It’s not hard to understand why crime draws the most comments on the site. We had several major events in 2008, and each one drew passionate discussions about what had happened and what people could do to get involved and help prevent something similar from happening again. The discussions were almost always constructive and helpful. The follow-through afterwards? Not always as effective. Maybe we should make that the 2009 resolution for the community: better leverage our virtual organization into real-world action.

 

1. July 22nd – Man Shot & Killed Near 25th & Columbia – 72 comments – The murder of a drug-addicted man started a long discussion of how to get all the neighbors in that area organized into an effective community group. Maybe 2009 will be the time to follow up on that?
2. October 31st – One Killed, One Injured in Shooting Near Garfield – 67 comments – The double shooting and murder of Quincy Coleman started another passionate discussion about neighborhood crime
3. December 16th – Shooting Outside Garfield Community Center – 51 comments – Last week’s shooting of Donnie Cheatham drew another outpouring of emotion and discussion about what the community needs to do to support our neighborhood youth who have been the targets of gang-related violence.
4. July 4th – Robbers are back! – 46 comments – Contributor “swindled” shared a story about a break-in at their house
5. January 30th – Two Men Shot at 23rd & Union – 41 comments -The murder of the owner of Philly’s and the first big neighborhood crime event of 2008 got people talking about the problems at 23rd & Union.
6. December 12th – Time to Fight: Bogus Rules Limit Dining Options in the CD – 40 comments – It looks like the story about the school district trying to block the Twilight Exit’s move may be one case where the online community was able to generate some tangible action for the neighborhood.  Keep your fingers crossed.
7. November 24th – South End gangs to start blasting around the CD – 36 comments -A site member posted a link to a PI story about the ongoing battles between gangs in the CD and the south end of the city. This one was notable for us due to the unusually high number of comments we had to delete, most of which were left by some asshole in Houston. He was banned after this and we’ve been free of his racist ramblings ever since.
8. April 7th – Broadstripe, formerly Millennium Cable – 34 comments – It’s fun to look at our stats about how people reach the site. Since Lavicat posted this story about the substandard cable service from Broadstripe, we’ve had 1,113 visits from people all over the country who search the internet about problems with Broadstripe, using 486 different search terms in the process.  “broadstripe complaint” is a popular one.  
9. November 25th – Confirmed: Two Neighborhood Schools May Close – 33 comments – Lots of concern and discussion about the battle against the districts plan to close two neighborhood schools.
10. July 25th – Orange you gonna’ look – 33 comments – Everybody’s got an opinion on Pb Elemental’s color palette

We love our great commenters.  Keep it up in ’09.