I have broken the site.....

The Villager is down right now, and I'm going to have to re-install some server software to bring it up again.... It may take me til the weekend, sorry...

Think of it as evolution in action

Over the next 30 days, I am in the process of migrating this 'blog to what will be it's permanent home, at www.multnomahvillager.com. I'm not linking this yet, since the index page just redirects to this site. I will post links and updated RSS feed information when I make the switch, as well as double-posting on both sites for a while until everyone is used to the new URL (plus I don't want to wipe out all my Google seniority). You may notice some odd things, such as "housekeeping tags" and things popping up between now and then.

I'm moving the blog off of Blogger and into Wordpress. This is a good thing, but it requires me to learn CSS which is taking some time. Not all of the customizations I want to put in will be live right when I launch, but I might surprise myself.

Unless you're reading this on an RSS feed, you have probably noticed that I added Google text ads a couple weeks ago. I'm hoping to offset the hosting and domain maintenance fees with the cents (and it is cents) that I get from having these on the site. I am NOT planning to junk up the site with more ads than you currently see, and I will NOT be adding ads to the RSS feed. Technically, I'm not allowed to say things like "help a brother out and click on one or two", so I won't say aything like that, but you know what I mean....

One of the main changes is the addition of static pages for links, galleries etc. This hopefully will help the blog be a more complete resource for people that come here looking for complete info on the Village, and not just my latest ramblings.

I should be done with all of this before the 1st of the year, and perhaps before, depending on my schedule over the holidays. Thanks for reading, commenting and visiting! As Jack Bogdanski said when his 'blog turned four, "this is my best hobby ever."

The subject line is a favorite quote, from the Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle book "Oath of Fealty" that's stayed with me through the years. Man, I loved those guys' writing.

Ha ha..

I just got a site visit from Rancho Cucamonga, CA (off of Google) with the search term "Multnomah Village is Cute".

Word has apparently gotten out.

Outside.in

So about a week ago, I noticed a URL in my site stats from outside.in. Now, you Portland people know that there's a homeless youth shelter in Portland called Outside In, which is waht I initially assumed this link was. After noticing more hits from this URl yesterday, I decided to click through and find out what the deal was. The URL in question is http://outside.in/97219. Turns out it's a Google Mashup blog aggregator based in Brooklyn, NY. I got the following info in my email later in the day.

I'm writing to let you know about a web site called outside.in that launched about an hour ago. It's a site that's aiming to capture and organize all the neighborhood-centric information on the web, drawing, in part, on the amazing work being done by local bloggers like yourself.

Our vision for the site is this: You sit at a computer and type in a street address, or a neighborhood name, or a zip code -- perhaps for your own home area, perhaps for a place you're visiting or interested in -- and within seconds the screen gives you a glimpse of all the textured, real-world issues and conversations and news unfolding in the location you've entered. Up to now, only the most connected local experts in any neighborhood could keep up with all these evolving  conversations. outside.in is designed to let you see it all in seconds.

Today I see some links from another blog called The Future of Real Estatee Marketing that apparently is run by someone in or near the Village, which provides quite a nice writeup about outside.in, so go read it over there.

I have very mixed feelings about blog aggregators that place ads and make money off of other people's (mine) content, and this blog is certainly not a calculated part of the "Future of Real Estate Marketing", but it is a resource for future homebuyers who Google the Village, or so I'd like to think.

Turns out I'm part of hte "hyper-local blogger movement". Who knew?

Random Village Bullet Points

• At the meeting on Tuesday, Brian mentioned something I had noticed from the street, but not investigated, which is that there is an OLCC permit application notice on the front door of the house which used to be the location of Village Beads, before their recent move. Apparently, this application is on behlf of something called "Half Full LLC" and is to result in a "beers of the world" tasting room. There was some concern about whether or not the Village needs another establishment selling alcohol. One resident voiced concern over the rear parking situation, but I pointed out that her concern would be better directed at outdoor tables, since the house has a very large backyard. If it were my beer tasting place - I'd have tables out back. Brian pointed out that the backyard of this lot is zoned residential, but I'm not sure I believe that, since Jackie's (next door) has the nursery in the backyard, wouldn't they be zoned the same?


• Much hair-pulling and gnashing of teeth about the new stone facade of the Soleil day-spa thingy on the corner just as you come off of the bridge on Captol Hwy into the Village. I thought "they" were building a house behind the spa, but it turns out that the spa is expanding. Personally, I think the stone looks cool, but there are many folks who feel like it's out of place in the Village. For my part, considering how many businesses have been in that space before, it's nice to see something expanding - they must be doing well. Yes, I know Sip D'Vine used to be there, and they've apparently grown well too!


• I notice there's a rug store in the advanced stages of moving in to the old Multnomah Post offices, across from the Bento Hut where there was breifly a computer business.


• What is going into the Village Yoga Space? Anyone?


• Oh, and for record-keeping's sake, thanks to a pickup by Jack Bog's Blog, yesterday was my single biggest traffic day in the year-and-a-half history of this 'blog. I'll admit that there is a temptation to "go political" in order to hang on to these types of numbers, but I'm sticking with my formula - still - I hope at least one or two of the new readers comes back once or twice!


• And the last housekeeping item - I remain amazed at the frequency with which the Wikipedia entry for Multnomah Village leads people to this 'blog. I noticed that hits have started coming from Answers.com, which mirrors the Wikipedia content, and now includes the link to this site.


• Interestingly, there's a new bit in the Wiki entry today, stating "Multnomah Village was, for a long time, home to the world's first wiki, WikiWikiWeb, which was physically located in an office there. The website has since relocated."