Fifth & State
Your inside look at everything Garland, unscripted. Join Mayor Dylan Hedrick and City Manager Mike Betz as they dive into the topics shaping our city.
Fifth & State
The People Behind the Place: Building Strong Neighborhoods in Garland
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In this episode, Mayor Dylan Hedrick and City Manager Mike Betz sit down with Neighborhood Resources Director Scott Bollinger to explore the role the Office of Neighborhood Vitality plays in strengthening Garland’s neighborhoods. From building connections among neighbors to creating opportunities for residents to get involved, they discuss what it takes to create strong, thriving neighborhoods.
Welcome to Fifth and State, your inside look at everything Garland unscripted. Join Mayor Dylan Hedrick and dive into the topics shaping our city. Let's get started.
SPEAKER_01Good afternoon, Garland, and welcome back to Fifth and State, where we take you behind the scenes of how Garland works. I'm Mayor Dylan Hedrick, and with me as always is City Manager Mike Betts. Welcome, Mike. Hello. And you know, today's a great episode because when we think about what makes Garland a great place to live, it often comes down to neighborhoods. And more importantly, it's the people who make them special. It's one of the first things that really uh made Garland a special place for me when I moved here over a decade ago. And today we're talking about what makes neighborhoods thrive, the role of the Office of Neighborhood Vitality, what they play in supporting Garland residents and neighborhoods, and an opportunity to recognize those efforts through the Garland Neighborhood Awards. And our guest today is Scott Bollinger. He's the Neighborhood Resources Director in the Office of Neighborhood Vitality. Welcome to the podcast, Scott.
SPEAKER_03Hello there. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Vez, for having me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm glad to have you here. So mentioned a little bit earlier to the just when you have great neighbors, it really makes your quality of life go up. I love my neighborhood that I live in. All my neighbors, we talk to each other, we wave as we're walking down the street, walking our dogs. To you, when you think of a great neighborhood, what comes to mind?
SPEAKER_03Well, if you've ever lived in a great neighborhood, I think the the signs are clear. Like you mentioned the as you're driving down the street, the the friendly waves. It's the um it's the small talk and the smiles as you're walking your dog, it's lending tools to a neighbor for some housework or yard work. It's mowing the lawn of a neighbor who might be sick or or injured or elderly. And the the thing about that is those can happen anywhere. It's not a a price point, it's not a um it's not a particular part of town. It that can happen in any neighborhood. That's that's what I think of for a great garland neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01Mm-hmm. And well, so a neighborhood vitality office. What what does that do? What is your role in that office?
SPEAKER_03I I was looking at the the title here, the people behind the place. I think that's a an interesting way to think about it. That's that's something that neighborhood vitality does. We're really the the intersection of people in place. We we help residents connect with one another, navigate city government. Um, but you know, sometimes that manifests as a visible thing, like a public, um, public space improvement, public park improvement, uh a mural, a community event, something like that. And sometimes it's less visible. Sometimes it's um identifying a new resident leader, or um helping an organization grow stronger, or even just increasing the trust between residents and and the city. So sometimes those less uh visible outcomes become, you know, the the big projects and things later on. My my role as the director is to sort of architect and and envision what that what that means here, how how that manifests in Garland. And so I do that. I empower my brilliant and devoted staff to those ends and clear any obstacles that are in their way.
SPEAKER_01So what first drew you to working with neighborhoods and community engagement?
SPEAKER_03Well, I I I got one of those degrees where um when they hand you the diploma, the application for grad school is on the back. And so, and so um, you know, and I also was was waiting on a girl who had two years left, so I knew I was gonna get my master's degree, but I didn't know what in. When I discovered what public administration was, I thought, oh wow, that's that's something that I want to do. My master's thesis was even on community engagement. So that brought me to that brought me to the budget office originally and then to public works, but you know, as I as I got further in my career, I realized, you know, the the the residents don't experience the city through an org chart, they experience it through their block that they walk, their neighborhood, their city park, the business is nearby. And that's where I where that's where I wanted to get involved.
SPEAKER_01Well then, so tell us then, what does uh your team do more day-to-day to support our Carly neighborhoods?
SPEAKER_03Uh you probably get the answer that it it changes a lot uh a day-to-day basis, but for us, I think that's probably more true than than not. Um we might be um printing flyers for someone's neighborhood barbecue. We might be processing home improvement incentive application, preparing for our quarterly neighborhood meet and greets, or welcome to garland, or HOA legal clinics. But the common thread through all of it is we're trying to make a um positive and substantial positive impact on Garland neighborhoods.
SPEAKER_02How many people do you have there on neighborhood vitality students?
SPEAKER_03We we have we have three. Uh our senior planner, uh Laura De La Vega, she's really great at um envisioning these public improvement projects and seeing them through. We have uh Catherine Bradley, uh um our neighborhood vitality coordinator, who organizes a lot of the behind-the-scenes work, and then Alejandro Cardoso, our neighborhood vitality specialist, who's really uh frontline on interactions with with uh with residents and neighborhood associations.
SPEAKER_01So tell us more then. You mentioned these public improvement projects that you help with. Tell us what's involved with that.
SPEAKER_03Sure. Uh the you know, some of them are are started by us. We have some kind of idea for a public and improvement project, you know, we work that through the the city departments and things, and then and then see if the adjacent neighborhood or or residents nearby are interested. But a lot of them come from residents themselves. They have something they want to see, and we bring our sort of um technical expertise and our experience to that. And we come up with something that that we think both parties uh you know are think we think that's gonna be really great for the city. Um and something that we can, you know, fund, something that we can um we can brag about later. That all comes from the city.
SPEAKER_02How do you get that input from neighborhoods?
SPEAKER_03Uh well, in a lot of cases it's expressed through our Where the Heart is program. Uh so in that we we take a very um again, I mentioned my master's thesis was in community engagement. We take community engagement very seriously. We usually have a series of meetings um with residents to understand you know their neighborhood. There's no staff report, there's no data set that can substitute for the lived experience of the residents. And so them telling us what what they want to see, and then like I said, us bringing our perspective and technical experience, we're usually able to come up with something that um that is really special.
SPEAKER_01So I know sign toppers is one example of things that we've seen. I know my neighborhood applied and got a grant to put the sign toppers on top of all the stop signs. What are some of the other projects that we've had?
SPEAKER_03Sure. Um through our matching grant program, we've had um people put in like they if an hoa, for example, has some kind of um unused, you know, public space, they may put like a pavilion or some kind of um some kind of public amenity there. But for other neighborhoods, it can be anything from like a public art installation, the neighborhood entryway features, you know, those nice, those nice brick and mortar signs that are at the entrance of neighborhoods, those are really popular. Um it it just sort of depends on on what the neighborhood needs. But I I feel like again, with with the city and my department in particular, we're able to navigate through the different challenges and get them something that is unique and something that they'll care about in the future.
SPEAKER_02What's the relationship between those kinds of projects and vitality in a neighborhood?
SPEAKER_03The for one one thing that we talk about a lot is place attachment. Where you live, you want to both enjoy but also feel some kind of emotional connection to. And you being part of the project that goes there, whether it was your idea and you worked with us on it, or maybe we started it and worked with you on it, either way, there's something there now that is unique to your neighborhood, but also something that you were a part of creating. That's what we're really trying to do. There, we're we're treating residents as co-designers of these things uh so that they can can look at that and say, what in it even if it's something where, even if it's something small, you mentioned sign toppers, we try to get residents to help design what the sign topper looks like because again, it's their neighborhood, that that makes sense, but it's also, hey, that this is special to us. This is that's a visual um manifestation of what we feel is important, what what we want to see when we drive around our neighborhood. So I I feel it it it creates that kind of attachment to place that we're looking for.
SPEAKER_01Gives people a sense of pride in their neighborhood when you do those, and especially when they've been involved, like you said, coming up with a design or they were part of it. In your experience, then what takes a good neighborhood to a great one? Is it little things like that or is there something more involved?
SPEAKER_03Well, I think the I'll tell you what it's not. It's not the absences of challenges. Um even really great, strong neighborhoods will will have challenges, but it's the it's the ability to to act together, to welcome new residents, to communicate effectively and accurately, bring people together, um welcome different voices, and then stay engaged long enough to to see the follow-through. So it's not you say good to great, I would say the great ones are able to um able to navigate those those issues, those particular problems uh as a as a group with the capacity to figure those out for themselves rather than relying on a third party to to handle it.
SPEAKER_01It doesn't necessarily have to be an HOA, for instance, it could be any type of neighborhood. If they don't have an association, you can help them get a group together that's just a group of concerned residents.
SPEAKER_03Exactly. The one one thing that we we like to call it neighborhood-based groups. So that ain't that encompasses voluntary and mandatory. And voluntary and mandatory have different you know solutions to their pro to the to any issues that come up, they have um different, you know, different sets of challenges, but at the end of the day, it's all it's almost always a place-based issue or place-based opportunity that we're trying to take advantage of. And so that we we lean on that phrase neighborhood-based group to encompass both of those.
SPEAKER_01And what are some things that the everyday person in a neighborhood can help their place-based area become greater? What what can they do? Can they reach out to your office to start something? Or if they've already got an organized group, how can you help them?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely. The some of the for our already organized neighborhoods, they do use us a lot. We have something called a capacity building grant that um that it's it's uh it's $500 to help you do some kind of social activity, whether it's a block party, something like that. We have our our neighborhood vitality matching grant. If you're if you're already a registered neighborhood association, uh voluntary associations could can get up to $10,000 just um without any match from them to do some kind of neighborhood improvement project. Um But it to form a neighborhood association, you know, uh there's lots of different things that that that you can do, but it's my recommendation is always to start small. Start with conversations, not committees. Start with um start with just, and we've we've helped residents do this, uh, start with coffee and donuts in your front yard. Uh have people come by and and just leave their email address so that the next time you want to do something, you you now have a mailing list, uh talk about what they want to see for the next event or if there's a common problem, you know, start getting a list of names. That's gonna be way more effective than trying to jump into forming some kind of formal association right away.
SPEAKER_02So you talked about block parties now and and tell me how how do block parties relate to neighborhood vitality? How does how does uh a neighborhood having a block party uh cause greater vitality in that neighborhood?
SPEAKER_03The we we say fun is the method, but relationship is the outcome, is is how we put it. The the block parties it it allows just in a positive setting for people that may not come to, you know, you you may you may have an association meeting, you know, with a formal agenda and those things. Those things are great, but someone may not want to come to that, but they'll want to come to a block party. You get to learn about them, their situation, and again, how to contact them in the future. Uh that's that that builds a stronger, more cohesive um resident group within that, even if they're not necessarily officially members of of whatever of a whatever association you've built, they're still very interested and know how to contact you for more details.
SPEAKER_01And we have some tools to help them. We have a block party trailer, for instance, that we loan out to neighborhood groups that it has toys and games and chairs and tables and ice chests and everything inside that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, the the block party trailer is great because it removes the practical barriers, right? It someone may want to have a block party but don't have all the tables and chairs, like you said, the games, the coolers, you know, or amplified sound, things like that. It allows them to focus on the um the people and the relationship building rather than some of the practical things that they may otherwise have to worry about.
SPEAKER_02Does your office actually help the people who are organizing these to get engagement from the neighborhood so that they show up at the block parties?
SPEAKER_03Right, absolutely. We we help with promotion, uh, we it we will help design flyers if if that's something that you know um no particular resident has a has a skill in, but uh we'll print the flyers, we will um we'll sometimes go door to door, you know, um if if that's what's necessary to help get the word out.
SPEAKER_01That's great. I know. And you mentioned another program that you have is Where the Heart is, and that's really about reinvesting in the neighborhoods. Can you tell us more about that program?
SPEAKER_03Where the Heart is is something that started around 2016, 2017, something like that. But it's we select a neighborhood and really take a big commitment to it with a comprehensive, coordinated, concentrated effort, bringing a lot of resources to bear. And we usually do some kind of fun event to start, um, but we have a series of community meetings, it's typically three. And as as I mentioned earlier, we we treat them as co-designers in this meeting. At the end of it, it's not um it's not that we're the city, we're gonna provide this for you. It's it's we want to work with you to provide something. That's going to be different for every neighborhood. That's something we take a lot of pride in. Um, some of our methods are are sort of similar from from neighborhood to neighborhood. We may tweak them a little just just based on lessons learned, but the projects themselves are not cookie-cutter at all. The projects themselves come out of those conversations with the residents. And the I, you know, I have multiple examples of which we we had an idea of of how to how to do a certain thing, what some kind of project that we thought would be useful. And in talk talking with the residents, we've discovered that no, that's actually a better idea. And we've changed our course of action to create something that's that's that's way better than we imagine. So um the where the heart is really takes a serious approach to those things and then builds out projects that that manifest visible progress that you can see later on.
SPEAKER_01So we go, you said it's been happening for about a decade now. We go and pick a neighborhood and go in there and ask the residents what they want. Right. What are some examples of the projects that we've done in these neighborhoods? I know one is a big mural that I've seen.
SPEAKER_03That's very popular. No, that that's actually a good example. The that's the when we worked with a neighborhood called Gatewood, and Gatewood, um, they they had a big retaining wall. It's a city-owned retaining wall, uh, but it was at the edge of their neighborhood and took up a it was a it was sort of the the big um entrance to their neighborhood right off of Oats Road. And over the over the years, we're talking decades, it had gotten tagged, and we had painted over the graffiti like we're supposed to do, but the graffiti, you know, that what we painted with was mismatched, and the the the wall just needed to be repainted anyway. And so they the residents themselves in these meetings said that's something that's something we'd like to address. And we said, well, if we get the the paint donated, we get you some materials, will will you volunteer to do it? They absolutely did. We painted it white and uh it looked great. And then in future meetings, um, they said, you know, it would be cool if there'd be a mural there. And then we thought, oh gosh, I don't, it's a that's a big space, I'm not sure how that's gonna work. Well, but again, through these conversations, we found a graphic designer slash artist that was a resident of Gatewood. And we came up with the idea of creating like a paint by numbers mural. He would do the the the outline and he would put the numbers on and the residents themselves, again, with donated paint. Um, we we we got donated paint from Sherwin Williams to uh to paint it themselves. And now it's it's sort of the it's what they identify with is that mural. It's that's something, it's now a point of pride. We took something that didn't look so great and was on a fairly major corridor that we now really refresh and made it made look amazing, that the that the neighborhoods really um really enjoy and identify with.
SPEAKER_01So how do we pick the neighborhood that we want to help with the each help out each year? And what's in store for this coming year for where the heart is?
SPEAKER_03In the past, the the way we selected it was we're looking for the intersection of opportunity and need. So we're we're looking for a neighborhood that we feel, you know, maybe heading in the wrong direction, we want to push it in the right direction. That was how we we selected in the past. Um going forward, um, through our housing strategy, we have sort of a schedule of of neighborhoods where where the heart is going to be in the in the future. But it's the same sort of thought process. What what is a neighborhood that just needs just needs a little push to turn it from a negative feedback loop into a positive feedback loop? That's that's really the neighborhoods that we're working in.
SPEAKER_01And what neighborhood have we chosen for this coming year?
SPEAKER_03Sure. Uh in uh this fall, we'll be um we'll be uh promoting in what's what we call the Axe neighborhood. It's near um Axe Methodist Church uh in that area. We'll be promoting that in the fall and then starting community meetings uh in early 2027.
SPEAKER_02You mentioned Sherwin Williams. Do we uh typically get community partners involved in some of these projects? And if you're a community partner in Garland, how would you get involved?
SPEAKER_03Where where we can, absolutely. So that one wasn't specific. We know we need paint, we know we need supplies. You know, it it's one of those we we didn't know any better, so we just went into the store and asked. Um, and they they they pretty much took care of us. I think we filled out a form for corporate or something like that, but we told them how much and what kind we needed, and and they got us all of that. Um they they donated a lot of the like the brushes and the rollers too. Um so it for that it sort of depends on on the project itself. Home Depot has has given us things in the past. Um so as we work through those, we um we will we will be the ones to contact the partners, but if partners wish to contact us proactively, they can go to garland neighborhoods.org. Um there's there's our email address, there's our phone number, and and we're happy to see where we can connect.
SPEAKER_01Another big event you're involved with every year is National Night Out. That's uh usually in October when the weather gets a little cooler so we can actually go outdoors and enjoy it more with our neighbors. Tell us what's the purpose of National Night Out?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, National Night Out is on Tuesday, October 6th this year. And the the purpose is that it creates a um a positive setting for not only for you know residents and neighbors, but also for them to interact with our public safety personnel. And so, you know, it's it's just like with our um just like with our outlook with residents where we say it's a lot easier to form the relationship before there's an issue uh for sort of you know like a conflict resolution. It's that same kind of approach with our public safety personnel. They're able to share their concerns, they're able to talk with with our public safety personnel and um maybe maybe meet their neighborhood police officer uh and and understand you know how that relationship can be really positive and fruitful going forward.
SPEAKER_01I know that's always a popular one because we get the SWAT guys out there, we get the canine unit, every I think every fire engine in town is at one of these meetings. Right. And uh it's really, really popular with all of our residents.
SPEAKER_03Right. We're out there too, neighborhood vitality. We we we can't get to everyone. We try. Um, we usually do um three or four per person, but it's it's really great to see people, you know. The the turquoise uh table lady, she calls it front yard people, right? It's it's it's a it's really great to see people just hanging out in their front yard, even if they don't have you know um the SWAT team come by, or maybe the SWAT team's already come by and they've left, you know, it's great to see people um interact and and just enjoying fellowship with one another. Because again, it's fun is the method, but relationship is the outcome.
SPEAKER_01So, what advice would you give to a neighborhood who wants to start an event like that?
SPEAKER_03Well, I to start an event, I mean, you should um there's usually some permitting involved, but neighborhood vitality can help you with that. If the block party trailer is available. You know, we we love to help with that. We help with uh promotion of the event. Um uh we have, like I mentioned, that uh capacity building grant that that's also can provide some funding for it depending on your situation. So we have a lot of tools that can help with um starting an event, but I would I would implore that person to go ahead and contact Neighborhood Vitality, start a relationship with us so we can help guide guide them through that. Um like I said, they're they're depending on how big their event is and what they envision for it, there may be different things that they need to navigate that we're we're willing to help with. And what's the website again? Garland Neighborhoods.org.
SPEAKER_01Garland Neighborhoods.org. I know uh we have some great neighborhoods in Garland, and we just at our council meeting uh a couple weeks ago recognized some neighborhoods that won some national awards.
SPEAKER_03Right, right, that's right.
SPEAKER_01We had the Riverset neighborhood, they were part of the neighborhood of the year, and we had Camelot, who won third place in the newsletter competition. Tell us a little bit about the Garland Neighborhood Awards and then the the further awards they went on at a national level.
SPEAKER_03Right. The the um the way we've modeled the Garland Neighborhood Awards, we we've modeled it after Neighborhood USA. So neighborhood USA has these categories: neighborhood of the year, who's who in Garland Neighborhoods, um neighborhood newsletter competition, and then uh public servant award. So we have those two, and so our local winners will then submit for the the national competition. So that's how we do that. And it it almost every year since we've been doing that, which I believe is 2017, almost every year since we've been doing it, we've had someone place in a national competition. Uh, and so uh if anyone's interested in that, uh again, our website will have further information. We are accepting uh nominations through Sunday, October 18th. And um and if I if I may, mayor, just one piece of advice if they're wanting to submit is don't limit yourself. There the committee doesn't choose the biggest projects, they should choose the ones that show the most heart and local impact. So um we're we're always we're always excited to to name our our local award winners because we know they'll they'll have a good chance at the national awards.
SPEAKER_01So no really neighborhood is too small or little projects unimportant. It it all matters in the end to building the the neighborhoods up.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. And I'm I'm so happy that neighborhoods USA recognizes that. They could have they could easily just choose the the biggest things with the biggest budgets or or funding or what have you, and they don't look at it like that, just like we don't look at it like that for our local awards.
SPEAKER_01And I remember last year I was able to present some of the awards to our winners, and it was great to just get people from different neighborhoods together to celebrate, and then they got to interact and learn a little bit from each other as well.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's a that's a big part of it. It's it's gratitude that we want to recognize the people and their efforts, but it's also replication. It's as you hear what other neighborhoods are doing, how can I incorporate that into mine? How can I, you know, take that idea and maybe make it our own in our neighborhood? That's that's a that's a big part of it too, the gratitude and the replication.
SPEAKER_02And we have the the awards ceremony for the Garland Neighborhood Awards in November. Is that right? November 12th.
SPEAKER_03That's right. Uh it'll be at the atrium in downtown Garland. Um, and we're we're taking RSVPs now.
SPEAKER_02Is anyone welcome to attend?
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. Just need RSVP.
SPEAKER_01That's great. And beyond that, those awards, we also have other programs we have. We have a Welcome to Garland program, which is one of my favorite because we get up there and talk about how great Garland is to residents, and they don't even have to be new residents. We have residents who've been here for 40 years but still want to come and see what Garland's all about.
SPEAKER_03I'm always stunned at um we'll we'll have we'll have people that have that have been in Garland a long time that come to Welcome to Garland, which is great. Um and then we usually end Welcome to Garland with a walking tour of downtown, and a good third at least of the people that do that say, I never knew this was down here. You know, so we do a little bit of of in-reach as we call it. We do a little bit of in-reach with Garland residents and connecting them downtown. But I I I like Welcome to Garland a lot too. I I feel um that that is um that's a really great place to identify, you know, you want to harness that energy, right? Someone's new in the area, they're probably interested, you know, in in being connected, and and that's what the Welcome to Garland thing is all about. It we want to we want to teach them about um Garland, the community, and the City of Garland organization, and and those are great, but but really we're we're wanting to to harness that energy of new residents to to see what what we can make out of it.
SPEAKER_01And we hold that on a Saturday morning usually in March, April, something like that. Great. I'm looking forward to the next one as well. We also have neighborhood leader or meet and greets. Tell me about those.
SPEAKER_03We usually do those quarterly, and you know, the same thing where you don't have to be a neighborhood leader to come, uh, but that's that's the that's sort of the the target audience. Um it's a great time for you know fellowship with with our neighborhood leaders, you know. We see in neighborhood vitality, we see neighborhood leaders almost like as clientele, you know, um so we want to keep the relationships up with them, but just hear about things that are going on with them, if there's if there's any um if there's anything that the city can help them, sort of a reminder of some of the um things that neighborhood vitality can do to them. But a big part of our when we when we have those meetings, we have activities that intentionally, you know, sort of force them to network a little bit. And so they'll they'll come away from that meeting with the contact information of other neighborhood leaders, hopefully so that they can they can learn from one another as well.
SPEAKER_02You also do an HOA legal clinic, right?
SPEAKER_03We do that we we do that once a year. We partner with the city of Plano on that. Uh and that is it's our it's it's our if our highest ranked or highest rated event that we do all year. The the people that come to that find it extremely valuable. The the way it works is we'll usually have um some attorneys that specialize in that area that will speak. Um they'll usually give some kind of legislative update. What's the latest legislation that has been passed that affects HOAs? They'll they'll give you some some really important information about how to hold meetings and reserve studies, and we'll have different topics, and then they have a Q ⁇ A, and it's you know, um, as one resident said, uh this this type of consultation would have cost us $500. I was able to come by on a Saturday and get it for free. So uh our HOAs are are very happy with that event and we're always looking to um to improve it.
SPEAKER_01So we talked a little about the individual neighborhoods, but we have also adopted a Garland on the rise tenure strategic plan. What role does your department neighborhood vitality play into that vision?
SPEAKER_03I'm I'm really thankful for the city manager's office for taking that leap of faith um with the uh with the housing study and the housing strategy. Um I I really felt strongly that that that that group, that consultant was really what we needed to to help us move forward. And and it it the the housing strategy is a major component of Garland on the rise. Of course, it's not all of it, but it is a big component of it. And neighborhood vitality is is sort of where that citywide you know strategy comes down to the block level. Um we talk about the the commercial corridors, for example, is a big part of that. Well, commercial corridors need you know strong, stable neighborhoods to support them. They they work with one another. Businesses need customers and consumer confidence and and things like that, while residents need the amenities and the services and the investments. So our role is to ensure that reinvestment is taking place at the neighborhood level in addition to the stuff that you know say economic development's working on. I feel like for a long time, um economic development, and I'm not and I'm not saying at Garland, I'm just saying everywhere, that that the real focus on economic development was just commercial, was just industrial. I think people are starting to really come around that the housing and the neighborhoods is a is a really critical component to that, and and seeing that happen is is part of the work that I do.
SPEAKER_02You presented uh last week at the council on the neighborhood stewardship program. Uh tell us a little bit about that and its relation to Garland on the Rise.
SPEAKER_03Sure. The the stewardship program is is sort of the new idea that that we're hoping to launch very soon. But the the idea there is, you know, I talked about where the heart is. I talked about all the things that Neighborhood Vitality does, but really we cannot um do the kind of block level um relationship building that we need to citywide. Even doubling the amount of where the heart is uh content we're doing next year, even doubling it, we're not going to get to every neighborhood that needs to be uh addressed within a 10-year period, even a 20-year period. So the stewardship uh program allows us to sort of extend uh that type of work to uh neighborhoods that that we're just not focused on at the moment. It's a way for us to um to understand what those neighborhoods are still need and incorporate that into our work without adding permanent staff to to address all of them.
SPEAKER_01You mentioned we only have so many employees in your department, we can only do so much alone. We ask for volunteers to come help us out, and that's exactly what they're doing.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. And we're we're we're very excited about that program, about the possibilities of it. We're we're already receiving some early interest, and um, and and I hope that I hope that that we can we can really help some neighborhoods with it.
SPEAKER_01That's wonderful. I know we're looking forward to getting that really moving very soon here in the fall. Right. So I have a few resident questions for you. For a resident who's tried to rally their neighbors around a program or initiative, but has faced resistance or just low participation from their neighbors, what advice would you give to them?
SPEAKER_03I I would say um a couple things. Uh, one is is is start smaller than your ambition. That it happens a lot that um that some folks have this uh a grand vision for for what they believe their their neighborhood should look like and often get frustrated when the when the pace of of their building it doesn't doesn't match that. You know, just just one block, one common space is is really enough to to get it started. Get to get two or three people to share responsibility, make the invitation very simple, why you know, widely to everyone, and at the event, just get some contact information and and ask maybe one or two questions. What what do you want to see different about the neighborhood? What what thing should we do next time? Are you interested in a block party? Um I I think sometimes it it's it's that that that they don't start quite small enough, but I think it's also sometimes their vision doesn't always match what the wider neighborhood wants. Um we have some folks that have you know very want want to form a very formal association with meetings and and agendas and things like that. And if that works for your neighborhood, that's great, but that's not going to work for every neighborhood. As you hear from, as you're making these connections, you're hearing from other residents, adapt your vision to what the res those residents want. There was a neighborhood um a while back uh that I don't know exactly how this started, but they had a thing for flamingos, right? They they had these pink flamingos, they bought a whole bunch of little plastic cheap flamingos and they would flock, quote unquote. They would flock someone's yard, and that would you know signify that they were one neighbor of the month, or sometimes it would signify that's where the the meeting's gonna be tonight, or something like that. That was a really silly idea, and yet it instantly recognizable in that neighborhood, and something they rallied around. They ended up calling themselves the Garland Flamingo Neighborhood Association, even though you know their subdivision wasn't named that, or you know, their subdivision phase wasn't named that. This was just something that they rallied around. And and that came from talking with people. That came from a crazy idea that came from one of them that everyone thought was funny and liked, so they just did it. That that worked out a lot better than what this one person's original idea of what that neighborhood association would look like.
SPEAKER_01That's great. You know, it's a group of flamingos, it's a flamboyance of flamingos, is what it is. Exactly.
SPEAKER_02So now you have you have some programs and tools to help support residents actually uh organize in neighborhoods, right?
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. Uh so like I mentioned the capacity building grant, that is $500 for for uh if you're not a mandatory HOA, uh uh that you can use toward the supplies of building that neighborhood association. Again, we're trying to we're trying to remove practical barriers. You have the block party trailer. You combine the block party trailer with a capacity building grant, I'd say you are well on your way to creating some kind of event that gets people out and gets you focused on what's important, which is that relationship building. Remember, fun is the method, relationship is the outcome. Uh and we in Neighborhood Vitality help with that stuff. Um in particular with promotions and uh just guidance, just general guidance on what you should do next. Uh we're we're in fact, uh Alejandro is meeting with a neighborhood association in a couple weeks, or a group of interested neighbors, I should say, in a couple of weeks to talk about that very thing. Like here's some here's some steps you should take, and here's where we're going to help along the way.
SPEAKER_01Well, so tell us then another question we get from Resmus is Is your office involved in existing projects, corridor corridor revitalization or other beautification projects? What kind of projects do you have in the works right now?
SPEAKER_03Sure. Uh one of our more popular ones is the are the cabinet wraps. So the every every intersection of Garland has a big uh chrome silver box, and uh we have been wrapping those in like an artistic vinyl wrap for the past couple of years. We do a call for artists, uh, and we go through a whole process to get those selected and printed and installed. Uh, we just finished up year two of a of a program to do that. I think we've wrapped, I want to say it's it's around 50 so far um in the city. Um, and that's something we've, you know, those are on corridors, yeah, you know, uh because they're they're part of uh the intersection. But that's something that um residents have really enjoyed um and have gotten us a lot of attention. Uh like I mentioned earlier, we've we've also done a lot of entryway features, we've done some public art installations in in in certain areas like parks um that are along um visible corridors. Uh so a lot of different things will also be focused on um fence rehabilitations, um, you know, screening walls are just are just so expensive. Um and so a lot of times what we have backing up to corridors are people's back fences, right? Um and helping with making those look better in some way is something we'll be focusing on in the future for corridors.
SPEAKER_01That's wonderful. And tell us again where people can go to learn more about the Office of Neighborhood Vitality.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. You can find us at garlandneighborhoods.org. And our email is neighborhoods at garlandtx.gov.
SPEAKER_01Well, Scott, thank you so much for joining us here today. And really the work you do is essential for keeping our neighborhood strong. And really today I've been learned a lot about what you guys do and you know, really helping get people connected to their neighborhoods and those who are willing to get involved and giving them the resources they need to do so. And if this has got you thinking about how you want to form your own neighborhood group or affect your neighborhood in a positive way, remember you can go to garlandneighborhoods.org. We have our uh entries for the Garland Hood Neighborhood Awards. It's open to until October 18th. We'll have our awards ceremony in November at the atrium. Hopefully you'll have an idea or uh someone you want to recognize, and you can submit an entry. But uh until then, remember that new episodes of Fifth and State come out every first Monday of the month. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, leave us a review, we'd love to see it. And until then, good night, garland.