Being a Community: What Lake Park Condo Fire Teaches Us

The recent fire in my little community of Lake Park made me think about community as a whole. In big disasters like the ones we've been seeing lately like the tornado in Joplin that is known to have killed 141 people so far, you see stories of cooperation and helping pitch in. But do we really need death to reach out and help one another? Is that the only thing that can wake us from the slumber of our mundane routine of work and television?

I'm disturbed that at least 8 units from my condo complex were affected by a fire, and no one died but I have no way of knowing who was affected or what their needs are... in my own little community? So I started a blog so that in our electronic urban culture people can get to know each other... if we have to start on line, well at least  that's someplace. And of course if we do get to know eachother on line it is easier for us to take a collective action, like finding out who was affected, what their needs are and how we might be able to help.

So if you know someone affected by the fire or know what their needs are please ask them if you can post their needs online. We can keep their anonymity if they don't want their name on line. It would be great if those affected would post their wish list to the blog themselves.  If nothing else you can send an e-mail directly to me and share with me what is personal information and what is generic and I will post only the information that those who were affected choose to let others to know.

You can visit the blog at: http://www.lakeparkcondo.blogspot.com