Category Archives: Burlington

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

Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2008 by • Comments are off for this post

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 • Comments are off for this post

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 • Comments are off for this post

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 • Comments are off for this post

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.

FPF Neighbors ID Vandalism and Suspect… Justice Forthcoming?

Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 by • 5 comments

Wow… an early morning confrontation of one of Burlington’s vandals/taggers… with photos! Front Porch Forum members sticking up for their neighborhoods in Burlington’s Hill and Old North End areas…

First from Jeff on the FPF ONE East Neighborhood Forum (posted August 25, 2008 – 1:31 pm)…

A new type of vandalism is now occurring in the Old North End. I awoke yesterday, Sunday August 24, to find deep purposeful destructive gouges in the soft evaporator coil fins of one of my air conditioners. The protective screen was removed and discarded on the lawn. This air conditioner is located deep onto my property, way down the driveway, by my back entrance. The perpetrator was trespassing while committing this crime. The air conditioner’s efficiency is severely affected by the blockage to air flow and the destruction is so severe it cannot be repaired. The damage was not there Friday evening.

What makes this worse is that the same damage was done to 4 other homes in the immediate neighborhood. While driving in the Old North End, I saw similar damage to 2 others near the intersection of North Street and North Winooski Ave.

I took photos yesterday and today. Though they won’t transfer to the forum, I can forward them to any who are interested. Some air conditioners are damaged with initials
(P.H.) gouged into the fins. Others are intentionally severely gouged, so as to render them useless, together with initials gouged into the fins (A.X. and SBK).

This type of behavior is permanently destructive. These are expensive items which are damaged to varying degrees affecting their cooling function, and because of the manner
of the damage, in many cases, cannot be repaired.

This is not graffiti, where a chemical can be used to remove the “tag”. I estimate that the damage caused to these 7 air conditioners is over $1,000. Does this rise to the level of a felony?

What is happening to our city?

And also from a couple in the FPF South Union Neighborhood Forum area (posted Monday, August 25, 2008 – 9:17 am)…

I want to let everyone know that Sunday morning at 6 am my husband and I woke up to the sound of someone pushing our window a/c unit in. After we yelled at the person to get away, thinking our apt was being broken into, we realized we had been tagged. (the metal grating on the back of the a/c unit was pushed spelling out ‘PH’) Immediately [my husband] got into his truck and drove around the neighborhood to find the guy who did it, with his camera in hand, we managed to get a photograph of the guy. He is 18-22 years old, white, brown hair, carries a red backpack and uses the Tag PH. [My husband] confronted him and asked him if he was a “writer” (a term used by graffiti artists and taggers to identify each other) and the guy responded in a rather incriminating way saying “No, dude, I don’t wri.. I mean I don’t know what you are talking about…” The guy seemed really antsy and nervous and that is when [my husband] photographed him. We did call the police, and an officer took down all of the information. I noticed he also tagged the post office drop box by Bite Me. If any one has any information about this person or sees him… please contact the Burlington Police. This is vandalism and destruction of private property.

Oh… and one more… from Jill also on the FPF South Union Neighborhood Forum (posted August 25, 2008 – 10:09 am)…

Hi, On Sunday night at 2:30 there was an attempted break-in at my house. I had the front lights on, the back lights on dim and my car in the driveway, plus a few lights on downstairs (at least they are all compact fluorescents). They first tried the backdoor and propped the screen door open and the house was locked and then they started opening and cutting the side window screen. Moose (my now official guard dog) woke up and ran downstairs barking and I went downstairs and saw the motion lights were tripped and the window wedged open and screen cut. I called the cops and they were there in a matter of minutes.

Related to P.H. too?

Update: From Jeff on the FPF ONE East Neighborhood Forum (posted August 26, 2008 – 12:56 pm)…

A heads up on the progress in this case…

Together with the brave work of Clark, as described below, the Burlington Police Dept’s South End staff has joined with Lt. Jen Morrison from our North End area to identify the “PH” vandal and bring him to justice.

Officer Hemond, working with Officer Belleville from the South End, communicated with the Five Sisters FFP to apprise them of their progress. Seems 10 – 20 homes were similarly vandalized in that neighborhood.

Michael Wood-Lewis has been very helpful to me (and to the BPD) to coordinate, from the civilian side, forwarding of information between neighborhoods and BPD officers working on the case.

Gail Shampnois and Alicia Taylor from the UVM Office of Student & Community Relations are following this case and have indicated that if the offender is a UVM student then they will pass through the UVM justice system as well.

More on Old North End quality of life

Posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 by • Comments are off for this post

The depth of community running through Burlington’s Old North End is bubbling to the surface more and more these days. As discussed previously, a number of residents used Front Porch Forum to spark a discussion about drug dealing, public safety and overall quality of life issues. Some natural community organizers among them, channeled the energy evident on Front Porch Forum and organized a community meeting… held last night.

Here’s a report posted to FPF by State Rep. Christopher Pearson…

Tonight’s forum was well attended and I must admit the discussion left me a bit humbled. While I get frustrated with late night walk-by noise and we’ve been talking about fireworks waking us up late at night all too many in the Old North End live with drug deals, theft and more on a daily basis.

The message from [Police] Chief Schirling was loud and clear: they need our help. Even if you know the police could not make it to your street in time to stop the disturbance they are constantly building cases and monitoring our neighborhoods to figure out where their attention is most needed.

Burlington Police at 658-2700. You might also find their Citizen’s Guide to Reporting Crime helpful.

And John Briggs reported for the Burlington Free Press too…

Crime numbers are down, yet it doesn’t feel that way for many residents in Burlington’s Old North End this summer.

Worries about the quality of life in the neighborhood are nothing new, but the approach to a variety of issues at a well-attended community meeting Tuesday, from drug sales to noise, was more “What can we do?” rather than “How can we get them?” as it was just a few years ago.

That’s great… so good to hear that the tone was mostly positive and working toward solutions. This was our goal when we took the unusual steps of suspending the topic for a couple weeks on one of the FPF Old North End neighborhood forums… it had wandered away from being civil and constructive. Encouraging results.

We’re starting to see something similar happen in Winooski now through Front Porch Forum… civil and constructive conversation among neighbors (and local public officials).

UPDATE: The Free Press published my letter to the editor today… much appreciated…

Old North Enders engaged for solutions

We were thrilled to see that local residents were focused more on “What can we do?” rather than “How can we get them?” at the recent community meeting about crime (“Old North End worried about quality of life,” July 30).

We’re humbled that thousands of neighbors have used FrontPorchForum.com to engage in civil and constructive conversation online about these persistent challenges. And we’re also glad that so many people heeded the call to move the conversation offline and engage in face-to-face dialogue at community meetings.

On the whole, we see more people getting to know their neighbors and engaging in solving local problems — a hopeful sign for the Old North End and Burlington.

MICHAEL WOOD-LEWIS
Burlington
The writer is the co-founder of FrontPorchForum.com.

Burlington Field Day July 26

Posted on Sunday, July 20, 2008 by • Comments are off for this post

This is a good fun…

Water-balloon toss? Shot-put with a bowling ball? Come show your “side-pride” as Burlington Field Day pits the North End vs. the South End in a day of fun athletic competition.

The third installment of Burlington Field Day will be held at Battery Park on July 26.  South Enders need to exact some revenge for last year’s loss to the North End… come one, come all.

Front Porch Forum, covering both sides of town, will, of course, remain perfectly neutral (go South End!).

Neighbors use Front Porch Forum to ignite drug dealing discussion

Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 by • Comments are off for this post

We love to see neighbors “hitting singles” daily on Front Porch Forum… finding babysitters, selling bikes, connecting about car break-ins and so much more. And the weekly “doubles and triples” smacked out of the infield are a joy too… e.g., several folks using FPF to organize a couple weeks of meals in support of an ailing neighbor, a citywide debate about the future of the Moran Plant, etc.

And then we have the “home run” shots like in Burlington’s Old North End recently. A weeks-long back-and-forth centered around drug dealing attracted lots of postings and some strong emotion. The results… loads of neighbor-to-neighbor discussion, involvement of the police and city councilors, media coverage, and now a public meeting is being organized to dig into the challenging issues tied up in this topic. We’re thrilled that Front Porch Forum acted as a catalyst for these concrete steps… especially the face-to-face efforts like the public meeting. At some point, it’s usually best to move these more intense discussions offline into real time and real space… I’m grateful to those organizing this meeting.

As part of all this, Seven Days published a piece this week about my decision to suspend the drug dealing discussion for a couple of weeks on the ONE Central Neighborhood Forum. The tone of the discussion was heading toward “flaming,” that is, it was devolving down to where so many online discussions go to die… personal attacks, strident statements, etc. My step brought criticism from a few FPF subscribers, which we take to heart. And it also brought lots of praise for keeping the peace. Experience predicts it was a necessary move.

Front Porch Forum is a fine place for neighbors to take on challenging subjects (and has been used that way dozens of times). And in these situations we won’t allow it to become an online shouting match among a tiny minority… there are plenty of other venues on the internet for that kind of thing… and there’s only one Front Porch Forum!

Time to watch the neighbors score some more runs on behalf of community in their neighborhoods.

UPDATE: Seven Days just published my letter to the editor…

I was glad to see Seven Days’ coverage of a Front Porch Forum discussion about neighborhood drug dealing. However, the title of your article [“Moderator Shuts Down Online Debate on ONE Drug Use,” July 16] mischaracterized the situation. We were not squelching community dialogue about this important issue — just the opposite.

Front Porch Forum exists to encourage and facilitate this kind of communication. I took the highly unusual step of suspending a single topic on one of our 130 neighborhood forums for two weeks in an attempt to let tempers cool and to reclaim a civil and inclusive tone. Allowing a neighborhood forum to devolve into an online shouting match among a tiny minority of subscribers drives people away and serves no one’s long-term interest.

In fact, we’re encouraged by the results in this case. Where previously there was little talk about drug dealing, now there’s loads of it, among hundreds of neighbors, city councilors, police and others. Media is reporting on this important issue. Public meetings are in the works. Front Porch Forum was a starting point and a catalyst for this positive activity.

So I respectfully offer an alternative headline: “Neighbors Use Front Porch Forum to Ignite Drug Dealing Discussion.”

Michael Wood-Lewis
BURLINGTON
Wood-Lewis is the co-founder of FrontPorchForum.com

UPDATE 2: I continue to get lovely feedback from FPF subscribers on this issue, such as this one…

I wanted to express my support for you surrounding the recent heated discussion on our FPF.

I am a member of several listservs, and have been for about a decade. Your moderation appears to me to be very appropriate and even generous. The vigilante attitude about “dismissing” you as a moderator resulting from the alleged violations of the 1st Amendment was absurd and lacked maturity. Living in Burlington sometimes skews the lens of reality for people, and I think the most outspoken opponents to what was clearly stated to be a 2 week moratorium, not “censorship”, had no idea what they were talking about.

Please continue your fabulous work and your level of moderation. The FPF is such an incredible asset to residents and I have no idea how I lived without it before moving back here.

UPDATE 3: See this follow-up posting…

Hometown Daily Covers Front Porch Forum

Posted on Friday, July 4, 2008 by • Comments are off for this post

Thanks to Sally Pollak who wrote an excellent feature article about Front Porch Forum for the Burlington Free Press yesterday.


Photo credit: Alison Redlich, Free Press

About Blog

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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