A wide-ranging agenda Tuesday night for the third meeting of the Advisory Committee formed as a means of addressing community concerns regarding DESC‘s planned Delridge Supportive Housing project. (Our coverage of the first meeting is here, the second meeting here.) Above, our unedited video of the entire 2-hour meeting (makes better audio than video – we apologize for awkward angles on a few public commenters because of where they stood to speak in relation to where our photographer was positioned).
Toplines, ahead:
Two central agenda items were related to business in the area – both the ideas that emerged from the recent Brandon Node Visioning Open House (an overview was presented by North Delridge Neighborhood Council co-chair Parie Hines, who also talked about a recently unveiled study suggesting that Delridge couldn’t support a supermarket – see its toplines here) and the proposal for the Delridge Produce Cooperative to run the commercial space that DESC plans for the ground floor of its building.
DPC board members Galena White and Ranette Iding explained that it would be a store, not a “buyers’ club,” though they expect to sell memberships for those who want to support the co-op that way, and have a say in its operation. They hoped the space would include a kitchen demonstration area as well as retail space, and that some of their produce would come from small local growers. More discussion is planned before a final decision is made on supporting the plan for DPC and DESC to work together. (To find out more about DPC, check out the slide presentation on its website.)
There also was more discussion about issues of community concern that should be on the committee’s radar. They included:
*Neighborhood safety, including concerns about drug activity since addicts are expected to be among the tenants
*DESC tenant screening and tenant agreement
*Traffic safety
*What everyday life is like in a DESC supportive-housing building – perhaps hear from counselors
*What will it be like for the community when the building is open?
*Synching DESC’s project timeline with the advisory committee’s work/priorities
The committee’s next meeting will tackle community issues as well as the DPC plan, 6:30 pm April 12th, at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (site of all its meetings so far).
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