The City of Bend this week joined Nextdoor, a private social network platform for neighborhoods. This allows the City to communicate online with specific neighborhoods who have established Nextdoor websites. As of this week, 21 neighborhoods have established networks and almost 700 Bend residents are using the system.
Neighborhood residents establish and manage their own private Nextdoor neighborhood websites, which are accessible only to residents who verify that they live in the neighborhood. The City will not be able to access residents’ websites, contact information or content.
The City will, however, be able to post information on targeted neighborhoods’ sites to alert residents of public safety issues, community events or services, urgent emergency notifications and more. The City’s Communications, Police and Fire departments intend to use this to alert residents of topics such as road construction, detours, crash statistics, crime trends, safety precautions and more.
“I was first exposed to Nextdoor through my personal neighborhood use. I met neighbors online. Neighbors who may not otherwise know each other communicate about things like missing cats, babysitter recommendations and free items they’ve left on the curb,” said Anne Aurand, City of Bend community relations manager. “Now, Nextdoor will allow the City to target a specific, geographically-based audience with a relevant message, if there’s roadwork or bike thefts in their neighborhood, for example.”
Anyone interested in joining their neighborhood’s Nextdoor website can visit www.nextdoor.com and enter their address. Nextdoor is free for residents and for the City.
