By Yvette Tello
I spoke to an elderly lady who has lived in the same house or whole life on the westside of San Antonio. She shared with me that before she leaves this earth, she would love to see the potholes on her street repaired. She doesn’t drive anymore but said it would be such a blessing for her neighbors to not suffer the recurring damage to their vehicles. (the potholes are bad). Her comadre chimed in and said she would like to see a park or community center closer to their homes for the kids to be able to have something to do instead of damaging property with graffiti. She said there’s real talent in their work. What kind of change would you like to see in your community? What would you hope to accomplish? Let’s talk about it..
Enrique Martin :”Please relay to her that a simple call to 311 would start the process and her council member office should make sure it gets done in a timely manner. If they have called, her council member’s office should have helped. If she called 311 and it did not get fixed, then have her call her council member and request that person meet her at her home and show them the problem. If the council office doesn’t help her, then you need to call troubleshooters and embarrass the council-member!! Because potholes are a quick easy fix by the city!!”
Benjamin Godina: “I’d like to see homeowners, property managers and tenants take more responsibility for their way of living. It’s a privilege to have housing. I would like to see neighbors be more neighborly and vigilant in addressing issues with other neighbors.”
Angelica Gomez:’‘ I would like to see something done to help the homeless camps that are in the back of our neighborhood. They need somewhere to live and need help. There has to be somewhere they can do this at.”
Sandra Garcia:” I wish there were more evenings like National Night out where the whole city comes together on one night. This should be a quarterly event.”
Jonathan Cruz:” We need to figure out how to fight this opioid epidemic. What can we do when this is happening in our neighborhoods? Not only is it getting a hold of our youth but its destroying our quality of living. We just look the other way. What else can we do?”
Anthony Diaz: “I wish we could work together instead of tearing each other down. We are economically segregated and this is only getting worse. We need ‘to build each other up. We need to love each other and care about what is happening to us. We have raised our children with a sense of entitlement. They have all these emotional problems that did not exist in the past.The bad stuff that happened to us, if it didn’t kill us, it made us stronger. Now, our youth can’t handle anything. Everyone is offended. It used to be the norm to agree to disagree. Now , we want to force our opinions down everyone’s throats and refuse to stop yelling about it. It is crazy. All this energy could be used in a positive productive way. We need to teach that bad things happen to good people sometimes. It is not right but it happens. Sometimes good people make mistakes. We need to stop judging people. These things could happen to any one of us at any time. Show love and compassion. It should be ok to share the act on social media or record yourself doing it. It may give someone else the idea to do the same. If we could get to know our neighbors and look out for one another, it would make this world a better place.”
