No, it doesn't exist...yet.
But I'm thinking about it a lot today. I keep a 300-person mailing list for
the Kingfield neighborhood, and it came in real handy today after a shooting
at 46th & Nicollet (if you haven't heard, the police killed a suspected
burglar behind the Bruegger's there after he fired shots at them. His
partner got away, driving the getaway car to 40th & Wentworth and abandoning
it there...)
Thanks to the great, fast reporting by the Strib and PiPress online, I was
able to get an alert out to the list - especially important since there's a
fugitive afoot. (Although I contacted my SAFE team, they didn't have any
info and referred me to news accounts. This concerns me, but I don't know
all the internal restrictions on them releasing data.)
Anyway...having somewhat haphazardly built up this neighborhood email list
for a couple of years, I've found myself wishing we had a more systematic
effort. And I'll bet other neighborhoods would like a capacity like this too
(if they don't have it or have a very big list).
My first thought was to do the sweat equity thing - drop a few pounds this
summer and few thousand postcards at every Kingfield home and ask people to
email or send me their addresses. Make it clear the list would only be used
for neighborhood org. purposes and never sold or used for a personal or
commercial venture.
Then I got a nice note from Roger Downey at the city of Minneapolis inviting
me to an e-city retreat on April 10. He wants some citizens to talk about
ways Minneapolis could use the Internet better.
So it occurred to me this morning, after the crime update, why not propose a
Minneapolis Office of Email? The goal would be to get as many
resident/business email addresses as possible, to be used for public - but
not commercial, personal, or campaign - purposes. There would be a variety
of "products" - crime alerts, NRP updates, neighborhood news, etc. - that
residents could choose to subscribe to, a la CNET newsletters if you've ever
used those.
While it's possible to help people find you, I think a small investment in
Minneapolis trying to compile these addresses would be worth it. I don't
envision a big office - a person maybe? - but I don't know what the
specifics would be. Maybe a pilot project first.
Rather than flop the idea out there on April 10th, I'd like list members to
critique/refine it. Let me or the list know what you think...
David Brauer
King Field - Ward 10
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