On the summer evening of July 31, 2015, Derrick Black was shot and killed in the Park View neighborhood. He was 23. The Georgia Ave and Lamont Street Public Safety Task Force formed shortly after to focus on public safety as a response to the murder. 

The citizens and business owners who live and work in the area wanted to work together to figure out the best ways to address public safety and quality of life concerns in the neighborhood. Once the group was able to begin to address the issues in the neighborhood, they began to ask broader questions and think through the kind of community they wanted. What did they value? What did they want to accomplish?