I don’t have any firsthand knowledge of this, but I’ve heard the Arbor District Neighborhood Association is considering dissolution. No decision has been made yet. The proposal is, once the neighborhood association is dissolved, the bulk of the neighborhood would join the Moss-Bradley neighborhood association, with a small portion joining the Uplands Residential Association.

I can only guess that the reasoning behind this is the theory that there is strength in numbers, and that perhaps being part of a larger association will allow them to pull more weight. But I can tell you what message it would send to Bradley University: “We give up.”

Let me ask you this: which sounds greedier, to ask for a whole pie or a piece of pie? Right now the Arbor District is a whole pie, and Bradley is just asking for a piece of it (Maplewood to the alley). If it joins Moss-Bradley, then the whole Arbor District becomes just a piece of the Moss-Bradley pie. It will make it easier for the university to take over more and more of the Arbor District. They’re guaranteed to lose ground, literally.

I hope the neighbors in the Arbor District realize this is plan of sure defeat, and decide not to do it.