THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 3, 1996 TAG: 9605020128
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 15 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JANIE BRYANT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines
Martin Smith-Rodden remembers a time when the West Park View Civic League would hold a candidates' forum and the candidates would outnumber the residents who showed up to hear them speak.
``We're definitely a born-again civic league,'' Smith-Rodden says.
A few years ago, the civic league consisted of the people running it without anyone to delegate the responsibilities to.
``They were horribly overcommitted,'' Smith-Rodden says. ``The rest of the folks either weren't motivated to get involved or just saw these harried people running the show and were thinking, `I don't want to be like that.' ''
Things have changed, and membership in the neighborhood of about 340 households has increased, with 30 to 40 people showing up for most meetings.
Smith-Rodden gives a lot of the credit to Traci Tuthill, who preceded him as president.
``Traci was a great idea person. She was basically a people-oriented person, and we spent a lot of time . . . trying to figure out what would motivate folks to come to these meetings.''
Making the meetings more interesting was one answer, and communicating better with regular newsletters also helped.
``Some people won't get involved no matter what you do,'' Smith-Rodden concedes. ``In a civic league, I think you can take pride if you can get even 10 percent.''
Like Olde Towne and other Northside neighborhoods, West Park View residents are caught up in hopes for the city's Vision 2005 economic development plan.
``It's a really big deal for us that really brought people together,'' Smith-Rodden says.
This month, the league is busy with neighborhood beautification, including its communitywide cleanup, with heavy emphasis on Scotts Creek.
They're working on an improved landscaping design for the entrance to the community, and last month they launched a tree-planting program for the neighborhood.
``With so many cutbacks, programs like tree-planting have suffered,'' Smith-Rodden says, ``and urban green space is really a big deal when it comes to what a lot of communities are doing.''
So the civic league president contacted the city arborist, who told him that he could get them some trees this year but that in the future they would be on their own.
``It's a direct chance to literally stick something in the ground that's going to be there a lot longer than you are,'' Smith-Rodden says. ``These neighborhoods are known for their tree-lined streets.''
The civic league has just planted five ginkgoes, which Smith-Rodden says are ``extremely hardy and popular in urban areas.''
And the organization is working out a partnership with one of the community's schools to have students plant saplings from the forestry service and cultivate them to the point where the civic league can transplant them into the neighborhood.
The organization also plans to beautify the areas along the neighborhood's creek banks.
``Every street here in West Park View deadlines into the water,'' Smith-Rodden says. Residents would like to get some of the waterfront area cleaned up and turned into ``just a little place for enjoyment of the water.''
Of course, it doesn't hurt beautification efforts when the president is studying to become a master gardener.
But West Park View has the benefit of a number of young professionals with a variety of talents.
``It is a tremendously diverse neighborhood - everyone from single moms to doctors and lawyers and even a university vice president,'' says Smith-Rodden, who is a photographer for The Virginian-Pilot.
``There are a lot of people who are just really outstanding neighbors. I really, honestly don't care if they ever go to a civic league meeting in their life. I'm just glad they belong to the neighborhood.''
An architect in training helped come up with an attractive plan for renovating the fence around a historic cemetery that stands at the entrance to the neighborhood along Portsmouth's busy London Boulevard.
To raise funds, the community's advertising copy writer and graphic artist put together bumper stickers and T-shirts reading: ``I'm Up a Creek.''
And those two joined two other neighborhood media types to come up with a marketing brochure that says:
``What would you call an historic waterfront community with houses you can actually afford? How about home?''?
``Civic leagues in the '90s really have to be very, very aggressive in marketing their neighborhoods,'' Smith-Rodden says. ``It's not unusual for me to call a restaurant and say, `Have you guys thought about putting a restaurant in Portsmouth?' ''
If not, he'll be glad to point out the Elks Lodge, a waterfront property that has been on the market for a while that just happens to be at the ``front door'' to West Park View. MEMO: Main story and a related story about Cavalier Manor are on page 14. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by MARK MITCHELL
Martin Smith-Rodden, right, president of the West Park View Civic
League, and Mark Shirk hang a new sign at the entrance to the
neighborhood.
by CNB