The Simpson Stump - July 2020

Greetings all! We’re well into some very trying times, and figured we needed to get a newsletter out in some fashion, albeit digitally, during these summer months. There are a few critical topics we wanted to address, as well as other topics relating to some of our typical Fall activities in Simpson Neighborhood.

1) First and foremost the renaming of Simpson School and what, if anything, that means to our neighborhood. Yes, we are and will remain the Simpson Neighborhood! We will cover this topic in more detail once we resume in-person meetings, but here is a summary as far as we have heard and researched. The school has been renamed to Choice Learning Academy. It will remain a public school and part of the Alhambra Elementary School District. The biggest reason we have been told that this decision was made is due to attendance dropping to less than 40% which put the school in danger of being closed. Instead of closure, the district opted to convert the campus into a specialty learning campus, focusing on learning opportunities for 6th to 8th grades. The focused learning specialties include Arts, Business, and Technology, and are intended to be project and discovery-based classes and projects. It’s an interesting new option for non-traditional subjects within the district, and should be interesting to see how it works in the coming years. We will be inviting the CLA principal to discuss the school and interactions with the neighborhood as soon as it is safe to start holding meetings again.

2) The 2020 Census is underway until October. In the latest updates we have been told that within our census tract, there has been about a 25% response rate compared to other areas of the city which have a 65% response rate. This is bad news for us, as the census numbers for our area are what determine funding for pretty much any public entity, such as schools, fire, police, grants, roads, etc. Without a better picture of the people and needs in our neighborhoods, that funding can easily get unevenly divided.

At this stage in the Census process paper census forms have been mailed out and there should be census takers going door to door to any address that has yet to respond during July and August. The data collected is used by the census bureau and not personal information is shared. The needs for our neighborhood are great and the best way to get some of those needs met is to show up on that census when money is being divided. Please if you haven’t already, fill out the census either online, via mail, or in person. If you have any questions we’ll be happy to help or get you in touch with the right people for answers.

3) As for our regular Simpson Neighborhood activities, it is with heavy hearts we say that we are still uncertain when those will resume. For our quarterly meetings, we will be following the City of Phoenix’s lead as to when it is safe to resume in person meetings. This is due to the need to have folks from the city attend and for the safety of the neighbors coming. As of today no announcements have been made as to when that date will be. If there is enough interest we can look at virtual options for meetings. So please let us know if you are interested in trying a virtual option in the meantime.

Usually our fall picnic/potluck is tied to GAIN. The departments responsible for running GAIN still have not made any definitive announcements about the events for 2020. So we’re still in a holding pattern waiting to hear a bit more information before planning anything for this fall.

It is still too early at this point to make a decision on the Holiday Luminaries and Holiday Display Contest.

4) Alley Cleanups: One event that we believe can resume in the coming months will be our alley clean-ups as attendees are usually pretty spread out and wearing protective equipment for environmental reasons. To this end, the city has asked for our help in cleaning up and trimming vegetation in the irrigation canal / alley between 21st Ave and 22nd Ave, running from Colter south to Medlock. Expect to see more information on this coming out late August as the timing gets solidified. We’ll also be reaching out to the company that is beginning construction on the townhomes along 22nd Ave to see if they want to partner for this event.

5) Other general happenings around the neighborhood:

a. For those who enter Simpson Neighborhood from Bethany Home you may have noticed a blighted building we have been fighting for several years is gone! The half-burnt A-Frame restaurant at 24th Ave and Bethany Home was torn down a few weeks ago by the owner. There have been plans on-and-off for that site for a while now and no concrete plan is in place today, but even if it remains a paved lot it is an improvement. Our thanks go to NSD for staying on top of this issue and getting it resolved.

b. The Foundation for Senior Living apartments are looking good and approaching completion. These are located on 21st Ave, south of Missouri Ave, and occupy the 5 parcels that were vacated over the last decade or so. I look forward to meeting our new neighbors once they get up and running with tenants later this year / early next year!

c. Speaking of Missouri Avenue, I’m sure most have noticed that it has been resurfaced at long last (and by the time this letter goes out, Camelback should have been as well). Just a reminder, if you see any issues on your surrounding streets (cracks, potholes, etc), please let the city know through the Streets department. This will be even more important once the monsoon rains start. If you don’t report the problem, it very well could be months before the standard inspections occur, and more months after that before it’s fixed.

That’s all we have for now. We still intend to have paper newsletters once things are back to some semblance of normal (or at least closer to it), and less than 110 degrees outside. This newsletter might be a good test at how much reach we have digitally in case that becomes the normal in the future!

Thanks for keeping an eye on the neighborhood and helping out your neighbors in their strange times. And please complete your Census!