Building a Virtual Village, the Wedgewood Park Story
Wedgewood Park is a subdivision of 289 single family homes mainly built in the 1960's is located in Halifax, Nova Scotia. There are no recreation facilites, no community center or even a space to hold large meetings within its boundaries. Its amenities are the quiet comforts of bird song, squirrels chirping and deer crossing lawns under the shade of mature trees. Only local traffic travels on its winding urban streets. A subdivision where parents often hand down family homes for the next generation to raise their family.
In September 2011 in an effort to build community in case a common cause arose resident Scott created a Neighbourhood Facebook Page. In the summer of 2012 with a city election in full swing resident Lea Anne noticed, when door to door campaigning with a candidate, that residents were not aware Wedgewood Park's was now park of the newly formed electoral District 12. Lea Anne found the Wedgewood Park Facebook page and sent a message to Scott asking if they could work together and a meeting was set.
After their first meeting Scott and Lea Anne agreed on the goal of being liked by 30% of households in Wedgewood Park. With this in mind their first project was set into action. Gorilla advertising, posting a flyer about the page in the neighbourhood. The page began to attract more likes and discussions began to form.
In December
2012 their second project, a newsletter was delivered to every mail box in
the neighbor hood by volunteers elicited from the Facebook page. The newsletter
helped to further increase awareness and a blog was created, http://wedgewoodpark.blogspot.ca, to house content larger
than the Facebook page could house. Along the way a twitter account was also
started, @wwpofhrm and an email address wedgewoodresidents@gmail.com.
The number of residents interacting on the Facebook page
began to grow resulting in posts that brought residents together. Child's glasses lost on a snow adventure
allowed the resident who found the glasses to return them to the owner, saving
hundreds of dollars to replace. Posts
about missing or found pets resulted in reunions. Knitting lessons were
requested and two neighbours got to know one another over a cup of tea and
knitting needles. Community events like
town hall meetings with City, Provincial or Federal representatives, Street
Dance were posted.
Heading into 2014 Resident's identified some problems that
were brought to our City Councillor Reg Rankin, who represents Wedgewood Park. Our
Urban Deer herd was growing resulting in more encounters with dogs. After the
province’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) declined a request for
signage, explains Wedgewood Avenue resident Scott Neilson (pictured left).
“Working
from home, I see small herds of deer crossing the road pretty much every day.
On several occasions, I’ve seen speeding cars come very close to hitting them.
With deer crossing signs on both Parkland and Dunbrack South, I figured it
would be a no-brainer to have one installed on my street,” says Scott. “The
DNR’s policy is to authorize a sign only if a collision is reported – a bit
like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted,” Scott says.
The
refusal prompted association co-chair Lea Anne McLeod (pictured centre) to take
the matter up with Counsellor Rankin – who offered to fund signage from his own
office’s budget.
“We
still had a few hurdles to jump, however,” says Lea Anne.
“Because
we’re an informal association, we don’t have a bank account for Reg to transfer
the money into. So I asked for some help from Friends of Clayton Park, who
kindly agreed to assist.
“Then
all that was left to do was liaise with Nova Scotia Power about using their
power poles to display the signage – and to order the actual signs through a
local supplier who lived in Wedgewood park” she says.
Councillor Reg Rankin with Scott
and Lea Anne, marking the installation
of deer crossing signs at both entrances to Wedgewood Park.
The
community building has continued with successes like:
·
increased the police presence on
the corner of Wedgewood Avenue and Kearney Lake Road to discourage speeding
drivers
·
installed a crash barrier at the
same intersection, in part to protect the outdoor play area of an adjoining
daycare
·
arranged for police to successfully
deal with noise pollution from a vehicle with a modified exhaust.
·
Updates on School
Board boundary review that proposed our children be moved to a elementary
school farther away. The lobbying helped achieve a positive outcome.
·
Advised residents of
proposed cell phone tower nearby.
Says
Scott: “With close to 200 people following our neighbourhood’s Facebook page,
Wedgewood Park people do seem to have a significant amount of interest in
working together at a grass roots level to protect our community’s interests.”
