Oxford Community Action Network

OxCAN will be getting back to work on March 11th, with a work day at the Hope House Greenway and soon-to-be Community Garden!

When/Where?

We will meet at the entrance to the greenway, at 312 Sycamore Street, from 9AM to Noon!

What are we going to do?

We plan to move a mountain of mulch, cut back more invasives, and further beautify the walking path that connects to Sycamore Street to Granville Street. Triangle-area Scouts will be working at the same time on an Eagle Scout Service Project to complete the raised beds for the Community Garden, with planting (and harvest!) to follow at a later date.

What Should I bring?

Bring any garden impments you can spare- pruning tools, wheelbarrows, shovels, pitchforks- we can use them all! Don’t forget sturdy outdoor shoes and some work gloves if you are prone to blisters.

What Else Should We know?

Our friends at Strong Arm Baking will be offering up coffee and nibbles for everyone, so we will be well-fouled for this short workday.

If you’ve got questions, or want to let us know you plan on coming, drop us a line: [email protected]

Oxford CAN is teaming up with the Hope House and other community organizations to create Oxford’s first ever greenway! Starting at 9AM on November the 12th, we will be establishing a greenway path to connect the future site of the Hope House garden to downtown Oxford.

How are we doing this?

By utilizing a mixture of public and private access, we will be transforming a well-used neighborhood footpath into an established and maintained greenway. Using the concept of connecting destination spaces, we will be connecting Sycamore Street to MLK Avenue in downtown Oxford.

A sustainable model for the future of Oxford’s Greenways

This project is doing something that the city of Oxford hasn’t seen before: creating a citizen-led, citizen-driven pathway to allow more of Oxford to walk easily and take advantage of our changing downtown.

This new space will act as a proof-of-concept for future city projects, using volunteers to help clear and beautify pathways, using material that is harvested onsite to create a footbed for the new path, on a site planned by volunteers and the surrounding neighborhood. We will be working with local experts to locate and remove invasive plant species, and to help find sustainable ways to control erosion and runoff on the site. We plan to reach out to our friends at the City of Oxford’s Public Works to team up in maintaining City-owned properties that will help with drainage and walkable access.

We will need your help!

We need folks who want to put in some work cutting, pruning, picking up, putting down. If you’ve got a wood chipper, we’d love for you to bring it. Chainsaw? Yes, please. We could use a few shovels, too. If you’d like to join in the fun and help spark the transformation, drop us a line at [email protected]

Save the date:

We will be hosting the community at the Mary Potter Center for Education, September 24th, from 9-11AM for conversation and refreshments.

OxCAN organizers will be on hand to share information about our current projects, and how the neighborhood around the Mary Potter Center plays an important role in those projects. Also, learn how you can get your neighborhood involved in connecting to a more walkable and friendly Oxford!

Can you make it?

Let us know- you can register at our EventBrite signup here, or you can drop us a line at [email protected]. If you want to see more about Oxford C.A.N., you can always browse on over to www.OxfordCAN.org to check us out. Also, follow us on Instagram to see more up-to-date content!

Oxford turned out last night to provide feedback to City planners as they work with Stewart Consulting to update the Comprehensive Plan. Oxford C.A.N. was there, too, and we got some great feedback on projects that we have under development, as well as new opportunities to develop greenspaces and greenways around Oxford.

If you missed out on last night’s workshop, don’t worry. The City will be providing more opportunities for public feedback throughout the process. If you haven’t taken the online survey, you can find it here.

If you’d like to find out more about how to get involved, please drop us a note at [email protected]

On August 4th, at 5:30PM, the City of Oxford is having a Visioning Workshop to invite feedback from Oxford citizens on the new Comprehensive Land Use plan. According to our City manager, the new Comprehensive Plan will include updates to Oxford’s participation in the Granville Greenways plan, as well as a potential revision to the existing bicycle and pedestrian plan.

This is your chance to provide feedback on your goals for the City’s future policies on land use.

We need folks from all of our neighborhoods to provide feedback to City planners, to let them know how we can make our town more walkable and friendly. Let City planners know how you want policies for more walkable and bikeable paths throughout Oxford.

If you can’t make it, and you want to provide written feedback, you can write the City Planning Director by clicking here. You can provide feedback to the City’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan survey by clicking here. And you can give us feedback by emailing [email protected].

Oxford is growing, and it’s changing- and we want it to change into something that is more friendly and walkable, for all of Oxford.

Oxford Community Action Network (OxCAN) is a group of citizens who want to create a public/private partnership to help our town’s leaders to make good on our motto of “Historic, Walkable, and Friendly.”

What does that mean, at first, for our organization? It means that we are working to promote the use of public green spaces (pocket parks, for lack of a better term), and footpaths to connect them.

We want to make sure that all citizens of Oxford can walk or bike to our town’s essential services, like downtown shopping, or our growing number of eateries, or the grocery.

If you’d like to help, we want to hear from you. We are looking for folks who not only say to us “wow, that’s a great idea,” but people who want to do something about this idea. We talk a lot about greenways, and we are always surprised that once we mention the subject, the response, unfailingly, is: “Someone should do something about that.” That’s where we all come in.

OxCAN is designed to connect people who will advocate to their friends, family, and neighbors- people who want to create citizen-focused infrastructure for Oxford.

If this sounds like something you’re willing to do, then click the button below, and tell us about your ideas, and how you’d be willing to help. We will be talking very soon.