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Permalink Reply by Margy Meath on July 21, 2011 at 10:55pm

I am literally exhausted trying to keep up with this thread, but thank you John for returning to the original topic. I actually started the topic because I was not comfortable with the innuendo that Diane doesn't care/know about what's happening in the 19th ward because she isn't involved in meetings or this forum. I thought that comment was harsh and its one that I have heard way too many times in meetings/gatherings - i.e. people's intent/commitment gets judged by meeting attendance, etc.

That said, John offers an important observation about the most recent 19th ward safety/Thurston Street watch meeting. THe majority of the meeting was focused on the emily good situation - her arrrest followed by the parking incident (by the way, the parking incident had NOTHING to do with the 19th Ward). Emily came late to the meeting and left when her issue was finished. It was the first time I had ever seen/met her - I don't know if the same is true for others. SHE brought up the issue of racial profiling - I've not heard that in ANY previous Thurston Road Street watch meeting.  She indicated she was drawn to the incident in her front yard because it was a 'young black man' who was stopped by the police.

Emily, many of her supporters and Adam left the meeting when the topic changed to how we can address drug houses in the 19th ward! I left at 8 (the scheduled end time) before the presenter finished because i had another engagement. When I left, most of the people who left the meeting after the emily discussion were outside having some conversation.... I don't know the topic. 

Weeks letter when I read Adam's letter I was left wondering if I was in the twilight zone or had missed something. I've never heard Adam speak about racial profiling in any meeting that I've attended yet the letter describes it as a significant issue. I've heard him suggest that we all call 911 about loitering on Milton street/Thurston (a misdemeanor charge) but the letter seems to indicate that minor arrests are racial profiling...

If I understand it correctly, Street Watch was designed with an idea to bring 'nuisance charges' against drug houses in order to close them down. In May there was discussion about a possible pilot program to add more street cameras similar to what Melrose Street has done - this was going to happen in the summer, but we're in July and I've not heard anymore about it. I am sure that some of us who have drug houses on our streets would LOVE to have camera's so we can get the evidence needed to shut the drug houses down!! Street watch is about 2 years old but I don't know that it has accomplished anything yet..... and I think that some of the frustration about the emily situation is that it has detracted from important work that needs to be done, and from a meeting that's intent is to address some of the significant issues we have in this neighborhood with drug houses, drug dealing, addiction and associated crime/violence.

 

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Permalink Reply by Adam McFadden on July 22, 2011 at 9:17am

Hopefully my response is after Sheri's. Sheri, STREET WATCH is about doing. Today we are launching the crime mapping website we fought two years to get. I would suggest you go read the update about STREET WATCH on the main page. STREET WATCH is not about property complaints it is about drug houses. It is not about Racial Profiling and I didn't leave the meeting I was in the hall way talking when Spencer Ash gave his presentation on our next steps of bringing law suits. I know what the next steps are so I stepped out of the room to talk to Emily Good. Emily Good's conversation happend in the 19th Ward Public Safety meeting not STREET WATCH.

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Permalink Reply by Adam McFadden on July 22, 2011 at 9:27am

https://www.crimereports.com/

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Permalink Reply by Margy Meath on July 22, 2011 at 12:31pm

Adam-

not to be picky here, but the minutes reflect that Street Watch started at 7:10 pm and the minutes include almost all of your (and others) comments re: the Emily situation, police issues, etc. I know it has often been confusing as to when does the 19th ward meeting end and street watch begin since they are held back to back.

As i remember it, you came to the front of the room to host/respond to some of the discussion and you shared that you had recently been in the hospital, etc. We closed the 'emily' discussion and then had a bit of time (10 minutes) left for Spencer Ash.

I am thrilled to see Crime Mapping finally up and running. Is it your sense that the Street Watch group is responsible for making that happen or were there other groups also advocating for it?? It would be awesome to let the greater Rochester community know about its existence as it is yet another way we can all work together to address issues related to crime.

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Permalink Reply by Adam McFadden on July 22, 2011 at 1:59pm

Crime Mapping was being fought by Duffy and the communications office because they had concern about making the City look bad. So by having our group submit a list of things under street watch and contacting vendors we forced them to take it more seriously. What also helped was Todd Baxter going to Greece as it's police and taking our idea and implementing it there. There were no other groups that I am aware of who were asking for it.

 

You are right about the meeting minutes..... During the 19thWard portion of the meeting is when the conversation started and Emily arrived during Street Watch. I get confused as well lol.

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Permalink Reply by John Boutet on July 22, 2011 at 5:23pm

Just for background for those who are new to this, we originally had 3 meetings in the 19th ward that covered similar topics concerning public safety.   We had and still have PCIC run by the Sector 4 CPO's.   The 19th Ward Public Safety Committee meeting, which as the name implies is a "Committee" of the 19WCA, was chaired by John Borek.  CPO's also came and made their presentation at that meeting.  We then had Adam's Thurston Road Street Watch meeting added to the list of meetings a couple of years ago.  (John Borek is Adam's administrative assistant and Adam is the City Council's Public Safety Committee chair).  Many of the people attending each of these meeting attended them all and welcomed having the 19th Ward Public Safety Committee and the Thurston Road Street Watch meetings combined.  That  also made life a little easier for John Borek as far as the number of meetings go, but unfortunately it also created a new issue for him of blurring the line between the 19WCA's and City Councilman Mcfadden's meetings and it was hard to really write separate meeting minutes.  Where to post minutes when and if they were written was was also a problem.  When we expanded the scope of Location19 to include various community agencies and associations I asked John Borek to set up a group which could serve as a focus for posting minutes and information regarding the topics discussed at this combined meeting.  When he finally decided on how to proceed he planned on setting up two groups, one for the 19WCA Public Safety Committee and one for Adam's Street Watch program.  Up until that point I had been posting meeting announcements for the combined meeting as one combined announcement and in probably more than one case posted the minutes as a "Reply" to the respective meeting announcement.  I'm still in the process of digging those out and posting links to them in the 19th Ward Public Safety Committee group that has been set up so people can easily look back through them if they choose.  A Thurston Road Street Watch group has not been set up yet.

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Permalink Reply by Adam McFadden on July 22, 2011 at 9:40am

Margy,

 

Meeting attendance is important if you are expecting to serve a community. How would you know about anything going on? How would you avoid making the same mistakes made in the past? How would you write or support legislation on various item like Jefferson Ave FIS, or Chili Ave Redevelopment? How would you stop a bad idea like a junkyard on West Ave. Or hear the voices of your community. Not just one segment but many. It is not so important for a resident (who is not running for office) but it is very important for anyone who wants to serve. In order to lead shouldn't you at least serve in the way that many community members do? If no one has worked with you and you present no plan how else would they know you? My thought is people will know you by your work. Just my two cents........

 

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