Highland Park Neighborhood Association

president's letter to area businesses

Dec 10, 2004

Highland Park Neighborhood Association
PO Box 10210 San Antonio TX 78210-0210
December 9, 2004

Dear Highland Park area business owner:

Greetings! As president of the Highland Park Neighborhood Association, I have been pleased to meet the business owners and manager in our area. I made this my goal when I became president of the neighborhood association two years ago, and since that time it has been my great delight to visit not only all 106 of the businesses within our geographic boundaries, but also to meet and get to know some of the business owners in the nearby areas, particularly those who have shown interest in the community through their participation in the development of the Highlands Community Plan and the Highlands Community Alliance which continues to meet to implement the plan.

Highland Park Neighborhood Association would not be able to do the crime-fighting and community service work that our dedicated volunteers do if it were not for the stable business sponsorship of our advertisers who have continued to underwrite the newsletter for years: Little Red Barn Steak House, Wallace Cook Agency, Inc., South East Community Credit Union, La Madeleine French Bakery & Caf?©, and Brown?’s Mexican Food. The Power Store Solar Energy Specialists, Neighborhood Resource Center and San Antonio Fighting Back have also assisted by providing in-kind donations valued in the thousands of dollars these past two years. Additionally, Paul Davis of the Southside Reporter has always stated his support of the neighborhood associations, and really encourages Highland Park Neighborhood Association in particular to continue making the area where their office is the safest place possible through our ongoing volunteer efforts in Cellular on Patrol, graffiti removal and area cleanup.

Yet one of the great difficulties for our neighborhood association has been to provide services that assist local business owners in meaningful ways. As president, I tried to give local business owners the opportunity to form Business Watch programs to assist each other to prevent on-site crime. This was met with some enthusiasm but we still have no business owner leading this initiative with us.
Based on comments from area business owners, we first set up a training session at night, then set up a special session for all area business owners on a Saturday this past February. I personally visited all 106 businesses in the area and left the printed invitations at those where I could not personally contact the owners. La Madeleine French Bakery & Caf?© donated pastries (total value of $400) for the business owners to have breakfast that morning. Many community members and representatives of not-for-profit organizations attended to hear the 12 speakers who presented information that day, but not one local business owner attended.

So I feel very strongly that, whatever we can do to assist local business owners (which in turn assists everyone in the community when our businesses are safe and clean) is still something we have not communicated. For this reason I believe strongly that we need one of our 2005 Highland Park Neighborhood Association directors to be a local business owner or manager, who can help us learn better how to address the needs of local businesses. That is my primary purpose in writing to you today?—to seek a nominee from local area businesses who will represent those interests on our Board of Directors in 2005. This involves all work that all other volunteer directors do, including attending the general meetings the second Saturday of each month, monthly and special session Board of Directors meetings, and any other thing necessary to properly assume responsibility as a fellow volunteer Director.

We need one committed representative from an area business who is either already a business member (Business advertisers have membership included in their advertising fees.) or at least willing to pay the $25 annual business member dues, and is willing to represent area businesses [It goes without stating, but is also explicitly stated in the guidelines for business members published on our website www.neighborhoodlink.com/sat/hparkna, that no business currently known to be in violation of any government ordinance or regulatory agency regulation will be considered for membership].
Ideally, the person representing business interests as an HPNA Director would be willing to maintain contact with at least the other 106 businesses in the Highland Park geographic boundaries, as well as network with nearby businesses outside the boundaries on behalf of the Highland Park Neighborhood
Association. If you have an employee or business owner whom you can personally recommend, please call me at 532-4123 (home). I appreciate your consideration.

I have reached my term limit as president of the association, and am so pleased that we will now have a dynamic new president who has even more ideas about how to network with the local community so we can all work together. Her name is Patricia Barrios. Patricia and her husband
Carlos have been active in Highland Park Neighborhood Association as gardening volunteers; and in fact developed educational gardening programs while they were home-schooling their children in previous years. Patricia Barrios has served as Hospitality Chairwoman of the association this past year. She has been a dynamic and inspiring member of the association, and wants to work with all the different organizations in our area to improve our community. It is my hope that you as a business owner will network with her to make our community the best.

As much effort as it takes to run a business, I hope you will always consider that the volunteers of Highland Park Neighborhood Association are just that?—volunteers. They also work elsewhere and volunteer their time to make their community the best place possible. And we are all willing to work with you, our area business owners, to achieve that goal!



Rachel Cywinski, President
Highland Park Neighborhood Association