Batavia's Neighborhood Improvement Committee will be meeting tonight at 6:30pm in the community room at City Hall. Their meetings are open to the public and anyone can speak at meetings. I couldn't get much information out of the city manager's office about what exactly the committee will cover tonight, but the city Web site says this about the group: "The Neighborhood Improvement Committee makes recommendations and develops strategies to enhance the quality of life within the city’s neighborhoods."
This seemed like an apt notification following a conversation I had yesterday with Councilman Bob Bialkowski who cited neighborhood decline as one of the primary problems facing the city today. On a drive through parts of the city's southside — an area Bob pinpointed — I did not see much in dire decline, at least, not from the outside. But a comment from Daniel Cherry that afternoon seemed to indicate that maybe the problems were more internal. Quality of life is certainly an issue worth tackling. And the more people that get involved in that conversation, the more just and more worthwhile the discussion.
