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Public Participation Meeting

Focus Groups

Artists
DTN CRA Design Committee
PCHS / Churches
Youth Focus Group

First Public Meeting: A public meeting was held on June 27, 2013 at the A.D Harris   Learning Village Cafeteria at 6 p.m. Approximately 200 community members attended   the meeting. Mr. Eugene Franklin, President of the Florida Black Chamber of Commerce,   was the guest speaker for the event. The meeting began with opening remarks from   Ms. Shamplain of the Downtown North CRA. Mr. Eugene Franklin gave a presentation   on the cultural model of developing a Cultural Heritage Tourism District based on the   Belmont De Villiers Historic District in Pensacola, Florida. After the presentation, the   DAS consulting team conducted two activities with the community to solicit their input   on the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities present in the District.

Glenwood Working Partnership and African-American Cultural Center Board focus group

 

Cultural and historical assets that can attract visitors

  • African-American museum

  • Prominent markers at sites of old businesses and buildings of historical importance

  • Markers for historical Black churches and church tour

  • Cultural center

  • Showcase local community’s artists and musicians

  • Ethnic food

  • Black entertainment (Chitlin), black music

  • Mixed-use housing, buildings for professional offices (law and medicine in particular), swimming pool

  • Ease of access along MLK Jr. Blvd from East to West, wider sidewalks, improve drainage

 

Community assets that can improve the quality of life for citizens in the District

  • Athletic center

  • Venue/banquet hall for events and parties

  • Walking park (can utilize City land) and bike paths

  • Urban farm

  • Affordable housing

  • Swimming pool (within current Rec center area)

  • Movie theater

  • Farmers market

  • Parking facilities (particularly along 11th St. and MLK Jr. Blvd)

  • Grocery store

  • Strip mall

  • More prominent cultural center (museum)

  • Ambulatory- accessible senior-living apartment complex

  • Choir unions

  • Family restaurants

  • ‘Freedom’ program to inculcate values and sense of history and identity among Black youth

 

Community assets that can improve economic opportunities for citizens of the District

  • Alternative energy to lower utility expenses

  • Above minimum-wage employment opportunities

  • Large stores that pay good wages and benefits and hire locally

  • Professional parks/buildings including specialist physicians’ offices

  • Gas station

  • Community vegetable store to supply ethnic foods and vegetables

  • Super Dollar General store or similar inexpensive store

  • Churches’ Chicken restaurant

  • Farmers Market

  • Retail area for boutique shops and small local independent businesses

  • Light manufacturing facility that hires locally and encourages economic stability

 

Steps to take as citizens and community to help in the development and maintenance of the District

  • Participation and engagement in similar groups and all development initiatives

  • Taking ownership of problems and pride in community

  • Set up pilot program on the ground to show tangible results

  • Monitor progress of District through Glenwood Working Partnership

  • Be a part of the development, marketing, and promotion

  • Inform other citizens about historic landmarks

  • Establish educational workshops to transmit history and culture to youth

  • Disseminate information so all citizens are aware of available resources

  • Organize further focus groups and town hall style meetings for brainstorming for further components of the District

  • Programs to encourage small business such as an incubator space for businesses to establish themselves and move out of space once stronger

  • Attend City and CRA meetings to stay abreast of programs and be involved in developments

  • Avoid gentrification by staying involved and holding others accountable

  • Organize community youth groups

Attendees: Dick Lovejoy, Dustin Stephenson, Matt Shack, Vistoria Williams, Mia Woullard, Mary Robinson, Cassandra Lowe

 

  • The District must reflect the values and beliefs of the resident and must be authentic in its character both in terms of aesthetics and the heritage presented. It must be centered on the people of the District and not be a super-imposed vision of an outside artist.

  • The District must preserve local history. It must incorporate a southern African-american hospitality and warmth. Should capture and preserve the regional/geographical character of the residents.

  • It must recapture Glenwood’s history as a self-contained community that had grocery stores, retail, services, and entertainment such as theaters and a bowling alley.

  • Design must be clean, practical, realistic, and simple.

  • The MLK Boulevard and its surroundings are crucial to the success of the District. The construction of the Boulevard destroyed the commercial and social core of Glenwood and took away the mom and pop shops, restaurants, and fruit stands etc.

  • The FDOT must be engaged to propose changes to theMLK blvd, create turning lanes, or diverting traffic.

  • Establish relationships with other CRAs and collaborate on events and activities and cross-advertise. Develop 2-way communication. Develop a District so that collaborating also offers them some benefit.

 

The District should have the following elements:

  • B&Bs

  • Ethnic and soul food restaurants

  • Venues for performing arts

  • Activities that foster cultural arts particularly Black culture

  • Local history museum

  • Pool or similar community center that draws people together

  1. Markers for development of historic trail:

  1. Rosenwald High School

  2. Lady Ethel’s Beauty College (used to be a remarkable red building)

  3. Russ’ Shoe Shop

  4. Churches over 100 years (about 5, identified at the Cultural Center)

  5. The house where Hawk Massalina died

  6. Masonic Temple

 

Other remarks:

 

  1. Need a community theater/performing venue for theater, music, performing arts and holding classes

  2. Develop existing Cultural Museum to multi-story structure and utilize first floor as performance/display venue and higher levels for artifacts

  3. Look into why ‘Soul For Real’ restaurant went out of business. Used to be a draw for soul food that attracted people from outside Glenwood as well.

Other concerns directed towards the CRA:

  1. Funding for establishing local businesses, qualifying for loans

  2. Concerns regarding funding for proposed projects in Cultural District.

  3. Concerns about the expansion of Bay Medical Center into areas of historical importance to Glenwood.

Attendees: Charles R. Ransom, Barbara Jones, Judy Roulhac, Leonard and Linda Dean, Patrick Brennan, Glenda Walters, Janice Flowers, Matt Shack, Zaretha North, Walter Carter, Juliaette Smith, Mary Duncan, Johnny Campbell, Charletta C. Robinson

 

1) Three things of historical or cultural import that will make visitors want to   come to the District 

a. Historical Markers under the Marker Program from Bay County   Historical Society (suggested sites are Old Panama Grammar School   and Old Segler Farmhouse, Greater Bethel Church, East End and Shine   Town, the first Black neighborhoods)

b. Mobile Church Tour

c. Commercial hub for community that includes: large black and   multicultural beauty salon, family restaurant, bowling alley, theater,   visitor center, park where volunteer teachers can teach an etiquette   class and instill pride in children and make them worldly.  community events and exhibitions in addition to artifacts.

d. Large Museum complex with multiple levels and the ability to host

e. Grocery store

f. Community Swimming pool

g. Boys and Girls Club
 

2) The role of community leaders and organizations in the development and   maintenance of the District

a. Participation in marker program

b. Pave parking lots and make them available for use (Greater Bethel

c. Promote local history in commercial activities under the Chamber of

d. Make the existing MLK walk part of the historical walk and trail

e. Hold MLK festival in the District rather than elsewhere in the City 

f. Create a pedestrian overpass on MLK Jr. Blvd

g. Host athletic competitions

h. Host Grace festivals

i. Host music competition

 

3) Community assets that can improve economic opportunities in the District

a. Shot gun houses on Lincoln and Roosevelt etc. can be converted to

b. Waterfront park with boardwalk along headwaters of Watson Bayou  Church)  Commerce and the Black Chamber of Commerce.  shopping booths at the corner of 15th   and MLK

25 children aged between 9-18.

Group a: 9-10 years (7 members)

Group b: 11-14 years (6 members)

Group c: 11-14 years (5 members)

Group d: 15-18 years (7 members)

 

11 of these children reside within the District

4 of the children walk to school

16 of them feel safe in the neighborhood but not always at night

 

  1. Three afterschool activities you do

    1. ASAP field trips, homework, playing

    2. Recreation, sports, swimming

    3. Sleep, use the computer, shop at the mall

    4. Sports, videogames, homework

  2. Three afterschool activities that you would like to do in addition

    1. Boys and Girls clubs, football and soccer, skating

    2. Sleep, paintball, air soft

    3. Shopping, sculpting, videogames

    4. Get a job, go out, free cookouts

  3. Three recreational facilities you would like to see in your neighborhood

    1. We have them already

    2. Sports complex with volleyball and basketball courts, teen clubs, amusement park, festivals

    3. Basketball court, skate park, swimming pool

    4. Basketball court, skate park, shopping outlet

  4. Three favorite things about your neighborhood

    1. Recreation center, fishing, wide streets

    2. Quiet, safe, parks nearby

    3. Can play outside, the people, security cameras

    4. Quiet, open area, active people

  5. Three least favorite things about your neighborhood

    1. Drama, old people, living conditions

    2. Elders don’t clean up after pets, roads

    3. Dogs, rundown houses, trash on the ground

    4. Old people, less friends, fighting

  6. Three ideas to improve your neighborhood

    1. Bigger and better houses, sports and pool facilities

    2. Road repairs, streetlights, sidewalks

    3. Community center with indoor basketball court, skate park, and free wi-fi, walking park, arcade

    4. Park, pool, more community activity

    5.  

  7. Three favorite things to do in art or art-related activities

    1. Gymnastics, singing, pottery

    2. Painting, sculpting, drawing

    3. Paint, music, dance

    4. Drawing, painting, writing

 

  1. Interested in art class

    1. 3 yes

    2. 3 yes

    3. 3 yes

    4. 3 yes

  2. Interested in acting/singing class

    1. 3 yes

    2. 4 yes

    3. 5 yes

    4. 6 yes

  3. Interested in music class

    1. 3 yes

    2. 3 yes

    3. 3 yes

    4. 3 yes

Glenwood Working Partnership and African-American Cultural Center Board focus group

Attended by: Roland Hockett, Helga Bollheimer, Ricky Steele, Destiny Young, Daveron Rossier-Critten, Cassandra Lowe

 

Consulting team: Medhet Elmesky, Kristen Andersen, Azka Mahmood

 

Ricky Steele

Statues – perhaps an awe-inspiring statue of MILK or Massalina, something that becomes a landmark and attracts people to Glenwood. 

A collaboration between several artists to create murals or 3-D paintings to recreate scenes from the District’s past such as children playing hopscotch or jump rope and other things that have disappeared from the District/area.

Create public art and an ‘art walk’ to view it

Plaques at sites of historical importance to the community where old buildings and businesses used to exist such as the first beauty salon or the first shoe shop.

Cassandra Lowe

A sensory, engaging walk-through museum that recreates scenes from the past of Glenwood such as a beauty salon with electronic and computerized  audio-visual elements and interactive exhibits.

Destiny Young 

Create easy and accessible markers to highlight Glenwood history and heritage.

Create a parks system and open spaces with elements of nature such as trees and water – not necessarily a theater or venue but public spaces for recreation

Create a community center with arts-based or other summer camps and activities

Pair arts with education by working with school boards and conduct activities that break down the economic barrier and make the arts accessible to people of all socioeconomic backgrounds

Roland Hockett

Ensure that all ideas are broken down into implementable parts to achieve the full vision

Cross-advertise and work with the Visual Arts Center Downtown. Create a satellite VAC campus in Glenwood and collaborate on exhibitions/classes/activites. Utilize and supplement existing reputation and expertise of the VAC and extend it to Glenwood to establish a link between Glenwood and Downtown and create real relationships within artist community. 

Incorporate retention water ponds into aesthetically pleasing design elements such as a canal/stream/short waterfalls (example of site in Bloomington, Indiana)

 

Helga Bollheimer

 

Create mix-use areas, venues and live/work/showcase spaces to attract young and up and coming artists seeking to establish themselves.

Ensure good architecture to make area aesthetically pleasing and safe to be in.

Create children-friendly events/spaces where they can learn about history.

 

District needs a catchy, marketable name.

 

An arts-based cultural tourism district will need: museum, murals, paintings, sculptures, plaques, studios, parks, amphitheaters

 

A seed idea: Ricky Steele suggested holding an art festival along MLK Boulevard/around AD Harris with different types of arts and cultural entertainment and food. Create an event where people can partake of ‘culture’. Develop a historic tour/walking tour of important landmarks alongside.

 

Second Public Meeting: August 27, 2013

Economic Development focus group

Attendees: Neal Wade, Carol Roberts, Dan Rowe, Tammy

 

  • Establish connectivity and linkages with other CRAs to include waterfront so that beachgoers can see connection between various locations and be tempted to visit. Most beach tourists are looking to be around water. The public does not distinguish locations based on CRA but see a city/area as a whole. The area should be developed in a holistic manner.

  • Develop the District/Glenwood area for locals first before aiming to bring in tourists. Tourists are attracted to places that are abuzz with locals already. Cannot rely on tourists to visit if locals don’t enjoy and cherish their neighborhood. Locals sustain businesses during off-season. The District has to be special if it is to attract beachgoers and entice them to drive 20 or so miles to visit.

  • Create a center for the community to come together.

  • Need grocery store that would service not only Glenwood/District, but also the Cove. Currently, all residents of the area must drive to 23rd street for grocery shopping. Look into establishing high-end grocery store that can cater to all of the people in the area.

  • Area needs local food and restaurants that can serve the District, the Cove, and tourists. Food is key to the development of the District and transcends race and ethnicity.

  • Safety issues must be addressed before locals, staff from Bay Medical, or tourists will visit the area.

  • Create after-work venues for food, arts, entertainment so workforce will have opportunity to visit the area. Lunch-time crowd is hard to pull because of the nature of Bay Medical workforce.

  • The northern gateway should include 231

  • Create signage, street scaping, and a safe environment.

  • District has potential for success because it will cater to African American tourists and offer something eclectic for people seeking culture as the beach does not offer anything similar.


  1. Key ideas: Grocery store, restaurants, local identity and sense of community, community center, safety, streetscape.

African American Group

African American Cultural Board meeting July 18

 

1. Markers for development of historic trail:

a. Rosenwald High School

b. Lady Ethel’s Beauty College (used to be a remarkable red building)

c. Russ’ Shoe Shop

d. Churches over 100 years (about 5, identified at the Cultural Center)

e. The house where Hawk Massalina died

f. Masonic Temple

Other remarks:

2. Need a community theater/performing venue for theater, music,

performing arts and holding classes

3. Develop existing Cultural Museum to multi‐story structure and utilize

first floor as performance/display venue and higher levels for artifacts

4. Look into why ‘Soul For Real’ restaurant went out of business. Used to be

a draw for soul food that attracted people from outside Glenwood as well.

Other concerns directed towards the CRA:

5. Funding for establishing local businesses, qualifying for loans

6. Concerns regarding funding for proposed projects in Cultural District.

7. Concerns about the expansion of Bay Medical Center into areas of

historical importance to Glenwood.

Third Public Meeting: January 16, 2014

 

On January 16, the final public open house was held at the A.D. Harris Learning Village from 5 to 7 p.m. During this meeting a revised land use scenario was shown and survey questions were asked of participants. The results of the survey are compiled below:

 

Are there any components or elements you would like to see added to the Cultural Heritage Tourism District concept plan in addition to the ones shown and described today? Please list.

 

1) Sports complex and swimming pool

 

2) A place for festivals

 

3) Great proposal. Please consider including some sort of amphitheater or park that would allow for and encourage outdoor entertainment such as concerts.

 

What components are required to be included within the Cultural Heritage Tourism District for it to be considered “successful”?

 

1) Bank and grocery store

 

2) Economic development coordination

 

3) Community support, safe and clean environments and sufficient commercial establishments that will provide employment.

 

Are there any components or elements in the Cultural Heritage Tourism District concept plan that you do not agree with?

 

1) Industrial park

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