Category Archives: Burlington

City Councilor using FPF to Organize

Posted on Friday, June 8, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

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 • Comments are off for this post

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 • Comments are off for this post

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 • Comments are off for this post

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.

Front Porch Forum rather than eBay

Posted on Monday, May 7, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

I wrote a day or two ago about how many of our subscribers prefer using Front Porch Forum rather than other online services for many things. Here’s another example from Pete in Burlington’s Old North End (ONE)…

Hi neighbors – I’d like to sell my pickup truck — it’s way more vehicle than I need. It’s a white 1997 Dodge Ram… The Blue Book value is $6,115, but I’m happy to entertain any and all offers. Feel free to test drive it, too. I’d much rather see it go to an ONE neighbor than deal with the eBay world.

Every Neighborhood deserves a Maypole

Posted on Sunday, May 6, 2007 by • 1 comment

I love a good neighborhood party. Liz, Bill and Willy hosted a great one last weekend… May Day! We even had a genuine maypole going. Some neighborhood musicians kept the music flowing. Garlands were woven and worn. Little ones underfoot. And a perfect spring day. Thanks neighbors!

Photo:  Wolfgang Hokenmaier

Neighborhood Forum Boosters Make it Happen

Posted on Sunday, May 6, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

Here’s a great post from the Birch Neighborhood Forum today from Alan S.  It’s folks like Alan that cause Front Porch Forum to catch on and become a valuable service to one neighborhood after another.

I give my hearty welcome to the McGarghans and the Heveys.  I am pleased that you have joined the forum and encourage you to tell others in your personal networks to join their own neighborhood forums.  I think this vehicle for local communication is the best thing since sliced cheese. 🙂 I also am happy that my time spent distributing leaflets about the forum in our neighborhood is paying off.  Please consider doing something similar to spread the word.  Have a great day.

Vote for Winged Monkey

Posted on Friday, May 4, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

With thousands of Front Porch Forum subscribers posting messages to their nearby neighbors across greater Burlington, VT, there’s always something interesting popping up.  Here’s today’s surprise from the Lakewood Neighborhood Forum in the New North End…

Our three minute winged monkey video is a finalist in the International Contest Sponsored by P.A.N.D.O.R.A.

I write to ask for your vote.  The results will be announced on May 12th.  Please click on this link,  read the instructions, and cast your ballot accordingly.  When you’re done (thank you very much), please pass this along to your friends, associates and email list and ask them to do the same.  Time is of the essence.

You’ll learn something, I guarantee it.  They’ll learn something too, same promise.  Turning the tides of modern medicine is no small task.

Rik Carlson

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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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