I’m not the biggest fan of Seattle Bubble, the naysaying blog that portends doom and gloom for the Seattle real estate market. I don’t really believe in things like bubbles and the apocalypse. But when the Bubble compliments our site, well, I can get behind that! The Bubble hits the mark in this post about neighborhood blogging and why big business — especially the real estate business — will have a difficult time cracking the space. Here is the Bubble’s comparison of CHS and the latest entrant in the neighorhood blog network field, Localism:
Capitol Hill Seattle
On the Capitol Hill Seattle front page, you’ll find twenty-five posts covering a host of local issues, all posted in the last five days. I’m seeing stories about local restaurants, neighborhood events, code changes, crime, and more. They’ve also got it split up even further to where you can filter the posts by seven different even more specific parts of Capitol Hill. Of course, they also have forums, and they’ve got a nifty little Google Maps application that maps their stories in the neighborhood. You can even choose the “good news map” or the “bad news map.” Anyone in the neighborhood can contribute, and I counted more than ten contributors just by scrolling down the front page.Localism: Capitol Hill
Five posts, ranging from January to May. Four of them are focused on condos, one on the real estate market as a whole in Capitol Hill. No neighborhood pictures, and the little Google Map appears to be broken. Four of the five stories (all the condo ones) were posted by the same guy that wrote the West Seattle ones: Ben K. The other was penned by someone whose profile page contains the enigmatic title “Department of Search.” They do not appear to be local to Capitol Hill.
So, there’s a new kid on the blog, er, block but he’s a little sickly. While you’re checking it out, you also might want to swing by a smaller but also CHS-competitive effort over at Seattle on the Hill. Seattle on the Hill is mixing posts that are mainly repurposed excerpts from newspaper and big media reports and the occasional original essay about Capitol Hill issues, etc. We’re keeping our eye on you, SoH! Localism? Ah, we’re with the Bubble on you — no threat.
Seattle On The Hill looks more like a news aggregator, which in itself isn’t bad, just…missing the human element that CHS has. The site kind of hurts the eyes too.
I’ll serve up a little defense of Seattle Bubble. Tim has routinely come out and said, he’s not forecasting “doom and gloom”. He merely has researched and reported on actual true facts of the Puget Sound real estate enviroment while the mainstream media has produced hype and spin for the past 3 years. Most of the time, his predictions and stats have backed up what has actually occurred. Now I can’t vouch for some of the commentors however.
seattle on the hill is a weak attempt at a neighborhood blog. using one of the more obnoxious fonts, “soth” looks like a bunch of baby boomers tryin to get hip.
meanwhile, localism is driving that last nail in the coffin. who’s going to tell ben kakimoto and ryan rose that no actual capitol hill residents would rather not read about the poison that’s infecting our nest.
jeers on both.