I really like the pictures. Is your father Ali?

I agree with a little bit over everyone's responses here.

I did find it interesting that Shane pointed out the business side of blogging RE: Kansas City seems a bit empty (which is surprising). You'd think and hope someone could carve out the "Business Journal" equivalent in the online sense.

Ed, your observation was really astute in the sense that perhaps there's a bigger problem at hand- lack of overall interest in city news. However, you certainly could retort that the KC Rag forum does a fair share of satisfying peoples urges to talk about anything KC (good or bad).

Regardless, I thought it was just interesting enough to reflect at blogging as a whole here locally. It's great to hear most everyone agrees- while it's good, there's a thirst for it to get bigger and better.

There as many differnt "states" of blogging as there are bloggers. Everyone approaches blogging from different places, for different reasons with different goals and expected outcomes.

That is precisely what is so great about it. Everyone can say, do and be whatever they want and everyone else can choose to read it or not read it.

The blogs that I find pedantic and unappealing are the ones that aspire to be more than a blog. The ones that want to be taken seriously as journalists so bad that you can taste the stench of their bitterness and desparation.

Or the political blogs who try to be "kind of a big deal" on the local political scene. They wind up being manipulated and used by folks a whole lot smarter and Machevellian than they can ever hope to me.

The blogs I enjoy are the ones that are perfectly comfortable being a blog. They aren't pushing any agendas, they aren't trying to get the most followers, they aren't kicking off gratuitous pissing matches just to drive up their hit counters, they aren't trying to get rich or win any prizes.

Two good examples are "Kansas City with a Russian Accent" and the "Midtown Miscreant". I can honestly say I have never been bored or disappointed with anything I've ever read from eithr of them.

There is no greater sin in the blogosphere than to be boring.

http://www.kcmeesha.com/
http://midtownmiscreant.blogspot.com/

There are a couple local blog aggregator type sites recently in Chicago.

Windy Citizen was a start-up (http://www.windycitizen.com/) but I don't believe the capital was ungodly ($60K is the figure I have in mind, but I have no idea where it came from or if it's accurate).

ChicagoNow (http://www.chicagonow.com/) is the Tribune Co's foray into social media.

Thinking about it a little more, I started to consider Present Magazine. I think they are intending to be that "KC Portal", but it's coming off a bit pretentious. I suppose Gothamist is the same way.

I had never really thought about the "1-stop-destination" blog before. Most people have learned in life you can't be successful trying to be everything for everybody. I take the easy way out and just be myself. I've met many local bloggers and have enjoyed the variety that there is. I've made real friendships, met some great people. I think we're very lucky here in KC.

While there are many active bloggers in town, I agree that blogging about Kansas City (or the suburbs) is not quite what it could be. Sure, Tony, TVBarn, and occasionally BlogKC seem to cover quite a bit, but independent coverage of the city beyond that is meager and sporadic. Outside of these sources, KC is starved for solid local-themed blogs. There are forums, which is really where more local debate seems to happen, but they are often chaotic and ridiculously one-sided.

In the same vein... how often do you get local news information from Twitter? Of all the KC folks I follow, very very few even mention local news issues. MAYBE there is a general lack of interest for city news here in town to begin with (outside of sports and weather), and hence a lack of blog interest.

I think that you're mostly on track here, but I think that Kansas City is a little further than adolescence. I think the blogging community here is pretty large and fairly experienced (although that's definitely a relative term), but it's certainly scattered. We have a lot of personal bloggers in the city, but there are several niches that have yet to be filled. Some are probably saturated (food blogs, beer blogs), but others are somewhat empty (KC business, KC nightlife). I also think an overarching website about the city would be pretty cool, but would require a considerable amount of startup capital to get going (think KC's version of Gothamist).

Just my thoughts.