by Heather Jones DeGeorge
Since this blog is heavily devoted to navigating the obstacles that face our community, it can tend to feel negative. After all, problems are not pleasant.
There are plenty of initiatives I would love to take on in an effort to make things better that I am stretched too thin to do. I’m sure many of you feel that pain. But the one thing I can do is write… and to that end, I’ve started a new blog that will highlight the positives of North Plainfield.
It’s not that I feel the issues discussed here aren’t important or that they shouldn’t be addressed–quite the opposite (which is why I started a separate blog). But I feel like the only media dedicated to our community is all negative… always about the problems. The newspapers, the blogs, the message boards, the general populus and their constant association of North Plainfield to Plainfield and their crime, etc. It’s really frustrating.
How do we attract positive people to a community if we can’t market and celebrate the things that make us WANT to be here? I mean, we’re HERE, right? I realize some people are not financially able to leave right now–but many of the people frequenting this blog have been here for a number of years. There’s clearly something keeping you in town.
This blog has a different focus and I don’t feel it’s right to detract from it–because it’s important and significant in it’s own right.
Hopefully, the other blog will become a marketing tool for local real estate agents who are less familiar with our community and seeking the positives to focus on. Frankly, I meet people who have lived in town any number of years who had no idea some of the good things in town even exist (self included, and I’ve been here for 12 years). So it can be a great resource for current residents, too.
I hope that some of you will contribute to that blog as well–and share comments or write short articles about what you love about the Borough… and help balance the bad with the good. By no means am I aware of or knowledgeable about all of it. But I will be kicking it off best I can. You can see the new forum at:
http://positivelynp.blogspot.com/
You can submit your comments to add info to an existing article or you can e-mail a short article to positivelynp@yahoo.com
5 responses so far ↓
Morgansh // November 13, 2009 at 8:51 pm |
dont forget to also check out the North Plainfield Photo blog
http://npphoto.wordpress.com/
Greg Hatala // November 15, 2009 at 8:38 am |
apparently, the 2009 approach to solving problems is to pretend they aren’t there.
Heather DeGeorge // November 15, 2009 at 6:39 pm |
Because your way of griping and expecting everyone else to do something about it because “it’s not your job to fix it, you pay taxes” is so much more productive.
And again, don’t bother reading–just skim for what’s convenient for you: the article has CLEARLY STATED that the other blog had NOTHING TO DO with thinking the issues weren’t important–and in fact, not wanting to detract the focus on this blog.
Perhaps you missed that.
Larry La Ronde // November 20, 2009 at 5:27 pm |
Heather, your out look sounds great and is a wonderful idea. I wish you good luck with the new blog and hope you get some positive feed back. The biggest problem we all face in this town is the lack of involvement from our citizens. Come to a council meeting, you will see the same 2 or 3 people every meeting. Getting the word out there is an issue in it’s own right. I know that if I was not at council meetings, or school board meetings I would have no clue on what is happening in my own town. That is really a shame.
Again good luck. Hope that I can find the time to sit and write something for you. We have good things going for us that we need to let people know about. Street fair, Fourth of July parade and fire works, Tree lighting at the community center by the rec. department, santa comes to town, Plays at the high school and elementary schools, clean the brook and other parts of our town. Friends of the library spring planting and clean up. All this things and more, but we need to get the word out. As you know it is just a few at all levels that get involved.
Please keep up your work and look forward to reading your new blog.
Heather DeGeorge // November 20, 2009 at 6:21 pm |
Thanks, Larry. I look forward to a submission (or two).
And I used to be at lots of meetings.
Agreed that it IS truly the only way to know what’s going on unless you’re going to attempt to keep up on published minutes. Unfortunately, we cannot be in all places at once.
It would be a lot easier on the public (most of the ones I know are full-time employed) if we could view the meetings on the public access channel. Since one of the candidates noted the tax savings to the borough through the reval (which was noted as average–which was smart because we know plenty who saw increases as well as drops), it would’ve been nice to see that money go back into quality of life factors for the community like the ability to pay taxes or sewer bills online or view at least the council meetings on TV where we can tend to our kids but still know what’s going on. At minimum, participation in the njmcdirect system to facilitate paying traffic violations and increase collections on that front… things like that.
All of which I have suggested personally to our representatives before today.
With a 1yo and 5yo, it’s not exactly easy to attend meetings. Maybe I could attend 1 MAYBE 2 per month, but then which do I choose? Two council meetings? Maybe a Planning Board meeting? A Board of Ed meeting? They’re all important. And if I can only attend 1-2 of anything a month, then really I’m only fractionally informed at that point. It really feels like if I’m not going to be pretty well on top of anything, why would I spend that time rather than devote it to something that my family is going to immediately or directly benefit from (like time spent with my husband and children together… I’m not sure anyone can deny the value of that these days). I suspect many suffer the same constraints of having to choose time with their family (or working a second job or 2nd/3rd shift job, etc.) vs. attending a meeting. It’s sad that it results in an uninformed populus; but we are at least a populus that values our family time. It’s sad that there has to be a trade-off.