The leaders at Trinity City Church are working with Sara Joy Proppe to launch the Loving Your Neighbor(hood) Challenge. Sara Joy is the founder and director of the Proximity Project. For even more practical guidance on neighborhood engagement, listen to Sara Joy’s podcast The Embedded Church.
Over the last two years, many of our households were at home more than out in our community. With COVID rates down and warm weather going up, we're going to give the congregation monthly tips for engaging our city and neighborhoods a little more.
The first tip: Learn about your stomping grounds!
It's so easy to be like fish swimming in water, totally unaware of the environment that surrounds us. We often overlook the context of where we live in the bustle of our daily lives. But an important part of living out our call to love our neighbors involves recognizing how our physical places affect our flourishing. Learning about your neighborhood is a simple first step to begin seeing the connections between the place where you live and the livelihoods of neighbors who are living, working, and playing in proximity to you.
Read your community newspaper. The Villager (Highland, Merriam Park, Summit) Park Bugle (Saint Anthony Park, Como Park, Falcon Heights, Lauderale) Saint Paul Monitor (Midway, Como, & Frogtown), Community Reporter (West End), St. Paul Voice (West Side / Downtown) or others! Local newspapers are a great resource for learning about new development that is happening in the neighborhood and understand community needs around things like affordable housing, small business efforts, environmental concerns, volunteer opportunities, etc.
Read some of your neighborhood plans. Neighborhood plans are drafted by local residents just like you, and serve as the guiding document to prioritize neighborhood change and improvements into the future. This is a great resource for understanding the goals expressed by your community when it comes to things like housing, parks, education, and economic development.
Learn your “walkscore” at walkscore.com. Walkscore is a tool that maps out the basic services and transit options available by foot within a 1/4 - 1/2 mile radius from your address. This can be an eye-opening exercise to understand how walkable your neighborhood is and consider whether a person with a limited income and no car would have the ability to do life in your neighborhood. It's easy to take owning a car for granted, but a large portion of people in our cities do not have easy access to reliable transportation, which limits housing and job options for them.
Attend a Distritc Council (aka neighborhood association) meeting. If you live in Saint Paul, look up your District Council. This step can feel intimidating, but most of these meetings consist of everyday people like you who are simply interested in making the neighborhood a good place to be. You can always be a fly on the wall and just listen -- you will likely learn a lot about your neighborhood!
The Blair Arcade Building in St. Paul. (Wikipedia)