The big picture
Joseph Panzarella, a resident of Fourth Ward in Houston, is spearheading the Super Neighborhoods revival after moving to the area in 2023 and noticing that the community did not have a proper seat at the table in Houston City Hall.
A Super Neighborhood Council, according to the city's website, serves as a forum where residents and stakeholders can discuss issues, establish priority projects for the area and develop a plan to help meet those goals.
"There's already a lot of amazing organizations doing great work in the community, from nonprofits to churches, businesses and schools," he said. "The Super Neighborhood is a really great way to bring all those voices together to collaborate on how we can improve the Fourth Ward, maintain it, and, at the end of the day, it really gives us a greater voice from the Fourth Ward to the city."
The Fourth Ward is one of Houston's six historic wards and is located inside Loop 610. It is also the site of Freedmen's Town, a nationally registered historical site where formerly enslaved people who were emancipated during and after the Civil War settled in Houston.
According to the most recent data from Houston's Planning and Development Department, the 298-acre community supports about 1,700 people, with the majority of residents being Hispanic or African American.
Zooming in
While it is unclear when the Super Neighborhood became inactive, Panzarella said he did meet with the elders of the community to discuss the return of the entity.
Panzarella said the goals of the Fourth Ward Super Neighborhood would be to bring neighbors closer together, to create streamlined communication to the city and to allow the community to apply for grants through the city's Department of Neighborhoods Super Neighborhood Grant Program.
The grant program helps neighborhoods fund various beautification and improvement projects by providing funding that ranges from $500 to $7,000. According to the department's website, the funding can be used to:
- Improve neighborhood organization and pride
- Improve community appearance and beautification
- Enlist and increase community participation
Get involved
The Fourth Ward Super Neighborhood will host its first meeting Feb. 26 at 6 p.m. at the Rose of Sharon Baptist Church, 1106 Valentine St., Houston.
Panzarella said the first meeting will be structured as more of a "meet-and-greet" to allow community members to forge bonds and speak openly about what they want the Super Neighborhood to accomplish.
"This is an opportunity for everyone in the Fourth Ward to have a voice in how their neighborhood looks and feels," he said.
He hopes the following meeting in March, which does not have an exact date yet, will consist of approving a board of directors and setting bylaws.
