This past weekend, on June 22, our Affordable Housing team had a great listening session in the Firestone Park neighborhood. Six members of the team were able to speak with 27 neighbors regarding how they felt about Firestone Park and the prospect of building affordable housing in their neighborhood. One of our team members reflected on this experience saying,
“I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed knocking on doors and engaging some of the neighbors who live near Firestone Park in conversations about their views on the park. This was a first for me. Unlike some of the others who participated in the Greenspon Center’s listening campaign about the County’s plans for Firestone Park last Saturday, I hadn’t even done any canvasing for political campaigns.”
The volunteer went on to say how he was gently persistent and how he really wanted to know the community members’ opinion on what the County was planning to do with their neighborhood park. The neighbors were very receptive to our volunteers and were more than willing to share their names and numbers for a follow up meeting we will be holding on July 9. The volunteer told us,
“I spoke with a young man, young moms and senior citizens and ended up energized (despite the heat) by how much they all cared about their neighborhood and what was in store for their park.”
Another one of our great volunteers recounted that this experience was very eye opening. While campaigning he got the impression that the residents enjoyed living in the neighborhood. He said,
“The folks that I met were older people. I met this one gentleman who was in his 90’s. He had lived there for over 40 years. It was like talking to my own grandfather, he was so engaging and smart. Also met a young lady with a baby in her arms, when she answered the door. We engaged in a nice conversation about her not using the park, but if it was more “kid friendly”, she would be there a lot.”
This volunteer found that the Firestone Community was like many others.
“They care alot about their neighborhood and where happy to see that others did, too. Because we came out to ask for their opinions, I feel that they were very grateful that someone valued them, in a personal way. Can’t wait to meet more of the folks in this community.”
Join us for another listening session in Firestone Park this Saturday, June 29 from 9-11am. Our Greenspon Center Affordable Housing Team will venture into the community of Firestone Park in order to connect with and hear from the residents their concerns regarding affordable housing and their opinions of how to best use the edge of Firestone Park.
In order to have another great listening session this coming weekend, we encourage any community members to volunteer with our Affordable Housing Team this weekend at Firestone Park. We will be meeting at Williams Memorial Presbyterian Church, 4700 Beatties Ford Rd. If you are interested in volunteering please contact Willie Keaton, keatonw@queens.edu for more information. We hope that you can make it.