I covered that meeting about the correctional facility that is proposed
for 52nd & Lindbergh, and reported it that same evening on UCNeighbors.
Can't imagine why anyone who is curious about West Philadelphia public
affairs would have missed it.
By and large, people with higher-quality neighborhood input will, over
time, put more of their input into the higher-quality neighborhood output.
"Purple" once was at the cutting edge of online representation of
geographical urban communities. But it isn't anymore. Let's move on.
It's easy!
It's not just Glenn's constant, unmoderated gargling that annoys many
people. It's also that its organizational model looks remarkably like
that of the City Government.of Mogadishu. People who want to get an
answer about service issues have long found it hard to communicate with
the list-owner. It's not at all clear who to go to for any particular
kind of action. UC-list was founded by Spruce Hill Community
Association, but not overseen by SHCA in any way today. It lives in the
computer rooms of Villanova University, for some arcane historical reason.
UCNeighbors, by contrast, has a real, physical list-owner. That's Kyle
Cassidy. You can email him, call him, FB him, walk to his house ...
whatever you want. He lives in the neighborhood. He cares about the
neighborhood. He does it all as a volunteer. And when I had a service
issue, I got the problem solved in 10 days; whereas the last time I had
a "purple" service issue, it took 20 days to get it fixed.
-- Tony West
Unfortunately, many of the list members outspokenness about Philly
real estate development is rather selective. Not a single post about
the VCRC proposed prison and day reporting center for 5213 Grays,
until they find themselves riding SEPTA with the early release felons,
who turn out not to be mentally stable and not non-violent: perhaps
150 day reporters and 250 transitional housing clients, which one
ex-offender has described to me as including the Good, the Bad, and
the Ugly.
Remember, UC celebrity comes with the expectation of a modicum of
accommodation to the local listserv community.
Ciao,
Craig
