Category Archives: Burlington

Neighborhood Night of Success

Posted on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 by • No comments yet

Burlington is bursting with civic-minded people who act on their convictions… from shoveling a neighbor’s sidewalk to taking on drug dealing.  The City throws a great annual party — Neighborhood Night of Success — to celebrate people and projects, share a meal and music, and mingle.  I recommend attending… March 25, 2009.  Also, Ita Meno is looking for nominations!

To show how long we’ve been at this… Front Porch Forum was recognized at the very first NNS in 2001 and then again in 2007.

Ita, the key organizer, invited me on to her talk show to chat about it.

P.S. Ita is leaving her position with CEDO, so the NPAs won’t have her as a resource any longer… a real loss! Best wishes to her in her new position and I hope CEDO hires well when finding her replacement!

Using FPF to clean up stink

Posted on Friday, February 20, 2009 by • No comments yet

We’ve seen time and again that one or two citizens can’t get much action out of City Hall.  But put 20 or 200 neighbors together behind an issue, and voil¡.

Here’s a posting on FPF yesterday from Burlington City Councilor Russ Ellis…

A few days ago, Christy Lorraine called our attention to the problem of sewage backup in the Staniford and Western Avenue neighborhoods with a note in the Front Porch Forum. I exchanged several e-mails with Steve Goodkind at the Department of Public Works about the situation. You will be interested in his positive response which follows:

“Russ – I share your concern that cleaning alone might not necessarily be the whole answer. I have not gotten the records yet, but I have already asked staff to pull what we have to see if there is any pattern to the problem. It may turn out that the problem is less with the line on Western Ave and more with the line it feeds into on Staniford. We will look at the entire system in that area and see if we can solve this. Please feel free to pass this on to any of the neighbors you are in contact with.”

My hope is that this terrible situation in your neighborhood can be corrected.

Thieves target four-year-old

Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 by • No comments yet

So much positive neighbor-helping-neighbor stuff goes on through Front Porch Forum.  This posting today on the FPF ONE West Neighborhood Forum was hard to read…

We discovered yesterday that our storage space at the old April Cornell building on the corner of North Ave and Berry St. was ransacked and things were stolen.  Included in the missing items are a very large storage container of K’nex (my son’s birthday present), other kids games – also being stored for future presents, my kids 3-4 year old spring/summer clothing, my snowboard helmet, 2 sleeping bags and a tent.  In addition to the theft, dozens of vinyl records and CD’s were broken, as well as some glass jars and ceramic figures.  If you have any information regarding this, please contact the BPD.  And if you have any 4 year old boys clothing to donate to us, that would be appreciated.

I hope the neighbors rally around this family.

Children stoning refugees spark community response

Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2009 by • No comments yet

I had to share a posting from Sarah Judd tonight on her FPF neighborhood forum in Burlington’s Old North End…

Please join us for the opening of the ONE Woman photography show this Friday, January 30th, at the Burlington College Community Gallery, 95 North Ave. in Burlington.  The Gallery will be open from 3-9 p.m., with a reception from 6-8 p.m.  If you can’t make the opening, you can see the show at the dates and times below, or by calling Burlington College at 862-9616 to make an appointment:

Friday, January 30, 3-9 p.m.
Saturday, January 31, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Sunday, February 1, 10 a.m. -4 p.m.
Monday, February 2, 8:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Tuesday, February 3, 8:30 a.m.-2:45 p.m.
Friday, February 6, 8:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

The ONE Woman photography project is a display of 200 photographs taken by 170 women living, working and learning in the Old North End.  Project participants included women who have lived in the ONE for two months and women who have lived here all of their lives.  Our youngest participant was 10, and the oldest was 85. The project, I hope, is a document of women’s lives in the ONE, illustrating who our unique neighbors are and how we live, and shows connecting links between the diverse groups of women from many backgrounds living in the same community.

This project was inspired, in part, by a Front Porch Forum post by Bridget Burns, who witnessed a group of children throwing rocks at a Somali family last April [emphasis added]. I thought if I could show who we are living in the ONE, the things we all care about like our families, places we love, pets, streets, etc., this commonality and familiarity with each other would hopefully prevent things like the rock throwing incident from happening again.  We live in a great place, filled with great people, and I hope the show reflects this.  So thanks, for your post, Bridget.

I also got several participants for the project through a post on the FPF, so thanks FPF ONECentral and the ONE women who participated!

This makes my day (week, month!).  The posting that inspired this artist has haunted me for months.  This is the power of a tool like Front Porch Forum.  The problem was shared on FPF and much discussion ensued.  Out of that (and other sources of inspiration) came this art project.  The artist used FPF to pull her project together and bring in collaborators.  And, now, she’s using FPF to share word of it with hundreds of nearby neighbors.

UPDATE: Mike Ives filed a good piece about this show for Seven Days.  In part…

Judd’s inspiration came last April, when she read a post on the local listserv Front Porch Forum titled “Neighborhood Bigotry.” The post’s author, a twentysomething Old North End woman, reported seeing a group of boys throwing rocks at a family of Somali refugees. Judd, 42, a Connecticut native who grew up in a multiracial family, wondered if the incident would have occurred if the boys had known more about the immigrants they chose to terrorize.

Mail Tampering and Gas Siphoning

Posted on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 by • 1 comment

Several postings this week in the Old North End of Burlington on Front Porch Forum report stolen and damaged mail and missing checks.

Hi All, It seems that our mail  is also being tampered with.  Several envelopes have disappeared from our mailbox altogether. The post office does not have any helpful info. I would suggest collecting your mail as quickly as possible after it is delivered.

Another person wrote about someone stealing gasoline from cars with a siphon tube.  More symptoms of our national economic meltdown?

And one neighborhood to the south, Lauren posted…

Just want to let folks know that someone (or many) has been stealing bags of children’s clothing donated for refugees off my front porch on Orchard Terrace. The latest was Monday night, when a bag of much needed infant snowsuits was dropped off late-after 10:00PM-and gone by morning. I don’t understand it, but it has happened many times. If you notice anything please
speak up. Thanks.

“Bite Me”… now is that how your mother taught you how to talk?

Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2008 by • No comments yet

When neighbors start heating up over a topic through Front Porch Forum, our local traditional media often picks up on it and writes a story.  Some issues are of larger public concern, e.g., violence, multi-million-dollar development projects, etc., while others are more modest.  Take today’s story by Suzanne Podhaizer in Seven Days: Right to Bite: New pizzeria offends some sensitive South Enders.  I can attest… it’s been a firey back and forth.

And on the subject of media coverage of FPF, I just looked back at Mike Ives’ well-written 7D piece about neighbors using FPF to combat vandalism in Burlington.  Here’s the traffic rank on the Seven Days website for the past week…

Skunk’s head stuck? Here’s what you do…

Posted on Monday, September 8, 2008 by • 1 comment

I love the stories that people share with their neighbors on Front Porch Forum.  Here’s one just in from an FPF subscriber…

Today, Monday September 8th, 2008, I witnessed an amazing act of heroism. I live on Claire Pointe Road in the New North End of Burlington. This morning I received a signal from my husband who had been walking our dog, when he pointed with a hurried walk I saw a skunk with a yogurt container stuck on its head. So stuck that this skunk could not see where it was going, just walking and bumping into the cement of the walkways that just jammed the container onto its head even more. When I left the condo and drove out of our garage, this skunk had made its way down the driveway. Still bumping the side cement walls and jamming the container even tighter onto its head. I had to stop and turn my car off because the skunk was coming so close to the car. At this time a wonderfully brave woman, a neighbor who’s name I do not know walked down the driveway, we both discussed for a second what to do and in a terrific fearless act she went quietly to the skunk and with amazing heroism (and if she is reading this now she will know what i mean ) and a bit of scary comedy she freed the skunk from it’s smothering , blinding jail. She did not get sprayed and the two of us ran like the wind once it was over. This woman, my neighbor is a hero. What bravery, I have always lived in a city, we do not know from skunks except picture in animal magazines. Brava to this wonderful woman who will forever have the most wonderful and odd story to tell!!!!

Feel Good Post of the Day

Posted on Saturday, September 6, 2008 by • No comments yet

From Sarah on the FPF ONE East Neighborhood Forum this evening…

To our wonderful neighbors: thank you so much for all of your help in finding our lost cat, Calvin.  It was one of you readers who eventually found him for us (only a block away from our house!), and I am so appreciative to have him back safe and sound after he spent 5 nights on his own.  We received several emails/phone calls from people who had thought they’d seen him, and I have been absolutely blown away by this kindness and thoughtfulness.  When I was trying to decide where to go to graduate school, I knew that Burlington would be a special place, but I had no idea how amazing the people would be.  Thank you, Front Porch Forum. Thank you, sweet neighbors.  All the very best, Sarah, Drew, and Calvin

“Citizen sleuths track taggers, online” from BFP

Posted on Monday, September 1, 2008 by • No comments yet

I like Joel Banner Baird’s opening in his Burlington Free Press article today…

Take notice, Burlington vandals, taggers and would-be thieves: Little Brother is watching you.

And he’s swapping notes with his (and her) neighbors — and the police — on Front Porch Forum, a community-based online network serving Chittenden County…

And he goes on to shed some light on the story we discussed here.  And I just noted a comment left on the Free Press site by wordwhip99…

The po po do the best that they can. And just like every thing else, and everyone else, there’s room for improvement. There’s good cops, and crappy ones. There’s good folks around town, and lazy uncaring ones. Etc. But what it really boils down to is that Americans seem to always rely on someone else to take care of their problems.

It’s a community problem here and cannot rely on just the cops to reduce or solve, but ALL the community members. The parents. The (failing) education system. And so on. Stop looking the other way and speak up when someone throws a candy wrapper or bottle on the ground.

Well, I could go on… I know I speak up, and I applaud others that take some kind of action, as well as Front Porch Forum.

Have you done anything to help your community today?

“All Experts” Recommend Front Porch Forum

Posted on Friday, August 29, 2008 by • No comments yet

Just stumbled across this exchange posted on AllExperts.com… (thanks David!)…

Expert: David Beckett
Date: 8/27/2008
Subject: Temporary Housing

Question
Hi David – I read your answers about Burlington and my husband & I decided to move here from Los Angeles a few months ago… We love it here. I am French and we need to go back to France for family reasons from November through March 2009 and I would hate to leave the house empty for a host of reasons.

Ideally we could rent the place (we have a beautiful 4 bedroom house in the Hill section) but I am not sure where to post an ad. The other option would be to have a professional come on a regular basis to ensure that everything is OK (i.e. heating still on). Do you have any recommendations for either solutions?

I assume we are not the only people to leave Vermont in the winter, I was just curious if there were any obvious resources available that we are not aware of.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Answer
Hello Isabelle – Glad you like Burlington! … You might also post a note on your “Front Porch Forum” email list, without your address of course, just asking if neighbors have people to recommend as short term renters or housesitters. If you haven’t gotten onto your neighborhood “Front Porch Forum” yet – I recommend it. You can read archives and sign up at http://www.frontporchforum.com

Please feel free to contact me directly – I’m happy to help. I live in your neighborhood.

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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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