Cambridge From the Couch: Your Nextdoor Neighbors

I think that practically any method of connecting people can be a good thing, including the often-derided social media. Everyone knows about Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, yet there’s another one I haven’t often used but have come to appreciate as a journalist and advocate for Cambridge. That’s Nextdoor (one word, so my headline is not a typo).

Nextdoor has over 100 million registered “neighbors,” and roughly 46 million weekly active users. While there are no published statistics for the platform’s use in Cambridge, it can be estimated that there are a few thousand registered local users.

It doesn’t always feel like that if you’re on the app and see the same few names pop up constantly. But one needn’t post or comment to get benefit from Nextdoor, it just helps. So, how useful is it?

As part of my research for this column, I posted a couple of questions to the Cambridge users: Do you find Nextdoor useful, and what do you use it for? The answers weren’t all that surprising, but they served as a good structure for my analysis. Let’s look at some of the responses, categorize them, and expand on them with examples.

Businesses & Services. Not everyone on Nextdoor appreciates the commercial use of it by advertisers, especially a man in the Historic West End who is inundated with sales pitches for prefabricated showers. But more people appreciate learning about the opening of new businesses or sales at existing ones, as well as recommendations for services of all types. Not only do specialists advertise their small companies that offer carpentry, plumbing, or in-home pet care, but regular users will advise others who express their needs for a particular skill like lawn maintenance or woodturning.

Pets – Lost & Found. You can always find posts on Nextdoor by people looking for their beloved furry friends who got out of the house or yard, and these posts can lead to helpful suggestions and even reunions. One Oakley Street woman announced that her cat had bolted through the door, and commenters advised setting out dirty laundry, posted helpful Internet links, and even offered to print flyers. Ida was proud to tell me she had been able to return a lost cat to someone five miles away from her, and Grant in Lloyds was able to find a black Lab’s people only an hour after posting about it.

News & Updates. Users are more than willing to let neighbors know about local emergencies, traffic problems, road closures, weather issues, and crime reports. Plus, professional news outlets post stories, including The Star Democrat newspaper and the media website Patch. However, Jo Alice complained that some of the news links lead to a paywall.

Meeting People & Joining Groups. When someone who had just moved into the West End posted that she was looking for book and gardening clubs, people jumped in to direct her. A couple of folks mentioned the historical society’s book club as well as the one at the library while several mentioned the Dorchester Garden Club as having a strong membership. One frequent contributor on Cedar Grove Road even said she would be happy to discuss gardening with the newcomer. That last part is rather common on Nextdoor: people wanting to meet up and hang out, and it’s nice to see.

Offering a Hand (or scarf). One “lonely senior” with no family in Cambridge admitted that he wished he could get a gift for Christmas, and hopefully one for his cat, too. Several people offered to provide those gifts, such as a scarf and some cat food, while others offered their company over coffee. In another example, Lillian needed to borrow a laser level for a new exhibit at the Dorchester Center for the Arts, and Barbara welcomed the loan of hers. And when Choptank Elementary Teacher Emma requested donations toward a new rug for her classroom, the project was fully funded within 11 hours.

I could go on, but I’m sure you get the picture. Nextdoor isn’t perfect: sometimes new posts take a while to appear, folks sometimes get into arguments, and there really are too many professional ads. But I believe the platform is worth at least keeping an eye on sometimes, if for no other reason than to see how your neighbors are doing right down the street.