Let’s get the obvious out of the way: nobody I know needs another website to join. The amount of internet communities I am a member of is getting so ridiculous that I don’t recall some of my passwords or remember why I signed up! I’d always ponder things like, what if I was able to get all the information and news about my city alone in one place? What if I wanted to discuss issues in my community with other residents and actually do something about them? And then I found the answer.
562CityLife.com is a social networking site that is specifically geared toward Long Beach, combining all the elements of modern journalism into one big smorgasbord of all that is our colorful city. The page, which has been up and running for over a year out of a home office, is the brainchild of Matt Saunders and his wife Julie. The couple both attended Brooks College in Long Beach, and despite having other full time jobs were committed to bringing this site to life. Inspiration for the site came from the Huffington Post, which incorporated more “citizen journalists” and created a way to access other news sites with the click of a button.
“I just wanted to do something specifically for Long Beach and create more a of niche site,” Matt said. “I wanted to strengthen the connection between residents in the city and businesses as well as highlight new artists and events. It’s more of a networking site than hard news. All the content is readily available.”
CityLife has about 190 users and is run by a small staff, all of which work from home. Floyd Livingston, known as “The Man” on his profile, is a part-time writer for the site. “I like this site because it’s more exclusive to Long Beach people,” Livingston said. “We feature new bars, artists, concerts, and businesses and I think our users feel more included.”
When a new user joins, they will find the familiarity and features of popular websites such as Myspace and Facebook, but on a much smaller scale. The main difference is that CityLife helps users have a voice in their community and no other site gives diverse groups of people in one subsidized area the chance chat about important issues surrounding their city. The site also has a podcast feature, which is available for download on iTunes. It will eventually include live feed from events, interviews, and commentary from the “man behind the mouse” Matt Saunders.
“I just want to make sure people know what’s going on in their city,” Saunders said. “No one will take care of it if its residents don’t. We will tell you what’s going on, from concerts to beach clean up days to new business openings, we’ll be there.”
As well as featuring city news, the site has a column of forum topics that leaves plenty of room for open discussion amongst its users.
“We are more geared toward news but we encourage bloggers to put opinions on the site,” Livingston said. “When people comment on your blogs, the comments take on a new life of their own. These days people want to be involved in writing the news and the comments bring up new issues and new story ideas. It’s a very hip and modern site.
As far as the money goes, well, they aren’t making any yet. However, CityLife will continue and strive to uphold a community involvement aspect, original and traditional content (such as City Hall updates), rich new multimedia features, and portals to other websites. Saunders hopes to hire a bigger staff and expand the site in the future.
“The beauty of our city is its diversity. Hope everyone loves the site and continues enjoying living in Long Beach.
Jenny Dubois is a contributing news reporter and current journalism student at Long Beach City College.