Connection, safety, funding, and coffee

It’s a pleasure to report that Parkville Garden Residents’ Association’s Community Dinner at the Reggio Calabria Club on May 23 was a great success.

We had an excellent turnout of some 50 adults and 10 children, with good representation from the Mercy Place independent living units and some newcomers from Housing First’s apartment tower.

A happy mix of first timers and old-timers, lively conversation, plenty of tasty food, and a much-appreciated presentation by neighbourhood policing cordinator for Victoria Police Sergeant Nick Parissis, followed by a question and answer session.

Thanks to the City of Melbourne for its funding and to the club for its hospitality.

At the invitation of Housing First, Sergeant Parissis was back in the neighbourhood with his colleague Sergeant James Bass on Thursday, June 6, for a conversation at Housing First called “Coffee with a Cop.”

This was a second opportunity for residents to meet community-focused police officers, learn about their endeavours, raise concerns about crime and safety, and be informed as to how best to report incidents to them – a special thanks to Nick for connecting with us in Parkville Gardens.

I’m also delighted to report that our new noticeboard has been installed!

Thanks to the City of Melbourne for funding the project and to our council neighbourhood partner Nas Mohamud for her advocacy and persistence.

With the construction of the apartment towers along Galada Ave, the demographic centre of Parkville Gardens has shifted south from Cade Way where the original noticeboard is located.

The Galada Ave Reserve and the children’s playground are now at the heart of the neighbourhood, and that’s where the new noticeboard is. This will make our communication with the community a lot more effective.

There’s more good news … our application for a grant from Greater Western Water (GWW) under its “Thriving Communities, Local Community” sponsorship program has been successful.

Our thanks to GWW for its promotion of healthy communities. This grant will fund a community event in March 2025. More on that closer to the date.

Nowadays Parkville Gardens is well served with two coffee shops: Cup of Joy at Mercy Place and the newly renamed Oak Corner” right on the corner of Oak and Garrard streets.

The latter has new owners, Oya and Eren. They’re introducing a Turkish flavour to the food, with pides on offer, and gozleme and lahmacum to come. Feedback from customers is welcome.   

In the meantime, coffee is cheerfully being served by their two Latin American baristas, Melina and Laura. •