Days before Thanksgiving, College Park residents gathered on Rugby Avenue for a day of true giving in a way that an organizer said reflects a larger movement taking shape in the city.
Last Saturday, resident James Walker, along with neighbors across College Park, hosted “Neighbors Table,” a pop-up Thanksgiving event.
Held outside Walker’s home, the gathering drew about 100 residents who walked or drove up to receive frozen turkeys, ready-to-heat sides, vegetables, and holiday staples prepared by volunteers, and boxed items provided by Pastor Jamal Bryant.
“We fed over 100 people,” Walker said. “We raised $5,000 in about a week. I wanted to do this without a dime of any money from the [local] government, just a community-led event. People just drove by and picked up the meals. It was a collaborative effort. It was a beautiful thing.”
A website created for the event, “A Neighbor’s Table Thanks + Giving 2025: Sharing Food, Warmth, and Community Across College Park,” states that no registration was required; any resident could simply come and take what they needed.
Walker said the idea behind Neighbors Table was not only to meet a holiday need, but to strengthen a sense of connection across the city at a time when many residents feel shut out of civic life.
Local government is under constant fire for what residents and Mayor Bianca Motley Broom characterize as a lack of transparency. Critics have pointed to council placing questionable business items — amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars — on consent agendas where they can be approved without discussion or debate during meetings.
Due to a council-driven ordinance, the mayor is restricted in her ability to debate items. She has recently averted that restriction by speaking during public comment as a resident from the audience podium.
Residents have also objected to changes in public process. The city administration discontinued livestreaming city council meetings on Facebook and has turned off comments on YouTube streams.
In response, Walker and resident Mose James IV have started hosting Facebook Live streams during city council meetings. With the moniker, College Park Unmuted, their goal, they say, is to give residents a place to follow the meetings in real time while also engaging in open dialogue and raising concerns that they feel have gone unheard.
The idea grew from an impromptu livestream that first took place outside City Hall on the eve of Election Day. That night, residents critical of the council said they were unable to sign up for public comment. Walker and James IV believe council members strategically gathered a list of supporters to fill all available speaking slots.
“Over the last 2 years we see the systematic way that they limit ways that the community can engage in public comment,” James IV said. “We figured that was an attack on our opportunity to engage in real time during the meeting.”
James IV purchased software that allows for the instantaneous re-streaming of the meeting.
“[It] allows the community to continue to have the conversation that we’ve grown to have since the pandemic,” he added.
James IV and Walker held their first full livestream of the council meeting Nov. 24. It garnered more than 3,000 views and 800 comments.
The council meeting quickly became infamous for the unexpected firing of City Manager Lindell Miller.
Walker and James IV said they were stunned.
“It was awful,” Walker recalled on Tuesday. “It was shocking.”
They say Miller’s firing, without a clear explanation to the public, is another example of a local government unwilling to communicate or operate with transparency.
Walker said residents remain committed to creating positive change and holding city leadership accountable.
“We are not stopping… We are going to be right there every step of the way; they can’t silence us. They can’t stifle us, and if they try, then the harder we come,” Walker said.
As a former long time resident of College Park, these new leaders are giving all of us who love the city and its people, a new sense of hope. For years, a very few sought to get support from the community , media and law enforcement to look at the chicanery going on in government. We now have these great people and you at the Saporta Report. We need law enforcement ASAP. Two out of three isn’t bad.