Why I created "The Esplanade Website and Blog"

By Dan Hardebeck

First of all, I have no ax to grind. I have no agenda in creating this website and blog other than effective and open communication about our building and our neighborhood. I have never had a negative interaction with anyone in the building, and I genuinely like everyone I meet in the lobby, elevators, fitness room, and out on the esplanade.

For some time now it has seemed pretty clear to me that our community needed a communication medium beyond the bulletin board, the website provided by our management company, and our Facebook group. I think all of those media are useful and important, but they each have some shortcomings:

• The Condominium Management website is provided by our building's management company. If our home owners' association were ever to go looking for a new management company, that website would no longer be available to us. Furthermore, that website does not provide much in terms of news updates, social information, or day-to-day communication about happenings in the building.
• The bulletin boards in the P1 elevator foyer are good for notices, but obviously are not an interactive social medium, except, I suppose, when people remove notices or scrawl messages onto other people's notices.
• The Facebook group is probably the closest thing we have to a real news medium, but there are only 87 members, and it is limited in that it does not provide an event calendar, contact information, and some of the other features available here. And while it is great as a social forum, it's a bit of a free-for-all, from a journalistic perspective.
• The newsletters published by the HOA board are usually pretty informative, but are very occasional and non-interactive. 

I guess it just seemed to me that we needed a communication medium that brought everything together in one place. My vision is to have a civil and constructive open forum for news and information that is not beholden to our management company or our home owners' association. However, I need your help! Without your content there will be nothing to publish. So please send me news updates, informational bits, events, photos, longer stories and editorials - whatever. If you are on the HOA board or on a committee, I would be especially happy if you could provide news, information, meeting minutes, etc. Don't worry about the quality of the writing, I am happy to edit if need be.

For over 20 years I have taught high school English, as well as high school and university-level journalism courses. In addition to teaching and serving as an adviser for student publications, I have also worked in the newspaper and communication industries for brief stints. I decided to undertake this project as a service to our building community, and I am more than happy to share the responsibilities if others are interested. Hopefully this forum is appreciated and utilized.

Thank you for reading - please feel free to leave a comment below.