A Future Vision of the Historic Vinton Street Corridor - Omaha GROW Broadcast

Hey Neighbors,

The great news for Deer Park just keeps coming in. 

If you have not heard, efforts to revive our Historic Vinton Street Corridor have really picked up momentum this year. From the establishment of the Deer Park merchants committee to the ongoing beautification projects spurred by the Deer Park Neighborhood Association, neighborhood leaders, residents and business owners alike, are workings together to continue to improve our neighborhood.

Well, word is spreading fast that Deer Park is a great places to live, work and play and another great business has decided to make Deer Park their home.

Deer Park is proud to announce that Emerging Terrain is our newest business neighbor. Emerging Terrain's new home, 1717 Vinton St., was built in 1913 and was most recently home to Mario Carpet Service.  Two week, just before Christmas, The Omaha World Herald broke this story in their article, Reinvigorating Vinton Street.  Well last Saturday, the local radio broadcast program,  GROW, interviewed ANNE TRUMBLE, founder and Executive Director of Emerging Terrain. It was a great interview that mentioned the dynamics and beauty of our neighborhood. Of course all we proud Deer Park residents have known this to be a great neighborhood for some time, but it is always wonderful to hear of others starting to see what we see. Listen to this great broadcast at the KFAB site here.

Thank You KFAB for constantly finding great local stories, and especially thanks you  to Emerging Terrain for joining our community, welcome to the neighborhood!!!

Happy New Year Deer Park, 2012 is going to be a stellar year.

A Third Condemned House Demolished - The Deer Park & Habitat For Humanity Partnership

Before - January 2011

Hey Everyone,

I hope you are getting ready for the holiday season. I know we are. Thinks are hectic around the Duran Household, as Katie and I are wrapping presents, remodeling our offices, and planning strategies for next year's newsletter. With all these things to do, we always make sure we thank each other for the things we do for each other.

After - December 2011

In spirit of holiday thanks, I wish to thank Habitat for Humanity of Omaha and Wells Fargo for a wonderful Deer Park Christmas present. This week, a third condemned property in Deer Park was tore down as part of our partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Omaha, the Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative. This is a huge blessing, as this property, only one block from a great elementary school, was the first property identified for demolition less than one year ago.

What a great way to end 2011. 

A Lot to be Thankful For: Deer Park Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative Progress

Greetings All,

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

I wanted to use this month’s An Exciting Future to announce that Habitat for Humanity of Omaha (HFHO) scheduled the demolition of a condemned home within Deer Park for Wednesday, November 23. I am pleased to announce that this will be the second blighted structure tore down in Deer Park this month as part of Habitat for Humanity of Omaha's Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (NRI). Next year, a newly graded lot will make way for a new home, making this the sight of the first Habitat house in Deer Park.

The photos included in this post show the demolition of the first condemned house in Deer Park that occurred last week. The removal of these condemned structures marks that positive changes in the condition of housing in South Omaha are underway.

This hint of progress should be celebrated, but remember this is only the beginning. The Deer Park Neighborhood Association and HFHO are taking back our neighborhood one condemned house at a time, but we have a long way to go and really need your help. If you know of a vacant and or condemned property around your part of the neighborhood, please let us know so we can look into it. If you know of a neighbor that could use some critical exterior home repairs, tell them about Habitat’s Roof & Repair program that offers zero interest loans to qualifying home owners. If you see a new neighbor moving in on your block, go and say hi and tell them about DPNA.

DPNA has shown that we not only care about housing, our youth, our neighbors, and our neighborhood we live for them. Please tell as many people as you can about the great things our organization is doing to improve life in our neighborhood. Share these experiences with us and others by spreading the words that we know so well, that our neighborhood and its’ residents will make a positive difference.

It is a great feat for our neighborhood to begin to see these condemned structures tore down and make way for new families to move into the neighborhood. Even better is that this has come to fruition around the Thanksgiving season. These events remind me that I am very thankful for all the great things going on in our community because of neighbors like you and community partners like Habitat for Humanity.

As always, please let us know if you have any questions about anything our organization is doing in the community. We love your input and especially your encouragement.

Kindest Regards & Happy Holiday’s,

Oscar Duran

Cultivating Community Leaders in the Deer Park Neighborhood

Hey Everyone,

Don't forget, the Deer Park Spring Cleanup is this weekend. 

I wanted to let everyone know that Deer Park is going to be a part of an exciting pilot project that is starting June 6, 2011.  Below is a narrative that sums the general scope of the pilot. 

Impact One Community Connection’s goal is to connect the people of the Omaha community with available resources here and beyond. They focus on assisting at-risk youth and young adults by providing gang intervention and prevention, employability training, job placement, re-entry assistance and referral services. Through a hand up, not a hand out approach, Impact One strives to empower the individuals they work work with to take control of their lives and move towards positive change.

Through Impact One’s Great Summer Jobs Program, they provide summer job opportunities for youth and young adults throughout the community. Participants engage in employment and life skills training prior to being placed at various job sites throughout the city. This program provides participants with leadership skills and teaches them to be responsible.  The Great Summer Jobs Program provides 150 jobs to area youth and leaves each participant with work experience. 

Habitat for Humanity of Omaha’s Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (NRI) uses an asset-based community development model to work with neighborhood members to utilize existing strengths. Through this program, Habitat Omaha will work with neighborhood leaders to identify and solve other needs/problems in the community (ie: street repair, litter control, homeownership preparedness, etc.). 

The NRI goal is to identify and fully understand assets within the neighborhoods and incorporate said assets within a neighborhood redevelopment plan. As NRI conducts neighborhood, house by house, scans using the Omaha Neighborhood Center’s Neighborhood Scan Program, Habitat Omaha will integrate Habitat housing solutions as appropriate, including: land acquisition, New Home Projects, Rehab Home Projects, Critical Home Repairs (roof replacements and other exterior repairs), and demolitions.

Cultivating Community Leaders (CCL) is a pilot program that builds upon Impact One’s Summer Jobs Program & Habitat for Humanity’s Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative. As an extension of the Great Summer Jobs Program, CCL will teach youths the benefits and fundamentals of grass roots community engagement. For 10 summer weeks, youths will work directly with Neighborhood Associations to complete community projects while developing the youths’ sense of community ownership. CCL participants will work in a variety of projects including; neighborhood scans, graffiti scans, yard cleanups, community gardens, community outreach, and park and litter cleanups.

A variety of Omaha organizations and neighborhood alliance groups are accomplishing many positive projects in our communities, but are struggling to cultivate a new generation of civic advocates and leaders. CCL will be a step towards linking a new generation of leaders with existing community builders whom have fought to make our neighborhoods safer, beautiful, and more collective. There are many great community leaders in Omaha, and this project will showcase just how together they will continue to make positive changes in our communities. 

I want to publicly thank Impact One, Habitat for Humanity of Omaha, The Neighborhood Center, and members of the  Deer Park, Hanscom Park,  and Spring Lake Neighborhood Associations for providing the resources and vision to help me launch this pilot. I am confident that CCL could develop as a critical effort in neighborhood redevelopment and community sustainability. 

You can follow CCL efforts and progress on this blog. If you see the youths in the neighborhood make sure to thank them for helping us improve our communities.

Thanks for Reading,

Oscar Duran: Deer Park President

Habitat Omaha Launches Project Demolition!

On March 21, 2011 Habitat for Humanity of Omaha kicked off its new program, Project Demolition, a partnership with the City of Omaha. With more than 443 single resident homes on the city's demolition list, Project Demolition is an effort to eliminate run down houses making way for new construction in distressed areas of the community. The goal for the project this year is to demolish 40 homes in North and South Omaha. Habitat Omaha often get calls from people who have a distressed house they want to donate.

Some of these homes have been on the city's condemned list for years, and the owner has nowhere to turn. Habitat Omaha can now address the problem through Project Demolition. It's a win for the owner who donated the house, the neighborhood, the City of Omaha and for a deserving family who will purchase the new Habitat Omaha home that will be built.

The first demolition took place near 17th and Manderson Streets. Two homes were torn down to make way for seven new Habitat Omaha homes. The seven new homes will be built during the week of Habitat Omaha's 2011 Builder's Blitz.

For more pictures click here.

Story Provided by Habitat For Humanity Omaha (HFHO)

This exciting project will assist neighborhoods rid their blighted structures and make way for new homes and families to come in. As read above, HFHO is also launching this project in South Omaha. As a resident, I know Deer Park has a few vacant homes that are considered "uninhabitable", and I am compiling a list of them. If you know of any properties near your home, please submit the address to me by either phone or email. This will not guarantee the property will make the Habitat Demolition Program, but regardless we need to know where these properties are and, TOGETHER, decide how we can mend these struggling blocks in our neighborhood. If you want to learn more about this program, please come to our next Neighborhood Association meeting.

Thanks for being such a great neighbor, See you at the next meeting!

Oscar Duran: Deer Park President

Temperature Changes in Deer Park Omaha

Greetings Neighborors,
I hope your March month is beginning nicely. This morning, as I stepped out to get my Snoopy lunch box out of my car, yeah, I rock a snoopy lunch box to work, the cold weather caught me off guard literally stinging my senses. Once outside I began to recall the sensual temperatures of yesterday, and a large smile overtook my face. No I am no crazy, but if you do not know me I am certainly a glass half full person.

Rather than be upset that the weather had returned to a shockingly cold temperature, the temperature fluctuation assured me a season change had arrived. For me, the season transition time is typically the most reflecting and exciting time of the year. During this transition time I start to get excited of the things I will get to do in the coming season; Moped rides through downtown, trips to the South Omaha palleteria with my wife, playing basketball at Deer Hallow park, bike riding to Baylis park, biking the Taco ride on Thursday nights, hosting a community garage sale, and having a bar be que outside with neighbors and family.
I then reflect on the things I will miss from the previous season. Do not get me wrong, I dislike the extreme cold, however, there is something beautiful about the winter season; how the street and yards turn powdery white,  the excitement of my family members' anticipation of Christmas, children outside playing in the snow, and our Deer Park Christmas party. Well it was a quick reminder that things always change, even in less than 12 hours. This made me think that I should remind everyone that, like the weather, community action and progress can take a change just as dramatically. Sometimes it takes shocking a 40 degree overnight temperature drop to remind us of this, other times it takes noticing a newly designed newsletter or a growing web page following to grab your attention.

If you have not been to the last couple of meetings, brace your self, you are in for a dramatic temperature change of our association. As the seasons, our neighborhood is also in a transition stage, and we should all use this time to reflect and celebrate the things that made this neighborhood great, and start to anticipate the exciting things to change and will make our community thrive.

To end this blog post, I want to provide two videos about community organization/development programs. This will be a teaser of something that is starting in our boundaries, and will spurred by a partnership between the Deer Park Neighborhood Association and Habitat for Humanity. The project is in planning stages, and we expect to kick it off soon. If you want to learn more, and I bet you do, come to our meetings and see how you can be a part of our neighborhood revitalization initiative.

Remember, celebrate our transition season.

DPNA Newsletter Reformat & Logo Concepts

The Newsletter

This month we would like to announce two large undertakings by the Deer Park Neighborhood Association.  Katie and I have diligently worked on a new DPNA newsletter layout over the last four months. This new improved layout will aid neighborhood readers to work through the articles easier as well as allow us to advertise our neighborhood businesses and events in the best possible ways, and it just looks fantastic.

We are considering possible names for our newly formatted newsletter so please share any ideas with us. 

The Logo

I would like to make prevalent, that DPNA will not be silenced nor placed into dismay after the loss of our large Rosenblatt fundraiser this year. In fact, as we seek out new fund raising strategies, we have an opportunity to reinvent our image. Our previous logo has served us well, but the old image of a young cartoon deer needs some cosmetic uplift to showcase our growth as an influential civic organization.  The cover of the  January 2011 newsletter shows a split image of our old logo and a proposed new one. Below, you can see two submissions for new DPNA logos along with our previous logo. We would love to have your input as we redevelop our organization’s written and digital presence. 

Concept 1

Original

Concept 1

Moving into the next stages of development and community service, we continue to strive to make this community grow stronger. To do this, I stress, we need your participation. Please come to our meetings to learn of more great things happening in Deer Park and please leave your feedback on this blog.

I would like to take a moment to thank the newsletter editor, my wife, Katie Duran. She diligently works on our newsletter and believes in the importance of serving you and this neighborhood.


Oscar Duran : Deer Park President