About 30 residents gathered in Pablo Calderon’s house in March and told him the Egleston Square area needed a group to help improve the neighborhood.
That led to reformation of the Egleston Square Neighborhood Association (ESNA), which Calderon said has drawn about 100 attendees during its first two meetings.
“The new Egleston Square Neighborhood Association was created to inform, educate, streamline and coordinate our residents’ issues and concerns and provide a consistent level of support to Egleston residents,” said Calderon in an email to the Gazette.
Calderon, who was president of the previous ESNA before it became inactive in 1997, was elected chairperson of the new group during its first meeting. Alvin Shiggs (vice chair), Ron Hafer (treasurer) and Elizabeth Matos (secretary) were also elected to the executive board.
ESNA created five committees during its meeting in May: Public Safety, Appearance, Housing, Economic Development and Health/Walkability. Calderon said that the Economic Development Committee will work hand-and-hand with Egleston Square Main Street, a business promotion organization. Chairpersons of those committees have not been chosen.
“ESNA’s concept of community involvement is more than just communicating issues to our residents, but also managing the process to achieve an outcome that gathers true community participation and project acceptance by the community,” said Calderon.
ESNA’s next meeting will be June 18 at the Egleston Square YMCA.