I’m an Old Brooklyn Social Media Ambassador

I met with some neigh­bors at the Old Brook­lyn Com­mu­ni­ty Devel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion tonight to learn about their #what­sy­ourold­brook­lyn social media cam­paign. I signed up to be one of their local social media ambas­sadors, was select­ed, and have now been ori­ent­ed.

Hav­ing spent 4 years (most­ly thank­less) pro­mot­ing Tremont out of good­will via Tremon­ter (I have no idea what the hell it is now, or who owns the domain), I’m glad to be out of the dri­ver’s seat and hap­py to help out doing — quite frankly — exact­ly what I’d be doing any­way. I also have more pow­er­ful tools in my pock­et than were avail­able from 2004–2008.

I’ve only lived in Old Brook­lyn since August 2015, but I like it here. It’s too big to become $450k con­dos sur­round­ing a street of $40-per-plate restau­rants like Tremont — and if there are fac­tions fight­ing over what “Old Brook­lyn” means or should be, I am com­plete­ly obliv­i­ous to them. Peo­ple keep their yards tidy, shop local, and chat with each oth­er. I don’t feel like this neigh­bor­hood is try­ing to be a des­ti­na­tion. I feel, rather, as if it wants to be the place you come home to.

What I val­ue in a neigh­bor­hood has changed, espe­cial­ly now that I’m a dad. There’s a lot of authen­tic­i­ty in this part of Cleve­land, and a lot of his­to­ry, and I look for­ward to help­ing peo­ple dis­cov­er it. For the next 6 months, I’ll be doing so via Twit­ter (& Periscope), Insta­gram, Google+, and to a less­er extent, Face­book and Snapchat (sci­u­rus). There might even be a lit­tle Poet­ry 4 Free action as well. And, of course, post­ing here on my weblog.

Feel­ing kind of nos­tal­gic. Should be good.