March 23rd 2016
1 N. Poppleton St
7pm
Present
Bif Browning
Thomas Hams
Jerrell Bratcher
Bill Marker
David Lester
Rob LaPin
Elizabeth Weber
Increasing Porch Lighting
Bif spoke to Adam Martin the Energy Efficiency Team Supervisor at the Baltimore Energy Challenge. The Baltimore Energy Challenge could do an hour to an hour and a half on weekends in the spring and fall to pass out lights. The biggest need is for the lightbulbs–community members could go door to door and ask residents if they would be interested in having a low energy efficiency light bulb in exchange for leaving it on all the time. Rob suggested talking to someone in the Community Outreach group.
Buf suggested that Union Square could be the first test neighborhood after the Bloom Your Block kick off event on April 16th. Thomas will print out a spreadsheet with all the addresses in Union Square, can check off the houses that have been addressed. The Committee needs to identify a lead in each neighborhood–Bif suggested Carol Ott for Pigtown. Bif and Thomas will do Union Square
Installing Cameras
Thomas tried to identify grants that would pay for cameras, unsuccessfully and sent information on camera programs. There are questions about whether some homeowners would allow third party (CityWatch) access to the cameras–or whether City Watch would provide the neighborhoods with access to their cameras. A grant could provide neighborhood access to camera data. Rob: Nest cameras would provide that feature as long as there was an IP address and computers. Thomas: there is also free camera software available.
Thomas is exploring a system that would allow Union Square to have night vision tracking cameras that would cover wider ranges of the street They are looking for cameras that can be repositioned as needed for high crime areas.
Thomas also looked into automated license recognition software–have certain areas in the neighborhood that they notice the same cars that are associated with crimes.
Jerrell suggested providing neighbors with a list of license plate numbers so that they know who lives there. Thomas: that would be a drastic step and wouldn’t be needed on every block.
Next Steps: come up with a plan to pursue and see if there’s a grant out there to begin planning the project, also offer neighbors the opportunity to purchase the equipment and share the data. Would need a server. CHAP may need to give input on the cameras.
HomeWatch
Is a program that needs a lot of volunteers, get them when they sign up for lights and cameras. Rob wants to make an appointment with Davis and the other police heads, and wanted to set up meetings to talk about beat cops. Police might want to go around while they are doing the lightbulbs. Something that would be helpful would be a spreadsheet of every address in the neighborhoods.
Other priorities include moving Poppleton and Franklin Square into the Southern District, figuring ways to extend UM policing, and working on alley gating.
Next Meeting
April 27th 7pm 1138 Hollins St 2nd floor.
