New Point Breeze Home Owner

[RPMorgan]

I have recently purchased a home in PB, and was hoping someone could point me in the direction of a legitimate neighborhood organization. I have been following all of the activity going on in the area for about a year now, and realize that this request may be a little ambiguous, but I am just looking to see if I can be a part of a positive group looking to do some good within the community.

[JakeL]

First off, welcome to the neighborhood! Do you have a particular way that you want to be involved? There are multiple groups in the neighborhood. I am a part of NICE, Neighbors Investing in Childs Elementary, a community group dedicated to making Childs Elementary (at 16th and Wharton) a thriving neighborhood school. Other groups such as Newbold Neighbors and Point Breeze Pioneers organize cleanup days. The John Gloucester House provides youth programs in the neighborhood.

Lastly, just getting to know your neighbors and taking care of your block can be a tremendous benefit for the neighborhood too. I try to sweep my block when I can, which has several elderly neighbors that it would be difficult for them to maintain. A small, consistent approach to making your block better can be a great thing too.

[gijyun]

Hi RPMorgan and welcome to the neighborhood. My husband and I purchased in east Point Breeze/Newbold a little over four years ago and love the neighborhood and our neighbors. I'll go ahead and plug Newbold Neighbors Association (NNA) depending on where you live. If you're west of 18th, you technically fall outside of what NNA considers its boundaries but that doesn't mean you can't attend meetings and get involved.

I researched and attended many of the other BILLION neighborhood groups in the area when we moved and have found NNA to be the most modern, transparent, and responsive, and whose activities most closely align with what I was hoping to get from/contribute to a neighborhood association. The others are Newbold Civic Association, South Philly HOMES, Concerned Citizens of Point Breeze, and Point Breeze Pioneers, along with some other more-specified groups (like NICE, mentioned above).

Suffice to say there has become a long, sordid history over the past 7 years or so of interactions between all these groups, which you can probably piece together yourself. Simply put, though, NNA does a great job of engaging people who show enough interest to attend the meetings, making their materials and meeting information available, and they really do a tremendous job with organizing clean-ups and beautification projects around the area (like getting store owners to put garbage cans outside of their stores).

Hope that helps - I can try to answer any other questions you have.

[RPMorgan]

Thanks for the info! I am roughly 10 houses west of the boundary of Newbold....I have reached out to PB Pioneers, haven't heard back yet. I think my GF and I will definitely attend the next NNA meeting, just to get our feet wet with the whole process.

Not sure if you're a dog owner, but any parks/grassy areas near by where I can walk my pup to?

[RPMorgan]

I am lucky enough to be on a pretty well maintained block, so the up keep there shouldn't be much. I think I will dig deeper into the Pioneers and NNA, not looking to get political, just looking to overall help the community any way that I can.

Thanks for the response!

[BenDee]

Welcome to the neighborhood! I bought my first house here in PB/Newbold recently, and am likely going to attend the next meeting of NNA (as my first).