Group looking to improve neighborhoods in Manassas

MANASSAS, Va. -- Members of the Neighborhood Work Group, which had its first meeting in November, are largely people active in neighborhood organizations throughout the city, but anyone may attend meetings held at the Georgetown South Community Center at 9444 Taney Road at 7 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month.

Group members from the Weems, Tudor Oaks, Wellington Condominiums, Georgetown South and Wildwood neighborhoods meet, talk and try to figure out ways to fix problems in their communities.

Leon Walker, president of the Wildwood board of directors, said he thinks the group will succeed in finding solutions to neighborhood problems. He said the group is working on issues that need attention.

“We tried to put together a list of mutual things affecting communities and then we tried to find solutions,” Walker said.

One of the first initiatives was to make people aware of the group’s existence, Walker said.

“We lacked a way of getting information out into the community,” he said.

In Wildwood, Walker and other group members went door-to-door to let people know that there was a way for them to get involved.

Walker said there was some response.

“The main thing is we got people out and talking,” Walker said.

They didn’t stop there.

“We established a Web site. We put up two what I call information centers. Whatever is happening is posted on two bulletin boards,” he said.

Walker said he’s gotten about 20 calls and e-mails from people interested in the group.

The organization grew out of cooperation between several communities and the city’s neighborhood services division, which helps community activists deal with issues facing their neighborhoods.

Kisha Wilson-Sogunro, neighborhood services manager, said the key to making the group’s goals become reality is action.

If the group is to succeed, it must figure out concrete things to do, Wilson-Sogunro said.

The group is still deciding how to establish a sense of community in the neighborhoods.

“They’re trying to grow it and start getting ideas about how to do things for themselves,” Wilson-Sogunro said of the group’s membership.

Cindy Brookshire, a member of the group who is also a member the Weems Neighborhood Watch, said the group’s immediate mission is to get people active in their communities to “bring people together.”

Walker said he hopes awareness of the organization will help grow the group and he expects a sense of community to evolve with the growth.

“I can see it working, but it’s baby steps.” Walker said.

Walker said the neighborhoods will see improvement as the baby steps add up.

“We’re just trying to give the communities identity and respect and give people a safe place to live,” he said.

Matt Stromberg, treasurer of the Board of Trustees in Georgetown South and member of the group, said he hopes the group will engender a feeling that isn’t found in many places these days.

He wants trash cleaned up and graffiti removed. He wants the neighborhoods to come together to solve problems that they all face. He wants to work with churches and civic organizations and he wants to put crime prevention measures in place.

He wants neighbors to know one another.

“We want people to feel at home again,” he said. “We just want that sense of community and pride that you would find in Mayberry if that would only be possible,” Stromberg said.

Manassas Bureau Chief Keith Walker can be reached at 703-369-6751.