Thursday, November 17, 2005

Benton Park West-ifying

Benton Park West-ifying

Unfortunately, I'm not really active currently with my neighborhood association, so I shouldn't complain about the new Benton Park West website. But I will, just a little bit.

The web site does look attractive, but there's some work to be done on the content. At the very least, a prominent link to the BPWNA Google Group should be included.

Also, perhaps a little more history info would be good. I realize Edna Campos Gravenhorst wants to sell her book - indeed, my wife bought me a copy a couple weeks ago - but, still, a little more info out there wouldn't hurt. They could even add a link to Amazon to buy it.

While it's nice to make a big splash at a fundraiser by unveiling a new web site, I hope BPWNA is able to build upon it in the coming months with useful, unique content. I hope I can help out, at least a little bit, when I have "extra" time.

Let's at least plug the next fundraising event for BPWNA:

Friday, November 25th, 2005
5 PM - 8 PM
Botanicals on the Park
3014 S. Grand Blvd. at Arsenal
"Winter Wonderland"
10% of proceeds from all sales at Botanicals that evening go to BPWNA
More Info: (314) 771-0803

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who is active with the BPW neighborhood association?

Rita Ford is a firecracker.

Why not merge her Gravois Park organization with Benton Park West?

And since everyone knows that community action is based in neighborhood organizations, you really should be involved.

You don't have to be president. You just need to add your name, and your money to supporting their efforts.

Joe said...

I respect and appreciate the work of a lot of folks involved with BPWNA - just think they jumped the gun on this web site thing.

Haven't gone to meetings lately since I teach at WashU on Thurs. nights - but that's just a convenient excuse.

I was secretary and web master for Marine Villa Improvement Association back when I lived there. I got a little burnt out on neighborhood association politics, but that shouldn't stop me from getting back into it.

Money? What money? ;-)

Anonymous said...

I am spearheading the website development for BPW. Please e-mail me when you have time to brainstorm on the site and we can get together to discuss things.

The website is still in phase I. Please be fair to us as this is indeed phase I. We wanted anything up that was better than the crappy city BPW site. This is much better than that, please admit that?

All comments, suggestions, and thoughts on the website can be directed to me: gina.banina@gmail.com.

Thanks!

Joe said...

Lily,

You are correct, it's much better - although you could have done something similar on the same server space, it wasn't required that the old site be in the template format. The main problem was that nobody was working on it.

I certainly don't mean to offend you, and I appreciate the work you are doing. I'm just surprised you'd put up so many pages with nothing on them yet. Isn't it easier to add pages as you go, rather than confusing users with blank pages?

Thanks,
Joe Frank

Anonymous said...

FYI, I have written a positive perspective on BPW to contrast your view:

http://lilybleu.net/blog/?p=182

Joe said...

I agree with everything you said in your blog posting, lily. Benton Park West is a very, very diverse community with lots of potential. I'm trying to be (mostly) constructive in my critiques, even if it many not seem that way. Sometimes, I get cranky though.

The pocket park at Nebraska and Utah would indeed make a great dog park!

I acknowledge I need to be more involved, and as I noted, I have attended BPW meetings in the past and was pretty active in Marine Villa a few years back.