Category Archives: Burlington

Local Journalist wins National Award

Posted on Sunday, June 17, 2007 by • No comments yet

Congratulations to Seven Days‘ Cathy Resmer for the national award she just won for her work online.  Details here.

Gratitude… very nice.

Posted on Saturday, June 16, 2007 by • No comments yet

A local attorney posted the following on his Old North End neighborhood forum today.  Thanks Dennis!

Thanks to Front Porch Forum for this service and all the work that you do to keep the magnificent line of communications up and running so efficiently. It is amazing and the benefits for all are very real. Sometimes it is easy to take such things for granted so I feel it necessary to toss in this heartfelt thanks and appreciation which I am sure is shared by everyone who has benefited from this valuable community asset. Thank you again.  -Dennis McMahon

When Members Sell Your Service better than You

Posted on Thursday, June 14, 2007 by • 1 comment

I attended a wonderful event in the neighborhood this evening hosted by Burlington’s SEABA (South End Arts and Business Association) and located in Lake Champlain Chocolates‘ newest building.  LCC CEO Jim Lampman shared stories of their success over the past 25 years and then architect John Anderson, who designed the project, talked of his vision of a vibrant, walkable Burlington… where people can’t help but keep walking, drawn from one interesting block to another by art, architecture, parks, views, etc.

As I mingled with the crowd afterward, I was struck that in each small group of people where I stopped to chat, Front Porch Forum would come up.  As I prepared to explain the service to those unfamiliar with it, I repeatedly was brushed aside by a current FPF member who would extol its virtues and implore the uninitiated to go right home and sign up!  In each case, they were more emphatic than I would ever be… and they each had a first-person story to tell of how it was working for them in their neighborhood.

Outsold by our own members… we must be on to something!

Neighborhood Night of Success on TV

Posted on Tuesday, June 12, 2007 by • No comments yet

Burlington’s annual Neighborhood Night of Success occurred May 29 this year.  CCTV Channel 17 has been replaying their tape of the event and couple of the replays are still to come:

  • Mon, Jun 18, 2007 at 5:40:00 AM
  • Mon, Jun 18, 2007 at 11:40:00 AM

Front Porch Forum was one of many proud award recipients that night.

City Councilor using FPF to Organize

Posted on Friday, June 8, 2007 by • No comments yet

Burlington Ward 5 City Councilor Bill Keogh is using Front Porch Forum to organize an initiative he calls Walk with Me…

Want to reduce your health care costs?  Start at home by (and you’ve heard this before): not smoking, watch how often you eat and how much you eat, and exercise.  Exercise is not a sophisticated endeavor.  It means you get out and walk.  Walk up and down the street, around your block.  Just walk.

With that in mind, I am looking for volunteer WWM’s!  Those are Walk With Me leaders.  You would be the person in your neighborhood who would be a leader in a neighborhood walk of, maybe 15 mins a day, twice a week.  This proposal is to get folks in the neighborhood together, to take a short evening stroll. Aha! Exercise and sociability.

By neighborhood, I’m talking about focusing around the area covered by your electronic Front Porch Forum.  The walks could be at 7 p.m. on a weekday and one day of the weekend.  If you are interested, contact me at bkeoghsr@yahoo.com for more details and support.

Good for Bill!  I know a former councilor who has done the same thing in her own New North End neighborhood through Front Porch Forum.  Another great use of this service.

Another Happy Subscriber

Posted on Friday, June 1, 2007 by • No comments yet

Just chatting with a Front Porch Forum subscriber this evening… ran into her on Church Street during Jazz Fest. Last we spoke, she was in tears because her car had been vandalized and broken into in her Old North End/Hill neighborhood.

Today it was all smiles. She posted a note about her experience on her neighborhood forum and – viola! – she got two responses… one from a neighbor who’s nearby car was side-swiped about the same time, and another from a neighbor who put her in touch with a city program to help victims of such crimes.

So she got to commiserate with someone, find some redress for her problem, and then she passed along the victim-program info to the other person whose car was damaged… and felt good about lending a helping hand too!

Oh… and she found a squash partner (that’s with racquets on a court!) through her neighborhood forum. A happy subscriber indeed!

Marathon Run Backwards

Posted on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 by • No comments yet

Ahh… for the simple pleasures of childhood. When I was a boy – before PCs, before DVDs, before VCRs, before even cable – our seven-member family used to gather on occasion in the living room to watch home movies from the old clickety clack 8mm projector. My dad had a few reels of ancient cartoons (think Steam Boat Willie… silent, of course).

After every can of film had been turned inside out, invariably, one of us would shout out… “let’s see ’em backwards!” And Dad would oblige, sending every kid in the house to the worn green carpet, rolling in laughter as Uncle George walked backwards up the hill, and brother Jim un-wiped out on Cypress Garden water skis.

So nostalgia got the better of me today when I saw twin postings by the Hungry Vermont guys, Michael J. Nedell and Steve McIntyre, each in their own neighborhoods on Front Porch Forum…

Hi folks. I shot the beginning of the marathon from Pearl Street as the runners made the first quick turn. A solid stream of them, which you can see by Clicking Here . I also ran it backwards because – I don’t know where this started – but I have an affinity for shooting videos that I feel will look interesting backwards, and Clicking Here will take you there.

My question… are there any 8-year-olds doubled over laughing at this kind of thing anymore? There must be some pithy youTube insight here, but I’ll leave that to the faithful reader.

Ermine, Fisher Cat, Moose visit City Cousins

Posted on Sunday, May 20, 2007 by • 1 comment

Front Porch Forum members have a way of surprising me. Every time I think the postings are getting predictable, someone writes to their neighbors with something a bit different.

This past week it was an innocent enough question in the King Maple Neighborhood Forum in an urban section of Burlington, VT…

What’s the weirdest animal you’ve seen in your yard?

Some of the answers…

•We’ve had zillions of squirrels, skunks, mice, raccoons and bats. I’d have to say an opossum is the oddest visitor. A couple friends of mine swear they saw a fisher cat run through the yard once, but I think it was some kind of weasel.
•I’ve definitely had possum, used to have a family of badgers till my neighbor ‘eradicated’ them, but the most unusual was a pure white ermine that hung around one winter.
•We have seen possum in our back yard. We also have a family of skunks living under our house, though our neighbors are convinced the family is under their own house. Hard to tell. And raccoons are everywhere, living who knows where, probably in trees at night in the warmer months.
•My beau just reminded me today that we once saw a porcupine passing through here. Some friends said they saw foxes on Main Street. Another friend told me a story about seeing a moose near the Burlington Square Mall around 3 a.m. a few years back. Kooky!

Husband Rentals get Press

Posted on Wednesday, May 16, 2007 by • No comments yet

Paula Routly has a good piece about a local hardware store’s “Rent-A-Husband” service in today’s Seven Days. The dust on this was first kicked up by John Grimm when he joined Front Porch Forum and posted his thoughts… past postings here and here.

Turn out a crowd of volunteers!

Posted on Monday, May 7, 2007 by • 1 comment

Front Porch Forum continues to be a great way to turn out a crowd for volunteer activities and events.  Deb just wrote in that her neighborhood had a record-breaking group show up for Vermont’s annual Green Up Day…

I continue to be amazed with the effectiveness of the Forum and give it full credit for the historically large turn-out for our recent Green Up Day activities in ONE East.

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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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