Category Archives: Good Government

State Rep. and City Councilor Agree

Posted on Tuesday, June 5, 2007 by • No comments yet

Steve Urquhart, a Utah state rep. who I met at the PDF conference had these wonderful things to say on his blog…

One of the most interesting projects I saw at PDF was FrontPorchForum (FPF). FPF is using online community to build real community. According to FPF co-founder Michael Wood-Lewis, about 20% of the people in Burlington, Vermont, are FPF members. Membership groups are limited to neighborhoods and sign-in is by real name. By using the forum to help match needs with resources for things like shoveling snow, moving furniture, obtaining emergency firewood when a furnace failed, selling old cars, staffing neighborhood watch programs, etc., FPF is using the Internet to help build better neighborhoods in Burlington. Way to go, Michael!

UPDATE (Later): My friend Arjun Singh, the bloggingist city council member in all of Kamloops, British Columbia, paid me a visit in the comments. It’s really funny how people see the world. As far as I know, Arjun and I were the only two elected officials at PDF (at least he’s the only one that I met, I should say). And we both work on the local level (though city and county council types might challenge me on that assertion). While there were lots of famous and important people there and lots of cool things to catch someone’s attention (I’ll blog about some in the coming days), if you look at his blog, you’ll see that Arjun and I both lasered in on a not-so-flashy site doing worthwhile things at the local level.

Local Officials join Neighborhood Forums

Posted on Friday, April 27, 2007 by • No comments yet

More than 100 local officials have joined Front Porch Forum spread among the various 18 towns and cities that make up Chittenden County (don’t forget Buells Gore!). We always envisioned city councilors, selectboard members and school commissioners joining and having access to the multiple neighborhood forums within their districts. This is a great way for elected local officials to listen to their constituents and to broadcast out announcements… and even to have constructive back-and-forth discussions. And it’s been broadly supported and appreciated by our members.

However, we now also have many appointed local officials, that is, department heads (public works, park and rec, zoning, etc.), police and some elementary school community resource people. In general, these folks sign on and simply “listen in.” If something comes up relevant to their area, they may respond to the neighborhood forum or the person who wrote in originally, or may do nothing… or something else all together. They occasionally post announcements.

One or two FPF members have complained about this latter group, saying it gives them too much power around political issues… if a neighborhood is fighting a development that the city is pushing, for example. I have yet to witness any outright abuses of this set up.

For their part, the local officials seem mostly grateful for the service, but also a little unsure about how best to put it to use… fair enough, Front Porch Forum is a new beast. One official complained just today that “we have well-established public processes for public input on issues… now I’m supposed to monitor all these neighborhood forums to learn what our citizens are focused on?”

With 20% of Burlington participating across 38 neighborhood forums – many hopping with hot issues (e.g, historic preservation, graffiti, car break ins, heroin, homelessness, taxes, traffic planning, stormwater, snow plowing, etc.) – our subscribers increasingly include a line in postings like… “if our public works department is reading this, will you please… ” So there does seem to be a degree of public expectation.

At the same time, other folks are adamant that the neighborhood forum be limited to residents only.

One last thought, some years ago the Five Sisters Neighborhood Forum (our flagship forum) essentially defeated a proposal to build an indoor tennis building in South Park. A few neighbors stated strong opposition based largely on false or missing information about the proposal. The developers, including King Street Youth Center, immediately backed out and the project died before the public even knew what it really was. One person declared that the neighborhood didn’t support the project, based on the forum postings, to which my neighbor Larry replied… Front Porch Forum is “a soap box, not a ballot box.” And I think he’s right… and that’s an important point for “listening in” local officials and contributing members to keep in mind.

A few folks have used their neighborhood forum to great effect… raising their issue on the forum and rallying support among the neighbors. Then, when interest is up and the local officials are starting to tune in, they use their forum to get a critical mass of neighbors to engage the municipality through existing channels… e.g., by turning out a crowd at a commission or council meeting.

Front Porch Forum on Big Stage

Posted on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 by • 1 comment

Front Porch Forum just accepted an invitation from co-organizer Micah Sifry to speak at the Personal Democracy Forum on May 18 in New York City. Wow! What an honor and opportunity. Dare I say, I think we have something to add… what we’re doing is unique (from all that I’ve seen at least), off to a promising start, and potentially powerful.

This will be a great event. Speaking or in attendance…

I imagine that we’ll be tucked away in some corner… but we’ll be there! I better start combing the hayseed out of my hair.

Legislators on the Vermont Autobahn

Posted on Thursday, April 12, 2007 by • No comments yet

With thousands of local members contributing to Front Porch Forum, every day brings something new… an especially insightful or inspiring post, etc. Here’s a beaut that will be published in the next issue of the Huntington Neighborhood Forum.

Where to start? I had to go to southern VT on business yesterday and on the way back had the pleasure to be a part of the mass exodus from our fine capital, Montpelier. All our elected officials were headed home… They get a nice distinct license plate so it’s easy to spot them. I had the cruise set at 70 MPH ( at 65 MPH you risk getting hit from behind). I was being passed like I was standing still!

All the cars had only one person in them… WOW

All sorts of things come to mind while this was happening… I’ll leave that up for your imagination. Well, maybe I should point that imagination in a positive direction by saying this:

Lead by example, Carpool, set up transportation hubs so folks can park and ride, make them carpool. You’re an elected official. This is how you get into work.

We have to start somewhere why not start from the top. =-) JIM

James Fecteau
Huntington Neighborhood Forum

[Thanks to Jim for his permission to publish this beyond his neighborhood forum.]

Missing Child updates on Front Porch Forum

Posted on Thursday, April 12, 2007 by • No comments yet

Members have been using Front Porch Forum for neighborhood watch type activities for some time. Here’s something similar. Burlington police use a nationally available service that automatically calls all phone numbers within one or more neighborhoods to alert the community about a missing child… wonderful use of technology. (I can’t imagine how terrible this situation must be for the people caught up in it.)
The downside… after receiving this alarming call from a machine, with few details (you don’t know who the kid is typically… just that a neighbor boy or girl of certain description is gone), you get nothing more… no follow up. No “we found Billy and everything is okay.” The service can’t be used that way, only for emergencies.

So it was interesting to read the minutes from the March 2007 Neighborhood Planning Assembly meeting for Ward 5 today:

Corporal Fabiani informed the NPA of a localized “Child is missing” alert that was activated recently and was successful in finding the child safely. Currently there is no ability to make a similar phone call to cancel the alert. Suggestions were made that the Front Porch Forum could be used to alert neighbors of the status. Local TV and radio stations are already used.

That’s another great use of our neighborhood forums, and, in fact, this has been done at least twice recently, once in the South End and once in the Old North End to good effect. Put the word out on the forum and it spreads across the neighborhood.

U-G-L-Y Bloggers have no Alibi

Posted on Wednesday, March 7, 2007 by • No comments yet

Winner of the Vermont-bloggers-are-not-the-most-photogenic-lot essay contest? Philip Baruth, hands down:

Never have so many wonderful people, filled with so many lovely ideas, produced so many aesthetically questionable photographs.

And did he really have to include so much damning evidence to make his case? Seven snapshots and 677 words… I can mount no defense… guilty as charged.

P.S. It was a great event:

In no particular order, we had a full Seven Days contingent, with Freyne and Resmer (as well as mini-Resmer); the men of Green Mountain Daily (J.D. Ryan, Jack McCullough), as well as an erstwhile man of GMD, Odum; Neil Jensen and unflappable friend Oliver; Charity Tensel and Haik Bedrosian; the reclusive Yusef; Jason Lorber and Max, his extremely cool son; Michael Wood-Lewis, of the Front Porch Forum; Bill Simmon, who kicked off the event with a spontaneous Youtube seminar; and many more.

Winooski turns to Front Porch Forum

Posted on Monday, February 26, 2007 by • No comments yet

Andy Potter filed a wonderful story for Channel 3 News tonight about how the City of Winooski is turning to Front Porch Forum. Video below. Text here and on the WCAX website.

Local Government and Front Porch Forum

Posted on Saturday, February 24, 2007 by • No comments yet

Local officials continue to pick up on the potential value of Front Porch Forum for their work. I had three state reps., a village trustee, and a schoolboard member join their neighborhood forums in the past couple days. Each signed up for the several neighborhood forums covering his/her district.

Still other folks are spreading the word about Front Porch Forum through public channels. A school commissioner running for reelection included a bit about FPF in her campaign literature. Volunteers in Westford, Jericho, Underhill and perhaps Williston plan to set up a table on Town Meeting Day to hand out FPF flyers. Any other volunteers out there for other parts of Chittenden County?

And then the Burlington Free Press reported the following today:

Erik Heikel, 29, is running a write-in campaign to fill [a] vacated seat [on Winooski’s City Council]. Heikel sees himself as part of the new population trend of Winooski — people in their late 20s and early 30s moving into Winooski to find affordable housing for their families. Heikel has been involved with Winooski’s “Front Porch Forum,” a neighborhood Internet site. Heikel said he wants to use the forum to keep younger people involved in city government.

And from K.G. in The Addition Neighborhood Forum in Burlington:

It is amazing to be a part of this forum because you get a glimpse at how our city government operates.

Parents get Bus Issue on Agenda

Posted on Wednesday, February 21, 2007 by • 3 comments

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?

Need Feedback? Ask 100 Neighbors

Posted on Wednesday, February 7, 2007 by • No comments yet

Online “communities of interest” have long afforded people the chance to poll their colleagues about an issue or idea. I’m guessing a good portion of this has been limited to professionals talking to their peers, and highly involved amateurs chatting amongst themselves in their circles.

So it’s interesting that this past week we’ve seen lots of John and Jane Q. Public posting notes in their neighborhood forums looking for feedback and/or action from their neighbors. Some samples from Front Porch Forum:

1. A physical therapist in the Prospect Parkway Neighborhood Forum asked her neighbors for feedback on their experiences with PT. She edits a state PT newsletter and hopes to use the input there.

2. A local bakery runs an annual fundraiser whereby customers vote for a single charity out of a dozen or so candidates. The winner gets to be “baker for the day” working in the shop and taking home the proceeds. Last year’s winner (King Street Youth Center, I think) earned $3,000 for its neighborhood programs. This week, people all over town are plugging their favorite nonprofit on their neighborhood forums and urging their neighbors to go vote.

3. A food critic for a local paper opened a channel to the 100 or so neighbors on her forum, asking for story leads. She’s not the first reporter to tune into her neighborhood forum for tips, although she may be the first one to formally ask.

4. Elisa Nelson worked with a city official to place a brief survey on several Burlington neighborhood forums, gauging people’s sense of allowable new-house size in established neighborhoods, leading into the city’s zoning re-write (i.e., should we allow someone to build a house that is 25% larger than its neighbors? 100% bigger?). More than 5% of people completed and returned the survey.

5.  A South End parent created an online petition about changing the start time at Burlington High School by ten minutes to better mesh with the public transit schedule.  She posted a note in her neighborhood forum a day or two ago, and now it’s been posted by other people across 5-10 forums in town, reaching thousands of people.

I wonder what someone will think of next?

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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