Ghost of Midnight

… about neighbors, community and Front Porch Forum

Town Meeting and Front Porch Forum

Posted on Monday, March 3, 2008 by 1 comment

When my wife, Valerie, and I created Front Porch Forum a year and a half ago, we had a simple mission in mind… to help neighbors get to know each other better and foster the sense of community at a very local level.  We haven’t tried to dictate what people write about… we just wanted folks to sign up and put this free service to work.   And they do!

So we didn’t know what to expect with our first real experience with an election cycle.  Wow!  Front Porch Forum has been awash with comments, announcements, endorsements, analysis, opinions and more for the past month or two.  Here are some numbers (rough estimates)…

  • 8,000 households subscribe in Chittenden County  (including 30% of Burlington)
  • 130 neighborhood forums hosted locally
  • 1,400 postings/month typically

Moran Plant Redevelopment Proposal (City’s pitch)

  • 150 people posted
  • 500 households reached on average by each of these posting

Burlington City Council Races

  • 100 people posted

Chittenden County School Board Races

  • 90 people posted

Presidential Primaries

  • 25 people posted

Lots of (mostly) great discussion.  Many people have told me that they are glad to hear their neighbor’s views on these matters.  Others though have said that they are looking forward to getting this Town Meeting Day behind us… soon enough!

Posted in: Burlington, Community Building, Front Porch Forum, Good Government, Local Online, Neighborhood, Politics, social capital, Social Networking, Stories, Updates and Admin, Vermont


One comment

  1. […] forum in the state when it comes to Vermonters discussing issues and candidates with each other.  According to FPF founder and moderator Michael Wood Lewis, 150 different people have posted messages to the forum recently about the Moran Plant question in […]

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