A letter from our new South Side Neighborhood Organization President, Gwen Hunter.

When my husband and I bought our home at 512 W. Maple St in 1978 I had no idea what a privilege it would become to get to live here, or that I would now be President of the Southside Neighborhood Organization.  The Tree Streets had fairly recently been re-zoned to single family housing so we gambled the area would continue to improve. We won that bet! Our house had been divided and individual bedrooms rented out. As soon as we had the key we knocked down a wall, and started restoring our historic home.

Over the years, we’ve seen many homes restored and given new life by people who value this historic area and the charm of an older home. Working together as friends and neighbors we’ve accomplished much. Some of those achievements are: re-zoning from multi-family to single-family housing, keeping Southside School in the neighborhood, placing our neighborhood on the National Register of Historic Places, advocating for and helping to write a noise ordinance, advocating for traffic calming devices and being a test neighborhood for the first ones in the city, recognizing the value of preserving the Model Mill and working to keep it from being destroyed.

I wonder what’s next for us? As neighbors with an active organization, we have the structure to be a force for positive changes coming now and in the future.

As the new President of SNO, it’s my goal to help neighbors get to know each other, and have fun living in this wonderful area. Please email me at GRHUNTER1951@gmail.com to be added to the distribution list so I can keep you informed, and visit our website Tree-Streets.com. SNO meets on the third Monday of each month at 7:00pm. We usually meet at the First United Methodist Church Neighborhood Center located on the corner of W. Maple St & Buffalo St, but occasionally meetings are held in another location to accommodate a special event. You don’t have to be an official member of SNO to come to meetings. If you live in the area you’re invited. Meetings include a brief program on a topic of special interest to this neighborhood, opportunity to ask questions and share concerns with a representative of the JC Police Department, and discussion of upcoming neighborhood events. If you want to join, membership is just $12.00 a year and the money supports our many activities. Hope to meet you soon.

Gwen Hunter

President SNO