Editorials

Commentary: We would like your help

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By G.P.C.

Friday, January 29, 2010

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When we began in 1976 we told our readers that we would give them as much information about the things which affect the quality of life in their neighborhoods as we could with the financial and creative resources they provided us.

It was an extraordinary act of faith (or naivete) for us because the publication's survival was dependent on the willingness of hundreds of neighborhood residents to contribute the money and labor needed to produce the publication.

We set 11 specific goals before we published the first issue.

• To establish a serious publication, meeting professional standards, to provide maximum support for community programs attempting to improve the quality of life in neighborhoods.
• To provide a community identity by defining the similarities and differences which make our neighborhoods unique.
• To promote a high level of community participation in community affairs.
• To provide the essential information that people who live in the community need to make informed decisions about the issues that affect them, thus make it possible for them to act in their best interest rather than merely react to decisions made for them by other people.
• To serve as a burning glass to focus community opinions so that when people representing the community speak to outside groups they will speak with the power of the whole community.
• To provide a forum for the exchange of differing viewpoints to give the people of the community an opportunity to judge issues on their merits.
• To promote a sense of community by establishing relationships between members of the community.
• To promote pride in our community by making people aware of the unique advantages of living here.
• To help solve community problems by focusing our inherently rich human resources on them.
• To serve as a rallying point for collective community action.
• To survive over an extended period of time by becoming self-sufficient after the development stage was completed (after four to six issues).

Since that first issue published July 3, 1976, we have waged a continuing battle to meet those goals. We have published more than 5654 pages of news, features and photographs about neighborhood preservation and improvement issues in 546 editions of East Village Magazine.

In the beginning, about 500 households in two neighborhoods received the magazine. Now about 5,000 families in 10 neighborhoods get the magazine delivered to their doors and about 3,000 families in other parts of the city get the magazine from one of our bulk distribution points in local government, educational or business buildings.

In August 2002 we began a web site to provide you more information. We included all of the stories we had run since 1992 and all the pictures since 1976. We ran many things on the several thousand web pages we were unable to fit in the magazine — longer in-depth stories, 10 more essays a month by Jan Worth-Nelson, poetry and fiction by local people, city ordinances, 20 or so extra pictures a month, about 10 news releases a day from non-profit groups, letters from you and other things that would not fit in the magazine.

Unfortunately, we had to suspend the web site in January because our server went out of business. Then, we discovered the web site had been done with an obsolete programming language not used by most sites.

We plan to resume the web site and add even more features.

Most of you get the magazine on your doorstep once a month, read it and discard it — without a thought about how unique it is.

We use the term "unique" in its dictionary meaning - one of kind. We doubt that there is anything approaching East Village Magazine anywhere.

A few facts for those of you that have forgotten.

The people that produce East Village Magazine are all volunteers. The editor edits, the writers write, advertising sales people sell ads, the photographer photographs and distributors deliver the magazine to you - for no money at all. In fact, they have often dipped into their own pockets to pay expenses.

In our pages you have gotten information you could not have gotten anywhere else. Included have been news stories about things that directly affected you, features about people that you know, informative columns and photographs that have enlightened and delighted you.

We have always been there when you needed us providing information you needed to preserve and improve your neighborhood.

Your neighborhood is safer, cleaner and quieter because your neighbors use the information to improve your neighborhood. If we have a bias, it is for people who live in a neighborhood over people who make their money there.

We have not changed except to improve our service during the 33 years we have published East Village Magazine.

Publishing the magazine is a labor of love, not a commercial operation. We continue to publish only because we believe what we are doing is important.

And what has it cost you?

For the overwhelming majority, nothing. For some of you, about the price of a night out a year. For a very few, it has cost much more.

We think these accomplishments are significant. But only you can judge the value of our contribution to the residents of your neighborhood.

If you believe East Village Magazine is a valuable resource we would appreciate your support.

There are several ways you can help us do a better job of helping you protect and improve your residential neighborhood:

• Contribute your skills and time. We need people with professional advertising and sales skills or professional journalism skills who are willing to volunteer a few hours a week. Students who want training, retired people who want to use their skills for a good cause and people who want to prepare to re-enter the job market are all welcome.
• If you have unused an unused iMac, Mac G4 or Mac G5 sitting in the closet consider contributing it and taking a tax-deduction. We desperately need to update our equipment because most of it is 10 years old or older.
• Contribute money to pay the bills. Although East Village Magazine is an all-volunteer non-profit corporation, our suppliers are not. We depend on our readers to pay more than 50 percent of the about $2,300 a month production costs so that we can devote more than two-thirds of the space in each edition to news, features and photography. We face the additional task of raising $4,000 to reprogram the site and get it back on line to provide you with the information you expect from us.

If you are a regular contributor, consider increasing your support this year. If you are not a regular supporter, consider becoming one.

But, whether or not you choose to support East Village Magazine, we would appreciate your comments about what we are doing right or wrong at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by mail.

G.P.C.

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