Monday, February 08, 2010

Today is Enclave's 5th Anniversary

Five years ago today I launched Enclave with a quote from and reflection on Peter Taylor:
As one walks or rides down any street in Nashville one can feel now and again that he has just glimpsed some pedestrian on the sidewalk who was not quite real somehow, who with a glance over his shoulder or with a look of a disenchanted eye has warned one not to believe too much in the plastic present and has given a warning that the past is still real and present somehow and is demanding something of all men like me who happen to pass that way.
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I am pleased to launch this weblog with an eye on the past. Elsewhere in A Summons to Memphis, The Narrator’s mother explains that the demands of the past were the legacy of an old Native American curse put on the first settlers who slaughtered the local tribes around the Cumberland River. She may be right. The past may hang in urban Nashville like a curse; but many times I only see a world of curses because curses challenge me to get beyond the veneer of the plastic present, which has made me complacent and foolish.

When I strip the window-dressing, the façade of the present, I can often see that the curses were not so accursed after all. To live in an urban enclave is to welcome the challenge of the past as a blessing. With an eye on the past, I see life in north-by-northwest Nashville as a blessing, even if a blessing at times in the disguise of a curse.

While considering the blessings and curses of living in Salemtown over the past half decade, writing, shooting, cropping, and chopping Enclave hyper-locally was a productive endeavor:
  • Over 6,000 posts
  • 3+ posts a day on average
  • Currently averaging about 400 visitors/100+ returners a day (550+ page loads a day)
  • Almost 100% of my Google ad cut given away to local non-profits:
    • Nashville Jazz Workshop ($200)
    • Fisk University ($190)
    • Neighborhood Resource Center ($100)
    • WFSK 88.1 FM -- Fisk University jazz radio station ($100)
    • Second Harvest Food Bank, St. Paul's Lutheran Food Partner ($100)
    • Friends of The Nashville Farmers' Market ($100)

Thanks to all of the readers who stopped by over the years and thanks to the cadre of bloggers who linked, aggregated, tweeted, quoted, and otherwise blogrolled Enclave.

Look forward to seeing you somewhere down the road.

15 comments:

  1. Mike, congrats on the 5 year mark. I enjoy reading your blog, and I suspect a number of people who lurk do as well :)

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  2. Mike, your site is a textbook model for excellent hyper-local blogging. Hope you're planning to stick around, but good luck with whatever you decide to do.

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  3. Not you, too! I've had all I can take with the news of NIT going dark. You are not allowed to stop blogging.

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  4. Shutting down is exactly what the Tennessean and the rest of the Cooleyites would want.

    Your post on Michael Cass is exactly what people need to be reminded of - and should have included Kerr, Silverman, and the rest of the developer hagiographers and chamber of commerce beat writers.

    Nashville's second and bigger problem are the criminals on the MDHA, a quasi-governmental body with no elected accountability.

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  5. Well, I certainly hope that it's not the end. You are one of my most "shared" blogs on Reader. We need you.

    On a lighter note, you and Shark fu have something in common.

    Best of luck, regardless!
    Carol

    P.S. I didn't even know you donated to NRC. Thanks!

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  6. Carol:

    End of 08/beginning of 09 was when I made the donation. Never got a receipt back. Seems like I remember e-mails going between you and me and Mike Hodge about it.

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  7. My sincere apologies for the oversight! I would like to think that we are better organized about such things now than we were then. Thanks again!

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  8. Ok, S-T M, I read your blog everyday and it has been a week now where I have not had anything to read. I sometimes disagree with you and Lord knows you can really give folks (including me) a hard time but it feels like I have a tooth missing. So, could you please not stop? Take a vacation, write less but please don't stop.

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  9. Wow...sounds like you'd be letting a helluva lot of us down, STM. Not just Council-lady Evans! I can't imagine S-town's progress without the attention your blog has brought to us over the past 5 years. I know in the beginning, I used to gripe about how much time & effort you put into your blog and writing. It didn't take long to see how important it was to not only you, but our community as a whole. For the love of Mike...don't stop.

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  10. There's a wide range of things between all (3+ posts per day) and nothing.

    Good luck on finding the right path.

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  11. Any blog that quotes Peter Taylor is aces with me. Congrats on five year.

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  12. Any blog that quotes Peter Taylor is aces with me. Congrats on five year.

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  13. Mike, a belated congratulations on Enclave's anniversary. Yours is one of the first Nashville blogs I discovered and still one of the best in town.

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