Denver Association for Neighborhood Greatness – DANG!

I have lived in my house for seven years, and I have only met one neighbor who does not live adjacent to me. I think this is a problem.

Admittedly, I’m part of the problem: I’m an introvert. I think everyone else may be an extrovert in general, but when it comes to meeting neighbors, we all seem to be introverted.

I want the benefits of knowing my neighbors. I heard that one of them has a wood-working shop. Maybe they’ve got a router table I could use. If one of my neighbors couldn’t figure out how to reset their wifi password, I can help with that, and would be pleased with myself. Sometimes, I can see that one of my neighbor’s garage doors is left open, and I have no way to let them know unless I go over and knock on the front door and introduce myself. I’m not doing that! Especially if it is already kinda late. Even if I could muster the courage to do it, I’d be very embarrassed if they told me the door was open on purpose for some reason I’m too stupid to surmise. My embarrassment would end that conversation quickly and I’d run away. What a terrible first impression. The other side of that coin is that I actually have accidentally left my garage door open over night, and theives helped themselves to bikes and tools. If any of my neighbors saw the open door, no one contacted me.

The sooner I meet my neighbors, the safer my block becomes, and the more resources I can both supply and take advantage of.

I had an idea to solve this problem in a way that lends itself to my skill set and should appeal to more than a few of my neighbors: organized competition! I’m working out details, but basically the site will promote custom competitions tied to neighborhoods. It will collect nominations for Best Christmas Light Display, it will tabulate votes for Best Haunted Yard Decorations, solicit applications for judges, and promote social events around these competitions.

One goal of the project is that it be flexible enough to manage any competition. So if you’ve ever wanted to show off your skills at something, anything, and get some kind of recognition for it, let’s start a competition and see who else out there feels the same! Have you perfected your topiary? Can you grow the biggest pumpkin? Do you throw the best block party? Can your kid’s soccer team raise the most money (for itself)? Maybe you want a Settlers of Catan tournament. Could your green chili sauce be award-winning?

Another goal is that it be flexible enough to coordinate these competitions in any neighborhood, in any city.

So I’m looking for people anywhere who want to organize simple, fun competitions, and who could use tool like this to connect with their neighbors. Please contact me if you have ideas on something you’d like to set up.

I don’t think it will make any money, it will only cost money. If it takes off, I can probably cover some costs with fees for registration or nomination. …Maybe some sponsors, I dunno. I’ll be looking to form a board for a non-profit, so please contact me if you have any interest in that.

I’ll be updating this page when a rough version of the site is up.

Denver Days looks like a good potential partner.