Yesterday neighborhood leaders, city council members and other government officials gathered to exchange ideas about how to battle such problems as crime, traffic and derelict housing in an era of shrinking government resources and a tough economy.
The discussion was part of the Winston-Salem Neighborhood Alliance's annual meeting and was held on the campus of The Children's Home.
The Alliance is a grassroots organization made up of neighborhood organizations with a mission to preserve the quality of life in the city's neighborhoods.
Lonnie Clark, a resident of the Ardmore neighborhood, said that burglaries, home invasions and robberies are on the rise in Ardmore.
Residents are coming together to fight crime and to work with the police and other law-enforcement officials, and they feel that working together is the best way to solve the problem.
"We're building more and more Neighborhood Watches," she said.
The West Salem neighborhood has worked to get rid of illegal rooming houses, which can be incubators for crime, Barry Lyons said.
But neighborhoods should be careful about running crime out of one area and into another, he said.
Many of the neighborhood leaders stressed the need to share information and cooperate with each other across the city.
Robert Clark, the council member in the West Ward, said that he is frustrated when he receives e-mails from citizens who have been seeing suspicious activity, but have not called police. He urged people to be vigilant about crime.
"It's OK to be suspicious and a little nosy," he said.
D.D. Adams, the council member in the North Ward, urged the group to continue its work and to look at the community as a whole.
"If every person in the city can't feel safe," she said, "then none of us can feel safe."
Molly Leight, the council member in the South Ward, said that the Alliance has done great work and she urged members to increase their reach.
"Go out and find neighborhoods that need help," she said, "and bring them into the fold."
mgiunca@wsjournal.com
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