21st
Now THIS Is Cool Hyperlocal
Yeah, it’s from an altweekly, but this D.C. neighborhood guide from the Washington City Paper is a great idea. The funny nicknames and arbitrary boundaries are probably a bit edgy for The Courant (although that seems to be what Zell et al. are looking for), but overall it’s very smart. Beyond that great map, look at the website! Each neighborhood gets a specialized Google map, rankings for things like kid friendliness, eats and nightlife, a demographic breakdown, a personal profile, a neighborhood Flickr group and links to any of the paper’s stories involving the area.
I’d love to see The Courant’s oft-criticized push into community news, iTowns, take a look at this. Maybe a better model than our “you post it, we publish it” idea is “we set up a cool infrastructure, you add to the conversation.”
