Message from Raymond Solomon, II, Manager of the City of Detroit Neighborhood City Hall – East District

Greetings All:

As you know, there have been many changes within our city’s structure. Here at the East District Neighborhood City Hall, we are
always looking for new ways to improve the area we serve. The East District Neighborhood City Hall is looking for partners for several
upcoming projects. Although Motor City Make Over has come and gone for 2010, my office has selected the Morning Side Area for a major cleanup.

The Morning Side Association is doing an amazing job with getting residents engaged in their community. East District Neighborhood City Hall is introducing Project Smile, which is designed to assist citizens in all their efforts starting with simply cleaning up areas in the neighborhood.

I am looking forward to working with all parties willing to lend their assistance with this project.

There will be a strategy meeting:
Wednesday, July 28th at
1:00 pm at the Neighborhood City Hall
Butzel Family Center
7737 Kercheval, Suite 200.
Please let me know if this time works for you.

Project Smile has over 50 volunteers ready to help, so join us and let’s put together our plan.

Raymond Solomon, II
Manager
City of Detroit
Neighborhood City Hall – East District
7737 Kercheval
Detroit, MI 48214
313-628-2170 TTY: 311
Fax: 313-579-7135
solomonr@mayor.ci.detroit.mi.us

Last month we came to your block, clipboards in hand to introduce ourselves, inform you on what is happening in you neighborhood and to invite you to attend our meeting. We canvassed portions of the MorningSide area and was able to invite over 140 people to join us in “Bringing Our Community Back”.

It was so enlightening to meet everyone and hear their stories. Some did not know who or what MorningSide was; some were looking for a way to get help with problems on their block; and others were very interested in getting help to get their block / street organized. All were left with information on how to contact us for help and an invitation to get involved with the community that they live in. This lead to us having a great turn out at our July General meeting at which the attendees had the opportunity to learn about WARM Training Center and how they are doing free energy installations in homes in our community. They were able to meet and ask questions of some of the candidates in our upcoming primary election. We also had a Detroit City Council member who answered some hard questions from our residents.

All in all it was a very informative meeting and all left with the feeling that they may not have received the answers that they were looking for but they did receive guidance on where they can go to get answers. They left knowing that the MorningSide General Meeting was a place where they were able to make their voices heard.

Today, Saturday, July 17, 2010, we will continue Phase I and start Phase II of our MorningSide Block Club Blitz initiative. We will have representatives from the MorningSide Board, Detroit City Council and other volunteers who will be continuing Phase I by canvassing the MorningSide areas that we did not go to last month. We will also start Phase II, mentoring those residents who stated that they wanted to get help organizing their blocks and streets.

In order to begin to “Bring Our Community Back” and solve some of the issues in MorningSide communication and participation is required. Today we are coming to you, the residents of MorningSide, to encourage your participation in helping to begin to solve some of the issues that affect your safety, your property values and so much more. Today we are giving you the tools that you will need to organize your block, your street, your neighborhood into efficient, effective and organized cells that can get results when there are issues on your block.

Someone will come to your residence and ask you to fill out a short form that will ask for basic information (name, phone, address and email). With this information we can begin to build a network to communicate things that are important for you to know as a resident, property owner or business of MorningSide. We ask that you please answer the door and spend 3 minutes of your time to complete our form. After completing our form we will leave you some information about MorningSide.

For those who have registered with us as block captains / street leaders we are conducting a mentoring session to help you get started organizing your group. These groups are essential to having your voice heard and action taken when you need assistance with issues in your neighborhood.

To identify us as we are walking the streets, we will be carrying clipboards that will have a form with our logo on it (a black & white version of the logo shown above). We will never ask for any personal information such as social security number, bank information, etc. Also, we will not ask to enter your home. If you have any questions or concerns please fell free to contact us via our phone number or email listed above.

We need you to help us help MorningSide, the area in which you live, own property, run a business and care about, to go back to the safe, beautiful and vibrant community it once was.

Thank you for participating and look for more communication in the future!

MorningSide will be heading out again on Saturday, July 17, to meet you, our fellow residents! As part of our MorningSide Block Club Blitz initiative we will walk the streets of our community to inform residents of our meeting times, dates and how they can form a block club or become a street representative. We hope you’ll join us!

We will meet at 9 a.m. at U Snap Bac, at the corner of Warren and Alter. Rain or shine.

Our June rally walk resulted in 143 sign ups and an increase in our general meeting attendance.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Contact:
MorningSide Communications
(313) 881-4704
communications@our-morningside.org

Today we begin Phase I of our our MorningSide Block Club Blitz initiative. We will have representatives from the MorningSide Board, Detroit City Council and other volunteers who will be canvassing the MorningSide area to inform our residents on how they can help to “Bring Our Community Back”. We want to stop the drug dealers from taking over our blocks, get vacant and dangerous houses taken care of, stop illegal dumping and report criminal activity and have action taken in a timely manner. This and so much more is needed in our community.

In order to begin to “Bring Our Community Back” and solve some of the issues in MorningSide communication and participation is required. Today we are coming to you, the residents of MorningSide, to encourage your participation in helping to begin to solve some of the issues that affect your safety, your property values and so much more. We need you to help us help MorningSide, the area in which you live, own property, run a business and care about, to go back to the safe, beautiful and vibrant community it once was.

Someone will come to your residence and ask you to fill out a short form that will ask for basic information (name, phone, address and email). With this information we can begin to build a network to communicate things that are important for you to know as a resident, property owner or business of MorningSide. We ask that you please answer the door and spend 3 minutes of your time to complete our form. After completing our form we will leave you some information about MorningSide.

To identify us we will be carrying clipboards that will have a form with our logo on it (a black & white version of the logo shown above). We will never ask for any personal information such as social security number, bank information, etc. Also, we will not ask to enter your home. If you have any questions or concerns please fell free to contact us via our phone number or email listed above.

Thank you for participating and look for more communication in the future!

Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh recently spoke at our June general meeting regarding the importance of resident community involvement.

Pugh’s meeting visit leads into the MorningSide Block Club Blitz Rally Walk that will take place Saturday, June 19. The purpose of the walk is to inform the community of our organization and to sign up volunteers to be block captains and street representatives. These individuals will keep the MorningSide Board informed of what is happening on their block. If you make us aware of issues that arise on your block, we can help address them.

We need your help! We look forward to seeing you there!

Earlier this month, about 10 volunteers dedicated a Saturday morning to work at a vacant home in the 4100 block of Buckingham.

The clean up, near Clark Elementary School, consisted of clearing the driveway of trash and clearing some brush in an adjoining lot. Some items were designated for recycling. Bottled water and donuts were provided.

MorningSide Community’s Motor City Makeover date is Saturday, May 8.

The clean up will take place 9 a.m. to noon. The location: Chatsworth and Bremen streets. Volunteers are to meet at nearby Clark Elementary School.

We will have a dumpster and supplies available for volunteers. Feel free to bring your own supplies (gloves, rakes, etc.)

To volunteer for the Motor City Makeover, call  (313) 224-4415.

We’d love to know in advance if you’re able to participate in the MorningSide cleanup. If not, still feel free to show up that day ready to work!

Stay tuned for more information regarding the cleanup.

Motor City Makeover banner: Courtesy of detroitmi.gov

MorningSide will get some positive publicity on Wednesday, November 25 when WJR features the MorningSide Mural Project during its “Big Story” program from 7-8 p.m.

This is the culmination of an effort that has spanned the last seven months in our community. You may have noticed the colorful murals over doors and windows of vacant homes throughout MorningSide- 18 in all have been installed – and we’re already talking about continuing the project next spring.

Too often the work we do to preserve the neighborhood – picking up trash, mowing lawns in front of vacant houses, keeping an eye on suspicious activity- is just hard work. The beauty of the Mural Project is that it’s a way to help preserve the community while having fun, being creative, and forming new friendships. As we’ve installed murals, residents stop to ask us about the project, admire the murals, and thank us for doing them.

Over the summer we enlisted the help of several groups of young people. In June at least 50 high school kids from the Summer in the City program helped create about half a dozen murals, and more recently a group of middle-schoolers from St. Clare of Montefalco joined us in painting several more. We even had some help from the 9 and 10-year-old neighbors of one of our volunteers on Courville.

If you’d like to find out more about the MorningSide Mural Project and how to get involved next spring, you can email us at morningsidemural@yahoo.com.

Words: Susan Newell, volunteer

Photos: Margo Kempinksi

A stretch of East Warren Avenue, including its large concrete planters, got some much needed attention on a recent Saturday morning thanks to a fall neighborhood clean up hosted by the CEM Business Assocation- the Cornerstone, East English Village and Morningside Business Association. CEMBA is formerly known as the East Warren Avenue Business Association.

During the fall neighborhood clean up, volunteers from each of the neighborhoods worked along East Warren Avenue tending to the planters and addressing other needs. Afterwards, volunteers enjoyed pizza, bread sticks and good conversation at the Universal-Macomb Ambulance Service on East Warren in the Cornerstone Village neighborhood.

Volunteer opportunities arise on a regular basis in and around MorningSide. Stay tuned to this MorningSide blog and we’ll let you know when the next big clean up will take place around our community.

For more information about CEM Business Assocation, visit them at CEMBusiness.

Words: Candice Williams, MorningSide board.

Photos: Pam Smith, volunteer

Leading into the Halloween holiday, MorningSide unfortunately experienced 11 arson fires in a short period of time. This prompted our community to band together to ramp up our Angel’s Night Patrol efforts.

Mayor Bing with MorningSide President Kelley Marks

A week prior to the citywide volunteer patrol, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing knocked on doors in our community with MorningSide President Kelley Marks urging residents to participate.

When it came time to hit the streets for the Angel’s Night patrols, MorningSide volunteers, as well as those from East English Village and Cornerstone Village, reported to the St. Clare of Montefalco on Mack Avenue in Grosse Pointe to receive patrolling duties, flashlights and revolving patrol lights.

Bing stopped by the church to pay a visit and thank the volunteers. He also took some time to chat with Marks, who was registering volunteer patrollers.

As a result of the patrols, Bing’s office reported that Detroit’s arson fire numbers dropped by 12 percent over the three-day period compared to the previous year.

“I am greatly appreciative to the MorningSide residents that came to support our Angel’s Night campaign,” Marks said. “This shows with dedication and teamwork we can achieve our motto here in MorningSide- to be a community on the rise.”

Words and photo: Candice Williams, MorningSide board