Former Mayor Paul Schell once called Seattle a "city of neighborhoods" -- each has its own unique history, culture and pride. And so it shouldn't be any surprise to learn that neighborhood blogs are catching on fast. Seattle Times Columnist Jerry Large writes about Central District News, Miller Park Blog and the Capitol Hill Blog. "There's a constant proliferation of new ways to communicate and create communities around shared interests," writes Large. Here at CitizenRain -- where we aggregate neighborhood blogs in our news section -- we've noticed an uptick in new "hyperlocal" blogs. So what does Large -- a newspaper guy -- think about all of this? "I think the variety is great as long as we maintain some common points of reference," he writes, "...like good ol' daily newspapers."
I would have left this comment on Large's column, except the Times doesn't allow comments on most of its content ... I challenge the assertion that a citywide newspaper is necessary as a "common point of reference." Your hyperlocal news site is as capable of becoming a common point of reference as any other news source. We see many people saying they feel more locally empowered to finally have a way to know what's going on right now in the area where they live. In citywide media, where we worked for many years, space and staff constraints required coverage to focus only on the biggest/baddest/best incidents of the day drawn from an entire region, and news of intense interest to a certain neighborhood never made the cut. Why is a site reporting those incidents for neighborhoods of tens of thousands of people not as valid a "common point of reference" for people as a citywide newspaper or even national newspaper? (And why just "reference"? How about discussion and participation? Enabling comments would increase the Times' relevance as a place where that could happen on a citywide basis. Yeah, you get some cranks, but you also get some constructive discussion and even action. On our site, for example, we have even had the local Chamber of Commerce and a WS-residing City Councilmember ask readers for feedback and suggestions on certain hot issues ... and it becomes a livelier forum sometimes than gathering 100 people in a room.)
That saves me. Tahkns for being so sensible!
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