Locally Grown and Northfield.org in today’s Strib

Locally Grown is referenced in today’s front page Star Tribune Crime follows heroin to Northfield story. Reporter Herón Márquez Estrada wrote:

Also, community blogs in Northfield have registered dozens of postings by students, teachers, parents and others in the community talking about the growing heroin problem. “If you ask some kids, they’ll tell you that the perception is that drug usage is a bigger issue in Northfield than in other communities,” one teacher wrote on the locallygrownnorthfield.org site. “It’s incredibly discouraging to be a teacher and hear of your students using heroin … and not a whole lot of public discussion about it.”

The South section has a piece on me and my Locally Grown colleagues.

IMG_3065.JPGThey’re not citizen journalists so much as “three citizens shooting our mouths off,” Wigley said.

Swearing and faux news happen on Locally Grown, and the co-hosts rarely miss a chance to make fun of their own work, or each other.

Still, civility is a byword. Locally Grown and Northfield.org, for which Wigley was chief contributor for years, have reputations as debate venues free of the bile and bad feelings inevitable in most communities as politically active as Northfield.

The first sentence in this paragraph about my leaving Northfield.org/Northfield Citizens Online needs some correction.

Wigley left the site last year, partly because he posted so many items that “Northfield.org really became thought of as Griff’s blog,” Bratland said. Wigley and the board wanted more people to participate, but Wigley said he was unwilling to yield as much control as the board wanted.

My frequent posting was definitely a problem. I knew it and the board knew it and we developed a plan at the Board retreat in January, 2006 to address it. I was psyched about it. But the board offered me a managing editor position in March, not the executive director position that I wanted. I declined.

2 Comments

  1. You’re right about that paragraph needing a little correction…she took that comment out of context. But I was pleased (and a little surprised) to see that my other remarks came across as positive as I meant them to sound. It’s a good article, and a nice acknowledgement of the great work you’re doing!

    July 4, 2007
  2. Griff Wigley said:

    Thanks, Doug. I appreciate that… and your comments in the article. Now get your camera and meet me at the 4th of July kiddie parade for a photo extravaganza!

    July 4, 2007

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