Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Reporting in from Ant Hill Cooperative, I’m Drew Langdon.

As part of my duties as Ex-Co, I’m making it a priority to get involved with the local neighborhood association.  Our co-op community is great, but I think could can be even better if we interacted with those outside of our houses more often.  Our houses are located in the Plymouth-Exchange, or PLEX, neighborhood of Rochester, which has some funky boundaries but basically runs along the southwest riverfront of the Genesee between the more commonly-known Corn Hill and 19th Ward.

So what are my plans?  Well, first off I went to the first association meeting of the year this past Tuesday.  The meeting was held at Carlson Commons, which looks like a pretty cool space for gatherings.   Beginning with a prayer threw me off a bit, as I’m not used to that outside of my spiritual community, but it does help me understand the community around us.  We heard a report about a work day that pulled over 400 tires from the land down by the river trail.  Nobody is quite sure what to do with them, but they made sure to let the City know what a mess it was down there.  Maybe they’ll force some clean-up by the property owners down there.

One of our landlords, David, taking a break.

This is the area of the former Genesee Valley Canal, and at one time was home to the Vacuum Oil Company, and as a result is also a brownfield.  I’m not sure I really want to know what’s in the soil down there.  Good news, though.  The City and the State have begun the process of brownfield clean-up!  They’re in the very beginning stages of planning, so it was mentioned at the meeting that there would be Neighborhood Forums to get the input of the community into the process.  What method of clean-up?  They could replace the soil by digging and shipping.  They could use more natural processes of bio-remediation and cattails.   And then what happens to the land afterward?  Do we want parkland? an urban farm? a commercial development?  All I know at this point is that they better pay attention to the PLEX neighbors.  There is also the conversion of a railroad bridge into a pedestrian one going on at the moment, which will link the neighborhood to the University of Rochester.  Which means that the University is going to have a huge say into what goes on over here.  So definitely something to watch out for on this front.

Also, in the workings, I’ve got a block picnic in the works for June 5th.  Either in our backyard or in our garden lot, I hope to be able to bring as much of our immediate neighborhood together as I can get.  We need to start building relationships with these people.  I’m looking out the window right now to the house across the street, and I know that I’ve never even spoken to the people that live there.  That’s sad.  Yes, is a problem with the way our wider society is structured.  And I don’t expect us to be good friends with every single person on our street.  But maybe I should at least know their names, and how to get a hold them if I need to.  How can I expect them to look out for me, if I’m not doing the same for them?  How do I work with them to make the neighborhood a better place to live, if I don’t know what that means to them?

Hopefully the meeting and picnic will just be the beginning of our interactions.  I’ve requested that Ant Hill join the Neighborhood Association to lend our support to building community in this part of our beloved City.  We’ve already got a good start on this within our co-op.  Let’s expand on that to all those around us.