Neighborhood Liaison Committee’s First Meeting

The very first meeting of the Neighborhood Liaison Committee was held in Pam Eaton’s garden this Tuesday. Our main purpose and goal of the committee is to help create and maintain neighborhood associations: instilling Strong Towns ideas of incremental improvements and bottom-up action on the most local of levels.

Bloomington is a city of neighborhoods, and in order for revitalization efforts to take root deep, our neighbors have to be leading the charge. It is because of this, the Bloomington Revivalists will be working to create a Neighborhood Association Organizers’ Toolkit and will be holding at least one public meeting to kickoff the new efforts in creating neighborhood associations.

We’ve discovered that neighborhood associations are tools for bottom-up change, as their members will be keyed-in to issues that impact their surroundings. Here are some examples of what neighborhood associations have done here and around the country:

• Beautification through shared space plantings
• Organize to pay for sidewalk improvements
• Regular trash pick-ups
• Housing repair workshops
• Inter-neighborhood Olympics
• Creating a community vegetable garden
• Back-to-school supply drives
• Murals/neighborhood art
• Block parties and cook-offs
• Tool lending libraries
• Neighborhood flags and signs

On top of those projects, perhaps the most promising and out of the box ideas have been the “Renaissance Block Challenge,” where the Neighborhood Association would have grants for a homeowners to conduct exterior renovations on at least five properties on a block. This is of core importance to neighborhood revitalization, as it stops the psychology of decay that is perniciously present in many older neighborhoods. Truly, the sky is the limit for neighborhood associations, in fact if multiple associations organized, community economic development could be feasible.

If you are interested in joining the Neighborhood Liaison Committee, or joining a neighborhood association, please fill out the form here: