Thursday, October 23, 2008

March for Peace- A Success!

As many of you know, Last night we attended a March for Peace and Roll Call in the business district around 73rd St. and Jeffrey. I want to thank those who came-- around 25 community members were in attendance, not to mention the at least 15-20 police officers! We walked from business to business chanting things like "Hey, ho, the Gang Violence has got to go!" The response our group got from community members was great-- lots of applause and people joining in-- particularly the business owners and operators! The roll call was great too- we had an opportunity to meet our officers, shake their hands, and hear from them how glad they are to see that there are people around here who support the hard work they do. We also got to witness some excitement when, suddenly, about 5 or 6 officers got an urgent radio call and had to break formation from the roll call to run down the block to catch a bad guy!

I also realized while I was walking around that I haven't done much walking in our business area. There is a cute bakery with delicious looking treats on Jeffrey, and there are quite a few other nice looking cafes and shops that I don't remember seeing before, not to mention some extremely fancy looking salons!

I want to encourage you all to check the area out and support these local businesses-- While we're making the criminal element feel unwelcome, we must do all we can to keep the good people and struggling small business owners right where they are!

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