Hawk Tweets!

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

NXNS now has a Twitter feed! I have several plans for this particular blog feature. Obviously, it will allow me to get NoMi news out much more rapidly than waiting until I have enough spare time to do a full blog post. The tweets may also lead to more extensive stories in the future.

The second feature Twitter allows is a location finder. Last night, I made a midnight gyro run to Olympic Cafe. (And by the way, I was rather critical of them initially, but they have won me over with their good food, excellent service, and the fact that they deliver. Furthermore, they are one of the few businesses along that stretch of West Broadway that have put significant effort into their facade, and there is almost always someone outside keeping the sidewalk clean.)

My tweet, "I heart Olympic Cafe," was made at that spot. Anyone unfamiliar with where this NoMi business is can click on the location finder on my Twitter page and see for themselves. I'm still working out the bugs where this can be done easily directly from the NXNS blog, but this will do for now.

Finally, as this blog picks up steam (and readers!) I hope other northsiders will drop me a quick note about something neat, or important, or even problematic, that they are seeing on their block. If you make it 140 characters or less, I may re-tweet it. Readers can do this by direct Twitter messages, emailing my Hawthorne Hawkman profile, or the North by Northside gmail account.

Welcome to North by Northside!

Post and photo by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

This is the inaugural post of the North by Northside blog, so thanks for stopping by. Here's what one can expect from this site. First off, this is the personal blog of Jeff Skrenes, aka "The Hawthorne Hawkman." My activities as Housing Director of the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council can be found over here. But on North by Northside, I'll write about other NoMi issues and items that either will help the community or sometimes merely interest me.

I'll get a bit policy wonkish, to be sure. And while I want to keep a relatively positive tone, there are certain people (like slumlords) or things (phone books) that will earn a spot on my wall of shame. (Note to self: get a wall of shame up on this blog.) I won't be nice to them. And then there is the other problem we seem to have on NoMi blogs as of late. I'll have none of that here.

Since the site is under some construction, readers may see a few changes in the format during this initial phase. For instance, one item I hope to add in the near future is a Twitter feed. My goal with the Twitter feed is to encourage fellow revitalizers to email or text little things of big importance happening in NoMi. I'll put as many of those up as I can, and they may provide fodder for additional posts.

Ultimately, the goal of this site will be to make my community a better place, whether that's through lifting up the positive, offering scathing criticism, or asking tough questions. Readers are encouraged to comment on what you'd like to see.