First, there's a story by Jamie Kormanicki in the Friday (6/27) Globe & Mail, In new condo villages, fitting in is job one - Residents break the ice on the Internet, which is about condo residents not being able to get to know one another in the lobby or the actual physical space of their building, but managing to do so just fine once they use the internet to make connections.
I'll copy & paste a couple of quotes from the article, below. But before I do that, the other item is a new web-based service out of Vancouver, called Inhabit Street. These guys are still in beta, so their site looks pretty sparse and there aren't many buildings signed up, but the idea is this:
inhabit street connects residential communities
It's a place to create an online community for people who live in
* Apartments
* Townhouses
* Condominiums
* Cooperatives
* Other residential communities
We built inhabitstreet.com because we're apartment building residents and we wanted a place other than the elevator where we could get to know the people around us.
where is Inhabit st?
We're based in the beautiful city of Vancouver on the west coast of Canada. It's a great town so, if you want to find the cutting edge of urban life right in the heart of a city, come over and stay for a while in downtown Vancouver. We'll buy you a beer and show you round.
Anyway, in light of the Globe & Mail article, I thought this sounded like an interesting service. Here are some quotes from G&M:
Ms. Wilfong, 28, says the condo she's lived in for nearly four years, called Apex, is like a downtown singles club, populated mainly by young professionals.
"Why not band together, say 'hello' in the elevator?" she muses, but then admits that there's "a real lack of communication there."
Sometimes, though, it's easier to navigate websites than hallways. So, wanting to buff up with a motivating pal from the building, Ms. Wilfong turned to the Internet. She posted an online ad saying: "Live at Cityplace? Let's work out together."
Within days, she was in contact with a same-aged woman from her building, and the pair scheduled a workout session.
Brian Brown, developer of the Liberty Market Lofts in the King Street West area, would say it's all part of the new age of condo networking.
Savvy developers have long realized the importance of the social aspect of a condo.
(snip...)
In April, Alex Kahnjian started a Facebook group for his Pantages Tower building. Its mission? "To unite our building. To secure our building. Most importantly … to party it up in our building!" the site says. "This is a good way to familiarize ourselves with one another and to abolish those awkward moments in the elevator … cause, hey, we now know one another." (more...)