Yesterday afternoon I started my cyber-ablutions with quick peeks at Facebook, Craigslist and Claycord.com. Claycord.com is the local news blog for the area and it is very good. I was saddened to read that there was a vehicle fatality that resulted in the closure of a major commute artery. I read and moved on.
Then the phone rang. My friend called me because he was stuck in traffic near the accident and wanted to know what was going on. He didn't listen to KCBS or any other traffic report because he knew that if I was home I could access Claycord.com and probably get the story. He was right. I read him the post about the crash including an important update posted seconds earlier. Having this information helped my friend avoid the worst of the traffic.
I had to be somewhere an hour later but in that time KCBS did not report the road closure or anything else about the incident. Claycord was the only news source for over an hour.
This is pretty good journalism for communities that have little or no television coverage, a vapid newspaper with precious little local reporting. My hat is off to Mr. Mayor and those folks who contribute to Claycord.com. They not only filled a void. They created a new community standard. They declare that the value of an idea is not necessarily based on its ability to pay its way.
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Thanks for the great post, I appreciate the kind words. In all fairness, even though I did have the story first, the Contra Costa Times had it only a few minutes after I first posted it.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the great work!
Mayor
Go Claycord!
ReplyDeleteClaycord Rocks! Claycord has set the standard for community and newspaper blogs to aspire to.
ReplyDeleteKCBS cant or wont cover this area that well. KGO does a better job of local coverage.
ReplyDeleteMayor of Claycord was the first to tell the Lemon Lady story.
ReplyDeleteI even left a Lemon Lady flyer on a KCBS news van in Martinez a month or so ago. It was a simple way for me to introduce myself. I was leaving the Martinez Farmers' Market one Sunday and saw the KCBS news van parked on the street, so I dropped a few pages of my website.
I've never heard if they are reading or not.
Cool Mayor of Claycord. Thanks for what you do for our community.