Transparency (and equal access in the...um, blogosphere?)

The discussion which began two weeks ago and continued last week over PLUS's application for a community redevelopment grant and the issues brought up therein continues, and we wanted to make sure we drew attention to the thoughtful post PLUS president and executive director Mark Dicus made in the comments section. Anyone interested in PLUS or the PLG community would be well served to read it.

All of this discussion highlights one of the things that's so great about PLG, namely the intense connection people feel towards the neighborhood and the dedication people show to improving it. We here at PPLG are huge proponents of getting involved on any level -- in your community, on a municipal level, on a national level, on an international level -- and it's extremely rare in NYC to see so many neighbors who feel so passionately about where they live. (An extraneous and tangential plug: all Brooklynites would be well-served by checking out -- and supporting -- 826NYC, an after-school tutoring program locating in the back of a superhero supply store. 826 is located at 327 Fifth Ave -- yes, the other side of the park -- but still, it's one of the most necessary and most wonderful organizations out there. Feel free to drop by, or to email planetplg@gmail.com if you're interested in more info. OK, tangent -- and for that matter, post -- over.)

Reader mail

Before I dash off for most of the day, some answers to a couple of quick questions...

Adrian and Anneke: I need to admit that my initial reaction to your comments on the "For sale in PLG" post was to recommend that you start blogs of your own. But I'm working on practicing restraint...so instead I'll use this as a way to clarify the new PPLG comments policy.

As of right now, there will be no editing of comments without explicit permission from the commenter him/herself...so if there's something you want to say that I think might be offensive, racist, sexist, etc., I'll email you and ask you if we can amend it in a way that would work for everyone.

However, comments do need to be approved, and this will occur in as timely a manner as possible. I'm well aware of the downside here: there will be those times when I'll be away from a computer for a couple of hours and some comments might get held up in the cue; this, of course, will on occasion make it more difficult to have the kind of robust back and forth I hope I feature here. At the moment, I think the trade-off -- a troll free forum for everyone to enjoy -- is worth it, but this is a policy that'll constantly be in flux, and I welcome any and all feedback.

One response from yesterday's post on PLG's new CSA that you non comment readers might have missed: dliss, who helped set up the arrangement with Woodbridge Farm, had this to say: "We haven't really talked much about meat yet because we've been so focused on getting the vegetable deliveries up and running, but it's definitely a possibility. If enough members are interested we could probably work something out with the farm. The only problem I can think of is refrigeration, but maybe we could get an insulated cooler?"

As for Ed's question about pictures, yes, I will be making Son of PPLG as visually appealing and as visually active as the original PPLG; I've been stuck in a particularly rough patch, work and commitment wise, so have been scrambling to get some posts out in a timely manner. As for whether we'll be welcoming photos from area residents...we'd absolutely love to. (The photo on our homepage is by Brandon Williams, who has some great shots of the area.) We also would love to make PPLG a forum/clearing house for all sorts of info about the neighborhood, and we'll be brainstorming/thinking of ways to make this as much of a collaborative effort as possible. In general, we think more is more...