I keep having to pinch myself that people outside Kings Cross are interested in this site, often as part of the 'hyperlocal' publishing phenomenon or community empowerment. People often ask me for examples of stuff - so here is a list of articles that I like or I think represent where the site helps the community best. I shall update and edit the list from time to time.
In no particular order
Cemex
A mutli-billion dollar Mexican multinational bought an old Readymix concrete plant at the end of my road. The plant had been incredibly noisy and badly run for years. With neighbour Stuart I used simple videos of the noise in Youtube, embedded in the website to record the noise and run a public campaign aginst Cemex. We were able to send links to the CEO of Cemex Europe and the Council and work with the Council environmental health team and Cemex to make the plant better. The plant underwent a comprehensive overhaul and is now much better behaved - see final post here.
Local secrets and war on terror
Lisa alerts us to some odd and very ugly new planters on the Cally Road, after discussion Paul Convery our Councillor finds out why they are there. We would never have found out otherwise.
Anti social behaviour - helping the socially and digitally excluded
Gloria lives at the top of a tower block on the Bemerton she fearlessly takes on people who behave anti-socially. Gloria isn't online and doesn't know the website exists - the site works with the local paper, the Councillor, the Safer Neighbourhood Panel members and the police to raise the profile - Gloria gets a home visit from the Superintendent.
Tolpuddle Martyrs rally
500 people, Billy Bragg and Martin Carthy all converge on a local park for a commemorative rally and conert. Wonderful event where this site was important in helping spread information and organise the event. Sophie who could not set up a website before she became a writer for kingscrossenvironment set up her own spin off website to run the event. The web helped the volunteer organisers communicate more efficiently - so they had more time to spend on the hard work of organising.
Network Rail - £1million for community
Network Rail's plans for refurbishing Kings Cross Station excluded the community. There was outrage locally. The site worked with local campaigners who had been on Network Rail's case for years to spread their campaign using the web to people who didn't know about it. We took Network Rail to the brink and they made an unprecedented £1million settlement for community improvements as part of their planning permission. Sophie ran another spin off site which continues the campaign.
The Plague of Peaches Geldof
After years of fighting to make Kings Cross more livable, we find the repellent paparazzi descending in force when they find Ms Geldof living in 'London's Trendy Kings Cross'. They blocked my street up with cars and were a nuisance. The website raised the issue which Paul convery took up with a vengeance - ended up in The Standard, Observer and Press Gazette.
Street tipping - fridge-freezers
The website started in 2006 as I tried to clean up the endemic fly tipping around North Kings Cross - these two posts reporting publicly a dumped fridge freezer, there long enough to attract its own graffiti were typical - only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of reports i made to the council made it onto the site. But the public pressure in part led to the council increasing street cleansing resources in Kings Cross and the problems have (largely) gone away.
Graffiti
There was so much graffiti in Kings Cross that contributors to this site could not subscribe to the 'itsartisn'tBanksygreat' line. We reported huge quantities of tags to the Council and often put pictures upon the website. This attracted some odd posts and traffic - the widow of a dead graffiti aritist getting in touch, apparently some kids gloating in nadsat, a spontaneous tribute to a murdered young man. The area is a lot cleaner now.
A Graffiti too far
Contributors to the site have worked with Leon Meredith of Islington's Anti Environmental Crime Unit - he did some great work with British Waterways to get a canal barge equipped with a pressure washer. Now there is usually a clear dividing line on the canal when you cross from graffiti covered Camden under the Maiden Lane bridge at York Way into spotlessly clean Islington. We made a silly film, which has been viewed 1,000 times on YouTube.
The planning campaigns
Kings Cross is almost defined by commercial interests as ripe for redevelopment. There are huge proposals for millions of square metres of office space. Stephan a regular contributor has fought a long running campaign about the redevelopment of a building next to where he lives. During the campaign he has had 14 windows shot out with an air rifle and paint thrown over his front door. The website has enabled him to orchestrate an effective campaign to engage people in the planning process.
It's not all about the web
I only started the website to help people work better within the C19th democratic institutions and late C20th management process that get things done on the ground by the Council and other delivery agencies. The website is just the tip of the iceberg - it helps people engage with the system more efficiently, using less of their precious time and spread more information more locally than the local paper can ever do.
But at the end of the day improving the local environment is still about people going to meetings, people being persistent, people writing letters, people sending email, people persuading other to do the right thing. The web makes it easier for those people so they can get more done, more effectively. People have been the thing i like most about this site - wonderful local campaigners from the entire width of the political and social spectrum united to try and make the area a better place - like Diana, Lisa, Sophie, Stephan, Stuart, Michael, Daniel, Rupert, Jim, Antonia, Gill, Stephen and the campaigners for whom sadly we have had to write obituaries, Ryan, Phil, Lisa.
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