Great news for the people of Vermont… Vtdigger.org just landed a grant to further develop their statewide news platform. Congratulations Anne Galloway and Vtdigger.org! From the Knight-funded grant giver…
Nine promising community news projects from across the U.S. have been selected as this year’s New Voices grant winners. Each can receive up to $25,000 to launch a news initiative and work to sustain it over the next two years, J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism announced today…
This year’s winners were selected from a competitive field of 284 applicants. Including the new grantees, a total of 55 community start-ups have been funded from 1,533 entries since 2005. Of the 46 projects that have already launched over the last five years, 30, or 65 percent, are still going strong, five are working to launch or re-launch, and 11 did not continue after the two-year grant cycle…
Tipster at VTDigger.org – This news start-up covering Vermont plans to build a crowdsourcing platform called Tipster to help develop stories. Using Tipster, readers and reporters will collaborate and exchange information to build in-depth reports. Future support is expected from business and college sponsorships…
Good magazine included Burlington’s Five Sisters on its list of five “of the nation’s (in)famous neighborhoods” (Spring 2010, p. 43). It’s a bit silly… the breakdown…
Five Sisters, Burlington, Vermont
- AKA: South End
- Archetypal architecture: Cap Cods, foursquares, stone bungalows, lots of porches
- Preferred community event: appreciating nature
- Claim to fame: beards, color-changing leaves
- Notable residents: Ted Bundy, Howard Dean (or, the Five Sisters environs)
- Kindred spirit: Whitaker, Eugene, Oregon; all of Boulder, Colorado
Also, in “What’s in a Name?” on page 48…
Named because the five main streets in the area — Catherine, Caroline, Margaret, Charlotte, and Marian — were named for the daughters of the developer.
Not true, if I recall from past Front Porch Forum postings. But fun, nonetheless.
From the Christian Science Monitor… “The front porch wins converts as chatting with neighbors and watching storms brings connection.” After hosting visitors on their front porch during a thunderstorm, the author quotes his friend…
“You know, we’ve lived in our house for more than 20 years and you just talked to your neighbors more in that 15 minutes than we have in the whole time we’ve lived there.”
Such is the enchantment of front porches and swings.
Read the whole piece… you’ll be glad you did.
My family’s front porch is the same way… it’s the one pictured here.
I’m looking forward to reading the just published book, In the Neighborhood: The Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time. From the author…
Peter Lovenheim had lived on the same street in suburban Rochester, New York much of his life. But it was only after a brutal murder-suicide rocked the neighborhood that he was struck by a fact of modern life in contemporary American communities: No one really knew anyone else.
Thus began Peter’s search to meet and get to know his neighbors. Being inquisitive, he did more than just introduce himself. He asked, ever so politely, if he could sleep over.
With an open mind and a curious spirit, Lovenheim takes us inside the homes, minds, and hearts of his neighbors and asks a thought-provoking question: Do neighborhoods still matter—and is something lost when we live as strangers next door?
Lovenheim also just published a short piece on Parade.com. Here’s a snippet…
When Jodi Lee, a librarian, bought a home in 2004 near downtown Columbus, Ohio, neighbors told her about “Wednesdays on the Porch.” From the first week after Memorial Day through early fall, residents take turns hosting a weekly porch party for their neighbors. It is a way to get to know one another, exchange information, and keep in touch. Jodi was encouraged to host one. She followed the advice and, a few weeks later, on her own front porch, met her neighbor Bill Sieloff. Four years later, he became her husband. “The wedding was almost like a Wednesday on the Porch,” Jodi recalls, “so many neighbors were there.”
Doug Motz, one of the founders, estimates that since these Wednesdays began eight years ago, about 75 different families have held more than 130 porch parties in the neighborhood. “It’s a time for sharing—opinions on new restaurants, how to find good painters and home-repair people—but it’s primarily social,” Motz says. “And the nice thing is, the hosts don’t have to worry about cleaning up inside.”
New traditions like this are a welcome exception to the trend favoring privacy over community, which goes back to the post–World War II flight to the suburbs. According to social scientists, neighborhood ties today are less than half as strong as they were in the 1950s. Recently, the trend has accelerated with suburban “McMansions,” huge houses set back from wide streets with big backyards that further isolate neighbors from one another.
Ghost of Midnight is an online journal about fostering community within neighborhoods, with a special focus on Front Porch Forum (FPF). My wife, Valerie, and I founded FPF in 2006... read more