YMCA
Posted inEditorials

This is the Place

by Editor

A new year is a good time to take stock of what’s good and what’s bad in your life. For many people, one thing that’s good is this place we’re all in together. It’s where we live. It’s our neighborhood. So we’re devoting some space this issue to reflecting on the past year — in photos and writings — and on this place we live in together. Just what is it that makes a place a neighborhood? You may think it’s something as simple as location and boundaries, but even that can be complicated, as Dan asks in “Where is Riverwest?” Boundaries are fluid and changing; we decide what they are. You may think it’s the people that make a neighborhood, and that is mostly right. People have everything to do with a neighborhood’s character, which is why Riverwest has so much character. We live in one of the few diverse neighborhoods in one of the most segregated cities in the nation. But we still have a ways to go, as Tanya talks about in this month’s View from Here.

Posted inCommentary & Opinion

Help Keep the CDC Office Open in 2003!

by Editor

The [Riverwest] CDC is funded by CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) funds from the city which were drastically cut by for 2003. Therefore, the Y has had to reduce staff and cut back on overhead. The YMCA CDC planned to close the Center St. office and move the staff person over to the YMCA Holton Youth Center. RNA members, both Aldermen and both Supervisors disagreed with that plan and prefer to have the Center St. office remain open to provide a more prominent and visible location. The YMCA CDC has agreed to a one-month extension – the Center St. office will stay open until January 31. THIS GIVES US TIME TO ACT. We need your help. We would like to raise $5,000 towards office overhead costs.

Posted inUncategorized

City Block Grant Funding Cuts Hit Home For YMCA CDC-Riverwest

by Editor

by Sonya Jongsma Knauss

More than $1 million in cuts to community organizing by the City is taking its toll in many neighborhoods, and Riverwest is no exception. Community organizing and neighborhood planning activities will take a hit when the YMCA CommunityDevelopment Corporation at 604 E. Center St. closes its doors on Dec. 31, 2002. The office, which the YMCA opened a little over a year ago and which represents a $37,000 buildout investment on the part of the Y, has been used for many neighborhood gatherings.

“There was a certain level of trust we put in the Y when we originally decided to ask them to administer the grant. We felt they would commit to the neighborhood and bring resources into it. . . I expected the Y to do more work to find funding. To me it’s an institutional question: is the Y devoted to the CDC model or not?” -Alderman D’Amato