Neighborhoods USA, headquartered in Minneapolis, has selected the Milpas Eastside Neighborhood as one of its finalists for Neighborhood of the Year 2013, in the social revitalization and neighborliness category. We’re heading to Minneapolis May 21st to compete in the finals. Here’s the line-up of neighborhoods in the finalist round:

May 23rd:

Social Revitalization, Neighborliness – Single Neighborhood

9:30 a.m.

Harlow Neighbors

Eugene, Oregon

Feed Hope

9:55 a.m.

EastGate Neighbors

Fort Worth, Texas

EastGate Community Garden

10:20 a.m.

Birdcage Heights Neighborhood Association

Citrus Heights, California

Inaugural Earth Day

10:45 a.m.

Lyndale Neighborhood Association

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Club de Ninos

11:10 a.m.

Milpas Community Association

Santa Barbara, California

Milpas Holiday Lights and Parade

We’ll be taking a Giant Group Shot of our community as part of our presentation. Be at Cabrillo Ballfield on Saturday May 18th at 9:00 AM. We might need a cherry-picker to get the wide-angle if you all come!

Message from the city:

We are listening Eastside Residents! In case you missed the February 2nd Eastside Listening Workshop, the City of Santa Barbara Public Works Department, Transportation Division, wanted to provide you with an additional opportunity to provide your thoughts and opinions about pedestrian and traffic safety in the Eastside neighborhood. Please take the following survey. Your feedback is very important so the City can get affirmation from the residents on what truly matters in the community. The City will be holding the second Eastside Workshop in the beginning of April to discuss possible approaches to the resident concerns received from the surveys and initial Eastside Listening Workshop. If you have any questions or comments, please contact Jessica Grant at the City Transportation Division, 805-564-5513, or via email at eastsideNTMP@santabarbaraca.gov. Jessica W. Grant Project Planner City of Santa Barbara Public Works Department – Transportation Division 630 Garden Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101 (p) 805-564-5338 (f) 805-564-5467 jgrant@santabarbaraca.gov

You might remember that last year, the city decided to work on a series of improvements for pedestrian and traffic safety on the Eastside. For years, our area has been under-funded in terms of street updates. The city is correcting that in 2014, but the time to have your input on WHAT needs to be corrected and where is NOW! The city will use your input to identify pain spots in the area, and put together projects to fix them in the 2014 timeframe. Please do not miss this meeting if you are a resident in the Eastside area!

Eastside Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Improvements Meeting
February 2nd, 2013
10 AM to noon
Franklin Elementary School Auditorium (1111 E Mason St)
Children are welcome!

Flyer in English and Spanish here:
Pedestrian Meeting – Eastside

See the story on Coffee With a Cop on Milpas here.

If you missed it, you can watch a short film on it here: