Johnny Northside Blog Gets Scooped Twice...And That's A Good Thing!

Photo and blog post by John Hoff

Recently, I was going to post some info about utilities being marked off at 2700 Morgan Ave. N. in obvious preparation for demolition. This house--known as the "Salmon House" because of the color--was a notorious drug den slash whorehouse and the bane of the neighborhood for far too long.

But before I could post the info...

...the same information hit the Hillside Chronicles blog, click here.

Around the same time, I received some lovely photos which had been commissioned by the former director of JACC, and turned up recently. Yeah, too bad missing JACC records can't turn up the same way. I'm just saying. But anyway...

The photos were too good to NOT publish, even though their origins are unknown. So I was (as they say in the South) "fixing to" publish those images, when the JACC Flash Nomi blog beat me to the punch, click here.

Both the Hillside Chronicles blog and "JFN" are near and dear to my heart. I'm really glad to see the NoMi revitalization movement grasping and using the power of grassroots media to move forward the revitalization agenda. The author of Hillside Chronicles has told me, many times, "I'm not trying to compete with you." And I tell him, "I wish you WOULD. Please compete with me." The more grassroots media we can develop, the better off we are. Besides, I'd rather bypass minor stories and go after the big, juicy news events.

Our three word motto here at JNS blog is content, content, content. We strive to put some kind of useful information up EVERY DAY, no matter what the circumstances. I want readers to obtain their "North news fix" from JNS blog a few times a day, or at the very least ONCE a day.

But if that doesn't happen, I would urge readers to check out other North Minneapolis blogs in search of their "news fix." Also, each and every day I go to Google and type in "North Minneapolis," then see what news stories are hitting the mainstream media. Sometimes there is an opportunity for JNS blog to snap up some loose, unsecured valuable information or to find a different angle missed by the mainstream media.

Last--but certainly not least--readers are also contributors. By adding even MORE content via comments, readers are participating directly in the grassroots media phenomenon, or (as Metro Magazine put it in their Metro Top 100 story) readers are meeting in a "virtual community center" to exchange news and views.

So, yeah, Johnny Northside blog got scooped. And I hope it keeps right on happening.