Bluff Park, Alabama Forum

Bluff Park, Alabama Forum
http://bluffparkal.org/bpforum/YaBB.pl
General Category >> General Board >> Neighborhood Association? Facebook group?
http://bluffparkal.org/bpforum/YaBB.pl?num=1371078451

Message started by laurenrachel on 06/12/13 at 6:07pm

Title: Neighborhood Association? Facebook group?
Post by laurenrachel on 06/12/13 at 6:07pm

Does Bluff Park have a neighborhood association? I stumbled across this site that lists the different neighborhoods around Birmingham and what they offer. I thought it was pretty neat! http://livbirmingham.org

Bluff Park is not represented and I think it should be! The form you fill out to add your neighborhood asks for association info..which got me thinking. Do we have one?

And does Bluff Park have an active facebook group? I'd love to get to know my neighbors! We have such an awesome neighborhood, but I feel like we're lacking in community activities/involvement. I've talked with lots of neighbors who feel the same way. So either...nothing's happening or there are things happening and we're just totally out of the loop. Would love to have more than just the once a year art show.

I'd be happy to start a group if there isn't one. I requested to be a 'friend of bluff park' a few weeks ago and still haven't been approved. So I don't think that's a legit/active group.

Title: Re: Neighborhood Association? Facebook group?
Post by BluffParkGirl on 06/13/13 at 9:06pm

No active neighborhood association - partly due to the size of this area there is sort of a facebook page called Bluff Park Watch Group, but it is mainly about lost dogs or suspicious looking people I would be interested if an association is formed.

Title: Re: Neighborhood Association? Facebook group?
Post by teeechur on 06/13/13 at 9:22pm

I think that is a great idea. I think there are a lot of people on the mountain that love where we live. However, it could be so much more.
If you check the frequency of posts on this forum you'll see that it's not that great.
There is a group called Friends of Shades Mountain but their primary goal is keeping things just the way they are now. My wife and I attended their last meeting and there were twelve people there including us.
There is also a facebook page for Bluff Park and there are posts on there as well.
The city seems the be responsive to the needs of the community. I think they would be willing to help us if we would just step forward and state our case.
Most people are not willing to do anything unless someone is willing to step forward and take the initiative.
You're welcome to message me. My wife and I would be willing to help in any way.

Title: Re: Neighborhood Association? Facebook group?
Post by laurenrachel on 06/14/13 at 8:15am

Yeah. We moved here over 5 years ago and I was excited about this forum! But unfortunately it's not that active and to be honest a little hard to navigate. And I have to remember a separate username/password? I think facebook would be a lot easier and welcoming for folks who aren't on here.

What 'change' is the Friends of Shade Mountain group worried about? I'm just for more community involvement. My friend lives in Edgewood/Homewood and man do they have fun as a community over there! I just want to have some movies in the park, organized trick or treating, Christmas light contest, maybe a block party..something. I know for a fact there are some of the nicest folks that live in this neighborhood and I want us to come out of our homes and talk/hang out. We're meant to have community with each other, not get home from work and stay locked up in our homes.

I live next to one of the founders of the Bluff Park Art show. Do you know they started thing thing as a fundraiser with just 10 pieces of art strung up on a clothesline in the library? Now look at it!

Do you mind linking to the facebook group you mentioned? I can't find it!

Title: Re: Neighborhood Association? Facebook group?
Post by BluffParkGirl on 06/14/13 at 10:22pm

I don't really know how to link the FB page, but here is the line when I go to that site https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/305645446150230/

Title: Re: Neighborhood Association? Facebook group?
Post by Bluff Park Forum Admin on 06/15/13 at 6:34am

If you'll check the top of this page, or any page on the BluffParkAL.org web site you'll see the "Like Us on Facebook" and "Follow us on Twitter" links. If you're browser is not displaying these, you can also go to:

https://www.facebook.com/Bluffparkal.org
and
http://www.twitter.com/@bluffparkal

Regarding the Neighborhood Association for Bluff Park. It was tried and it folded in 2006, which is when our site formed. Here's a good description of why a neighborhood association didn't work:

http://bluffparkal.org/bpforum/YaBB.pl?num=1360700762/6#6

laurenrachel wrote:

Title: Re: Neighborhood Association? Facebook group?
Post by harvardmba on 06/15/13 at 9:02am

I have lived in BP for 9 years. When I first moved to the area almost 17 years ago and riding through BP, I knew this was where I wanted to eventually live. I have attended a few of the community meetings and from my own experience, the meetings, as well organized as they are, are poorly attended. This does not mean people don't care. It's that same old belief that, as long as someone is doing something to keep City services focused on the needs, why do they need me to attend the meeting. Now, with that said, I have personally implored HPD on several occasions to put forth a better showing regarding traffic control but, they only do a very little for a short time. Their main focus is on the Hwy 31/Hwy 150 area. We re becoming an island unto ourselves. We pay taxes but get a poor return on our investment. >:(

Title: Re: Neighborhood Association? Facebook group?
Post by BluffParkWriter on 06/16/13 at 12:11am

That site (Birmingham) appears to be centered around real estate, events etc and sponsored by a few local businesses. Seems nice. BLuff Park could be listed and there is an online form that can be filled out. There are several sites around Birmingham like it, some require a fee to be listed and some do not. We try to be the bluff park neighborhood website Bluffparkal.org listed where we can.

Bluffpark girl your link does not seem to be working so I am not sure where that link goes. The only "neighborhood" Facebook page for Bluff Park that I know of is ours. There is someone with a personal account called "Bluff Park" that you have to "friend"!like a person but I think it is old and not active.

In response to this forum not being updated or used as much as it used to be---I for one will say I have not been good a out posting across all three of our platforms, ie: the forum, the Facebook Page and the Twitter feed. That is something that I will work on to make sure updates go to all platforms so everyone gets info.

We also cross post on Facebook, Twitter and the forum from Bluff Park churches and events.

as the Admin posted above here are the Bluffparkal.org social media links

https://www.facebook.com/Bluffparkal.org

http://www.twitter.com/@bluffparkal

Title: Re: Neighborhood Association? Facebook group?
Post by BluffParkGirl on 06/16/13 at 7:11am

I will check with the person that runs the Facebook site as I know her personally.

I agree that we all need to make more of an effort to use the sites we do have available. I have been disappointed that there seem to be alot of negative comments, rather than positive news.

A few years ago someone (?) tried to get a group together and there were a few meetings @ the club house near the pool on Cloudland Drive. A police officer attended to answer questions and we were hoping this could turn into a regular thing. Not sure what happened.

Title: Re: Neighborhood Association? Facebook group?
Post by Bluff Park Forum Admin on 06/16/13 at 8:42am

BluffParkGirl wrote:

That meeting, and the others, were designed for creating a Neighborhood Watch Group, which is designed for individual blocks to watch out for each other. More information can be found here:
http://www.bluffparkal.org/neighborhood_watch.htm

The informational meetings that the officer (Officer Foreman and Capt. Coker of Hoover PD conducted those meetings) were designed to form the groups but not to be regular meetings by the HPD. If the Neighborhood Watch group that was created wanted to have regular meetings, that was up to them and their block captain.

Title: Re: Neighborhood Association? Facebook group?
Post by BluffParkGirl on 06/16/13 at 8:51am

Didn't mean to imply that Hoover PD dropped the ball. It is up to us to make this happen.
I for one think the police are doing a wonderful job. Just driving from the Pig to chapel road I pass 3 police cars parked in driveways. It's nice to have such visibility from the PD (and the substation near Dollar General).

Title: Re: Neighborhood Association? Facebook group?
Post by Bluff Park Forum Admin on 06/16/13 at 11:49pm

BluffParkGirl wrote:

And the sub-station was the idea of a Bluff Park resident back in 2006, who's idea became BluffParkAL.org.

When you say "it's up to us to make it happen", you are correct. It is up to us. The question, though, is who is "us"? One or two people? Five or six? A dozen?

From our experience in running this web site since 2006 the magic number seems to be: 4

It would be more fair to say: "I want it to happen, but I want you (the magic number 4) to make it so"

Lot's of chatter. No action.

Why is the sub-station in Bluff Park? Because one man decided to hand out leaflets because he was sick and tired of not seeing a police presence in Bluff Park. Another man was handed one of these leaflets, agreed with the premise and decided to make it bigger than a leaflet. He made it a web site. Then he contacted the media and made it known that Bluff Park had some issues. And then those two men called a meeting (packed house, standing room only) that included the mayor, the entire city council, half of the Hoover PD, half of the Hoover FD, state representatives, and other VIPs and three months later we were opening up a police sub-station in Bluff Park.

Hooray! We had a sub-station. We can now go back to our daily lives. But the web site was in place and ONE other person came up and asked if they could contribute. ONE. UNO. EINS. One. Not a bunch of people wanting to contribute, but ONE.

Our first neighborhood event was put together by two people.

Our second, which was a huge success, was put together by a committee of five, including the two originals. Not 10 or 20. But 5. And it was tough to get those five to step up. People want things, they just don't want to WORK for those things.

Our last meeting in November 2011, attended by the mayor, council, state representative, Hoover PD, Hoover FD had a good crowd, but things were OK, so it wasn't a HUGE crowd like the first two.

The number of people who have approached BluffParkAL.org to help out in various capacities to improve the Bluff Park area: 3.

By the way, our web site reaches more people in the Bluff Park area than any other site. We've been approached by commercial entities to sell the site to them for some pretty good figures. We've declined because this site was never meant to generate revenue. It was mean to inform the community. It has become #1 in that area.

The best way to sum up the community involvement is the street light project: everyone wants it. Few want to actually contribute to it. Luckily we were able to find a couple of very skilled people to head up the project.

Sometimes it's best to just do, instead of just talk about doing.

Quit talking about a neighborhood association. If you want one, start one up. Just do it. If it means that much to you, you have our 100% support in getting it going. We'll help you with all of the promotion on our web site that you need. We'll be your #1 fan. But just do it. Don't just talk about doing it.

We did. And this site is the result.

And that goes for anything else you all want. DO IT! You have our support. Want a community garden? Plant it! Want street lights? Find someone who can design them. We have zero knowledge about what it takes to put streelights in a community, yet we were the ones who spoke to the city council about it. Why? Because nobody else wanted to step up.

Let's go, folks! As JFK said "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country". In our case it's not our country, but our community.

You all have one terrific resource at your disposal: the Bluff Park web site. Guess who reads it? The Hoover city council, the Hoover PD, al.com and others. You want it? DO IT!

Title: Re: Neighborhood Association? Facebook group?
Post by harvardmba on 06/17/13 at 7:28am

admin, you are correct. I admit that I am guilty of what you have said. I don't expect much from a neighborhood association as BP is pretty much a self sustaining area. My biggest complaint is with the poor quality of Law/traffic enforcement and Police visibility. That is not to say that the officers who are assigned to us do not do their jobs because I know they do. It just isn't enough. Too large of an area for 2 or 3 to control. The requests I have made to HPD for help have mostly not been answered. If they would spend more time and effort patrolling and ticketing, they would generate enough to hire more help but, that's just my opinion.

Title: Re: Neighborhood Association? Facebook group?
Post by Bluff Park Forum Admin on 06/17/13 at 4:39pm

harvardmba wrote:

Your point is why our site was created in the first place - more police presence.

As we've written before, but it warrants repeating, Hoover PD breaks up the city into zones, which they call "beats". Bluff Park is in 30 Beat. 30 Beat consists of the area between Hwy 31 between I-65 and Patton Chapel Road, to Shades Crest Road and everything in between. As you can imagine, if there's a call on Park Avenue on a Friday afternoon at 5:15pm and the officer is on Hwy. 31 by Crown Nissan, it may take him a little while to get there. There is one "floater" who travels between Beats, but he may be tied up at the time of the call. Also, if the 30 Beat officer needs to take a break, or write a report, before the Bluff Park sub-station he had to travel all the way to Hwy. 31. Today, he/she can go to the sub-station.

From our very first meeting on September 14, 2006 to the present, our biggest complaint to the city council and the mayor has been a lack of police presence in Bluff Park. We're not asking for motorcycle units to run radar on Park Avenue or Chapel Road or Shades Crest Road. We're asking for more than one Tahoe to patrol the streets of Bluff Park, to be seen. If nothing else, break up 30 Beat into 2 Beats, therefore making the response time shorter.

We approached City Council Member Gene Smith, who is a friend of the BluffParkAL.org web site and a BP Forum member, and he indicated that doing so was not possible under today's revenue. Three years ago he gave us specific figures of what it would cost to do what we proposed. The cost at the time was about $750,000 per year, which included hiring 5 new officers (3 per shift and 2 to handle off days), plus 5 Tahoes. At the time that was not feasible. We have not approached the council about this since 2011.

It's understandable that it's not economically feasible to do so right now, however, at the same time, it's disconcerting when we're driving down Lorna Road or Hwy. 31 at the Galleria and there is a traffic stop of one car who is surrounded by at least 2, often times 3, Tahoes.

One wonders why we can't have one of them patrolling out streets instead of backing up a traffic stop on Lorna Road.

In our previous post we drove home the term DO IT! That's really the response that is warranted for why we can't have an extra Tahoe. If we can't get the police presence we want, why can't we just do it ourselves? Not something outrageous like taking the law into our own hands, but becoming those eyes that would normally be behind the steering wheel of a HPD patrol car.

That's were the Neighborhood Watch program came in. Each block could become those "eyes" and watch out for each other. But it seems that there's not must interest in doing it. Not to say that we don't have several Neighborhood Watch blocks in Bluff Park, which we do. We just don't have enough. Why? Based on a survey we did several years ago, most people are apprehensive about approaching their neighbors that they don't know and asking them to attend a meeting about watching each other. But that would help out tremendously, especially when it comes to things like burglaries. Statistics show that neighborhood watch groups work better than alarm systems when it comes to burglaries and other property crimes. But in this case, many of us are just not doing it.

As the economy improves, we'll once again approach the city council about splitting up 30 Beat, but until then, we can either complain or we can do some of the work ourselves - at least the looking out for each other part.

For more information on starting a neighborhood watch group, simply click on the link at the top of the page marked Neighborhood Watch. It will take you to our page that tells you everything you need to know.