AnnArbor.com launches six new neighborhood pages for the city of Ann Arbor

This map shows the breakdown for the new neighborhood pages for the city of Ann Arbor on AnnArbor.com.

Today, our mission to make AnnArbor.com a hub of hyperlocal news takes a big step forward with the launch of six new neighborhood pages.Â

The unveiling of these pages marks the culmination of months of effort we’ve put into carefully thinking through how best to represent the city and all the news happening in it. Over the coming months, you can expect to see these neighborhood pages grow by leaps and bounds, featuring everything from neighborhood block party and garden photos to coverage of elementary school fundraisers and softball leagues.

The new pages are Downtown Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor's West Side, Ann Arbor's South Side, Ann Arbor's North Side, Central Ann Arbor and UM Campus. They will replace the previous neighborhood pages on AnnArbor.com.

We’ve divided the city up into six core areas separated primarily by zip code. Why? There are a few reasons. First, we determined that sectioning Ann Arbor off into pieces any smaller would not generate enough news to be sustainable or useful. We also know that many data sets and maps use zip code boundaries to break the city up. And zip code boundaries here naturally fall in places where folks already seem to geographically define themselves as living in - how often have you heard someone say, “I live on Ann Arbor’s North Side,” or “I live on the West Side of the city”?

Of course there are many smaller neighborhoods that are strong and active in our city - places such as Burns Park, the Old West Side and Ann Arbor Hills are bonafide neighborhoods and will be treated as such within the context of our larger geographical divides.

Our new neighborhood pages include spots for local news generated by our staffers and local community bloggers, and also features our Got News? Tell Us portal which anyone can use to post a local story. Each page also has a slideshow of photos taken in that neighborhood, community data sets, a community guide that showcases a biography of the neighborhood and links to local resources. The data sets feature school population and demographic information, local real estate numbers and statistics about the area from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Each neighborhood pages also includes links to homes for sale in that specific area.

What I’m most excited about with the launch of these pages is that now, there’s finally a place for microlocal community news that hasn’t seemed to have a real place in traditional media in recent years.

News like who won the elementary school spelling bee. Who traveled to Europe last week and came back with some great stories. Why everyone’s favorite safety guard hasn’t been seen for a few weeks. Why mailboxes keep getting knocked over on a specific street. How much the Girl Scouts raised in last week’s bake sale. Why the hockey team is holding a fundraiser at the corner gas station. Who’s buying the house on the corner that’s been vacant for three years.

We plan to work diligently to get such news up on AnnArbor.com, and we invite you to share. Consider your neighborhood’s page on AnnArbor.com as a hub of information, a place to read news and submit your own stories, photos and ideas. If you’ve got something to share, post it on your neighborhood’s page using our Got News? Tell Us box. If you have photos, email them to us so we can post them.

Let me know what you think - email your feedback to community@annarbor.com.

Stefanie Murray is the Community Director for AnnArbor.com. Contact her at stefaniemurray@annarbor.com or 734-623-2571.

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