Phoenix community leaders and advocates gathered at the A.E. England Building on Central Avenue and Van Buren Street to share approaches to building healthier neighborhood relations at the Neighborhood Stakeholder Summit Saturday.
A report from The Arizona We Want Institute showed that only 12 percent of Arizonans believe people in their community care about each other. When these results came to light, Susan Edwards created Neighborhoods Connect, an Arizona nonprofit organization whose mission is “to connect, support, and build healthy, flourishing neighborhoods,” according to its website.
“We must find a way to change these devastating numbers,” Edwards said about the report. “It harms not only quality of life but also for democracy itself.”
The first major step the organization took was to assemble as many leaders in Phoenix’s public service departments, businesses, education, faith groups, and nonprofits into one place, where participants of the summit could work together in discussion groups to share ideas and recourses that can help increase civic participation in Phoenix neighborhoods.
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, who spoke at the summit, said residents should not underestimate the importance of getting involved at the city level and at the state legislature.
“I want to put even more emphasis on how important it is for these folks to connect in their mind that what happens at the state affects them in their own neighborhood,” Stanton said.
John Sagasta, owner of Jobot Coffee and Dining, said Neighborhoods Connect should help spread the word to bring more diverse neighborhoods together.
“I grew up in south Phoenix where everybody just spoke Spanish, and I know they felt disconnected from neighborhoods from the other side of town because of language and cultural barriers,” Sagasta said. “It will help to bridge some areas a little further than just within your own neighborhood.”
Unlike Sagasta, who is a long-time resident, Charles Lucking moved to the Phoenix area two years ago and found himself in a neighborhood facing a number of challenges due to lack of communication.
“One of the things I learned here today that even though it is not your property, we are all legally responsible for maintaining parts of the neighborhood,” Lucking said. “As a group we need to come up with ideas for building specific personal relationships with our neighbors.”
The neighbor to neighbor disconnect is not just a problem in Arizona, but the whole United States, according to a Pew Research Report. It showed only about 30 percent of Americans do not know the name of a single neighbor in the neighborhood they live in. Edwards said she believes Arizona might be a state that has the most disconnect because of housing setup.
“People drive in their houses with their automatic garage openers and concrete walls and never see anybody,” Edwards said. “We need to work past that.”
Contact the reporter at hzhan138@asu.edu.
