THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 1, 1995 TAG: 9505310181
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: In The Neighborhoods
SOURCE: Mike Knepler
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
Look hard in Norfolk's new $465 million budget for 1995-96 and you'll find this little gem:
``Establishment of Neighborhood Assistance Office'' with a $30,000 research budget.
While City Hall still is fiddling with the service's formal name, the idea behind it is to continue to develop City Hall's recent outreach efforts toward neighborhoods, says Kathy Bulman, Norfolk's acting communications manager.
``What we want to do is help neighborhoods make linkages that could help them out and help us out,'' Bulman said. ``The linkages could be in a lot of places: between city government and neighborhoods, or link neighborhoods that face similar situations or in some cases with (non-profit) agencies.
``The idea is to look for opportunities for cooperation that go beyond the scope of government.''
The new office also will conduct surveys of citizen attitudes and ideas ``so we're not just guessing at what they want,'' Bulman said.
Other responsibilities will include research; monitoring certain local, regional and national trends, and advising city agencies on ways to encourage citizen empowerment.
Creation of the office does not mean hiring new employees. Instead, Heather Stone, a City Hall management analyst, will be the point person and will be able to call on help from colleagues in the Department of Marketing and Communications.
The Department of Marketing and Communications was created out of a merger of existing city agencies and will become official on July 1, as will the new neighborhood assistance office.
However, Stone, Bulman and other City Hall staff already are working with neighborhoods on an informal basis.
For example, they've been working with the mayor's office and city clerk on citizen outreach efforts that began earlier this year. So far, programs have included:
Quarterly ``citizens workshops'' on building problem-solving partnerships on issues such as neighborhood blight and crime.
Quarterly meetings between Mayor Paul D. Fraim and civic-league presidents.
The mayor's open-door office hours held 5-7 p.m. the first Tuesday each month.
Neighborhoods nationwide. Here's a couple of tidbits gleaned from a recent edition of The Wall Street Journal:
Crime-watch programs involve 21 percent of American adults while another 14 percent are considering their participation. That information is based on research from the Roper Starch Worldwide reports, the Journal said.
There seems to be a correlation between neighborhoods with more liquor stores and higher levels of violent assaults, according to a study of Los Angeles County by the University of Southern California. That relation persists even after adjusting for unemployment rates and other socioeconomic differences, the Journal reported.
Reminder. The City Council's public housing task force will hold its first public hearing from 7 to 9 tonight at Ruffner Middle School.
Mayor Paul Fraim says the task force seeks to ``improve the quality of life and conditions for residents,'' and its work is ``maybe the most important effort going on in this city at this time or maybe at any time.''
City Councilman Herb Collins, task-force co-chairman, said he especially wants to hear from tenants. ``I want them to make a good showing but also be open minded, open and honest. That's the only way we could help them,'' he said.
He expects to hold at least two more hearings this year, in addition to task force monthly meetings. by CNB