Might as well start here. The scanner is gone, baby, gone. We’ve lived without it for a few weeks now on CDN and, while we miss getting some of the little bits of important news on the site and, yeah, the entertainment value, we’re doing fine without it. We saw the comments from scanner fans and appreciate how much you valued it. Traffic to the site has actually been higher without the daily posts. But I’m not here to kick you, scanner. We still need you and you did a great job. We just can’t spend the time to listen to your updates. There’s news to cover.
Now that we got that off our chest, CDN is sheepishly offering up its second ‘open thread’ (here’s the first — thanks for the nice notes!) since taking on this new responsibility. The first weeks have seen a lot of good and some less good but the information flow is up and running. Beyond most of my jokes bombing so far on the site, I worry with all the boundary news that some of you won’t have faith that this Capitol Hill carpetbagger knows where the CD *is* and some of you might be partly right. But anyway, here’s hoping for a bunch of good, interesting, nobody-gets-hurt news right in the heart of things. Here’s also hoping for more and more of you to get involved with the site. We’ve already got Lisa, Tom and, soon, LIz in the mix as well as the great community posts we’ve been getting. Can you help, too? Send me mail if you’d like to come on as a contributor.
We also need to give these people things to write about. CDN has an editorial planning calendar that is still pretty flimsy. This is a spectacular time to wield your influence on the site and give us some inspirational coverage ideas. Go brainstorm style and give us a list. Or just let us know which areas — geographic or coverage topics — we should focus on. You can even tell us how much you love the scanner. Again.
Hopefully the result of all this is a continued increase in interesting news and information on the site. And fewer open threads :)
Hello JSeattle,
I am particularly interested in construction or development related topics. I really like the updates about development projects that are going through the various design and review steps, projects that just broke ground (from the large developments down to individual homes) and news about new retail (i.e. Zaw pizza in Madrona, Philly cheesteak shop updates, King Creole vacancy, etc, etc). Scott was great about bring these stories to the site. Realize there is not tons of stuff to report on compared to 3 years ago but as our economy starts to grow again and the lending crisis gets further and further behind us this will become relevant to everybody in the neighborhood once again.
Also, some of our friends that help make up the CDN community do not like construction/development so it does spark some interesting threads as well.
Thanks for keeping this site going.
I’ve scratched my head a couple times at some things you wrote. I’m warming up to your awkwardly timed humor and actually find it quite endearing. So, thank you for bringing your brand of funny here and know that your jokes aren’t bombing.
I think the picture with this story may be egging on some message of hope jokes but hopefully not.
More later… crying baby now.
Scott has run some great stories on bus service in the CD including
1) Metro’s replacement ideas for the Trolley Buses,
2) The Broadway/12th Street Streetcar debate (now settled)
3) a bunch of miscellaneous ideas for linking the CD up with the Light Rail.
Hope to hear more
Dear Leschi Neighbor,
I used to watch the DPD twice-weekly announcements (and they have an RSS feed) for the Miller neighborhood, and was relieved when CD News came along and took over that job.
I note that a Capitol Hill Community Council member (Josh Meyer) does a similar job for the CHS blog.
Perhaps you’d care to take on the task: watching DPD and posting the Design Review announcements is simple, and can be done in off hours. Actually attending the meetings and reporting on them could be left to the affected immediate neighbors. I suspect that DPD now posts minutes and decisions on their website: probably just involves finding them and linking to them. And some architects post the Powerpoint presentations from the meetings: again just a question of finding and linking.
Andrew
I’m looking forward to contributing however I can. I work in the architecture industry so I too find stories about development of all kinds interesting.
I also find crime interesting because it affects all of us and this community, historically, has worked very hard to rid their streets of crime and drug abuse. It is amazing to see neighborhoods pull together like the CD has and can. I’d love to learn more about it.
Definitely nice to have a hand. We should be on top of this stuff but tips always help. There are a lot of streets to watch in the CD. If you see something that you think we should be watching, it helps a lot if you make a quick post with a link to the DPD meeting notice, etc.
Ah, that’s nice. I’ll try to keep the wisecracks to a minimum.
Cool. I’m a fan of the transit beat but will admit this is a topic that will be harder for me as I’m not a super experienced CD mass transp rider. If we’re not on top of something we should be, holler.
Can’t wait to get you in the mix. Don’t wait for me! Go for it! :)
The Eastside Crime Prevention Coalition meets the 4th Thursday of the month and Scott was always there. The East Precinct Captain and other Officers come and talk about crime in the Central community. Scott would always report what came out of this meeting, which is usually a lot In December, the group is meeting on the 9th due to the holidays. Anyone is welcome to attend. It is a great meeting and sponsored by the Seattle Neighborhood Group. It is at 6:00 at SVI in Room 401.