Draft Subcommittee Meeting Minutes for Aug 17th

Beautify CNMI Subcommittee Meeting
Monday, August 17, 2009 - 5:30pm
Whispering Palm School, Navy Hill

“Operation Paint Over --- What do we want to do about/with graffiti in our community?”

Present: Laurie Peterka, John Yoon, Tyler Yoshimoto, Ichiro Shirata, Mike Pai, Rebekah Yost, Victor Barrett, David C. Sablan

Email Notes shared with group were sent in by: Penny Hofschneider, Liz Swain, Joanna Durvall, Andrea Carr, Cinta Kaipat, Michael Brazel

Agenda/Objectives:
1. Introductions
a. Laurie – Skatepark, skaters, initial paint over project
b. Rebekah – students want to participate in community projects
c. John Yoon – student interested in community service (MBA senior)
d. Tyler Yoshimoto – student interested in community service (SIS senior)
e. Victor Barrett – New Zoning Administrator wants to work with community to make strides towards urban planning that is walkable, usable
f. Ichihiro Shirata – Tasi Tours, interested in environmental issues, seeing how we can deal with graffiti from a tourism perspective
g. Mike Pai – OPA, the community needs to address the graffiti issue as an eye sore to the community and to tourism
2. Shared ideas
a. Rebekah – lighthouse renovation, clean up, invite students to install murals “life as we know it”; ownership; buy a wall; tourist attraction
i. Who is responsible for the building
ii. It is historically registered
iii. Renew the program annual or bi-annually
iv. Contest to encourage ongoing participation
b. Tyler – taking pictures of graffiti on buildings and focusing first on getting graffiti cleaned up at private properties
i. Zoning can help by citing owners to get them to help clean up
ii. Set up a schedule of villages through business community to get existing defacement corrected
iii. Studies show that urban decay encourages theft, burglary, general disrespect
iv. An abandon building could be used for community center to give kids something to do
v. Junk cars need to be removed --- junk cars are 3-dimensional graffiti
c. Mike Pai – education programs at a young age
i. Look at peer pressure, boredom, anger/family issues
ii. Start with educating the parents
iii. Need to have a message in a hard-hitting public relations campaign that works into everyday language --- creates a new stigma, habit, subliminal suggestion
iv. We need a long-term set of goals and plan that move together in harmony
v. Instill a message of respect for the public realm
d. Victor – a start to a plan
i. Zoning is already on a schedule to start holding village meetings
ii. Victor could give us a slot on their agenda to feel out the communities concerns; they are going village by village
iii. First meeting is in Kagman – Wednesday, Aug 19th, 6pm, Kagman Community Center
3. Short recap of results
a. Projects could be/need to be set up to take place in stages – one on the heels of another in a logical order; for example, maybe target a string of events village-by-village
i. Start with a clean up
ii. Follow up with a mural contest
iii. Result is buy-in, removal of eye sore, and ownership of community public space
b. We project that we will need several meetings before we have an outline of our goals, plans and a timeline
c. It is imperative that all community organizations and business organizations get involved in the overall plan so that we can incorporate as many stakeholders as possible; currently we only have the commitment of the Rotary Club of Saipan and Island SK8 Society; tonight we add the CNMI Zoning Office
d. Overall, this committee’s objectives should be to offer support to a network of projects much like network-marketing with this committee at the top of the pyramid
e. Keep our expectations in accordance to what is reasonable and possible; in other words make a long term plan and take care implementing it rather than taking an ad hoc or one-off approach
4. Identify groups and/or leaders – tabled until further notice
5. Identify a standard day/time for meetings – Mondays, 5:30pm; start with two-weeks then move to once a month
6. Identify a standard location for meetings – Whispering Palms School at Navy Hill
7. Set next meeting – August 31st