Block Watch Progress This Month

Sorry for not posting much lately - things have been quite busy.  It was due to a comment on my last post that I even remembered to log on again (thanks, Anonymous Laveenite)....

So here's the big news: This month marks the formal beginning of the Highland at Rogers Ranch Block Watch.  At our first meeting, we had about 30 people, with only about a 50% overlap of those already volunteering.  This means that we have an active base of almost 50 people (or one person for every 3 occupied homes).  And we're officially registered with the city.

Stef and Robert, a couple of neighbors that I am proud to have met from these efforts, have taken the most active roles in leadership.  And from Stef's patrol activities, we may finally have a newsworthy event to share soon.  We've been diligently keeping an eye on a couple of trouble-making teens in the community and almost caught them engaging in criminal activity twice.  Next time, perhaps.....

The lesson that I learned from this is that the teenagers are almost always going to be the most knowledgeable about what goes on in the neighborhood, so we should look to them as a potential resource.  And at the same time, a few of them are to blame for much of the problems we face.  The situation is entirely controllable, but we need to manage it better than we have in the past, as well as provide better programs for the kids who can either help or hurt our community.