Social network unites neighbors

Mitcham and his wife, Kate, recently had their first child and, for the most part, knew the people who lived on either side of them. But for them, Sexton Woods lacked a sense of community.

That’s exactly what he hoped to restore when the 32-year-old dad and a few other residents decided to resurrect their neighborhood association. That’s also about the time Mitcham happened upon Nextdoor.com, a free social network that allows residents to create private websites for their neighborhoods where they can ask questions, get to know one another and exchange advice.

Sexton Woods is one of nearly a dozen metro Atlanta neighborhoods quickly adapting to this new brand of networking. In addition to Nextdoor Sexton Woods, there are Nextdoor Kingswood, Nextdoor Brandon Mill Woods, Nextdoor Ashview Heights and Nextdoor Avondale Estates.

For six years, Mitcham has lived in Sexton Woods, a neighborhood of some 609 households, half in Chamblee and the other half in unincorporated DeKalb County. But almost every time he and his wife went for a walk, he said they’d run into a new face.

Sometime in November, Mitcham said he came across Nextdoor in a technology blog and signed up.

“It seemed like a great fit, given the transitional aspect of our neighborhood and the younger demographic moving into the neighborhood over the last several years,” he said.

Community friendly

Nextdoor is the brainchild of Nirav Tolia, who has spent most of his career building successful online communities such as Epinions. With the rise of social networking sites such as Facebook, Tolia could see yet another opportunity.

“Facebook connects us to friends and family, LinkedIn connects us to business associates and Twitter connects us to those with shared interests,” Tolia said. “But there is no social network that connects us to one of the most important communities of them all: the neighborhood.”

Nextdoor, he said, sets out to do that. Tolia said the site goes beyond automatic neighborhood email services such as listservs and gives users simple and visually appealing interface and search tools. The key, he added, is utilizing software that makes sure only people who live in a specific neighborhood are able to join its network, giving users a level of privacy that sites such as Facebook don’t have.

Depending on how much information a given user chooses to input, the mapping feature lets neighbors see who lives in the homes around them.

Anyone can invite a friend via email to join the site and set up a network in his or her community. And for neighbors who don’t have email, Nextdoor will even drop an invitation postcard in the mail.

Mitcham said he initially introduced the Sexton Woods site to “a handful of people” and did a trial run for two weeks. Late last month, he committed to rolling it out neighborhoodwide, and nearly 50 households have joined so far.

“Neighbors are starting to embrace it and are already finding value in it,” he said.

Mitcham said his three favorite features are being able to have an interactive neighborhood directory in which you can match a name with a home, the privacy structure and the ability to easily share neighborhood-specific information.

“Just last night, a neighbor emailed me about a missing dog, and I posted a picture on the site and number for the resident,” he said. “My wife went on to get recommendations for general contractors and pediatricians.”

And two weeks ago, when a suspicious man was knocking on doors in the neighborhood posing as a “private investigator,” Mitcham said they used the site “to blast out information to the residents that he was actually a fake and the police were investigating.”

Growing use

Sandy Price, a resident of Avondale Estates, said she immediately embraced her neighborhood’s site. On Christmas Day, it paid off big time.

“In desperate need of french fried onions today!” Price said in her post. “Merry Christmas to all AE neighbors! Does anyone have any french fried onions for green bean casserole I can borrow?”

Price said a nearby neighbor, whom she’d never met, came to her rescue.

“Thank you again to our new best friends on Hess,” she wrote a few days later. “Green bean casserole just isn’t the same w/o french fried onions! This site came in very handy!”

Nextdoor Avondale Estates launched Dec. 20, said David Milliron, a former City Council member who headed up the effort.

“In less than an hour of setting up the site, I had my first member, Tony Kimbrell, who lives on the opposite side of the city from me,” said Milliron, who lives in the city’s historic district.

Today, 375 households — 26 percent of the city — have joined the site

In 1997, Milliron began publishing “City Happenings,” a weekly newsletter. But after losing a mayoral bid in November, he began looking for an alternative way to share information with his neighbors.

“When I discovered Nextdoor.com, I knew it was the perfect solution to keeping residents informed and involved in their community,” he said. “They can advertise garage sales, offer items for sale and, yes, even discuss the latest issues facing our city government.”

An unexpected benefit, he said, is being privy to interesting tidbits about residents that he might not otherwise get to know. For instance, Milliron said he recently learned There’s a man in Avondale Estates who knows how to restring tennis rackets, that a couple are staying connected to the city while spending the winter in Thailand and that another neighbor teaches calligraphy and has a motorcycle with a sidecar.

“I’ve already signed them up to get the motorcycle in next year’s Independence Day parade,” he said.

His all time favorite posting so far? Sandy Price’s Christmas Day search for french fried onions. A gastronomic success, yes, but does the site really foster a greater sense of community?

“Absolutely,” Milliron said. “In Avondale Estates, good things happen when people talk to each other, even when we disagree. And that’s exactly what’s happening with Nextdoor Avondale Estates.”