Category Archives: Stories

Be the change you want to see…

Posted on Friday, May 9, 2008 by • No comments yet

Vandalism and petty crime in an urban neighborhood can breed cynicism, negativity and isolation.  Not so with a gardener in Burlington’s Old North End.  Michelle’s posting on Front Porch Forum today shows a different path…

I have had some flowers missing from my garden this spring. About a week or 2 ago I had 2 brand new dahlias taken from my planter in front of my house. Whoever took them didn’t just take the flower, but roots and all. This morning I woke up to find several of my tulips, a hyacinthe and 2 daffodils missing, it appears they were cut.

I decided rather than wonder if my flowers will be there every day when I come home, I made myself a nice bouquet and will give some to my mom for mother’s day. Luckily I had taken photos of the flowers, so I’m sharing them with everyone.  http://glographics.net/garden/2008

I will try to update this page over the summer and add my gardens from the past to my site.

So here’s to making lemonade from lemons!

Helping neighbors help sick little girl

Posted on Monday, May 5, 2008 by • No comments yet

Just got a lovely note from Burlington School Commissioner Vince Brennan…

Thank you so much for your help with [our community fundraiser for a neighborhood child battling cancer]!  Front Porch Forum has **already** exponentially multiplied the community’s response to this event and for that we are incredibly grateful (as is Emily and family!)

It’s a genuine honor and privilege to assist people within our community doing such important work.

A pox upon paintballer

Posted on Saturday, May 3, 2008 by • No comments yet

This stinks.  From Kathleen in Burlington’s Old North End today…

Biking back from a dinner at the Sheraton this evening, I was shot with a paint ball gun from a moving car. It was a red 4 door. Anyone had similar experiences? Suffice to say, it was frightening and ruined both my jacket and my good mood. It was too dark to get a license plate number, though I really would have liked to get it.

So, cyclists beware! Being unexpectedly shot with a paint ball gun is painful and dangerous. I hope whoever did this gets caught or a case of leprosy.

This is the first time that Front Porch Forum has been used to alert neighbors to a threat posed by marauding paintballers.

Posthole Digger Slows Speeders?

Posted on Monday, April 28, 2008 by • No comments yet

Folks in Huntington, in a rural part of Vermont, have been discussing speeding cars a lot lately on Front Porch Forum… and how to slow them down through the village center. Good, meaty conversation. Lots of ideas and participants.

So when Doug asked if anyone could loan him a posthole digger, I figure it was a little off topic. Less than 12 hours later, Doug writes…

I was overwhelmed with 15 offers to loan a post hole digger. Thank you to all who responded! … and thanks to Front Porch Forum!

How many posthole diggers could possibly exist in the 200 or so household that currently subscribe to this neighborhood forum?  I venture that Doug found many to most of them.

And it strikes me that this exchange is not off topic at all. The speeding comments are boiling down to getting drivers to realize that their aggressive driving is a problem and danger to the folks living there… to getting them to be better neighbors… the kind of neighbor who would loan you a posthole digger.

Free eggs, bobcat sightings, local seamstress

Posted on Sunday, April 27, 2008 by • No comments yet

Jen Mincar writes from Richmond, VT today…

I love Front Porch Forum. It’s such a great vehicle for bringing us all closer together. My visiting friends from across the country laugh when they read the posts about free eggs, or bobcat sightings, or someone looking for a good local seamstress, but I LOVE it. It’s tough to know your neighbors through the woods sometimes, so it’s nice to get to know them through the computer. And then you have something fun to talk about at the local neighborhood bash that we find out about through the forum!

That’s great to hear! And I’m curious about what the out-of-town friends find funny. Jen?

UPDATE: A fascinating response from Jen…

The friends/family that laugh are doing so more out of genuine surprise that we would actually go so far as to trust someone, albeit a ‘neighbor’, that we’ve never met. A lot of them come from bigger cities, and they covet their anonymity. They don’t want anyone to know their name, where they live, what they have in their house, or what they have to offer. The don’t want to know their neighbors. They don’t trust their neighbors. And they are really shocked and happy that there are still places and communities in the world where people trust one another so openly. They find it almost unreal. Unbelievable. “Why are people sharing like that?” is a question that someone asked me. My only answer was “because that’s how we do things here”.

The evils of the computer and internet are also in question. My sister, who works in internet forensics, asked how I could be sure that child molesters weren’t out there lurking around when I posted to the forum about trying to find a sitter for my two kids. Now he knows my name, my kids name, where we live, and our phone number. Aren’t we scared. Everyone/anyone knows all about me and the kids now. It’s a valid question. One I didn’t even think about it. Technology tends to want to make people stay anonymous. Giving out your real name and number suddenly seems like a lot of exposure. TMI…too much information. I guess it’s about trust again.

I trust the people in my neighborhood, both in person and on the FPF. Again, maybe it’s just ‘how we do things here’. Would the FPF fly in NYC? Or Vegas, where my sister lives? Good question.

FPF is social networking with a twist, and that’s extremely hot right now with younger generations and lots of business networking websites. It’s the softer/gentler version of Facebook , LinkedIn, you name it, without the pics, although maybe with your upgrades you’re headed in that direction?

After hosting 130 FPF online neighborhood forums in a variety of settings (urban, rural, suburban, village, poor, rich, Republican, Democratic, Progressive, etc.), I think that the feelings of mistrust detailed above are widespread. However, I believe that the latent desire to know the neighbors and feel plugged in locally is even more powerful and that Front Porch Forum is helping wake it up in many communities… and can do it many more.

Networking Community Goodness

Posted on Saturday, April 26, 2008 by • No comments yet

More evidence that Front Porch Forum brings out the good in people…

Andrew posted a TV that he was giving away on his FPF neighborhood forum. Jeff responded saying how he appreciated the gesture, to which Andrew replied…

I have been touched by the power of FPF to network the goodness that exists in our community serveral times and am happy to make a little contribution myself.

Building Community in an e-State

Posted on Thursday, April 24, 2008 by • 1 comment

Vermont is working to become the first “e-State” with availability of broadband internet and cell phone coverage across 100% of the state… by 2010. The “100% of the state” bit is ambitious and lots of people, organizations are businesses and contributing toward the realization of this goal.

The State of Vermont justifies this ambition saying it will be good for economic development, healthcare, education, public safety and more. And part of the “and more” usually includes a vague reference to the e-State being good for society and civic engagement. Can the internet and cell phones enhance the sense of community in a town? Many people feel these tools actually turn people’s attention away from local community.

The Snelling Center is stepping in to address this issue with a one-day event on May 29, 2008…

Explore public policy issues, opportunities, and potential obstacles that will arise as Vermont becomes fully connected.

  • How might civic life change in a fully connected state?
  • How will we master emerging technologies so they unite us and strengthen communities?
  • How will we address issues of privacy, equity, resistance to change, ownership, and cost?
  • How will local and state governmental units ensure that all citizens have equal access to information and participation?

Details, agenda, and registration.

The keynote speaker will be Lewis Feldstein, Co-Author of Better Together, which he wrote with Bowling Alone author, Robert Putnam. Putnam will be speaking at UVM on April 28, 2008.

Very Important Posting

Posted on Friday, April 18, 2008 by • No comments yet

Perhaps the most important neighborhood posting ever made on Front Porch Forum came through in Williston today…

“Hello – We just moved to the area and heard the ice cream truck!  Is there anyone who knows it’s regular route, and/or how we can get him to stop for our little one! We live on N. Brownell Rd., so it is not a neighborhood, but we would still like to visit him!  Thanks!”

It’s been a seriously long and cold winter here in Vermont and this week suddenly hit the 60s!

Moose in the neighborhood

Posted on Thursday, April 17, 2008 by • 1 comment

Moose sightings! Gotta tune in for that. Here’s one from Pam in Mayfair Park in South Burlington, VT, that she just posted to her Front Porch Forum…

“Look who has been visiting Mayfair Park. His age was described as seeming like a ‘teenager.’ A moose on the loose… What are we doing that causes animals to stray so far from their natural terrain? While this is Mayfair Park newsworthy in the exciting sense, this is also a caution, particularly for those with children.”

Reminds me of some past moose postings… one, two, three and four.

UPDATE:  Yikes!  This moose was on our block this morning!!  A neighbor posted a sighting report on the Five Sisters Neighborhood Forum.  And the traditional media picked up on it too.

Won’t live without front porch… Media coverage

Posted on Thursday, April 17, 2008 by • No comments yet

People’s use of Front Porch Forum has been making the news recently. You can watch, listen and read the coverage on our media page. And while the national and state-wide attention from PBS.org, Wall Street Journal, Morning Edition VPR, etc. is wonderful, I also love the small local reporting.

For example, today the United Way of Chittenden County covered FPF, as did The Charlotte News, a community newspaper covering a small rural Vermont town. Here’s a quote…

Charlotter Lell Forehand says of the Forum: “I first read an article about Front Porch Forum in a newspaper and thought what a wonderful idea. I think the name ‘Front Porch Forum’ appealed to me as I grew up in a small community where people actually had front porches where we often sat and talked with our neighbors. (My Mom often said that she never wanted a house without a front porch.) Now we live in a world where people seem busier with little time for just ‘sitting and chatting.’ So I see Front Porch Forum as an ingenious idea to use technology as a way to be neighborly and to know more about community needs. This seems especially important in areas like Charlotte where our nearest neighbor may be in sight but maybe not. I have used FPF to seek information about various topics and have found it amazing that someone always responds with either the answer to my question or tells me someone to call who may know the answer. I have ‘met’ people in the community this way and hope that, if someone (or group) in the community has a special need, he or she would turn to FPF as a way to communicate that need. What a great way to build community spirit… kudos to those responsible for its initiation and those who keep it going.”

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Please vote for us! And help spread the word… one vote per email address. Polls close April 22, 2008.

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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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