KALAMAZOO, Mich. — The Millwood Neighborhood Association in Kalamazoo is back — and its newly organized leadership has been hitting the streets every Saturday to hear directly from residents about their priorities.
The association had been largely inactive for the past couple of years. Now, a team of neighbors is working to rebuild it from the ground up, going door to door across the Millwood neighborhood to gather community input.
Watch: Millwood neighborhood association revives with door-to-door canvassing campaign to build 10-year plan
Daniel Proczko, the Millwood Neighborhood Association president, said the response has been encouraging.
"Most everyone we run into has been really friendly, really positive about the experience," Proczko said.
The effort is straightforward: neighbors talking to neighbors to identify shared concerns and common goals.
"We're hearing some of the stuff we'd usually hear. Stuff around safety, speeding and traffic," Proczko said.
Topics like Flock cameras and data centers have also come up, though other issues have taken center stage, Proczko explained.
Proczko said the strength of the effort lies in the volume of voices it brings together.
"We're going to bring so many voices together, we're going to create a list of a lot of priorities," Proczko said.
Those priorities will feed into a 10-year neighborhood plan, which is the ultimate goal of the canvassing campaign. Once complete, the association plans to bring its findings to elected city leaders.
The group has been canvassing the Millwood neighborhood every Saturday for the last couple of weeks and says it is just getting started.
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