The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
LISTENING SESSION HELD
Neighborhood outreach issues addressed at meeting
Oberlin City Manager Rob Hillard welcomed the community out to a listening session on Aug. 16 as a way to build dialogue between citizens and the city government.
The evening meeting held at Mount Zion Fellowship Center at 81 Locust St. is part of quarterly series of conversations looking at different issues affecting the Oberlin community
“I’m doing this specifically because as your city manager I need your help,” Hillard said. “I need to understand as your city manager, especially in this period of time, what’s important to the community.
“I’m doing this specifically because as your city manager I need your help.”
— Oberlin City Manager Rob Hillard
“I’ve got a great council and they’re very, very concerned and interested in what we’re doing at an administration level. They work with a lot of boards and commissions and many of you are here tonight. But at the end of the day we have to know how the citizens feel. Because we represent you in many respects and it’s important for us to understand what’s important.”
The theme focused on neighborhood outreach: defining it and understanding what the city does well and areas to look at for improvement.
In defining neighborhood outreach a number of ideas were proposed.
“A friendly neighborhood — one where there’s community engagement, where there’s an identification of issues and problems that someone from the city might be in communication with the neighborhood, engaging people where they are,” said Oberlin Councilwoman Sharon Pearson.
Other ideas included finding ways to break down barriers between city officials and residents through improving communication on city policies and creating a more friendly environment through creating avenues, for example, to get to know police officers working in the city on a more personal level.
Kat Bray, a Health Education Specialist with Lorain County General Health District, defined good outreach as being able to come together as a community alluding to finding creative ways of solving problems and reaching out to different neighborhoods.
“Successful neighborhood outreach is when a community can associate a face with a concern whether that’s a council member or a person working for the city,” Bray said.
She added outreach could involve many positive personal touches and personalizing city communication efforts to different segments of the Oberlin community.
For Hillard, neighborhood outreach is about bringing people together.
“It’s not about the curbs,
it’s about the people,” Hilliard said.
Marion Parker, a member of the Oberlin Human Relations Commission stressed the city should place more emphasis on landlord/tenant and housing issues in improving education about the rights and responsibilities landlords and tenants; in addition, investigating sub-par housing conditions and going after landlords.
In looking at areas for improvement, participants cited focusing on providing recreation programming for girls in addition to building on the city’s focus on environmentally friendly policies.
“Moving forward I want to see some education for the people that are landlords and also people that are tenants so that we all know and understand what our own responsibilities and rights are,” Parker said.
“People are paying their hard earned money, even if it’s mom and dad’s, and they shouldn’t be living in sub-human condition,” Parker added.
The next listening session will be scheduled for October.