NFCCA

Stories from the NFCCA Newsletter, the “Northwood News”

Northwood News ♦ February 2016

President’s Message

By Laura Hussey

Happy new year, neighbors!  As my husband, David, and I begin the second year of our return to the neighborhood after a stint in Georgia, I continue to be grateful for the amazing neighborliness of this neighborhood.  I see evidence every day of people in this neighborhood working together and lending each other a hand, a neighborliness that defies the frenetic pace of all of our busy, Type-A lives.

Neighborliness may look different than it did 20, 30, 40 years ago or longer, but it is still abundant in our neighborhood.  If you subscribe to one of the neighborhood’s electronic forums (the Yahoo NFCCA group or the Nextdoor group for this neighborhood — see details), you have seen people helping neighbors out (or maybe you’ve helped out yourself) with suggestions for plumbers, handymen, or other services, or working together in other ways to solve community problems.  I know of neighbors who check on elderly neighbors or keep an eye on a neighbor’s home when they are away.  The kindness shown by the NFCCA community to the families of some long-time neighbors who passed away this past year was amazing.

Most of these things require little effort but contribute a lot to making this neighborhood a great place to live, and I thank all of you for the ways you contribute.  In addition, we have a number of neighbors who participate in various county and local forums — such as the citizens advisory group on bus rapid transit — and I am profoundly grateful that people are willing to volunteer their time for these meetings, often after working all day.

As we all know, our neighborhood is not without its challenges.  The condition of our infrastructure, including utilities, streets, and sidewalks is an ongoing concern that affects our quality of life.  Transportation issues in general — particularly getting away from and back to our neighborhood via car, public transportation, or safely on foot to the nearby businesses — will continue to be a huge issue as development continues in the Route 29 corridor north of our neighborhood.  These and other issues provide opportunities for us to work together toward constructive solutions, and I hope we, as neighbors, will continue to do so.  I look forward to engaging with many of you this year and for years to come as we work to keep our neighborhood a great place to live.

And, to start the year out right, dog owners, please make a resolution to be considerate of your neighbors by picking up after your dog (see additional article).   ■


   © 2016 NFCCA  [Source: https://nfcca.org/news/nn201602b.html]