November 19, 2007
Shockoe Bottom Neighborhood Meeting
The every-third-Monday Shockoe Bottom Neighborhood Meeting is tonight. The Neighborhood Association is open to all neighbors: renters, owners, residents, employees, business owners, property owners, etc. Time & location?
I hope getting the City to enforce its new panhandling ordinance is on the table at this meeting. I was approached twice in the matter of 5 seconds on the corner of 18th and Franklin Streets last Saturday night. One older lady asked politely, another large group of young men was much more loud and aggressive. A well-known vagrant stumbled around the same corner in a drunken stupor for probably a good hour, yelling at people (mostly in a good-natured fashion) as they walked by and even walking into the restaurant I was eating at and doing the same to patrons sitting at the bar. To my dismay, none of the staff bothered asking him to leave. The Bottom needs to clean up its image big time. I hope most, if not all the Shockoe restaurants/clubs/businesses are represented in this Association and lend a much needed voice to a mostly neglected area. Otherwise the City will continue to put this area on the back-burner when it comes to issues like vagrants and much needed road and sidewalk repairs.
Where are those monthly association meetings????
Anyone with questions about the association, or with interest in participating, please give me a call. My work number is 237-8242, and we would love to encourage additional participation and involvement.
I hope to hear from a bunch of people soon.