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Strategic Plan Advances as East Columbia Residents Discuss Parks and Food Resources

Betsy Smith/KBIA

Residents of east Columbia met with community leaders last night to talk about parks and access to healthy food. It was the sixth meeting of Columbia’s Strategic Plan, which seeks to improve social equity in three city neighborhoods.

“We have identified goals, and the neighbors here want to talk about activities for kids and how to make the neighborhood safer with sidewalks and streets,” said Jessica Macy, a consultant with New Chapter Coaching and the meeting facilitator.

The meeting started with an update from Gabe Huffington of the Parks and Recreation department on safety and accessibility improvements at Indian Hills Park and McKee Street Park. One of East Neighborhood’s goals is to improve trail accessibility and transit options so residents have better access to food.

Representatives from Build This Town, an initiative to build an agriculture park in Columbia, talked with residents about ways to make healthy food available and educate residents about local food resources.

“Those were the main concerns that were brought up by the residents themselves and the things that they want for their neighborhood,” Andrea Heese, a Columbia police community outreach officer, said of East Neighborhood’s park and food problems.

Heese said it’s important for officers to attend these meetings and understand their communities.

“It’s a preventative, proactive measure and we base it off of community trust and relationships,” Heese said. “We know them by name, we know where they live, they know who we are and that they can contact us if they have a problem.”

Macy said the goal of these meetings is to get residents to talk about the issues in their neighborhoods. 

“We’ve just seen a lot of people come out to talk about what they need, what they want,” Macy said. “Instead of people coming into neighborhoods and trying to figure out how to make things different, these are neighbors who are talking about their own needs.”

The East Neighborhood will continue to have monthly Strategic Plan meetings for at least the next four months.