Why I stopped volunteering at my Neighborhood Association

For the last year, I’ve been an active volunteer at the South City Park Neighborhood Association (SCPNA). As the “Secretary” of SCPNA, I was in a supporting role, helping the president and other officers conduct the neighborhood business. For example, while the president was on vacation in Europe, I stepped in to publish the quarterly neighborhood newsletter, and distribute it around the neighborhood.

My interest with SCPNA was driven by a desire to get involved with local issues, and to contribute more directly to the challenges facing this city – to be involved more directly than a being just an observer (or worse, ignore the issues entirely). I started by attending a few the local political meetups (see here, and here), but couldn’t see myself working for those causes (I found the views to be too extreme for my comfort). So I decided to take less partisan approach and get involved with SCPNA.

What I found was a neighborhood that’s changing rapidly, both in terms of commerce (The Bluebird district is booming with new businesses) and demographics (new high rise condos doubling the neighborhood density, new low income housing complex being built). On the neighborhood’s agenda were things like how to accommodate parking for all of the new businesses/residents. How to manage the noise from the concert goers singing into the night, and the constant crime/disturbances from being next to Colfax Ave. It seemed like a great place to get involved in the community.

But after a year of going to the meetings and talking to the association members, I found that the association itself was represented by a very small number of residents who’ve lived here for a long time, and seemed more concerned with old feuds amongst themselves, than the actual business of the neighborhood association. It doesn’t help that the association has essentially no power to do anything – other than take votes on resolutions with no consequences, and write letters to the city officials.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the entire experience was that the vast majority of the people who live in the neighborhood don’t care less about what we were doing – and wanted nothing to do with it. The organization and its work simply didn’t seem to matter to anyone, except to the organization itself.

The best part of volunteering at SCPNA was meeting all of the neighbors, and learning more about the neighborhood -it’s history, it’s struggles, etc. The worst part was the pervasive feeling that all of the hard work of deliberating, writing and communicating was for nothing.