Utopia Homeowners Security Association

We are bursting with pride that your Utopia neighborhood is currently considered the safest non-gated community in the City of Miami—no kidding!

Not only are our crime stats the lowest, our attention to risk factors that affect the serenity of our surroundings are also part of our vigilance. Your board of directors successfully disabled and shut down the Airbnb ‘party house’ that was hosting massive private parties last fall. Through petitions to the city, the owners and to Airbnb directly, we exerted our strength as a force to restore peace to every neighbor, member or not.

We hope to  welcome the new Coconut Grove Commander Weslyn Lewis-Francoise to our March board meeting. Please notify us if you have police concerns that you wish to be addressed.

My best always, AND, LOCK YOUR CARS, even in Utopia’s paradise!

Gale Patron, Police Liaison

preview on the Utopia website
Spies in Disguise – suggested by our very own age-appropriate movie critic Sebastian Azar, will be shown in our park at LaPlaya and Ventura.

Friday, March 13
Picnic hour 6:30
Movie begins 7:30

Everyone’s invited, members and neighbors. Children can come dressed up or in their pajamas! Just bring low chairs or blankets, a picnic if you like and get ready to enjoy yet another benefit of living here in Utopia.

Movie, popcorn and more courtesy of Sean Reichert and Jo-Ann Forster.

NOTE: Volunteers are needed to help set up AND clean up afterwards in order to make this annual event a continuing success. Please continue to be a good neighbor!

PLEASE ENCOURAGE YOUR NEIGHBORS TO JOIN AND SUPPORT OUR UTOPIA HOMEOWNERS SECURITY ASSOCIATION! WE’RE STRONGER TOGETHER!

Our little neighborhood park at La Playa and Ventura was the setting for our Annual General Meeting on sunny Sunday, January 26. Over 60 members, including three brand new members, as well as several beautiful and helpful children, gathered to hear news, challenges and updates. As our neighbors gathered, everyone enjoyed refreshments—brownies, cookies, fruits, cheeses, chips and beverages– created and donated by fellow members.

AGM Report

President Corinne Collins called the meeting to order and began the agenda by noting the large and engaged crowd.

Police Liaison

Gale Patron, police liaison, reported, with a graph show-and-tell chart that revealed that our neighborhood is demonstrably the most crime free in the entire City of Miami. Gale introduced Sgt. Alberto Perez  who supported the neighborhood safety statistics while encouraging all to lock their cars, report out-of-place people or occurrences and generally be aware. Both the Sgt and Gale emphasized that our Association is about security. Questions were asked about traffic control; while our police patrol has the authority to stop and ticket yet that is not their mandate. It was emphasized that we need to be vocal with the city about encouraging our fair share of police visibility and coverage.

Treasurer’s report

Glenn Patron, treasurer, reported that our finances are strong due to our stable and growing membership, despite the City of Miami’s required pay increase for off duty police this past September.

Membership

Lucas Azar, membership chairman, gave a report on the state of our membership (now 141 homes), noting that “new members tend to be new arrivals to our Utopia neighborhood.    Yet, we continue working toward helping each member reach out to  our established neighbors who have not yet joined for one reason or another.”

The meeting wrapped up with Corinne thanking everyone for their comments, participation and enthusiasm.

Utopia Homeowners Security Association 2020 Board members

• Corinne Collins, president
• Sean Reichert, Jo-Ann Forster, & Annette La Greca,  Members at large
• Maureen Pelham, secretary
• Glenn Patron, treasurer
• Gale Patron, police liaison
• Lucas Azar and Mat Dillon, membership
• Sam Dobrow, website and technology
• Cheryl Andrews, communications

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As a new year begins for the Utopia Homeowners Security Association, I offer a bit of reflection on what a busy and eventful past year it has been for our organization as well as a look ahead to what our future endeavors entail.

We have had continued success in maintaining and growing our membership. While some members moved away, we continued to add enough new members to replace them and actually increase our overall total membership by five by the end of 2019. We also had to face the challenge of police patrol payroll increases and a bothersome party house, all with success to date.

If you did not attend our most recent Annual General Meeting at the end of January, you might not have heard about our new marketing initiative. It is spearheaded by Glenn Patron, our treasurer, and is intended to ramp up our membership in anticipation of another patrol payroll increase by the city this September. We are working hard to make sure that this next payroll increase will not impact the number of weekly patrol hours negatively nor our monthly dues rate. Stay tuned because you will hear more about it and might even want to get involved.

I would like to extend a large thank you to a longtime board member, Ron Morgan, for his dedicated service to the association as a member of the board and secretary as he stepped down from the board this past December. I also would like to thank the entire board for their efforts and contributions made all year long behind the scenes to keep our organization running smoothly and efficiently. So thank you all as we move into a busy new year. And that leads me to the next item and that is to thank our longtime members as well as new members because without your continued support there would be no association. Our patrols are the heart of deterrence; they secure our safety and are the envy of many. We are often asked ‘how do you do it’? The answer lies in all our members’ unwavering support.

Sincerely,

Corinne Collins, President
Utopia Homeowners’ Security Association