Thanks to the residents of the Fisher-Richey-Perdicaris (sounds like a law firm, guys!) who came to my meet and greet yesterday. Thanks Very Much to Walter Dietrich and Greg Snell for hosting.
There are two West Ward Candidate nights in the next week you may want to know about. The first is tomorrow night, April 13, 6PM at the Lighthouse Community Center, located at the corner of Bellevue and Hermitage. The evening is being sponsored by Mr. Baye Kemit of the Garvey School, and I thank him for organizing this as well as upcoming Mayoral and Council At-Large evenings.
The second evening forum is next Monday night, April 19, 7PM at Covenant Presbyterian Church, at the corner of Parkway and Parkside. (Please enter on the Maple Avenue side ) This event is sponsored by the neighborhood associations of Hiltonia, Glen Afton, Hillcrest and Cadwalader Heights.
I hope to see you at one, if not both of these events. It’s the Trenton version of American Idol and Dancing with the Stars!! Well, not really, but after May 11 you do get to send a lot of us home.
Another item of note: last Thursday, April 8, I attended a meeting at City hall convened by the Planning Department, and including members of that department as well as several community members. I was invited due to my involvement on the effort, still alive, to rewrite the city’s Land Use Ordinance.
This meeting was to discuss a draft of a Pledge to be issued, stating the principles by which the City will endeavor to build, re-develop and operate using green and sustainable practices. The Pledge will contain statements of principles and would be adopted by all relevant involved parties in the City – City Council, the Planning Department Board, Inspections, the Zoning Board, et al. The principles in this Pledge will be used as a blueprint for these and other agencies when either writing new ordinances or regulations, or revising current ones in place.
The overarching idea is that planning for use of sustainable and green practices and rolling them out in a coordinated way across the entire city government will help Trenton go green, improve the quality of life for people living here, and even help control costs and save money in the long run. This Pledge is being presented to and discussed in every town in the State. More about this effort can be found at the website SustainableJersey.com,
Apart from being a good thing for Trenton to do, even in extraordinary tight times, this effort is essential for the City to undertake so it may qualify or continue to qualify for several types of federal grants, which increasingly require towns to work to become certified in sustainable policies and practices in order to qualify for some funding.
Before the Pledge is submitted to all the various city bodies, the Draft discussed last week will be revised per the notes and suggestions we gave, and will be posted on the city website for public review. I’m sure there will also be opportunity for public comment at each of the Council and Board meetings that will consider it. I hope you take a look.