MidTown Inc. aims to connect neighborhoods and increase safety in Columbus area. How?
MidTown, Inc. announced a new initiative on Thursday that leaders hope will improve public safety, beautify the area and increase the quality of life for residents through Neighborhood Watch groups and other programs.
The newly formed MidTown Neighborhood Alliance (MNA) is tasked with creating and reactivating Neighborhood Watch groups, developing programs to improve quality of life and building a greater sense of belonging and neighborhood safety, said MidTown Inc. board president Cameron Bean.
“The Midtown Neighborhood Alliance is a multifaceted initiative designed to unite neighborhoods and neighbors for the betterment and beautification of MidTown,” Bean said.
This alliance is also designed to confront a surge in crime that took place earlier this year in parts of MidTown and Greater Columbus, he said. The idea of the alliance has been in the works since before the pandemic began, Bean said, but COVID created a large disruption to the planning process.
“Most recently there have been a number of crime-related events that have gone on in MidTown that sort of put the executive committee of the MidTown board back in the room together to talk about our neighborhoods,” he said.
MidTown already has a few well-established neighborhood watch groups that have been models for the rest of Columbus, Bean said. The alliance should help residents in the area look out for one another, he said, which will help make the neighborhoods safer.
While the initiative will help, residents do not have to be formally involved in it to make a difference, said Judy Tucker, co-chair of MNA.
“If (residents) see something just laying on the road that doesn’t need to be there, call Public Works or do something like that,” Tucker said. “It doesn’t have to be that you come to a meeting. For me, it’s being the nosy neighbor sometimes.”
How the MidTown Neighborhood Alliance will work
MidTown consists of 24 neighborhoods within 6 square miles. The boundary runs from Warm Springs Road to the north, Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard to the south, 10th Avenue to the west and I-185 to the east.
Each neighborhood will have a representative in the alliance, Bean said. Residents that would like to be representatives or get involved can begin by calling or emailing the staff at MidTown, Inc.
“The MidTown Neighborhood Alliance page on the website is under development,” he said. “And that’ll be the portal in which people can engage with us and participate in these programs moving forward.”
All of the neighborhoods will have their own links on the Midtown website, he said, and their representatives in the alliance are encouraged to provide messages and content to Midtown, Inc. staff that can be added to the website.
Neighborhood representatives may also be individuals who have worked with MidTown, Inc. in the past, said Julio Portillo, executive director. Since MidTown Inc. was founded in 2005 and the area’s neighborhoods were defined, the organization has already begun making connections with leaders in some of the neighborhoods, he said.
“In that regard, it’s also a matter of reconnecting with them and engaging their interest,” Portillo said.
MidTown Inc. will facilitate a partnership between MNA and the City of Columbus’ citizen-centered departments that include:
Public Safety
Crime Prevention
Codes and Inspections
Public Works
311 Request for Service
Officials hope the partnership will better connect citizens to one another and available public resources.
Representatives from the city departments will educate MNA members on how best to address a wide variety of issues that negatively affect neighborhood safety and appeal in quarterly meetings, Bean said. Acting as a liaison between the two groups, MidTown, Inc. will facilitate and host the meetings, he said.
While a lot of the focus is on public safety, MNA will also work on a number of different programs and initiatives outside of crime that focus on strengthening the neighborhoods’ identities, said Pete Berry, co-chair of MNA.
“This program is much bigger and more broad than simply a crime prevention or public safety program,” Berry said.
Some programs will work to create neighborhood signage and logos to add character, he said. Other programs will focus on how public right-of-ways could be beautified and ways in which the neighborhoods could host more events that allow people to get to know other residents in their area.
Increasing civic engagement is another major priority for MNA, Berry said. They want to take inspiration from other programs in the region, such as On the Table, which was a civic engagement initiative that took place each year from 2017-2019 that allowed residents to come together to discuss issues in the community.
The goal is to help residents communicate more with their local elected officials and discuss issues with each other, Berry said.
MidTown is a diverse community with walkable communities and neighborhoods, Tucker said. Residents can get to know other residents and businesses.
“It’s just a great opportunity for us to bring it together and have people know that they are part of something different than just their little neighborhood,” she said. “So, it’s really exciting.”
