Category Archives: Neighborhood

Praise from FPF Members

Posted on Thursday, July 12, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

I’ve said it before… the steady flow of wonderful member comments washing through Front Porch Forum keeps the FPF development team motivated and focused. The comment list grows continually. Some recent samples…

Thank you for Front Porch Forum — it is the internet at its best. -Lorinda Henry

Thank you for creating this wonderful resource to support our connection to one another. You’ve done a terrific job. I really appreciate it (and the last-minute tickets to Circus Smirkus, which was fantastic!) -Amy Todisco

I posted something about seeking help with dog sitting, and I received a wonderful reply, for which I’m very grateful. Thanks very much for starting this online community! -Andi Mowrer

I have relocated; I hope there’s a Front Porch Forum up this way! Thank you – I found it very helpful. I was able to pass along my beloved piano to a new piano player. -Rebecca Strader

I love Front Porch Forum. It is such a great way to be connected to different social networks and hear the opinions of my neighbors! -Rachel Weston, State Representative

I’d just like to offer some kudos here: (1) to Front Porch Forum for creating a medium for neighbors to communicate issues quickly and easily, and (2) to the police and government officials of all types for watching and responding to this forum on a regular basis. I think I can speak for most members of the community and say this: Whether or not we are satisfied with every response we receive, we appreciate everything our officials are doing to improve and maintain our quality of life. We have to acknowledge that FPF has created a communication path and that its being used, successfully, by our community. -Tim Curtin

About 30 neighbors attended our potluck. It was very successful and fun! See what Front Porch Forum’s vision hath wrought! -Edorah Frazer

I am really appreciating this forum – finding out about goings on in the community, and the conversations, connections, that are going on whether I am participating or bystanding. -Guthrie Smith

Thanks everyone for the mechanic recommendations! It’s been a great help and I’m glad this forum exists for such occasions. -Cody Silfies

Please update my account as I’ve moved to a new neighborhood. I love being part of Front Porch Forum and am hoping it will help me meet neighbors at my new place! -Abba Corliss

Front Porch Forum Case Study

Posted on Wednesday, July 11, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

Ken Picard wrote an article in this week’s Seven Days about the assault of a woman at a Burlington basketball court when she asked some late night ballplayers to tone it down. What a terrible act against this 11-year resident.  I reported on the Burlington Free Press’ coverage here previously.

With the publication of Ken’s piece, a vivid portrait is painted of how the neighbors are using Front Porch Forum to inform each other about events, express concerns, debate underlying issues, attract official responses from local authorities, and get organized. Some excerpts…

When residents living near Pomeroy Park in the Old North End first learned about the late-night assault last month on one of their neighbors, they probably didn’t get the news from the daily newspaper. More likely, they read about it on the Front Porch Forum…

This incident, like many relatively minor crimes that occur each day in Burlington, might have gone unnoticed and unaddressed were it not for the victim’s neighbor, Samuel Press. He asked her permission to post an account of the incident on their neighborhood’s Front Porch Forum…

Press’ posting sparked a flurry of email responses from other residents of the Old North End, some of whom recounted similar experiences with unruly and foul-mouthed park users. Others expressed dismay at the Parks & Recreation department and the police department’s unwillingness and/or inability to address their concerns, which appear to have existed for years.

The online back-and-forth eventually prompted official replies from Parks & Recreation Director Wayne Gross and Burlington Police Lieutenant Jennifer Morrison… Gross wrote that he asked the Burlington Electric Department to fix the street lamp that was bleeding light onto the court, enabling late-night play to occur. Likewise, Morrison informed residents that the police have stepped up nighttime patrols of the area, and asked residents to get good descriptions of anyone else engaged in suspicious activities.

Recently, a group of neighbors met to talk about longer term solutions. FPF is all about helping neighbors connect and foster community at the neighborhood level. This is a wonderful case study of people using Front Porch Forum in just this way.

Neighborhood Mapping Tool

Posted on Wednesday, July 11, 2007 by • 4 comments

Glenn reports on AnyGeo today…

Maponics, LLC announced today the full release of Maponics Neighborhood Boundaries™. Until now, websites offering local search, including social marketing, real estate and Web 2.0 sites, have had to provide search results based upon ZIP Code or city name. By integrating Maponics Neighborhood Boundaries, search results for hundreds of cities can now be filtered and even mapped by universally accepted city neighborhood boundaries. The result – more relevant local search results, more loyal site visitors and higher ad revenue. More about the dataset… Covering hundreds of the top US cities, the Maponics Neighborhood Boundaries database includes all latitude and longitude coordinates for each neighborhood polygon. It is specifically designed for easy integration into Google™, Yahoo!®, or Microsoft® map mash-ups or into back-end data analysis applications.

The idea of mapping by neighborhood is a very clever one and I believe offers amazing opportunities to the users of these data. Given the social and economic characteristics that residents of a “neighborhood” share this could indeed truly become a very powerful and useful data product… I can’t wait to see where this goes as we see apps developed based on neighborhood data. See www.maponics.com

Front Porch Forum has created polygons for neighborhood boundaries in our pilot area (Burlington, VT) and it’s more art than science.  Some are obvious to everyone, other areas defy consensus.

Zillow launches neighborhood pages

Posted on Wednesday, July 11, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

Zillow.com, a big real estate site, today launched its new Neighborhood Pages…

We’ve created more than 6,500 new Neighborhood Pages in 134 cities across the country (with more to come). We’ve seeded these pages with some pretty amazing demographic data—including telling characteristics about the residents of these neighborhoods. However, the bulk of the content on the Neighborhood Pages we have left up to you, the Zillow community. Use the neighborhood discussion forums to meet your neighbors, talk about local news, publicize events like garage sales and get the inside scoop by asking questions of residents who know the area best. You can also share your photos of the neighborhood and check out the real estate in your area – from homes for sale to local Make Me Move prices to the most talked-about homes. To find a Neighborhood Page, you can access via any one of the 70+ million Home Detail pages and look for the link right beneath the address.

Bloggers tracking this kind of thing question whether people will come and populate the site with their postings.  Time will tell.  From The Real Estate Bloggers…

Now the problem with all forums or microsites that require user input to thrive is gaining that critical mass. There is no way Zillow is going to be able to staff people to manage each locales page without throwing big money at it. And Topix has the automated local news side of hyperlocal figured out and they are muddling along.

What will determine the critical mass is if enough people will come and stay to discuss local issues on a regular basis. Some real estate agents will, but to be honest I am not sure that homebuyers want to sit around and watch real estate agents talk shop. And for the real estate agents to come to Zillow and change their voice so what they write is a big leap, if they wanted to do that they would have a blog and be dominating the local SERPs that way.

S. Burlington Night Out Aug. 7

Posted on Tuesday, July 10, 2007 by • 2 comments

South Burlington, VT will partake in the 24th annual National Night Out celebration on August 7.  The Free Press reported yesterday that the organizers are looking for volunteers.  Interested?  Contact Cpl. Ron Piper (845-4625).  Also from the Free Press…

National Night Out serves to heighten crime and drug prevention awareness while generating support for, and participation in, local crime prevention efforts, said Sgt. Thomas A. Fraga of the South Burlington Police Department. It also aims to strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships and send a message to criminals that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.

South Burlington will start off the event with a movie and family bingo Aug. 6 at the rotary band shell at Dorset Park. The event at the park will continue at noon Aug. 7 with pony rides, inflatables, and displays from businesses, nonprofits and crime prevention agencies.

The parade will begin at 6 p.m. from the University Mall and progress down Dorset Street until it ends at Dorset Park an hour later. After the parade, the winners of the South Burlington Talent Show and other local groups will perform. A fireworks display at 9:15 p.m. will conclude the event.

This event meshes well with the mission of Front Porch Forum.

Basketball Assault and Neighborhood Response

Posted on Friday, July 6, 2007 by • 1 comment

John Briggs writes today in the Burlington Free Press about trouble at Pomeroy Park in Burlington’s Hill-Old North End area. The basketball court there draws a lot of intense games. Neighbors complain of loud explicative-filled language, and games going on outside of allowed hours.

A woman who came out to ask a couple players to tone it down at 3 AM was assaulted recently… a terrible thing. This was first reported on our ONE East Neighborhood Forum and since then has been the focus of dozens of postings among neighbors. The police, parks and rec, and a city councilor have weighed in too on that forum.  John writes…

The crime has become a persistent topic on the neighborhood’s e-mail newsletter sponsored by the Front Porch Forum. Some who have written to the forum and others who live nearby say the basketball court, well-known as the site of “high level” recreational basketball, as Parks Director Wayne Gross put it, is out of place in the close-packed neighborhood.

The first round of messages declared outrage and indicated plenty of pent-up frustration about the situation with the basketball court. Then some messages were posted that raised the concern about racism and/or classism. This elicited a strong backlash claiming no racism (although some of the ongoing basketball playing crowd is African-American, the assailants were actually white college students). Now some members of the neighborhood have called a meeting to map out a plan for how to work towards a reasonable solution. The tone of many recent postings has been solution-oriented.

In another case, a woman was shouted down for requesting quiet during late hours.  John reports…

She called the police, and the players, in that instance, were ticketed. In a note on the Front Porch Forum, she said “swearing and inappropriate language is used on a daily basis” on the basketball court. In response to the many comments on the forum about the assault, Burlington Police Lt. Jennifer Morrison described the attack as “reprehensible” but added “it is unlikely that the perpetrator will be identified.” She said patrols have been increased near the park since then.

I’m grateful for John’s accurate attribution to Front Porch Forum in his article. Best wishes to all involved in this issue… I’m glad that FPF has proved useful. I also hope that working on this challenge will bring neighbors together in a lasting way that may have not occurred otherwise.

Neighborhood Discussion on MPR

Posted on Wednesday, July 4, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

Minnesota Public Radio interviewed Jay Walljasper about his new book, The Great Neighborhood Book, today.  One-hour call-in show.  Interesting.

Kudos for Front Porch Forum

Posted on Friday, June 29, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

Burlington seems to be suffering an increase in break-ins, vandalism and the like.  Much is shared on the various neighborhood forums hosted by FPF.  Local officials weigh in too.  Here’s a gem that just arrived on the ONE East Neighborhood Forum from Tim this evening…

I’d just like to offer some kudos here:

* to Front Porch Forum for creating a medium for neighbors to communicate issues quickly and easily
* to the police and government officials of all types for watching and responding to this forum on a regular basis

I think I can speak for most members of the community and say this:  Whether or not we are satisfied with every response we receive, we appreciate everything our officials are doing to improve and maintain our quality of life.  We have to acknowledge that FPF has created a communication path and that its being used, successfully, by our community.

Thanks Tim!

Congratulations Ms. Moose and Baby!

Posted on Wednesday, June 27, 2007 by • 23 comments

HELLO MOOSE LOVERS: Please check out the photos below (and here’s another moose photo taken by a friend in her Vermont neighborhood) and then stop by our core website… the national award-winning Front Porch Forum… 30% of our pilot city subscribes already!  Cheers.

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A Front Porch Forum member of the Hinesburg Village Neighborhood Forum posted this today…

Yup, we are still in the sticks, no matter how developed we are. Must be getting crowded in the swamps as well.

Followed by this note from his Colchester, VT friend with these incredible photos…

In my 5 years in Colchester, I have never seen a newborn baby moose. This one was not even a half a mile from our house. The mother picked a small quiet neighborhood and had her baby in the front yard at 5:30 am We were out bike riding when we came upon the pair. The lady across the street from this house told us she saw it being born. We saw them at 5:30 pm . So the little one was 12 hours old. What an awesome place we live in to see such a site.

[See the comments below… seems that this moose mom and babe might hail from Alaska, not Colchester!]

People who don’t know they need FPF

Posted on Sunday, June 24, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

Got the following note from a Front Porch Forum member today…

I have been part of my Huntington forum for several months and think it is wonderful. Thank you for launching such a great community builder! I was hesitant at first to join the forum, only because in Huntington we have a wonderful/helpful/supportive community already. Once I joined, though, I realized how helpful it can be! I am in contact with neighbors I hadn’t known that well – it just serves to widen my “circle.”

With people who are already super-plugged into their neighborhood, Front Porch Forum seems to get one of two initial rections… (1) “Great, where do I sign up” or (2) “No thanks… I already know everything and everybody.” The member above was, in some ways, a (2) who forced herself to check it out anyway… good for her!

In most cases, I’ve given up trying to convince the second category of folks. However, they often come on board some months later after FPF comes up over and over.

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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