Category Archives: Burlington
Build Igloo for Chocolate… before it’s too late!
A group of Lakeside Neighborhood Forum members in Burlington’s South End recently formed the Lakeside Climate Club… or something to that effect. They gather to take a hard look at global climate change and discuss a personal and neighborhood response.
But this group isn’t letting a little cataclysmic manmade disaster get in the way of some fun. Witness their first action… a neighborhood igloo building contest… “before it’s too late!” I love it.
And the kicker, all neighborhood participants (kids and adults) will get a treat from neighboring Lake Champlain Chocolates, with the grand champion carting home something even better from this favorite local sponsor… a chocolate polar bear? Have to wait until Sunday’s judging to see, I guess (March 4 at noon).
And this isn’t the only neighborhood group forming locally to address global climate change. Others in the South Union, Five Sisters, The Addition, and Lakewood Neighborhood Forums have met at least once. Some are using a program called the Low Carbon Diet from the Empowerment Institute.
In fact, my wife just told me that we’re hosting the second meeting of just such a group in our neighborhood this weekend… but, alas, no mention of igloos or chocolate. Gotta work on that.
Anyone in Chittenden County interested in getting something going in his/her neighborhood, it’s simple… post a notice on your neighborhood forum, hold a first meeting/social event, and get rolling. Use the Low Carbon Diet, watch Al Gore’s award-winning movie, or forge your own path.
Saying “Thank You” says a Lot
We’ve seen a run of “thank you neighbor” messages in various forums. Not only is that a lovely gesture to counter a good deed, but it spreads the good will even farther. I’ve had several Front Porch Forum members (not involved with the good deeds in question) tell me that reading these thank you notes encourages them to act the
Good Samaritan role themselves. Examples:
I want to thank all those who have been so markedly supportive to my kids and me. My house stood burning and the kids and I were surrounded by you my neighbors who enveloped us with love and humor and so so much kindness. When I arrived on the scene my knees were giving out and I could barely stand… Teenagers on the street came to hug me. Parents would show up with such good intentions and humor that calm and possibly a half a smile showed on my face. Hats and gloves and blankets and leggings were placed on my person. I could regroup. The generous gift cards have saved my butt on a couple of levels but more importantly I was able to get the kids some new things at Old Navy which served quite well in the shopping therapy arena. Again a sincere thank you to everyone who has so generously reached out to all of us. -M.K., Five Sisters Neighborhood Forum
And the Valentine’s Day blizzard generated lots of this. First, a senior citizen received help from a neighbor, K.R., when the snow blocked even her attempts to let her dogs outside. She was grateful and posted a thank you and request that the K.R. stop by to receive the pay she felt she owed her. K.R.’s response:
I’m glad to have helped out shoveling your deck and side way. I’m pleased the dogs can go out and get some fresh air. No need to pay. I was happy to do it for you. What are neighbors for? -K.R., The Orchards Neighborhood Forum
Other examples:
I just wanted to send out a thank you to everyone who has been helping with this crazy amount of snow we have. Yesterday when I was attempting to unbury my car from a huge snow drift on the side of College St., numerous people stopped by to help or just to encourage. We’ve also watched from our windows as people rallied together to push cars up the hill or out of stuck driveways. Our neighborhood is coming together during this blizzard and it is wonderful to see 🙂 B.G., Buell Neighborhood Forum
The recent calls for help during and after the snowstorm reminded me of how much we count on our community to come together during times of need. I’m a single mom of a four year old. When we were getting buried last week, I resigned myself to shoveling in 5 minutes spans — going back inside to make sure she was still safely occupied with her dolls. So imagine my surprise and gratitude when I returned outside to see that someone had shoveled half my driveway when I wasn’t looking. And imagine my greater surprise and thanks when a couple of other neighbors joined to help me find my car inside a giant drift and finish the whole shoveling job. So amid the calls for assistance on this forum, I wanted to post public thanks for assistance given to my daughter and me… thank you. You are good neighbors. -C.C., The Addition Neighborhood Forum
So, thanks to all the great thank-you note writers!
Parents get Bus Issue on Agenda
Getting kids to high school… now there’s a challenge that will capture lots of families’ attention.
Burlington High School is in the New North End, two to three miles from the South End, but tough to get to for many people. And the school department does not have a fleet of school buses. Families are responsible for getting their kids to school.
Many people would like to use the local transit authority buses, CCTA. However, from the South End the bus will deliver kids tens minute late for the start of the school day… which obviously doesn’t work. The only less popular option is the one before which drops students 45 minutes EARLY… I can’t imagine why that one isn’t loaded to the gills. 😉
So a concerned parent started asking questions. It seems that the bus schedule can’t be changed easily as it ties into a whole web of interwoven lines. And the school can’t easily adjust its timing. So, in the past, that might of been the end of it.
In this case, however, the parent turned to Front Porch Forum. She set up a petition on a free web service asking the school to start classes ten minutes later. She posted a link to her online petition on her neighborhood’s forum. Then, she got creative and asked a number of other parents to do the same on their neighborhood forums.
In a flash, she had 85 signatures in hand when she made the case at the regular school board meeting. And many of the forums were buzzing with follow-up comments from other neighbors. An issue was born.
Today a member of the CCTA board weighed in across several neighborhood forums. While far from resolved, this longstanding problem moved into the spotlight overnight because one determined parent made effective use of Front Porch Forum. Who and what issue is next?
Forum Members answer Call to Shovel
Dozens of Front Porch Forum members requested help from their neighbors in the wake of the blizzard… most in need of snow removal. Others posted generous offers to help. We also were glad to help spread the word about Operation Snow Shovel… apparently to good effect:
Thanks so, so much for posting the message about Operation Snow Shovel throughout Burlington. The response was incredible! Can you believe that I’ve heard from 57 people willing to volunteer to shovel? 57! (That’s in addition to the 33 permanent volunteers who shovel for a particular person each time it snows– many of them were recruited through Front Porch Forum, too.) A large percentage of volunteers said they’d heard about the need through their neighborhood forum.
As of right now, every single elderly or disabled person in need of help that contacted OSS has been accommodated. And those I’ve yet to hear from will get help quickly. What a wonderful resource these forums are! Many, many thanks!
Angie Spong
The Center for Community and Neighborhoods
WCAX covered this story on the evening news too.
Fire and Police turn to FPF in Crisis
During the toughest stretch of our recent record-breaking blizzard, local police and fire departments turned to Front Porch Forum. Some examples:
1. Police could not spare the manpower to aid a stranded motorist out on East Ave. Sun was setting, temp was dropping, and snow was accumulating around this older gentleman. We responded by immediately calling about 300 households within a ten-minute walk.
2. In a similar case, a single mom reported that two elderly women on her block were snowed in and incommunicado. No signs of life from the outside… just snow drifted up and over the entryways. We notified about 75 nearby neighbors and asked for immediate help.
3. As the first of dozens of carbon monoxide emergencies showed up in Burlington, the Fire Department realized that snow was drifting over the outside vents of many residential gas-fired appliances causing CO backup and in many cases poisonings. Front Porch Forum broadcast the word the night of the storm and heard back things like…
After reading the message posted about clearing your vents I braved the outside at 11:30 PM and couldn’t even find my vent. I came back with my shovel and after poking around a bit I found it and cleared it… I’m sure I’ll have to do it every hour with the wind but thank you for the reminder! -ONE West Neighborhood Forum
Neighbors covered by print, radio, TV
The Richmond (VT) Times Ink! ran an article about Front Porch Forum in its current issue. Also, the Charlie and Ernie Show called and chatted with me about this service the other morning. Finally, Andy Potter at WCAX broadcast a piece about neighbors helping each other through the blizzard and mentioned Front Porch Forum’s role in some of this. See these and other media stories on our press page, including a podcast of the call-in show.
Blizzard brings out Good Neighbors
Burlington is getting buried by 24 inches of snow in 24 hours… or something like that. And high winds and drifting.
We’ve been battling snow all day, clearing roads, driveways, sidewalks… I’m spent! But inspired too. Nearly every time I went out to take another pass with the shovel I found that some good neighbor had cleared one portion or another of our walk or driveway. Tracks leading away from the good deed were always different and headed off in different directions. We’re living among a band of good Samaritans!
And on the Village Green Neighborhood Forum tonight, a subscriber posted:
If anyone needs help shoveling out from the storm, or if you know of a neighbor who needs help, post to the Forum and hopefully among a number of us on the Forum (three at my house) we can respond to the need.
That’s beautiful… really. Another great use of Front Porch Forum.
Citizen Media Survey
Wow! I just waded through the new study about online citizen journalism by the Knight Citizen News Network at the University of Maryland (thanks to the Local Onliner for the link). They surveyed a gaggled of local news/blog sites and wrote up their findings.
Front Porch Forum is a second cousin to this type of site, but not a sibling. Some comparisons:
Overall there was little accountability built in for content contributors: 73% of all respondents said their sites didn’t require users to register; 69% said a valid e-mail was not even required before posting. Only 40% of 141 respondents said their sites required contributors to use their real names; 60% said their sites allowed either anonymous posts or the use of “screen” names.
Front Porch Forum requires first and last names, street address and email address.
Asked whether their sites edited contributions before they were posted, 40% of 149 replies said content was edited; 48% said it was not and 12% just didn’t know. Half (50% of 131 replies) said offensive or inappropriate content was filtered out before posting. Most respondents (66% of 119 replies) said their sites removed offensive or inappropriate content after it was posted; but 17% of the respondents said such content was not removed, and 17% just didn’t know.
Front Porch Forum does not edit content, but it does screen all postings, add headlines and clean up formatting.
Half the respondents reported that 26 or fewer people overall were contributing content or skills to their enterprise, although site operators say many of those are just occasional contributors.
When we analyzed our flagship neighborhood forum that covers an area of 350 households, we found that about:
-300 households subscribe (after six years)
-200 households have posted at least one message
-100 households have posted at least six messages
For the past five months we’ve been hosting 130 neighborhood forums covering the Burlington, Vermont area. More than 15% of the city’s households have joined already. I’m not sure how many of those people are contributing, but I’d guess that it’s significantly greater than on many of the surveyed sites.
Based on their own definitions of “success,” 73% of our survey respondents pronounced their sites to be successful.
Well, it’s early, but I’ll give Front Porch Forum a thumbs up on the “success” question at this point. It seems most of the sites in the survey focus on success around journalistic goals of informing and engaging the public. Our purpose is to help neighbors connect and foster community within neighborhoods. Local news from our members to their neighbors contributes to that process, but it’s not the end goal.
Does anyone get paid? Of the 78 who replied: 33% said their sites had no paid workers; 33% said only one or two workers got paid.
We’re in the 33%. 😉
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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