Park Timbers HOA

PTHA Neighborhood Web Site Builds Citizen Involvement

May 08, 2002

Neighborhood Link is a civic communications tool that enables Park Timbers and neighborhood associations across the United States to create their own free, interactive Web sites. These sites are designed to build stronger communities and further enable civic participation and communication in all regions that embrace this tool. Park Timbers site is located at www.neighborhoodlink.com/neworleans/parktimbers.

Denver-based Neighborhood Link currently has more than 17,200 neighborhood Web sites online. As of August 2001, the company serves 49 U.S. metropolitan areas, including New Orleans, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Colorado Springs, Columbus, Denver, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Las Vegas, Memphis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Nashville, New York, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland/Vancouver, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Diego, Tampa and Tucson, among others. During a typical month, their web sites have 34,800 discussion postings, 421,655 page views, and over 65,000 visitors.
Neighborhood Link relies on corporate sponsorships to provide this valuable resource, offering six sponsorships in each metropolitan region. Some typical sponsors include Fannie Mae, Bank One, IBM, Time Warner Communications, AT&T, The San Antonio Spurs, Tesoro Petroleum, Conoco and many others. New Orleans does not have any sponsors yet, so the opportunities are still waiting.

Each neighborhood Web site has the basic components outlined below

Interactive Area
This is a section where neighbors can post information such as "lost dog" or "garage sale on Saturday." Also available here is a "Meet Your Neighbors" section where residents and local groups (such as neighborhood Girl Scout troops) can create their own Web pages or hotlink their existing Web pages to their neighborhood site.
This section also contains a discussion area where residents can post and respond to questions, problems and concerns. On the Park Timbers site, we have had discussions on speeding, termites, Sentricon system, CCC Bridge projects, lawn responsibilities, the Norman Canal, and a host of other matters. This is an area where we should get more utilization as more residents get comfortable with the site and its components.

Association and Neighborhood Information sections feature a place for neighborhood associations to post information about the neighborhood along with schedules of meetings, how to join your association, board of directors lists, and digital images. Our site has a fairly well developed information section, and we try to keep an updated list of meetings and events on our calendar. Also posted here are brief descriptions of the Park Timbers Homeowners Association, its history and its scheduled activities. We have added a listing of public and private schools that service Park Timbers residents. To the extent available, we have added principals' names and e-mail addresses along with phone numbers and school addresses. We have added school web site links where available.

Local Government and Public Safety Information
These areas contain hotlinks that enable neighborhoods to connect instantly with appropriate elected and appointed government officials and local government Web sites. We have links to our Councilmen, the City Council, Mayor, and Police Department.
The crime section automatically posts links to all applicable police, public safety and sheriff's department Web sites on all neighborhood sites. Police statistics by district are available with just the click of a button on our site.

Community Pages
An Add-a-Page feature in this section allows neighborhood coordinators and residents to create an unlimited number of additional pages that offer information on neighborhood issues, groups and resources. Some typical topics that we have here include limitations on political signs, school listings, and usually some topical material which changes with each issue of the newsletter. This section also has an Add-a-Fax capability that allows neighborhood coordinators and residents to create faxable forms so that everyone can instantly send faxes directly from the Web site. An unlimited number of such forms can be created and used to start political fax campaigns, send messages to local newspapers, or simply to communicate with any fax machine (at no cost) throughout the United States. Our site includes fax forms to the Mayor, Councilmen Carter, Sapir, and Singleton, and to the Sewerage and Water Board.

Other Resources

Additional sections of the PTHA Web site offer:
--Hotlinks-libraries of pertinent local, metro, state and national hotlinks, such as public libraries, public schools, courts, real property records, state government, nonprofit organizations, the White House, and many more. We have also added hotlinks to real estate listings, eBay, an employment site (monster.com), travelocity, Washington Post, New York Times, Times Picayune, MSNBC, CNN, WDSU, WWL-TV, and Yahoo!. If you have others that you would like us to add, let us know.
--Helpful Resources-this area contains an hourly-updated local weather forecast with links to the radar map, a "Free Classifieds" section where residents can access a complete online forum for posting and perusing free classified advertisements similar to a newspaper. "Extremely Useful Things" is an area that provides handy information through timesaving hotlinks, such as arts and entertainment, health and fitness, home and garden, parents and kids, homework helper, travel, finance & investment, and resources such as the federal government and online directories. And, "Today's News" contains hotlinks to local and national news resources.

The Park Timbers Web site continues to grow in popularity and usage, and has become a key resource for civic communication and information. Come by for a visit and stay a while! You can find us at www.neighborhoodlink.com/neworleans/parktimbers.

Glenn Orgeron