After a summer of talk about secession of Hampton Terrace from OSHNA, followed by an election with best outcome that money can buy, other corners are rumbling. There is talk about folks west of Florida wanting to chart a new direction on their own. There is talk of the folks in Evelyn City going their own way.
The east side rumbles have my attention since I live in between Hampton Terrace and Evelyn City. There has certainly been no effort on the part of the OSHNA board to build bridges or seek inclusion. That said, if the folks in Evelyn City go to bolt, I vote for inclusion of everything east of 275 with the exception of the perennial problem known as Hampton Terrace.
It is hardly a repudiation of your opponents when you buy dozens of memberships and win by less than impressive numbers. Rather than reaching out to include all, pack on your pals.
Yeah at this point, present me a viable plan for a smaller neighbor friendly association and I am on board. It would be hard to offer worst representation. Maybe secession would be best.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
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16 comments:
Glad to know you are changing your mind about the split. I have to agree after this last election process it proves to me that OSHNA is to damn big and those in charge are to damn big for themselves. As our new elected President says, time for change.
I find it intersting that as we discussed the split prior to the election EVERYONE ws against it. Now that there are losers, it seems that now the split is a good idea?
Not everyone was against the split before the elections. The losers and winners all stated that if it was the people's will, they had to support that decision. After witnessing how the winners bought the election, those that were on the fence or were originally against are seeing a different light now and thinking it would be for the better.
I have always opposed breaking up the neighborhood into smaller areas because I felt the existing structure could be fixed and adapted and the size would give the area greater clout. Unfortunately, there is not a spirit of inclusion with this new board. The board just keeps fishing in the same well. "Let's appoint our friends and pals to chair committees because that is easier."
We have at this point the best clique that money can buy. Can it be overcome, sure by walking up and down streets and getting people to join. Putting together a slate for next year and spending more than the current regime spent this year. Frankly that is a huge waste of money and time. I think it may be far more productive putting that time and money into building a responsive neighborhood association for those of us who don't live in Hampton Terrace. And face it east of 275 has always been viewed as a bastard child to those west of 275.
So yes I have begun to re-think my view about trying to fit the needs of 7500 homes under the OSHNA umbrella. Not counting Hampton Terrace there are over 2500 homes east of 275 in OSHNA's current boundaries. OSHNA would lose 1 board member. The other 4 eastside OSHNA board members all live among the less than 500 homes that make up Hampton Terrace.
Seems to me that those on the eastside have a lot to gain and very little to lose in a split.
We will see if 2009 brings a new Seminole Heights neighborhood group. Anyone for "Seminole Heights: Northeast" ???
I started listening to the idea of splitting the neighborhood well before the election. At the time I was already plenty tired of hearing the board discuss 'Hampton Terrace' projects. This election certainly brought to light how badly a group of people in Hampton Terrace want to 'win' (its what they are winning that I am not sure of). I am not sure why this is the case, but feel that the rest of the neighborhood has suffered and will continue to suffer as a result. The only way for any other part of the neighborhood to have a say downtown or with anyone else is to probably secede and define it's own face to the city. This board will only half heartily do that for anyone outside of Hampton Terrace. I think that this secession move is a good idea to discuss and see where it leads. - Christie Hess
I am still not sure why we don't have 4 SH groups with Hills and 275 being the dividing lines. We would have NW, NE, SE and SW groups with quarterly meetings as GSH. Seems to make more sense as the highway and Hillsborough truley divide more than just our neighborhoods.
You are a small minded group of people.
Small minded or tired of contributing to an association to that only cares about the historic districts and a few commercial pockets?
85% of OSHNA's efforts, meetings,etc focus on 15 to 20% of the homes and area it claims to represent.
"85% of OSHNA's efforts, meetings,etc focus on 15 to 20% of the homes and area it claims to represent."
Are you serious? How come this was never a criticism when Team Hess was involved? Am I to believe this has only been a concern since the last election?
Actually it has been a concern since I moved back into the neighborhood. it was one of the reasons I decided to run for the board this last go around. It has not been a new issue to me.
When I served on the board in the early 90's the focus was the historic district and east of 275 was a forgotten step-child. Then in year two there was some balance between east and west of 275.
When I moved back into OSHNA's boundaries in 2004 it was Hampton Terrace and the original historic district that had all the attention.
I raised these issues when Randy was president and I would often given him my thoughts on how narrow the focus of the general meetings were considering the huge area OSHNA covered.
If you remember my platform for running included broadening the focus of OSHNA. It might have gotten lost among all the name calling but I was the only one that spelled out exactly why I was running.
OSHNA needs to be more representative which is why I had huge objections to the by-law revisions. The by-law committee should have found a way to expand the board and diversify representation, instead it sought to make it more difficult by creating 2 year terms and 10 year term limits. All designed to protect the status quo.
Well OSHNA has a new board that is more narrowly focused than the old one. 6 of the 9 positions are in the two historic districts.
If every section of OSHNA on the east side of 275 with the exception of Hampton Terrace forms it's own association it will have in the neighborhood of 2500 homes. It would be the second largest association in Seminole Heights-larger than South or Southeast; OSHNA would still have twice as many homes.
So yes it is time to realize that reform may not be possible, and since I don't plan on moving, I have to say my preference is on a neighborhood association that actually represents the area where I live.
Here is a test for OSHNA's board, the their first quarterly meeting is in January. Can they have a meeting with agenda items dominated broad neighborhood issues and not just what mostly impacts the 2 historic district areas. I bet they can't or won't.
Actually Rick, Susan pretty much had the speakers lined up for the January meeting before the election. So this meeting is a carry over from the last board, not the new one. Jeff has the option of asking these speakers to not come and putting new ones in their place.
"Seems to me that those on the eastside have a lot to gain and very little to lose in a split."
- RFL
I Totally Agree with that, YES !
Jan
Hello, I just discovered this site (thanks BTW to the master). I want to say I agree with Jan & RFL. I am ready to join a smaller version of my immediate area neighborhood, that being Hampton Terr. Bigger is not always the way to go to understand the nucleus of a defined area. I believe smaller, unification is better. Huge gets caught up in political crap and personal agenda's instead of knowing what the immediate small town version of folks want while living together. My take. I support a split if that is what happens.
Thanks for having this forum,
Sonja
"Are you serious? How come this was never a criticism when Team Hess was involved? Am I to believe this has only been a concern since the last election?"
That was my reason for running - here is a portion of the statement I made on the night of the election:
"I understand that we all live in a diverse neighborhood with many issues that are important to some or all of us. I believe that every part of this neighborhood is important to the health and welfare of this association."
I want on to also say "I also strongly favor open board discussions and communications."
With the exception of TECO (an effort being spearheaded by CJ, not anyone on the Board) and Sangria's (which does not really need OSHNA at this point) I have not seen the Board address much of anything. And I am tired of hearing that it is a 'new board', most are not 'new' and all should have immediately started promoting something that would benefit a significant portion of OSHNA. BTW the 'team' approach was started by Jeff and company, not by me. -Christie Hess
I'm in agreement with the others. Maybe it is time to have more confined broken out neighborhood associations. I think it would be a good thing, that way your voice is better heard among hundreds in your immediate area instead of thousands with those you never have contact with. I think more can be done with this approach.
It appeals more to me.
Robin H.
Please tell me who is on "Team Hess." The only "Team" I saw campaigning was "Team Harmon". And "Team Harmon collectively worked very hard to get elected - including mailing out postcards, buying a web site, accusing others of things they did not do, and refusing to put disclaimers on their election materials or admit who paid for it or got the mailing list. This sounds more like a team than the opponents.
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