Ravenna: Information Please

 I started this blog last year thinking that it would be real estate centered, but have discovered that it is more involved with happenings in the community.

Lately, with the shifting of the Seattle P.I. from a print based media to online only, there have been many discussions about where will the news come from, who will do investigative reporting, what is going on, and why did it happen. Will there be no one left to keep us informed in our neighborhoods? Who will pay the people that dare to comment on issues they see of importance in their daily lives?

That the cost of turning current, historical, technical and social information into print media exceeds the cost of disseminating that same information electronically makes it seem only a matter of time before books, newspapers and magazines  virtually disappear from existence. Well, they had a good run, from the Guttenberg press in the 15th century to an unknown date in the 21st Century.

Radio and television have taken control of the world and national news. With the increase of channels available over the past 15-20 years, there is indeed a lot of locally televised events. But I think that soon, most neighborhood news will be in the hands of the residents of those neighborhoods. Maybe they will make some income from ads posted on their blogs and maybe not. Somehow, that will resolve itself.

In Ravenna we have a small start. 

Sign in to Google Groups and become a member of  the Ravenna West Neighborhood Group. RWNG is a newsgroup focusing on events in the Ravenna community. It currently includes households in the area bounded by 65th to the north, 15th to the west, the ravine to the south, and 23rd to the east. Originally, the RWNG was started in response to a number of crime events in the neighborhood.  It has become a tool to spread information about events, as well as a way for neighbors to connect to each other. The group is open only to residents of the area and membership is controlled by a moderator. There are instruction on the entry page to apply.

Rebecca at Ravenna Blog has blog archives dating back to August of 2008. The scope of her blog takes in the greater Ravenna neighborhood and includes categories such as 911, food, found, local events, pics, and stores. She's posted pictures and links to area events. A recent post links to the Ravenna Nation Blog which seems to have daily postings since mid January 2009. Topics are wide ranging, covering baseball, food, crime, history and anything else you might think of.

One thing that will happen, is, I think, neighbors will come to know each other better than in the past. Each of us will find new ways to share what (s)he knows. We will learn whose opinions to trust and whose to question. I look forward to that increased interaction as being a good thing. What do you think?