Frozen Tropics: Trinidad Neighborhood Association Mtg Tonight

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Trinidad Neighborhood Association Mtg Tonight

4 Comments:

Anonymous said...

How was the meeting? Unfortunately I was unable to attend.

What where some key discussion points?

Feb 29, 2012 10:55:00 AM

dt said...

Yes, is there a summary somewhere? I was also unable to attend.

Feb 29, 2012 12:52:00 PM

inked said...

I wasn't able to attend, but it I did read some of the Tweets from the meeting. a major purpose was to introduce people to the new board members, and discuss future meetings. I know that many candidate for the Ward 5 council seat were present, as was Peter Shapiro (who is seeking an At Large seat). They have pledged to have an ASL interpreter available for future meetings.

Feb 29, 2012 1:00:00 PM

Kes said...

It was good and pretty well attended. The various new board members introduced themselves, then the Chair went thru the agenda, talking about committees that they want to create and describing each one. I believe they were: Saftey, Friends of Joe Cole, Friends of Trinidad Rec, Outreach, & one or two others... Neighborhood Clean-up, maybe? At the end of the meeting, sign-up sheets for each committee made their way around the room.

Then we got a financial report from the Treasurer, which was thorough and impressively transparent. The Association's assets are still largely dedicated grants for things like the Thanksgiving Fund for needy families and some kind of Art grant having to do with Firebox Beautification (?) (Obviously I didn't take notes...) TNA sometimes helps fundraising efforts by individuals by acting at the "Financial Agent" (they deposit money and cut checks) TNA is a registered 501(c)(3). Then a plug for membership at $5/year, a good deal! I didn't have $5 tho.

Then mention of new trees being planted in the tree boxes and more on the way, and talk about getting people to volunteer to water them for the first two summers.

Several residents complained about trash & a rodent problem on Penn St. Discussion of what agency to call (DPW & SWEEP Program) and how the city has cut workers for that sort of thing. How to get landlords to comply or work on the problem (fines?) Complaints about a proposed Group Home project, which the Chair was familiar with and said the building was supposed to have been razed but somehow got a magical stay of execution thanks to new permits from DCRA days before. Mysteerious! Some discussion ensued about Group Homes, the city's contractor is getting out of the system, so changes are coming and

Also talk about vacant houses, how to get banks to take care of them, who in city government to complain to. The idea of keeping a list of vacants in the neighborhood came up. Discussion was inconclusive.

Some politicians got 1 minute to speak, both sounded passionate and spoke against corruption in DC Government (shocker!):
Peter Shapiro, who is running for Vincent Orange's at-large seat
Tim Day, who is running for Ward 5 Council Seat

Upcoming meetings:
3/1/12 @Trinidad Rec, 7-9: ANC 5-B Meeting
3/3/12 @Catholic, 3 pm Debate between five of the 17? candidates for Ward 5's seat.
3/10/12 @Trinidad Rec, 11:30: Friends of Trinidad Rec, to talk about fundraising, programs, and volunteers for the Rec Center.
3/27/12 @Joe Cole, 7 pm: next TNA meeting (they'll be the 4th Tuesday & switch between Trinidad Rec & Joe Cole)

The Neighborhood Association has a newish website, trinidadneighborhood dot org (the old one, trinidad-dc dot org now points to the new URL)