Huntridge neighborhood transformed by residents
The story of the Queen of Huntridge goes something like this: A young, ambitious woman with her eyes set on a future run for public office moves into an old downtown Las Vegas neighborhood.
She rallies her neighbors to participate in neighborhood clean ups and meetings, park get-togethers and dog shows.
The neighborhood thrives, crime goes down and the people are happy.
Melissa Clary is not really a queen, but she is president of the Huntridge Neighborhood Association.
“They’re phenomenal,” said Rob Levrant, neighborhood outreach specialist for the city of Las Vegas . “Huntridge (Neighborhood Association) has been the most active and innovative in that part of town for the last few years. Melissa has done well.”
The neighborhood association has organized dozens of events, from screening movies in Circle Park on Maryland Parkway to throwing a Big Lebowski-themed party .
“People tell me I need a hobby,” Clary said with a laugh. “People, that’s my passion. What better way to work with people than where you live?”
In 2010, Clary moved to Huntridge Neighborhood, one of the city’s oldest, and said there was no community programming. The neighborhood was finally getting past the Circle Park closure — overrun with homeless people, the park was closed by the Las Vegas City Council in 2006 — but, “Huntridge was stagnant and didn’t have a neighborhood association for some time,” Clary said.
“The biggest thing was getting people to communicate with each other, getting them back in the park,” she said.
Within the first month of taking the reins, she organized a small get-together in Circle Park, which attracted around 50 residents.
“People were shocked to see something positive going on in the park,” she said. “The neighbors were happy. It was an easy little gesture, and it just ballooned from there.”
In the past two years, the events have earned notoriety among outsiders.
“People come from all over the city to our little park,” Clary said.
Levrant said an active neighborhood association such as Huntridge’s is “very beneficial” to residents.
“The more neighbors get to know each other, the more aware they become of who belongs and who doesn’t. You know what’s out of place,” he said. “When things happen in neighborhoods like that, it is reported quickly.”
Associations can also form strong relationships with city government, he said.
“Having a partnership with the city brings a greater awareness to the resources around you,” he said. “When you pull people and agencies together, the whole is greater than the parts.”
With a bureaucracy, things take time to materialize, but with a neighborhood association, Levrant said, residents can take ownership of their neighborhood and its goals.
“It increases the speed at which things get done,” he said. “Most people would rather be responsible for their own neighborhood.”
Clary agreed. “The city isn’t helping — it just takes too long and things get bogged down in red tape,” she said. “We don’t have any money . It’s just some residents who started something big.”
Clary said she has been approached by a number of neighborhood associations wanting to know the secret to Huntridge’s success.
“Communication is the biggest thing,” she said. “We simply started collecting email addresses and began talking to one another.”
There is still much to be done, according to Clary. The association is looking to put up more signage in the neighborhood, come to a resolution on the Huntridge Theater and create a grant program for residents who need assistance sprucing up their properties or creating their own community events.
“After a while, people start to realize if you want to see it, you can make it happen,” she said.
The association’s next event is its Historic ’Hood Hounds Dog Show. The free event is scheduled May 11 at Huntridge Circle Park on South Maryland Parkway near East Charleston Boulevard and will benefit valley animal shelters. Registration is set for 11 a.m., with the show starting at 11:30 a.m.
For more information, visit the association’s Facebook page at facebook.com/groups/huntridgeneighborhood.
Contact Paradise/Downtown View reporter Nolan Lister at nlister@viewnews.com or 702-383-0492.
