A Truly South Orange Weekend

Posted on April 17, 2011 at 8:42 PM

Had a great weekend that was about as South Orange as it gets! It's been so exciting meeting so many residents over the past week or two, and finally today the weather even cooperated!

I spent the morning attending a beautiful Palm Sunday service at the South Orange Vailsburg United Methodist Church and met a bunch of residents (and former teachers!). It was a great service and the issues of social justice and community betterment were almost too topical. Thank you to everyone at SOVUMC for inviting me into your community!

Next I ran up to Carter Park to meet and talk to some of the local residents who were working to help clean up the area there as part of their Neighborhood Association. Wish I had taken some photos of the residents, and Seton Hall students, who were working together to take care of their neighborhood, it's a great example of how much energy our community puts into this town.

After that, I spent some time speaking with residents in the Glenview Rd. area in Newstead about downtown development, improving our public safety and on how much we need to focus on promoting South Orange as a destination to neighboring communities - both for potential businesses and shoppers. Thanks to the McKoy's for hosting a wonderful coffee and providing a forum for us to come together to talk about these issues.

Going off to Hoboken tomorrow night to speak at the Hoboken Technology Meetup about using social media/technology for a grassroots campaign, I'll post the video of the talk after.

At the Rescue Squad now for my Sunday night shift... so be safe tonight everyone!