WHNA Meeting notes, 12/5/2018

[ian_winterhill]

WHNA Meeting Notes for December 5, 2018

Next meeting is scheduled for January 9, 2019. Location TBD. One major item will be a deeper discussion on plans for 2019.

Review of the tenant workshop.

• Folks felt like it was a success
• Appreciated having partnered with the Welcome Project to expand the reach of the event and information
• Felt like the two experts from Cambridge Somerville Legal Services did a fantastic job. One feedback on format was not start with evictions. To instead start with something a little lighter or more positive and build to addressing the really negative things like evictions. 
• Folks want to see a flow diagram for eviction proceedings since that was a somewhat complicated and detailed process that was a little hard to keep straight
• Folks also wanted more info about addressing condo conversions
• Hopes of making this an annual topic. Plan to host Ellen from the City of Somerville’s Office of Housing Stability in 2019 since she was not able to come this time.

FYI: City officially released the Climate Action Plan. You can read the plan here: https://www.somervillema.gov/sites/default/files/somerville-climate-forward-plan.pdf 

• Several WHNA members participated in various working groups. There may be some opportunities for WHNA to work with the city to implement aspects of the plan, e.g. climate preparedness education, rapid response networks, neighborhood organizations to act as Climate Resilience Hubs.

We discussed the plans around Foss Park.

• The State is putting money towards building a turf field where the current dust bowl is along with lighting and drainage. There is a strong desire to see more happen there and to have a real community process. Nothing seems final yet, but there have been a few community meetings. You can read some notes here:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/133jDMzmgCMXC1yhG38HHSuIAzfVyKDfdllGkiGEKrz8/edit?ts=5c0962ca#heading=h.qiwdyrib1a60. 
• There is also a Foss Park google group that you can join to get email updates and be a part of the conversation. I believe you can request to join by emailing: FossParkFriends@googlegroups.com

There are also community meetings happening to get an update about the redevelopment of the Healey Schoolyard. The next meeting is happening on Thursday, December 13 at 6pm at the Healey. 

We ended with some brainstorming for 2019. We’ll revisit this in more detail at our January meeting. Some of the ideas brought up included, more active effort to include/work with/support local businesses; more community shoveling, maybe adopting bus stops?; chili cook off; annual tenant rights workshop; collaboration with East Somerville maybe via Main Streets; dedicated roles including outreach; film screening of “The Staircase” (documentary about the the fight for a safe staircase behind the Mystics); tree plantings and neighborhood clean ups; Broadway summer streets type event where the street is partially closed; and more that I didn’t catch in the notes!

Comments

[mem_winterhill]

We mentioned there's another election coming, we should think about an event around that perhaps?

And at this week's Climate Commission meeting I mentioned that our group would like to co-host or co-sponsor some kind of outreach on the Climate plan. There was some enthusiasm for some neighborhood or ward sorts of outreach paths. But that will be after this goes to the Alderfolks and into next year, nothing imminent.