About
In the mid-1990's, Cops & Coffee was created to allow neighbors in the McClatchy Park area of Oak Park to have quality one-on-one time with their neighborhood Problem-Oriented Police (POP) Officers. Originally held in what is now Café Mélange on 2nd Avenue, Cops & Coffee moved to Immaculate Conception, and then to the Oak Park Community Center as attendance grew to include other areas of Oak Park. This monthly meeting has become a great place to meet neighbors, and to interact in a cooperative partnership with City and County staff and the fine police officers assigned to Oak Park.
In 2003, City Council member Lauren Hammond enlisted the Sacramento Mediation Center to help start an official neighborhood association in Oak Park. Following several community meetings to enlist support, and using workgroups to define how and what the association should be, the Oak Park Neighborhood Association expected to complete its 501(c)(3) status in early 2005; however, they held off on such status to make sure that it fit the group's overall needs.
Many of the interested supporters of the early O.P.N.A. steps were also Cops & Coffee regulars, so there came to be a strong inter-relationship between the two groups. OPNA assumes the priorities of providing resources and outreach, while Cops & Coffee narrows its focus to problem housing and police issues.
OPNA intends to build the finest expression of community in the Oak Park neighborhood. Its goal remains to raise the expectations not only of residents, entrepreneurs, and especially its school-age children, but also of the surrounding neighborhoods, the city, the county, and the Sacramento region as a whole. What can we accomplish together? Anything.