Welcome to the "Fall River Monitor"

 Welcome to the Fall River Monitor and what I hope is a "safe space" to share thoughts about Fall River, its currents, history, ideas for the future and maybe some discussion that is not Fall River-centric. 

Why? 

It's a good question! There are so many outlets for people to express their opinions on what's going in Fall River. Most of these seem to be Facebook pages and/or quasi-news organizations. Why do we need one more? I guess whether we do or don't depends on what you're looking for. I want a place where I can share my thoughts and invite meaningful, civil, discussion. And I'm not finding that on a lot of those other outlets. 

The civil part is important. 

Let's say you think the future of Fall River is develop more high end housing, build more amenities for a wealthier population and basically transform Fall River by changing the people who live here. 

Meanwhile, let's say I think we need come up with ways to keep Fall River affordable for its current population. That we need need to find creative and unique ways to improve the education attainment of our population and in tandem work to bring better job opportunities so that our current population can achieve a level of prosperity that today seems out of reach. 

I may think that you're looking to "improve" Fall River at the expense of the people who live here now. You may think that I am advocating for plans that will be expensive to implement and will take decades to have any effect. 

If we can at least have civil discussions around are ideas we can find common ground, have a better understanding of why each of us feels the way we do, and maybe together come up with some ideas that benefit both of our "visions" for Fall River. 

Why the Fall River "Monitor"?

I could offer a few reasons I why I chose the name "Fall River Monitor". The easy one would be because part of the mission here is to "monitor" Fall River and it's goings-on. The clever one would be that unlike yesteryear this isn't some printed newsletter and you're reading this on a "monitor". But, the last one is that "The Fall River Monitor" was one of the oldest and most established papers in the city, serving Fall River from 1826 to 1899 and I like history!

So stay tuned!

This is a work in progress and it's going to take a little bit of work to get this up and running. I hope to get a few posts written up over the next week or so and would like to find ways for you to contribute ideas or guest posts and maybe find a few co-authors.