presented statistics for calls in 4th sector for last September (4,748 calls for service).
He also discussed the vehicle burglar mentioned above in greater detail and the steps TPD has been taking to apprehend him.

Action Plan for October / November
1. Neighborhood Speed Watch Program with guest speaker from City of Tacoma will be subject of November meeting.
Need volunteers to coordinate and conduct speed watch in neighborhood.
2. Continue phone tree use, appoint block captains.
3. Flyer distribution for November meeting.
4. When should we have Adopt-a-Spot Clean Up?

Darren Pen, Community Mobilization Specialist, Safe Streets:
The Washington State Liquor Control Board has designated our neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods an Alcohol
Impact Area (AIA) beginning October 1, 2008. Malt liquors, certain beers, certain wines and similar beverages
CANNOT be sold in this area.
Neighborhood Patrol training starts again on Thursdays, beginning November 6th at TPD Headquarters.
Darren will be out of the country for 3 weeks in November and will not be able to attend our next meeting.

Meeting ended at 7:50pm

Peace Out

Peace Out - A forum supporting parents, students, and community efforts to stop gangs, drugs and violence.

DATE: Thursday, February 12, 2009
TIME: 5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Lincoln High School- 701 S 37th Street - Tacoma, 98418

Safe Streets is collaborating with youth, Tacoma Public Schools and Tacoma Police to sponsor "Peace Out," a forum for community members to discuss solutions to drugs, gangs and violence in our schools and neighborhoods.

Food and childcare for this free event are provided.

For more information, and to RSVP, contact Safe Streets at (253) 272-6824.

Park Avenue Neighborhood will have a booth at this event. If you'd like to join us and support your neighborhood, email: parkavenueneighborhood@gmail.

February Meeting Announcement

Our monthly meeting is fast approaching.

This month's meeting continues our focus on stopping the rising crime in our neighborhood. Our Community Liaison Officer (CLO) from Tacoma Police Department will be attending our meeting.

Join us Tuesday, February 17th from 6:30-8:00pm at Bethany United Methodist Church, 5634 S Park Avenue, Tacoma 98408.

Monthly meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of each month.

For more information, email parkavenueneighborhood@gmail.com.

Park Avenue Neighborhood is a proud supporter of Bounty Food Bank so don't forget to bring paper goods, cleaning supplies, toiletries and canned food donations.

And, don't forget to bring cash for Bethany U.M.C.'s heating fund.

Welcome

Welcome to the Park Avenue Neighborhood Blog.