Neighborhood Mapping

This afternoon we attended a three-hour meeting of Neighborhood Watch Block Captains, hosted by the Pomona Police Department's Crime Prevention Officers.

After some tasty eats, introductions, and conversation, we engaged in semi-structured discussion of NW topics such as strategies for growing and sustaining watch groups. During this discussion, the Block Captains of a wildly successful NW group shared with us a tool they developed to enhance communication among neighbors: a map.

This wasn't just any map. This was a detailed neighborhood map keyed to resident names, contact information, pet information, kid information, etc. Very impressive.

I found myself thinking, "No doubt such a tool would be tremendously useful IF...if only our neighborhood was less vacant; if only our neighborhood experienced less turnover." When we first started our NW group four or five years ago, we tried putting together a map. By the time we printed it, it was already out of date. Grrr.

Hearing about the successes of this other group's map has nevertheless inspired me to give it another go.