Hello friends!
As many of you are already aware, I’m currently working with an excellent and exciting source of information for neighborhoods around the country, specifically in 19 cities throughout the U.S., called EveryBlock. Founded in 2007 and currently owned by NBC Universal, EveryBlock is, quite simply, an extremely easy to use and free web site and iPhone app providing “all your neighborhood talk and news finally in one place.”
If you live in any of the following metro areas, you’ll certainly want to check out the details below on how EveryBlock is helping make communities better places to live around the country:
- Atlanta
- Austin – NOW LIVE!
- Boston
- Charlotte
- Chicago
- Dallas
- Denver – NOW LIVE!
- Detroit
- Houston
- Los Angeles
- Miami
- New York City
- Philadelphia
- Pittsburgh
- Portland
- San Francisco
- San Jose
- Seattle
- Washington, D.C.
What’s happening in your neighborhood?
EveryBlock is the best way to follow neighborhood news and connect with your neighbors in 19 U.S. cities.
Our goal is to help you be a better neighbor, by giving you frequently updated neighborhood news, plus tools to have meaningful conversations with neighbors.
The site is simple to use: create an account and choose which places you’d like to follow — say, your home and your workplace. Your custom EveryBlock homepage, updated throughout the day, will show you what’s been happening near your followed places, plus what people in those places are talking about. Join in the neighborhood conversation when you’ve got something to contribute — a question for your neighbors, a news report, an event listing, or just a heads-up about something people in your neighborhood should know about.
You can also get a daily email containing all of the news near your followed places from the previous day or week.
What’s on the site?
EveryBlock is a combination of many different types of local news — from public records like crime reports, to neighbor discussions, to photos people have taken in your neighborhood.
Generally, you’ll find four types of things on your EveryBlock homepage:
- Neighbor messages — what your neighbors are talking about. This could be anything from news reports (“Here’s the scoop on that new bakery coming to Main St.”) to questions (“Did anybody hear those sirens last night?”) to more in-depth discussions (“Who’s our best candidate for alderman?”). We encourage you to participate! The more people posting and commenting, the more valuable the service is to your neighborhood.
- Civic information — building permits, crime reports, restaurant inspections and more. In many cases, this information is already on the Web but is buried in hard-to-find government databases. In other cases, this information has never been posted online, and we’ve forged relationships with governments to make it available.
- Media mentions — any time your neighborhood is in the news, we’ll let you know about it. Every day, throughout the day, we read through your city’s mainstream media outlets, community weeklies, neighborhood blogs, discussion boards and let you know when your neighborhood was mentioned.
- Fun from across the Web — local photos posted to Flickr, user reviews of local businesses on Yelp, lost-and-found postings from Craigslist and more. We figure out the relevant places and point you to location-specific items you might not have known about.
The common thread here is that everything is neighborhood-focused and timely. You won’t find city-wide information here, and you won’t find “static” information like census data and the location of your nearest grocery store. We’re all about the newness.
Getting started
Choose your city on our homepage, then create an account. We’ll walk you through the short steps of following places and setting your preferences.
If you have any questions or need help, don’t hesitate to email me at randall@everyblock.com. I’d love to hear what you think and any feedback is greatly appreciated. Also, in the event you’d like additional information, we also have a FAQ.
So, when you get a chance, please give EveryBlock a look and find out how you can “be a better neighbor.” Thanks, y’all!
Randall Metting 
I signed up!
Outstanding! Thanks, Tiffany!