Sunday, May 22, 2005

Cheap Personal Publicity

"Cheap personal publicity" is how my grandfather George Owen Bradford used to refer to any mention of himself in the local newspaper.

I got a lot of that -- even more than I was expecting -- in this morning's News & Record. I had sent this column to N&R editorial page editor Allen Johnson, but editor Elma Sabo really took the bit in her teeth and ran with it. So I got a splashy, front-of-the-Ideas-section feature, entitled, "Mr. Wharton's Neighborhood," with some artwork from my favorite local cartoonist, Tim Rickard.

I won't be coy. I've never met a blogger with a small ego, and I'm no exception. We write because we want lots of people to read us. I started blogging because I wanted people in Greensboro to start thinking and talking more about urban (and suburban) planning, design, and architecture -- and, of course, because I wanted to say a few things myself on those subjects. So I really got my wish this morning.

It will be interesting to see whether Greensboro's real estate and development industry has anything to say in response.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You should also link back to Smart Growth Will Be Driven by Greed and Envy.


Anna in Calif

Rob Alan said...

Congrats David-

You've got a shot at Developers being exsposed to your ideas (and the evidence to support them.)

But, I doubt that many in that profession will peruse your blog.

I can illustrate my point here . The Developer community largely seems to not get the Internet beyond a brochureware business Website. Blogs? What's a blog?

Joe Killian said...

Wow. Congrats on that. That's got to be one of the best examples I've seen of someone starting a blog for a specific, stated reason (enough of a rarity) and having their work and interests as a blogger embraced and amplified by traditional media.

Just looking at it I assumed you had to have coordinated it with them closely - if only because it seemed so well realized. The people at the N&R are clearly paying attention. Good on both of you.