Minutes from the Aug 14, 2006
Meeting of Martin Drive Neighborhood Association
Minutes for the Martin Drive
Neighborhood Association Meeting
August 14, 2006
Our first warm, pleasant meeting of
the summer commenced five minutes late. We had 26 people in attendance
including two new neighbors from 45th
Street. The first two meetings of the summer
you will remember were cold and damp. Who knows what kind of weather we
will have in September?
We were fortunate to have John Chisolm and Lorraine McNamara-McGraw address the group as
two of the candidates running for the office of District Attorney for Milwaukee. E.
Michael McCann is retiring after 38 years in that office. John started
the meeting by telling us something about himself. He has worked for Mr.
McCann for 12 years as a prosecutor. For six years he has led a special
task force on violent gun crimes. This task force works to eliminate the
most violent offenders by sending them to Federal Prison.
Ms. McNamara-McGraw closed our
meeting very briefly telling us her desire to bring fresh faces and
perspectives to the District Attorney's office.
She encouraged us to attend the debates which are bound to occur in the coming
weeks. Besides being an attorney, she has also worked as an alderperson
in the city of Milwaukee.
She stressed the need for communication between the people in the city
positions who need to work together to make Milwaukee safer and less violent. She
emphasized the need to listen to witnesses and neighbors so that criminals do
not continue to wreck havoc on the streets as repeat offenders.
On Tuesday, August 7, several
neighbors walked with Captain Jim Harpole and a
number of police officers with the intent of becoming familiar with the people
on 43rd and 44th Streets. It was our hope that the police could realize
that the quality of life issues are what makes us call out for help.
According to police records, Martin
Drive has minimal crime.
According to neighbors, sleep is interrupted by young people who have no focus
in their lives which would cause them to need to go to sleep at an acceptable
hour. Racing cars, people hanging out of car windows as the cars are
racing, screaming and shouting obscenities are some of the problems. And,
of course, this racket causes dogs to bark and bark adding to the
clatter. The most common repeated request from neighbors is to
have the police walk the streets on a regular basis. When people see
the police as a part of their community, a respect is developed by both sides.
Knowing that having police walk their beats is a dream of futility, we need to
keep working on ways to eliminate the situations where our frustrations spill
over. Becoming acquainted with your neighbors can be a good start.
In the dream world of perfect neighbors, no one would ever have to call the
police except in an emergency. In our real world, neighbors can work
together by having everyone who is being disturbed,
call the police for the same incident at the same time. Most of us are
not alone in our expectations of what our neighborhoods should provide.
The best part of the meeting was
having the opportunity to hear those in attendance recommending their neighbors
for our "Good Neighbor" award. If you want to see who received
these awards do walk around and check out the
following addresses: 1367 N. 42nd
Street, 4138-40 W. McKinley,
1153 N. 44th St.,1165 N. 44th St., 1266 N. 44th St.,1137-39
N. 45th St., 1170-72 N. 45th St.,
1168-70 N. 46th
St., 1228-30
N. 46th St. Congratulations to all the honorees!
This activity will be continued if it is popular with the neighbors.
Neighbor concerns included garbage
cart problems as well as plans for the 2006 Halloween festivities.
We have been told by the city
workers that our neighborhood has an infestation of flies. We need to
really scrub our garbage carts and eliminate the source of the problem.
When your cover is left open, it means that you need to clean out your
cart. Please remember this bit of information.
More news will be coming on
Halloween.
Maggie B. 8/15/06