This month's Neighborhood Spotlight is on Eric Songy, a proud Algiers resident who works tirelessly to keep his neighbors informed and involved.
1. How long have you lived in your neighborhood?
I have lived in Bocage for 30 years. Moved into our home in the 2nd Week of October, 1986, with the grass 2 feet high, all of the windows boarded up from Sheriffs Auction. Let the windows on the front of the house boarded up, didn’t cut the grass and started putting tomb stones up in the front yard for Halloween. And then the following year, starting the Lighting of the Oaks of Bocage by wrapping the Oak Tree in front of my house with Christmas Lights leading to over 200 Oaks in Bocage being wrapped up and light up with Christmas Lights every year winning Best Neighborhood Christmas Decorations several years in a row and getting a front page article in the Wall Street Journal.
2. What do you love about your neighborhood?
It is a safe, quite neighborhood that has been a great place to not only raise a family, but to live a great life, grow old and retire in. Resident have always taken pride in our neighborhood. From the Lighting of the Oaks of Bocage each Christmas, the Police Mardi Gras Breakfast that the neighborhood has been involved in for as long as I can remember to the new initiatives like Lunch/Dinner with NOPD Officers to being a leader in fighting crime with our network of ProjectNOLA Crime Cameras.
3. What successes have you had in your neighborhood?
Bocage is the safest, most family-oriented neighborhood in the safest & best area of the city to live in: Algiers. Getting the neighborhood involved with the Lunch/Dinner with NOPD Officers, Mardi Gras Police Breakfast has been a privilege, as well as doing really unique things like Front Yard Barbecues for National “Night Out Against Crime.”
4. Based on your success in ANPC & BCA, what advice would you give to other neighborhood leaders?
Get involved. Take advantage of key technologies like NextDoor and ProjectNOLA to get residents involved and keep your neighborhood safe. Identify simply ways to connect your neighborhood with the great officers of the NOPD with something like Lunch/Dinner with NOPD Officers. Empower your residents to help them realize that they can help themselves. They can get involved and make a difference in their own neighborhood.
5. Why do you love New Orleans?
It is the most unique city in America that has that has protected its history, architecture and culture. There is no place like it anywhere in the world. New Orleans has been the best at melding and preserving diverse cultures. It is the most resilient city in the world and we have set an example to the world of how to live and experience life.
