Promoting Safer Neighborhoods through National Night Out
Neighborhood identity and community-building are near and dear to my heart. Over the past several years, I've taken a strong interest in National Night Out (NNO), a nationwide initiative helping residents connect with each other and local law enforcement to reduce crime and build stronger neighborhoods. I've been excited to see how cities nationwide use this event (held the first Tuesday in August) to form stronger neighborhood partnerships and promote healthy, vibrant, and safe communities.
NNO in Waterloo
Waterloo's events are hosted and held in actual neighborhoods; Waterloo Neighborhood Services helps to coordinate the events, but it's driven by neighborhood leadership, as it should be. Mayor Hart and other community development leaders visit the neighborhood events, showing the city's strong support of the neighborhoods. Cookouts, first responder static displays, games, music, and other great (and inexpensive) activities encourage residents to get out of their houses and into their neighborhoods.
NNO in Cedar Falls
In Cedar Falls, the current approach is to mass a dozen or so emergency response vehicles in the Target parking lot at the south side of town, along with first responders and a helicopter to two to help draw in the crowds. The primary audience is families with children (as evidenced by the kinds of freebies and activities). While the current approach is well-received and has a significant number of attendees, it's only a successful "public safety open house". The City of Cedar Falls is missing the point of National Night Out -- to help neighbors connect with each other, their local law enforcement, and explore ways to reduce crime and build stronger neighborhoods. While a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter is impressive (yes, I sat in the pilot's seat last night -- very cool), an Army helicopter has nothing to do with reducing crime and building stronger, safer neighborhoods. Moreover, by actively dissuading neighborhood groups from hosting their own individual events, the city risks squashing neighborhood initiative and affinity....a missed opportunity for neighborhood-building.
A Change in Philosophy for NNO in Cedar Falls
As Mayor, I pledge to:
1) Continue to actively work with enthusiastic, informal neighborhood leaders to establish neighborhood associations (Cedar Heights and Greenhill Village are excellent candidates);
2) Encourage and assist these associations to organize neighborhood-level National Night Out celebrations in our various city parks and other public spaces;
3) Provide strong city-level promotion of these important community-building events through the Currents newsletter, social media, and personal Mayor outreach;
4) Advocate transitioning the current "city-wide" event to a close, in order to focus city resources and effort on the neighborhood NNO events.
I appreciate that National Night Out isn't top-of-mind for the vast majority of residents, nor is fostering the development of neighborhood associations. But I truly believe that our other city issues can be better solved if the residents are actively engaged in their neighborhoods and communicating with their neighbors. Our city needs to foster a strong sense of community spirit in order to weather the crises and controversies of the day; a neighborhoods-based National Night Out is just one of many tools we can use to bring this vision to life.
As a community-builder and strong neighborhoods advocate, I hope to earn your vote for Mayor of Cedar Falls on November 5th.