Ask Riverwest

Want to hear better news about Riverwest?

Saturday, 11 July 2009 - Dan Knauss

You can use this website to passively watch crime reports, or you can use it to actively tell the stories you want to tell, bring your block together, organize a block watches or social groups, promote positive businesses and events. Come up with your own idea; I'll support it. 

I'm asking you to be the news you want, make the news you want. 

It can be really simple. If you see something on the web that's relevant to Riverwest, post a link here. If you post relevant photos to Flickr, tag them "riverwest." They'll show up on different pages around the site. Use these tools, use other tools, use whatever you want--just connect and share. 

In the several years this site has been active, some user trends are clear:

1) People like to get crime news.

2) People like to complain about crime news. 

Corresponding to this, on the ground other trends are clear, unchaged for the decade I've been around:

1) Few people proactively organize block watches or just keep an eye on trouble spots before they get out of hand. 

2) Few people want to dig to the real causes of crime and root them out, but after something major happens, some gestures are made amid a lot of "stay away from" or "get out of" chatter.

Who benefits from this? Criminals? People who want to believe Milwaukee can't sustain socially and economically diverse neighborhoods that are reasonably safe and lively?

If you don't like this, change it.