- LyondellBasell Considering Selling Houston Area’s Fourth-Largest Refinery [Fuel Fix; previously on Swamplot]
- Aloft Houston Downtown Delaying Opening To Add Rooftop Pool, Bar, Performance Space [HBJ]
- Aspen Heights Secures Funding for 717-Bed Dorm Near UH, Metro Line [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- Interurban Corp. Buys Woodland Hills Apartment Complex in Humble [Houston Chronicle]
- Allied Orion Group Completes 216-Unit Conroe Apartment Community Harper’s Retreat [Houston Chronicle]
- Strongest Home Markets in Katy Old Towne, Sugar Land West, Spring East and Stafford, Finds HAR [KHOU]
- Eloise Nichols Grill & Liquors Opening Next Month Near the River Oaks District [HBJ]
- I-10 Speed Limit Between Chambers County and Beaumont Area Drops from 75 MPH to 65 MPH [KHOU]
- On the Ground with the Texas Conservation Corps Helping To Restore Memorial Park’s Arboretum [Houston Public Media]
- Houston Celebrates 180th Birthday at Sam Houston Park [Houston Chronicle]
- How Neighbor Social Network Nextdoor Reduced Racist Posts by 75% [Fusion]
Photo: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Re Nextdoor and racism: “Nextdoor CEO Nirav Tolia told me this week that he was ‘floored by that article,’ having not realized before he read it that the network he co-founded to foster more close-knit communities had a racism problem.”
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I find that hard to believe. The first time I logged into Nextdoor I was stunned by how racist my neighbors were. I canceled my membership immediately. I’m much happier not knowing exactly how evil the people around me are.
Nextdoor in my neighborhood is mostly lost dog posts and occasional tirades about panhandlers, with a smattering of overly emotional, misinformed perceptions about the crime rate. It’s rare that I find anything worthwhile to participate in.
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However, this seems a bit of a stretch: “Introducing friction to make it harder to post about race increased the number of posts that were started but then abandoned by 50%, the assumption being that these people were going post something potentially racially offensive. ”
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That’s a pretty big assumption to be making without any real evidence other than “a diverse group of people from inside and outside the company” grading on a completely subjective scale of 1-4.
Somewhat related to the Aspen Heights announcement, maybe: would love some info on the demo activity at the intersection of Scott and Elgin. The old campus bookstore and Domino’s etc. were there.
This makes me an outlier, I am sure, but I feel that 75 MPH is not safe for many roads in Texas. Most of 36 once you get west of Temple, for example. I’ve never understood why 288 down to Freeport is not 70 but I was told once that the 65 limit was set by the EPA because of air pollution in Harris and Brazoria Counties.
Since anything in today PC world can be racist, I take those findings lightly… If someone posts a video of someone breaking into their house, and asks if anyone has seen them, it can be considered racist if the poster points out their skin tone (unless it’s white)
“Nextdoor in my neighborhood is mostly lost dog posts and occasional tirades about panhandlers, with a smattering of overly emotional, misinformed perceptions about the crime rate. It’s rare that I find anything worthwhile to participate in.”
Sounds a lot like Westbury
I call it “NextDog”. It has turned me indifferent to dogs and made me hate their owners.