I guess it shouldn’t surprise me to find blog sites focused on my new hometown of Laurel, Maryland. One of them is a blog by the City of Laurel, and another is set up as a local online newspaper, but interested citizens set up the other three. This surprised me – why do people care so much about reiterating the local news?
I liked it, though! It made me feel some kind of community spirit that I haven’t had since I was a kid. We used to have block parties, where somebody would set up some fold-out tables in the middle of the sidewalk, and all of the neighbors would bring a pot-luck dish. The kids would play hide-and-seek endlessly, and the adults would sip beers and chat late into the evening. We knew every family in the neighborhood, and people would really go over to their neighbor’s houses to borrow a cup of sugar (ok, it was in Hawaii, so it was normally a cup of mayonnaise).
These blogs are filled with hope in addition to information. The blog Laurel 2020 is focused on plans for future development, and hot-button issues, like the future of slots. The author set up a google map to show future locations planned apartment communities, the planned Konterra Town Center, and the Laurel Commons (which will replace the Laurel Mall). Other blogs are Laurel Connections and South Laurel News.
Do these blogs just replace a local newspaper? I have to admit, I much prefer a quick update in my RSS reader to picking up the weekly (usually soggy) papers thrown on my driveway. I usually deposit them directly in the recycle bin. However, it offers more than those papers, because the opinions are better rounded. Not only do the authors read several local papers, they personally attend council meetings and experience life in this city. The commenters also add flavor, sometimes with insight and other times with sheer frustration.
This feeling was resurrected in me by those bloggers. I have felt more “at home” in Laurel than any of the other places I’ve lived as an adult, and now my sense of community spirit has been solidified by the obvious care that these bloggers have for our home town.
Pot luck anyone?
I liked it, though! It made me feel some kind of community spirit that I haven’t had since I was a kid. We used to have block parties, where somebody would set up some fold-out tables in the middle of the sidewalk, and all of the neighbors would bring a pot-luck dish. The kids would play hide-and-seek endlessly, and the adults would sip beers and chat late into the evening. We knew every family in the neighborhood, and people would really go over to their neighbor’s houses to borrow a cup of sugar (ok, it was in Hawaii, so it was normally a cup of mayonnaise).
These blogs are filled with hope in addition to information. The blog Laurel 2020 is focused on plans for future development, and hot-button issues, like the future of slots. The author set up a google map to show future locations planned apartment communities, the planned Konterra Town Center, and the Laurel Commons (which will replace the Laurel Mall). Other blogs are Laurel Connections and South Laurel News.
Do these blogs just replace a local newspaper? I have to admit, I much prefer a quick update in my RSS reader to picking up the weekly (usually soggy) papers thrown on my driveway. I usually deposit them directly in the recycle bin. However, it offers more than those papers, because the opinions are better rounded. Not only do the authors read several local papers, they personally attend council meetings and experience life in this city. The commenters also add flavor, sometimes with insight and other times with sheer frustration.
This feeling was resurrected in me by those bloggers. I have felt more “at home” in Laurel than any of the other places I’ve lived as an adult, and now my sense of community spirit has been solidified by the obvious care that these bloggers have for our home town.
Pot luck anyone?
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