I’ve lived in downtown Phoenix’s Garfield Historic Neighborhood for nearly three years now, renting a condo in a small community.
In that time, I’ve made friends in the neighborhood, become a regular at local businesses, and joined neighborhood potlucks and trash pickups. But until last month, I had never been to one of the neighborhood organization’s monthly meetings.
Part of that was because I didn’t think it was for people like me.
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In my 13 years as a renter, I never saw myself having much say in a neighborhood. I was only familiar with homeowners’ associations doing this kind of work, and the name makes it clear who those are for. I didn’t realize that some neighborhoods have organizations where anyone who lives there, whether you own property or not, can show up and help shape the community.
It also hasn’t helped that I’ve rarely stayed in one place for more than one or two years at a time. I’ve never felt rooted enough to weigh in on local issues—and even if I wanted to, it didn’t feel like I’d be taken seriously.
But attending this Garfield meeting made me realize that that’s not always the case.
Attending the meeting
The Garfield Organization meets on the fourth Tuesday of every month at 5:30 p.m. Most meetings happen on Zoom, but there are two in-person meetings throughout the year. I received the link to the meeting by signing up for the group’s newsletter.
About 20 people were in attendance. The meeting began with a touching look back on the life of Roberto Frietz, who was a neighborhood specialist for the city of Phoenix for over 20 years. I never got a chance to meet him, but this presentation made me wish I did—and left me feeling inspired to do more in my community.
From there, the meeting shifted to the day-to-day realities of neighborhood life. A Phoenix police sergeant talked about recent public safety incidents in the neighborhood—including a shooting I hadn’t known about—along with updates on parking enforcement. He also followed up about a property that had been reported for criminal activity and discussed the steps he had taken to work with management to keep things under control.
We then heard from community alliance 19thNorth, which works with residents and businesses to deter crime. The founder spoke about how the program had been successful in another area of the city and proposed sharing some resources with Garfield.
Toward the end of the meeting, neighbors discussed parking issues, problems with construction vehicles blocking roads, and enforcement of code violations (such as a damaged fence causing a safety issue) with representatives from Phoenix’s Neighborhood Services Department.
The meeting lasted about an hour and 45 minutes, which was longer than I expected—but it meant that everyone who wanted to speak up had the time to do so.
My thoughts
Although I didn’t have any specific concerns of my own to raise, the meeting was worth my time.
Before attending, I had no idea that the neighborhood had these established relationships with local police and the city, and it was good to see that the meetings provide regular opportunities to bring concerns to them. I was pleasantly surprised to see those representatives follow up on issues that neighbors had brought up in the past and share the actions that had been taken to address them.
I was also struck by how respectful the meeting was. Even when people complained about construction vehicles blocking their streets, they kept things civil. The moderators did a good job of letting everyone speak while keeping the meeting moving forward.
More importantly, no one drew a line between renters and homeowners. If you were a Garfield resident or business owner, you were invited to speak up, no questions asked. As someone who’s rented for more than a decade, that wasn’t something I expected, and it made me feel much more comfortable about the idea of speaking at a future meeting.
I’ll definitely attend again, especially if there’s an issue affecting my part of the neighborhood. It felt good to contribute to the well-being of the area I live in by showing up and becoming more informed.
If you’re a renter—especially one with concerns—I highly recommend checking the city of Phoenix’s list of neighborhood organizations to see if there’s one near you. Also try searching your neighborhood on Facebook or Instagram to see if any groups pop up there.
