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National Magazine Comes to the 'hood!
Phelps Grove Neighborhood to
be part of Southern
Living Magazine Article
Yes, you read that headline correctly!! Our neighborhood
will be included in an
article with the working
title of “The South’s
Best Comeback Neighborhoods.” The article is tentatively scheduled to appear in the January
2010 issue of Southern
Living Magazine.
This article is a befitting
complement to the Phelps
Neighborhood Association
(PNA) that will celebrate
its 20th
anniversary October 17,
2009. Our twenty year quest
for a “livable” neighborhood
has been noticed!!
The Phelps Neighborhood Association (PNA) was first contacted in
July by Rex Perry, Building
Editor, Southern Living
Magazine. He told
us that our neighborhood had
been strongly suggested to
him by a friend.
(Apparently, the word is
getting out!) However,
he needed to know more about
our neighborhood. (Now that
was a loaded question!)
It appeared on paper, to
him, that our neighborhood
had always been vital. (He
didn’t realize we were a
little too “vital” in the
90’s with mass parties and
sofas on roofs!) The urge to
respond with volumes of
information was eliminated
and instead our PNA
president, Terry Rowland,
responded with short essay
titled, “A Concise
History of the Phelps Grove
Neighborhood Comeback -- (or
27 years in 5 Paragraphs)”
Apparently it worked! We
were selected to be
included! You may have
seen a Southern Living
Magazine photographer
cruising about the
neighborhood this past week
looking for images to be
used in the article.
While others have been a part of this story, it is the members of
the PNA that are truly the
heroes of this comeback
story. Without their
tenacious persistence
none of this would have
happened. It was the
PNA that lead the battle
that brought aboard,
sometimes unwilling,
participants. Only then, did
it become collaborative (or
was that combative?) effort
on the part of other
organizations.
The Phelps Neighborhood Association hopes you will
toast this wonderful old
neighborhood we have been
privileged to live.
Meanwhile, the Phelps
Neighborhood Association
wants to toast all those who
have had a positive impact
on her ongoing legacy.
A job well done neighbor!!
Wonderful, quirky young and
elderly folks refuse to let
a beautiful old neighborhood
die.
Wonderful, quirky young and
elderly folks organize and
take on the lumbering
bureaucracy of the goliath
University and City. Still
stinging from not saving the
world in the 1960’s, these
folks thought a neighborhood
was “doable”, too foolish
not to realize it was a
fight they weren’t supposed
to win. Through long (years
in the making), tedious and
sometimes frustrating work
(neighbors quickly schooled
in politics for the naive!)
we negotiate a neighborhood
plan! It receives buy in
from both the city and
university (though kicking
and screaming all the way!)
Wonderful, quirky young and
elderly folks begin to
shepherd the plan to
reality. Key to success --
approach every element of
the plan from the point of
view that it is about
quality of life; for both,
the longtime residents and
student residents!
Excerpt from
“A Concise History of the
Phelps Grove Neighborhood
Comeback -- (or 27 years in
5 Paragraphs)”
Recruit a Member for 20th Anniversary!
We have come a long way since that first organizational meeting
on October 20, 1989. We were
a neighborhood in massive
need of stabilization before
all was lost. Folks
were leaving in mass droves.
It was a place where beer
cans replace grass for
lawns. Mardi Gras existed
every week Wednesday through
Saturday. Street
parking was an impossible
task. (Just getting into
your driveway was a
challenge!) Flooding was
inevitable and houses were
being torn down to be
replaced by parking lots.
Through the help of many
folks over the past years
the PNA has been a force of
change for the neighborhood.
Much of the above list has
been accomplished (or at
least reduced.)
However, the PNA realizes
there is so much more to be
done. (Sewer flooding,
encourage basic lawn upkeep,
the completion of MSU (SMSU)
city agreement. Concerts to
be heard! But to
accomplish these things we
need to stay strong and
vital. Increased
membership numbers make a
difference. Increased
membership provides support
and access to such fine
articles as these.
J We are extremely
frugal group, but we can
also use the extra finances.
Communications and events
have a certain cost attached
no matter how much volunteer
work is done. Not to
mention the more involved
neighbors are the easier it
is to accomplish even more.
Please approach a neighbor
and ask them to join.
It’s simple – print the form
located at the following web
address
www.phelpsneighborhood.org/membershipform.pdf
. Walk next door and
invite them to join.
All they have to do fill out
the form and mail it.
Why not give them an
addressed envelope and give
that to them also. Anything
you can do to help is great.
Your advocacy is priceless!
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