By Leslie Collins
Northeast News
October 12, 2011

Katie Greer is passionate about her job, even though it doesn’t pay.

For four months, she’s been diligently working as the Indian Mound Neighborhood Association president to improve the neighborhood, deter crime and encourage others to become proactive.

Unafraid to voice her opinions at neighborhood association meetings, the board took notice.

When then-President Scott Wagner resigned to take on his new role as city council member, the board elected Greer, 30, in July as president. And she’d only lived in the neighborhood for a year and a half.

“I wanted to get involved and make some kind of difference,” she said.

She’s organized neighborhood cleanups and attended block watch training. She’s volunteered as a property codes inspector for the city and routinely attends an array of city meetings. As president, she’s encouraging neighbors to follow her lead.

“If you do nothing, I guarantee you nothing’s going to happen,” Greer explained. “Any neighborhood that’s turned itself around, the city hasn’t done it, the police haven’t done it, the people have done it.”

Why Indian Mound

Asked why she moved to Historic Northeast, Greer said both she and her boyfriend adore older homes with character. They didn’t want “cookie cutter” homes from Johnson County, she said.

“I said (to my boyfriend), ‘Look at these houses. Look at how beautiful and inexpensive they are,'” she said.

Three weeks after they moved into the neighborhood, there was a drive-by shooting, she said.

“Honestly, at first it was disbelief,” Greer said. “We were sitting on our front porch and had literally just gone inside and two minutes later we heard gunshots. It was very disconcerting.”

But, Greer and her boyfriend didn’t want to move. They would fight to change the neighborhood for the better.

Shortly before Greer accepted the role as president, the graphic design major was laid off from her job at a graphic design company – the second time in less than two years.

“I felt sorry for myself for about a month and then I started getting involved in all of this neighborhood stuff. I got sucked in and now it’s overtaken my world now,” she said.

One of her main goals as president includes encouraging the neighborhood to become proactive, she said.

“I want to get people to do for ourselves what we can do for ourselves and let the city and police take care of the big stuff we can’t do,” Greer said. “I feel like there’s a huge feeling of helplessness and there’s doesn’t need to be. There are a number of things people can do themselves like taking care of your property, mowing your lawn, if your gutter is falling down, getting it fixed.”

Maintaining a well kept neighborhood also changes the perception of those driving through, she said.

If properties are unkempt, then “it looks like no one cares,” she said.

“If it looks like no one cares, that’s exactly the place a criminal wants to set up shop,” she said.

Greer also wants neighbors to interact with each other and not hole themselves up inside their homes. Being visible also deters crime, she said.

“I want to get Indian Mound and the entire Northeast to instead of automatically looking for someone else to do it for us, we do it ourselves,” she said.