Happy New Year. Urban Thinking went online in January 2007, and I’ve been blogging for three years now. 2009 saw around 3000 visitors and 72 posts, a 160% increase from 2008. The graph below shows posts by month for the past three years. Posting is typically higher in the summer and goes down during the school year. Somewhat inevitably the 2008 flood has driven a heavy focus on Cedar Rapids. An increase in CR posts since the flood has paralleled my own increase in civic involvement. Specific topics I have blogged about often include the Veterans Memorial Building / City Hall (which I worked at for three summers including the flood), various planning meetings and open houses, and of course CR Transit. Listed below are my top five posts from 2009, that I feel were the most substantial and garnered the most response.
TOP 5 POSTS OF 2009
1. Figure Ground Development Patterns 06.30.09
2. The Flood – One Year Ago 06.11.09
3. Mays Island no longer suitable for City Hall 07.26.09
4. Better Transit for Cedar Rapids 10.23.09
5. Why CR Transit Needs System Overhaul 07.12.09
Two Years of Urban Thinking
Happy New Year! As 2008 came to an end, I look back at the past two years I’ve been blogging. Urban Thinking officially went online in January 2007, and has taken some time to develop. The first year was slow and inconsistent. With only 17 posts for the entire year of 2007, some month-long spans of time went by with no new entires. I’m proud to say, however, 2008 was a year of great growth and development of my blog – both in content and frequency of posting, as well as increased readership.
This past year I wrote 45 entries, a 265 percent increase from 2007. Averaging 3.75 posts per month, frequency still fluctuated with spotty posting in the first months. The June flooding in Cedar Rapids provided a great deal of content, resulting in a steady stream of posts through the fall.
Around April 2008, I switching operations to WordPress from Blogger – allowing a lot more customization, features, and available design templates. Over the summer I also added Google Ads and began collecting visitor statistics with Sitemeter. Next I plan an internal redesign of the site and development of a comprehensive online portfolio of my studio work at Iowa State.
I hope to continue developing Urban Thinking in the new year, increase and maintain a steady frequency of posts and attract more readers – and more discussion. The great thing about blogs is that they are interactive, two-way; readers can contribute through comments and share their views as well as the author. The dynamic power of blogs is endless and quickly gaining popularity and respect as a significant medium of communication.
If you regularly or occasionally visit my blog, or even if this is your first time reading, I’d love hearing from you! If you enjoy the content and topics I discuss, even if you don’t, let me know. What else would you like to see here? I’m particularly interested in readers that I do not know personally – how did you come across my site? Do you plan to return to read more? Would you engage in discussion? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for reading and please leave a comment!