Introductions:
NACA GENERAL MEETING Thursday April 17, 2008 Wooldridge Elementary Norseman Terrace
The meeting was called to order by Anthony Williams at 7:02pm
Announcements
The March meeting minutes were distributed and approved.
The North Austin Coalition of Neighborhoods Update: Anthony spoke with John Hunt with APD. APD has completed their investigation of the area around Rundberg and IH 35. APD has mailed letters to properties that have been have been designated as nuisance properties.
APD Officers Mike Young and Lee Davis are sharing the NACA area. Officer Young stated that a one million dollar grant has been secured to put more officers on the street. NACA will be one of the first areas targeted for more patrol officers. An additional District Attorney might be hired to push through cases. He also discussed implementing stay away orders for repeat offenders to stay out of the neighborhood.
Anthony stated that a second annual Night Without Crime is being planned. No date has been determined yet. Volunteers with this event would be greatly appreciated.
Two Rutland Cleanups will occur in May. The first will be Saturday May 3rd at 8:30am.Volunteers will meet at Quail Creek Park. Volunteers for the May 1t0th, cleanup will meet at the parking lot of HEB on the Rutland side.
Monthly NACA Meetings for May, June and August will be held at the Little Walnut Creek Library.
Brian Burkle gave a presentation on proposing a residential parking permit program for streets around Lanier High School. The overflow from the student parking has spilled over into adjacent streets around Lanier High School. Access through some of these streets is reduced to one lane due to the overflow parking.
The permit would restrict parking on the adjacent streets for non residence uses. Streets proposed for the restriction would be for Maine from Plymouth to Fairfield and on Fairfield from Maine to Parkfield. New Hampshire and Bradford could be effected if the restriction is placed on Maine and Fairfield.
The restriction can be removed if additional parking is developed on the Lanier campus. Brian asked for NACA’s support for implementing this permit parking program and to assign a coordinator to act as a liaison between the neighborhood and the City of Austin. A motion was made and approved in favor of this program and to designate Brian Burkle as the NACA coordinator.
Anthony requested assistance in recruiting beautification volunteers for the Rutland Beautification Project. There are three paid positions for helping cleanup Rutland.
Meeting: Gang Activity; AISD Officer Zac Gorbet
Officer Gorbet belongs to AISD Juvenile Gang Unit and task force. This task force is targeted to deter gang activity with the younger people in middle schools and eventually the elementary schools.
Austin had a bad gang problem in the 1990’s. Those that were imprisoned are now back on the streets.
Lanier High School has some gang activity that occurs on and off campus.
Graffiti is like a bulletin board for gang members. If you can read it and it has symbols, then the graffiti probably came from a gang member. Los Cholos wear brown and kahki as their colors. North Side Brothers wear black and white. When you see gang graffiti, report it to 311 and ask for a police report. Gang members typically wear red on the right and blue on the left.
Taggers typically are not gang members. Their graffiti is typically not legible. The internet has resulted in a quicker spread of gang activity to small towns. The meeting was adjourned at 8:54pm.