National Night Out—Parkland Hills Neighborhood

Yesterday evening was a good evening to spend some time getting to know your local neighbors. I spent my evening speaking to residents of the Parkland Hills area where I live. The neighborhood is a nice one and people care about their community. Congressman Martin Heinrich was our city councilman for years and he did a good job of supporting our area of the city. The area is very liberal and we have a lot of good people. City Councilman Rey Garduño showed up to support our area. He along with State Senator Tim Keller worked very hard this last year to obtain funding for much needed items for our very small local community center. The center is not open on evenings and weekend so it is not much of a community center but I am told that funding is limited and other things are far more important than a community center in our neighborhood. One does have to wonder where our state representatives were last evening. I invited my state senator but he said no.

Pictures of the Event

The police tell us that there is little crime in our area but there was one rape as of late so the Parkland Hills Neighborhood Association is having self defense training classes this weekend for the women of our community.

Crimes against women are only too common in this city. We need the local city government to start making this an issue so women feel safer in their own neighborhoods. I walk my neighborhood every morning and would not want to be attacked. There are lots of individuals out at that time in the morning who keep in shape by walking so we should all be able to feel safe in our neighborhood. The local police are very supportive and good people but with the area to our east being such a high crime area they spend little time in our area of the city. I get the feeling they come over to our area just so they can feel safe and respected by local residents ever once in awhile.