Basic Tools #2: The Tip Jar

Always Ask For Money. This is an important rule even if it is one I don't follow as often as I should.

Neighborhoods need money. You don't always need a lot but you usually need some even if it's just to buy food or t-shirts for project volunteers. Never be ashamed to raise money for useful neighborhood projects and activities.

My rule of thumb is that if you have any kind of social gathering you can ask for money. Sometimes you can explicitly ask by letting people know that donations will be solicited. Other times you can just place a donation jar on the table.

 In Delmas Park we sometimes have gatherings in which we give a homeowner or business $100 for food and let them host a community-wide event. A donation jar helps recoup the investment for the next gathering. In fact, we had a great gathering at the end of June in which a local contractor hosted neighbors in his showroom. About thirty people showed up to share finger foods and get to know each other. Some brought wine or beer. * And a representative of a local urban advocacy group showed up to informally discuss neighborhood issues with us. So it was both a social and a "business" event. But I forgot the tip jar. If I'd brought it, we'd have an extra $100 in the bank today, for sure. So, always ask for money.

If your neighborhood association or organization is in fundraising mode you can also work with a local business to put a neighborhood donation jar in their establishment. It never hurts to ask.

*Alcohol and neighborhood gatherings is a sensitive issue. Usually the two don't mix for a variety of reasons. Our neighborhood receives a grant from the city each year. But that money is earmarked for specific purposes and alcohol is excluded. It's also excluded from any events on public property such as street parties or ones held in parks. Alcohol is inappropriate for events with children. Lastly, there may be insurance implications. We only allow it at events hosted by neighbors on their own property at their own expense.

Next Door Is The Winner

Way back in the early 2000s there were several web sites that wanted to help activists and neighbors keep tab on goings-on in the neighborhood. Some of these were focused on crime, drawing information from police data in cities across the country. Many of these are still around such as Mylocalcrime.com and Crime Report. Others would offer features such as aggregate data about weather, real estate, city inspections and other activity, or try to open communications channels between citizens and government.

 Still others tried to set up hyperlocal news feeds (patch.com, newsvine, everyblock) or create local social justice movements (unthink.com). But one by one these  fell by the wayside or became irrelevant. Nextdoor.com won.

Nextdoor is, as you undoubtedly know, a social network for neighborhoods. It's like a private Facebook for your block and surrounding streets. Users are vetted by the nextdoor system so that only people who actually live in the neighborhood can participate. Particpants can post news items, recommend local businesses, post classifieds, and share current or real-time info of use to the community. Local neighborhood leaders, such as community association officers, are invited by nextdoor to be lead members, responsible for inviting new residents to join and (lightly) policing the boards to keep the discussions, safe, friendly, and neighborly.

Each Nextdoor community follows the borders of defined city neighborhoods or natural boundaries. In our relatively small neighborhood there are 1024 households, according to Nextdoor. Of these 128 have joined, representing 171 individuals. Since our downtown community has apartments and multi-unit houses, this may overstate the actual number of households. On the map above, which covers a couple of neighborhood streets, green indicates houses or apartments with Nextdoor members. Yellow indicates pending invitations. Pink indicates non-members, though many of the pink areas are actually industrial properties.

Nextdoor can be highly useful. In the past 48 hours my neighbors have posted on dozens of different topics such as:

• questions about why police helicopters were busy over the neighborhood
• one person was giving away free infant car seats
• another person was selling a bench
• yet another per son was looking for a house-sitter
• questions were asked as towhen the fountains in the center of the city would be turned back on
• reports of a car break-in
• posts about traffic closings and safety tips for pets in summer

Once a critical mass of neighbors is involved Nextdoor operates much like other social networks except that its focus is solely on local news and information. Posts of personal news and family photos, sharing movies and music, and political arguments, such as one would find on Facebook, are rare. Political arguments in particular should be rare. They interfere with the goal of sharing useful civic information and building helpful community relationships based on shared geography, not on politics.You can read more about site features and tools here.

Currently, commercial information on Nextdoor.com is limited to user recommendations of existing businesses. That could change. Nextdoor.com evolved from an earlier social ratings site called Epinions.com.  It's ultimate aim is to make money connecting local businesses via advertising to residents or connecting them to services.