By Connor Adams Sheets
The community of Whitestone has a home on the Web in the form of a popular blog.
The Welcome to Whitestone blog, which debuted July 24, is a unique site for the neighborhood, providing Whitestone news, information and photographs in a one-site-fits-all format.
With 400 hits in its first three days of existence, the site is posed to be a success, according to the blog’s creator and curator, Devon O’Connor, founder of the nonprofit Welcome to Whitestone Commercial and Residential Civic Association.
“It’s going to be daily updates about things going on in the community, to let people know what’s going on. People can send in photos or stories that they may want posted,” O’Connor said. “The thing I want it to be is a place where people can go to the blog and see what’s going on, but also where people can send in things that they’re concerned about and we can help them out with that as well. It’s not just people sending in complaints they have. It will also have information about stuff people should check out.”
The blog, which had eight postings in its first week of existence, offers information on a range of topics, from area crime trends and property concerns to a beauty pageant contestant from the neighborhood.
“Someone sent in a photo of a pothole, so we posted that and called 311 for them. A lady had her tires stolen and her car put on cinder blocks, so we posted photos of that up there, and I put up a photo of a TV show they were shooting in Whitestone,” O’Connor said.
The blog’s Web address is blog.welcometowhitestone.com.
In other Welcome to Whitestone news, O’Connor is pursuing a neighborhood watch program in conjunction with the 109th Precinct in hopes of enhancing safety in his home neighborhood in light of a number of property crimes that have taken place there in recent weeks.
And the Welcome to Whitestone sign — for which O’Connor’s business group is named — is slated to be replaced in September. O’Connor collected $4,000 in donations to his group to pay for the sign’s replacement, which is needed because of the dilapidated state of the current marker. The only remaining obstacle to its installation is final approval and permitting by the city.
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
