Monday, July 28, 2008

New Website for West Ashevilleans

Looks like my neighbor, former city council member Bryan Freeborn, has started a new neighborhood social networking site for people living in West Asheville:

West Asheville lists neighborhood events, hosts online discussions (What's your favorite West Asheville destination?) and includes forums for discussing how to make Haywood Road more pedestrian-friendly -- as well as lots of other stuff, like a West Asheville slideshow and networking groups for people living in the Falconhurst or Horney Heights * neighborhoods.

* It seems J.T. Horney was a mover and shaker in Westville back in the day, and is survived by Horney Heights, Horneyhurst -- and Horney Bottoms.

Westside neighbors, consider yourselves invited to join and help spread the word!

7 comments:

Unknown said...

that's nice as long as ning allows it to exist. There is actually an independent one for all of Asheville and WNC where he could have started his on West Asheville group. It's called TalkAsheville.com

:-)

Jennifer Saylor said...

Hey James,

I've looked at TalkAsheville and it just didn't interest me the way the Ning site did (which I agree is ironic, since TA looks way more local).

The Ning site is full of 100% local forums (Westville neighborhoods, local book club) and drew me in with photos of my neighborhood and a very strong sense of Asheville belonging and pride -- which I never felt at TA, at least not in the time I spent looking around.

This isn't a criticism, just my opinion and observation. I support all forms of local support and connection and I wish TalkAsheville the best.

I don't see TalkAsheville in the Blog Asheville sidebar. Why don't you email BlogAsheville admin and get the site a mention here on BA? "Contact us" button is in the sidebar.

Unknown said...

I started the ning site to test out the functionality of it. I am in the process of developing something a bit better that will be focused on bridging the technical divide between citizens and elected officials. Expect it to launch sometime in Aug.

Jennifer Saylor said...

Looking forward to it.

Jennifer Saylor said...

Bryan, looks like your test has taken on a life of its own.

Unknown said...

Got to like that.

zen said...

I have come to like nings. They're not perfect and - like yahoo or google groups - they can wither on the vine when neglected, they can be pretty, useful and very social when tweaked and moderated.

I have my own asheville streetart ning specializing in the graffiti and murals of Asheville, which, ahem, i'd like to promote. I think i just did. :)