TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Mariah Blake has called Griffin Heights home since 1959.
"This neighborhood is a good neighborhood but it needs to be spruced up," said Blake. We need to have more things where senior citizens can be able to go without going way out on Tennessee."
She says in that time, she sees the best and worst of her neighborhood.
It's a feeling many in Griffin Heights share.
That's why Rodney Landers decided to take action and co-chair the Griffin Heights Neighborhood First Plan.
Working beside the City of Tallahassee, the team surveyed the community looking to find the most pressing issues in the neighborhood.
Leading the concerns, the need for a grocery store.
"What you had was 7,000 people living in an area where there's nothing to eat from a store," said Rodney Landers who help set up the neighborhood's first plan for Griffin Heights.
The median income for families in Griffin Heights is 24,000 dollars, the nearest grocery store to the center of the neighborhood is four and a half miles away.
Landers says that brings up another issue, a lack of transportation options. Last week, the city of Tallahassee approved a $2.25 million plan to address the needs in Griffin Heights.
One element includes converting the vacant convenience store off of Alabama street into a new market.
Other areas of focus included in the plan, a neighborhood public safety initiative, beautification project, more bike lanes and sidewalks and economic development.
To view the entire Neighborhood First Plan for Griffin Heights, click here.
