Neighborhood Politics Getting in the Way of Progress in East Ft. Worth, District 8

I went to the West Meadowbrook Neighborhood Association meeting this past week. The President, Don Boren told me that he doesn't reply to my emails because my emails "aggravate him" and therefore, go in his junk mail. When I asked him what it was about my emails that aggravated him, he replied, "Suzette, YOU aggravate me!"

I asked him what kind of leader are you if you ignore or brush off someone who "aggravates you?"

Don Boren, Wanda Conlin (married couple, both in leadership positions of WMNA), and Louis McBee - all long time activists in East Ft. Worth, do not like it when someone asks questions, especially questions that question their leadership or lack thereof. Very ironic that I have heard Wanda Conlin (and Louis McBee) beat down Mayor Moncrief for not listening to them and not handling City business in the way that they think he should, and yet they promote someone who can't return emails because the sender aggravates him/them. I wonder who it is that I aggravate more, Don Boren or his wife, (the unofficial Co-President of West Meadowbrook Neighborhood Association), Wanda Conlin. Don Boren tells me that I could "come by his office" but don't email him. Some say that he doesn't like emails because he doesn't want a trace of his words to be on paper. Appears this may be a fact.

People wonder why the West Meadowbrook Neighborhood does not have one nice, clean grocery store, Starbucks coffee shop, a few nice restaurants and has some of the highest number of code violation calls, highest number of Animal Control calls, record # of water main breaks, streets so in need of repair that it's difficult to drive through the neighborhood, residential streets and neighborhoods being used for Industrial Business access & egress, street projects taking months on end to complete, more and more people littering the neighborhood streets and disrespecting the neighborhood properties, Urban Village zoning taking ten years and more to complete, etc.

Perhaps West Meadowbrook Neighborhood Association's boundaries are way too large since they have no interest in representing residents and/or business owners who reside on certain sides of streets w/in the neighborhood. Nor do they have an interest in upsetting their beloved friend at City Hall, Kathleen Hicks who also serves as a representative of West Meadowbrook Neighborhood. Furthermore, when the neighborhood demographics show large black and brown residents & business owners and those numbers are not represented at the Association meetings, you know there is a disconnect between the Association and the people.

Perhaps if more of the true closed door & telephone conversations between Don Boren, Wanda Conlin & Kathleen Hicks were exposed and more people started asking more questions, we could get some visible and tangible progress going on in West Meadowbrook Neighborhood.

Hey this is America; all of us are suppose to be able to voice our opinion, ask questions, expect complete transparency. True leaders will welcome different opinions, suggestions, & more transparency, that's my personal belief and that's what I will continue to expect, push for and work towards.

NOTE:

"Projection, like all defense mechanisms provide a function whereby truth about a part of themselves that may otherwise be unacceptable is shielded."

""People attribute their own undesirable traits onto others."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection