Burlington | Ghost of Midnight

Do questions on FPF get responses?

Posted on Tuesday, August 4, 2009 by Michael • 1 comment

What’s a typical response to a question posted on Front Porch Forum? Well… it’s hard to say. Some people respond on-forum, but most do so directly to the author via email, while still others phone or chat on the sidewalk… or even on the literal front porch.

FPF member Greg Fanslow recently documented one such exchange (of the thousands that occur each year on FPF in our pilot region). He asked his neighbors via FPF for recommendations about replacement windows. Check out the results here. And keep in mind that each of the responses are labeled with the first and last name of the respondant and his/her street name and email address.

With these kind of direct results from clearly identified nearby neighbors, it’s no wonder more and more people keep joining FPF… people want to be able to connect with those who live around them.

FPF’s story…

Posted on Friday, July 17, 2009 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

A national TV news show asked for a thumbnail sketch of FPF recently, so here’s what we sent…

Neighbors turn the Internet on its head to build vibrant community

Mention the internet, and most people think of the WORLD wide web… reaching out across the globe for news, long-lost friends, or low-price bargains. But in Burlington, VT, residents are using the web to connect with… their backfence neighbors. In an era where national and global information is broadly available online, it seems that few of us know our neighbors and what’s going on down the street. Husband and wife Michael and Valerie Wood-Lewis saw an opportunity three years ago and created FrontPorchForum.com to serve their city. Amazingly, 40% of the state’s largest city subscribes and the sense of community there is thriving and winning national awards (see below).

“It’s astounding what a couple minutes a day of neighborhood news and chatter in my inbox has done,” says co-founder Michael Wood-Lewis. “People tell me that they lived on their street for ten years not knowing a soul. Now, since Front Porch Forum (FPF) kicked in, those familiar strangers have become real neighbors.”

Each neighborhood has its own online forum and the whole region is blanketed with a network of 130 neighborhood forums. People post about lost pets, block parties, car break-ins, plumber recommendations, helping ailing neighbors, local politics, school plays and much more. All ages partake… from seniors in their 80s seeking community support to stay in their homes… to teenagers looking for summer jobs.

In one rural neighborhood, people used FPF to find a pair of lost horses, then pitched in to build a better enclosure for the owners. In an urban neighborhood, the residents rallied around a mother who was assaulted in their park, and eventually got the city to improve safety conditions there. And in a different community, a young family asked for a couple helpers to move their household into new digs across the street… 36 people showed up! Not only was the job done quickly, but now this family knows three dozen neighbors.

“This small family business turns the internet on its head,” says FPF member and University of Vermont Assoc. Dean Susan A. Comerford. “The web offers countless ways to waste time, but Front Porch Forum actually pushes people offline and onto the sidewalks to chat with neighbors, face to face.” And that leads people to get more involved in their communities. An incredible 93% of FPF members report becoming more civically engaged due to this free service.

“Front Porch Forum is a postmodern return to citizen democracy,” opines Comerford. “This may well be the most important advance in community development strategies in decades.”

Accolades for Front Porch Forum

PBS MediaShift: Named FPF one of three national “great experiments around local news,” 2008.
Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy: Featured FPF at inaugural meeting, 2008.
Case Foundation: Placed FPF sixth out of nearly 5,000 “participatory democracy” projects, 2008.
American Press Institute: Featured FPF in seminar about cultivating local online conversation, 2008.
Rural Telecom Congress: Annual Champion Award, and People’s Choice Award – Most Innovative, 2008.
Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society and Sunlight Foundation: Featured FPF as local online innovation at conference, 2007.
Orton Family Foundation and PlaceMatters: National Innovator in Place Award, 2007.
Personal Democracy Forum: Featured FPF as a local online democracy tool, 2007.
National Night Out: Neighborhood watch award from South Burlington, VT, 2007.
Cottage Living Magazine: FPF flagship named a “top ten” neighborhood in the United States, 2006.
Wall Street Journal, PBS, Morning Edition, many blogs, and nearly all local traditional media in pilot area covered FPF.

Links

Contact
Michael Wood-Lewis
Front Porch Forum

Fund traditional community development… or empower citizens to step up?

Posted on Wednesday, July 15, 2009 by Michael • 1 comment

Kevin Harris blogs today that Jon Fitzmaurice of Self-help-housing.org wrote on the Guardian’s Joe Public:

Self-help housing enables people to be active citizens, and it fights the culture of “someone should do something about that”. It was once more common, but over the last two decades community development and regeneration has fallen into the hands of professionals preoccupied with management and measurement.

Kevin concludes with…

Community development will be reinvented from the bottom-up by people like Jon Fitzmaurice. Let’s hope the others just get out of the way.

Reminds me of a recent Front Porch Forum story…

Lauren wondered if her small rural Vermont town had a food shelf. So she posted a note to her neighbors on Front Porch Forum (FPF). When she learned that none existed currently, she reached out again via FPF for a steering committee. Then it was through FPF yet again that they found food, space, volunteers, and, eventually, recipients — her neighbors delivered on every count! Now, one year later, the food shelf is critical in the lives of many town residents affected by the recession. And no government, foundation, or corporate money or leadership has been needed.

FPF hosts a network of 130 online neighborhood forums that blankets all of Chittenden County, VT. More than 14,000 households subscribe, including 40% of the state’s largest city. Members use FPF to communicate with clearly identified nearby neighbors about issues of their choosing. Thousands of topics have been discussed and acted upon. All of this online exchange draws peoples’ attention to their local community, and increases social capital and civic engagement, as witnessed by Lauren’s example:

“Thanks to FPF, having a community-wide conversation about how to address our local hunger problem was a cinch. With the help of rallying neighbors, we got our food shelf up and running in no time. Not a community meeting — or practically any public-oriented conversation — goes by without FPF being tossed into the mix. What a wonderful gift.”

FPF is eager to bring its successful model to more communities. Some traditional community development professionals and funding programs have a hard time understanding this decentralized, citizen-centered approach. When we tell them that FPF helps create an environment where folks like Lauren emerge from the crowd to do wonderful acts of public good, I hear things like “well, but we don’t fund food selves.” Aargh.

FPF Raffle – Quadricentennial Edition – Enter by July 1

Posted on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 by Michael • 10 comments

Front Porch Forum Raffle Time! Did you know that it’s been 400 years since the first European laid eyes on our fair lake? Help mark the occasion… fill in the two blanks in the following sentence and post it to your FPF neighborhood forum to enter our raffle…

If I had a _________ for every year since Samuel de Champlain first saw Lake Champlain, I’d have _________.

Do it for fun. Do it for your love of our lake. Do it for a chance to win a prize. Or do it to help enliven your FPF neighborhood forum… But do it by July 1! Here are two efforts…

If I had a PENNY for every year since Samuel de Champlain first saw Lake Champlain, I’d have FOUR DOLLARS.

If I had an INCH OF RAIN for every year since Samuel de Champlain first saw Lake Champlain, I’d have OUR WET SUMMER OF 2009.

FPF members… copy and paste the unfinished sentence into a new email message and fill in the two blanks. Email it to [FPFneighborhoodforumname]@frontporchforum.com or post it via the web by going to http://frontporchforum.com/home, logging in, then clicking Post a Message: Using the Web.

Enter (multiple times if you like) on or before July 1, 2009. Act FAST! Bonus points if your entry has something to do with your neighborhood/town. Prizes as follows (one pair of tickets to each of the following events will be awarded):

July 5 – The Roots
July 5/6/7 – Only Drunks & Children Tell the Truth
July 7 – King Sunny Ade
July 8 – Counterpoint
July 9/10/11 – Territoires Feminins
July 11 – Ween
July 12 – Water Music
July 13/14 – Aurelia’s Oratorio

Thanks to our sponsors: Higher Ground, Burlington International Waterfront Festival and Burlington City Arts! Learn more about the Quadricentennial at http://www.celebratechamplain.org

UPDATE: See the eight winners and many of the other entries!

Free Sugar Snap Peas… fresh from the garden

Posted on Thursday, June 25, 2009 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

Tim in Burlington’s South End just posted this gem to his nearby neighbors on Front Porch Forum…

Hey neighbors! – Our front yard garden is now producing some wonderful sugar snap and snow peas. Come eat some as you stroll by [address redacted]! It’s a free garden for anyone who wants to partake.

And what makes this even more special, we’ve been seeing plenty of property crime postings lately in this area… what a refreshing departure!

“I love my street!”

Posted on Monday, June 22, 2009 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

Kristine loves her neighborhood! Here’s her pronouncement in her own words (via Front Porch Forum this evening)…

I just wanted to say how moved I was this weekend by the kindness and friendliness of neighbors on my street. I feel so fortunate to live on my street as I am surrounded by many amazing people. It was great to see so many people out this weekend doing yardwork and home improvement projects. I had a couple neighbors lend me their push mower so I could mow my lawn. A neighbor was gifted 2 bags of mulch from another neighbor. Another neighbor while driving by stopped and asked my next door neighbor if she needed anything from the grocery store. A few neighbors did morning yoga together at the Archibald garden. I brought a couple of neighbors out for lunch and retail therapy. Another neighbor shared veggies from his garden with a few neighbors. A neighbor gave me a plant from her yard. A few neighbors went out for creamies together. I am sure there were plenty of other amazing things that happened between neighbors this weekend. Let’s keep it going! This is what it is all about.

And, from someone else in a different part of town, a concern posted on FPF…

Yesterday afternoon, Eugene stopped Paddy and me to use our phone because his telephone was not working. He was concerned about being without a phone in case of emergency, as he is elderly and has some health issues. It seemed like Carol, his next door neighbor, had everything under control by the evening, but I’m just checking in to make sure that he is ok. I tried calling him this morning and either his phone line is still down, or he is not answering.

UPDATE: Jean responded today…

Cheers Kristine – I have to second her thoughts and feelings about our neighborhood! It is truly a testament to how kind and generous people can be to one another. This is one of the greatest streets in the ONE and I am so grateful to be a part of it…I say this at least once every week. How many people can say they feel this way about their neighborhood? I hope quite a few. It’s a great feeling to know that people care enough about their neighbors to extend a friendly helping hand, advice, or just a moment to sit and visit. Thanks St. Louis St (and beyond)!! Keep it up!

Antidote for back yard deck

Posted on Friday, June 5, 2009 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

From Erin in Burlington today…

I love Front Porch Forum! You have helped us find cat sitters, child sitters, garage sales, too much to mention. We are so happy this exists — in an age where everyone’s porch is now a back yard deck, how nice it is to have a “virtual” front porch. Keep up the amazing work.

More FPF member comments here.

Community Policing and Front Porch Forum

Posted on Monday, May 11, 2009 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

The Burlington Police Dept. is stepping up its community policing efforts, the Burlington Free Press reported today, including this bit…

Some officers are already reaching out. Officer Mike Hemond, for example, posted a message on the Front Porch Forum for the Five Sisters area, providing a link to the department’s Web site, updating residents on graffiti arrests, alerting them that he was going on vacation for a few weeks and making himself available to chat about whatever when he got back. “Heck,” he wrote, “e-mail me in advance, and I’ll bring coffee.”

Housefire Damage Limited by Good Neighbors

Posted on Saturday, May 9, 2009 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

On Front Porch Forum in Burlington’s Old North End today…

Hello Neighbors! We wanted to thank everyone who saw our home on Pitkin Street catch fire and called it in. Nobody was home and, thankfully, you were there. Thanks especially to [those who went] out of their way to contact us that night. There was so much concerned response from the neighborhood – we are very grateful! The incredible fire department got there QUICK and put the fire out fast. They were not only fast but very professional and considerate the night of the fire which put us all at ease (as much as we could be). We will miss Pitkin Street dearly and hope to be back some day soon!

FREE HIGHER GROUND TICKETS – FPF DRAWING

Posted on Monday, April 20, 2009 by Michael • 74 comments

Front Porch Forum is giving away one pair of tickets for each of the following Higher Ground concerts…

April 22 – Talib Kweli
April 28 – Slightly Stoopid

If you want a chance to win these tickets, leave a comment below that completes this thought… “I deserve to win these tickets because…”

We’ll pick one winner from the comments for each show. The first show is Wed., so make haste! Thanks to Higher Ground.

P.S. Make sure you leave us a way in your comment below to get in touch with you should you be a ticket winner.

UPDATE: We have our winners! Sara Chesbrough from Burlington will be going to Talib Kweli’s show, and Ali Keener in Westford has two free tickets to Slightly Stoopid. Thanks to all who entered and to Higher Ground. Congratulations Sara and Ali!

I deserve to win these tickets because…

Sara: “… Talib Kweli and I are brother and sister in some strange musical/philosophical dimension and it’s been too long since we’ve had a family reunion.”

Ali: “… i love these artists and i just cant afford to go see the shows. i don’t like how money decides music for me. music is so good for the body and soul…sometimes you just gotta dance.”

To everyone else… keep commenting below if you like, but the free tickets are G-O-N-E.

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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

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