The Caisson

Today is the Saints’ first home game of the season, and a loud and proud “Who Dat!” rings out across the city and region.  I’m excited about the game, and also looking forward to starting to talk with community members in my own neighborhood, West Riverside in Uptown, beginning tomorrow.

I’m starting close to home – I’m a board member on the Audubon-Riverside Neighborhood Association (ARNA) - so I should be familiar with many of my neighbors.  The West Riverside neighborhood actually extends downriver well beyond the ARNA boundaries, so I’ll ease into this process while getting into less familiar geographic territory.

I plan to start on either Laurel or Annunciation and travel down river on one side of the street from Audubon Park until I hit Napoleon.  This way, I’m more likely to interact with people at different income levels, since income (or at least housing value) appears to vary by block, and not by side of the street.

Once in front of people at their doors, I’ll engage in a conversation, centering around a combination of open ended questions and interest/satisfaction survey questions.  You can check out the current version of these questions here: Community Survey.  I’m very new at this, so please let me know what you think in the comments section for this post.

I know I won’t get to every household in the neighborhood in 6 days, but I’ll have close to a representative sample.  I plan to invite everyone I speak with to a neighborhood gathering at Wisner Park from 4 – 6 on Friday afternoon, October 7.  If you’re reading this, you’re invited.  There will be future neighborhood gatherings in the other neighborhoods I listen in, so you can join those, if you’d rather.  Also, please vote on which future neighborhoods I should listen to – on the neighborhood polls page.

Geaux Saints!