WELCOME TO THE NORTH MAIN AREA NEIGHBORHOOD
ASSOCIATION WEBSITE
To the south is Whitman
College, to the east is a well-to-do area of appealing old homes, at the north
end is the Marjorie Terrace housing complex; beyond that to the northwest is a major park and school complex
bordered by newer homes; to the west is a mixed area of older homes with a
substantial proportion of low-income residents.
North Main has large shade
trees and is a great location for walkers, since the downtown is only four
blocks away, Whitman
College is across the
street, and a park leading to the open fields on the edge of town is just to
the northwest. It is a mixed
neighborhood of homeowners and rentals.
After some research into
experiences in other cities as well as Walla
Walla , in July 1993 several of us got together to form
the North Main Area Neighborhood Association, to increase our sense of
community and mutual care.
Our kickoff activity was a
neighborhood street party in August, which became our signature event. We petitioned the city to temporarily close
off one block of the street, where we put up banquet tables and chairs for a
potluck dinner, a ping-pong table, information tables for neighborhood
committees and police department materials, a sound system, a badminton net,
and in later years fire department vehicles and other activities. We had all the neighbors introduce
themselves and tell how long they'd lived in the neighborhood, heard a talk by
the crime prevention officer from the police department, organized some games
for the kids, had people sign up for clean up/fix up, crime watch, mutual aid,
and children's committees, and sang some songs.
For the initial event, a
neighbor wrote a special song for the neighborhood, and the next year, neighbor
Barbara Clark added another, naming all of our streets. Here are the words:
Mosey
up North Main , Perambulate Penrose, Promenade Pacific Avenue ,
Inch
along Isaacs, roam down North Rose, And stroll on Sumach, too.
Now
you should be feeling mighty good, 'Cause you're in a mighty good
neighborhood!
In later years, we added a
circle dance, a water-filled balloon toss competition, badminton and ping-pong
tournaments, chalk and crayon art, piƱatas, a bike rodeo, a kids talent show,
and other events such as appearances by city council candidates.
To aid communication, we
produced a neighborhood map showing the numbers of each house, and a
neighborhood directory listing the names and phone numbers of all the
residents, including the children. We
even contemplated adding the names of neighborhood dogs. We
also put out an occasional newsletter, the North Main Area Neighborhood
News.
Our first party coincided
with National Night Out, a nationwide Crime Watch effort aimed at getting
citizens to meet their neighbors and to create stronger, more crime-free
neighborhoods. While we become a part of
the local crime watch program, and appointed block captains throughout the
neighborhood, our association's activities have had a much broader focus than
simply crime prevention.
In October 1993, we organized
the first of many neighborhood cleanup days for which we borrowed a large truck
from Whitman College and a neighbor's work trailer
and hauled several tons of trash to the landfill under an agreement we
negotiated with the city to allow the pooling of individual dump passes. The day before the first cleanup day we put
on a yard sale with the proceeds going to the neighborhood, for which one
neighbor made a beautiful afghan. Over
the years, our cleanup days have offered the occasion for contacting neighbors
with large piles of trash and discarded furniture who are usually very pleased
to have them hauled away, as we all are.
The association has also been
the vehicle for the planting of street trees throughout the neighborhood. In November 1993, we were able to plant 10
new trees under the City’s expanded street tree program to help fill in gaps in
our urban forest.
Though we originally covered
only four blocks, on a number of occasions we took responsibility for the broader
area around us, including graffiti paint-offs at Memorial Park, at the old
warehouse across from the park now owned by Whitman College, on the freeway
underpass by Borleske Stadium, at DeSales High School, and in several
nearby alleys.
In 2010, we established a
community garden, both for our immediate neighborhood and for the broader
area around us. As a result, we expanded
the NMANA to include everything from East Rose and Isaacs Avenue on the south
to Highway 12 to the north, and from DivisionStreet to the east to Colville Street
to the west. The garden’s website is www.reesandsumach.org.
For more information on the
North Main Area Neighborhood Association, send an email to clarkdb@charter.net, or call Dan Clark at 509-522-0399.