Website creates forum for discussion

EAST COUNTY — Have you ever wondered which restaurants offer the best seafood, if other residents have noticed the increased number of deer in the neighborhood or which day is garbage day for your community?

You’re not alone, and you now have a resource to help answer such questions.

When Carie and Andrew Schoenfeld moved with their two sons from New Jersey to Lakewood Ranch three years ago, they struggled to find answers to questions they overlooked prior to becoming the new neighbors on the block.

“We were starting from scratch when we moved here,” Carie Schoenfeld said. “We didn’t understand all these different villages, either. We just felt confused and didn’t know who to ask or where to look for answers to very basic questions, like, “Where is the best place to get clothes altered?’”

Two weeks ago, the Schoenfelds decided to become the one-stop resource they sought for years. They launched lakewoodranchtalking.com — a forum for Ranch residents to post questions and discussion topics online.

The website features tabs for 10 Ranch neighborhoods, such as the Country Club, Country Club East and Greenbrook. The division connects members directly with their neighbors through discussion posts.
A general information board, main forum, is also available for users.

Topics currently active on the website include the safest places for trick-or-treating, suggestions for the best restaurants in the area and noisy dog complaints.

“We want this forum to be a place where residents can hear from other residents to get the information they need,” Andrew Schoenfeld said. “This website gives people a free way to communicate and let voices be heard.”

Participants also address hot-button issues on the forum, such as traffic associated with The Mall at University Town Center and what the approval of multi-story building construction means for Ranch residents.

Summerfield resident Bob Bronston, who opposes the construction of seven-story condominiums in the Ranch, utilized the forum as a means to connect with area residents who have similar thoughts on the issue.

He shared the email addresses of Manatee County Commissioners for users interested in connecting with local officials to voice their opinions on the new construction to take place near Lakewood Ranch Main Street.

In the future, the website may contain a buy-and-sell feature that allows visitors to offer services and products to others through the forum. But the website’s creators haven’t determined a need for that feature, yet.

So far, 78 area residents have joined the discussion.

The Schoenfelds have spread the word through a grassroots effort. They continue to knock on doors and distribute business cards and pieces of paper with the website’s URL etched on the front.

Membership only requires an email address — no social security numbers, birthdays, credit card information or other personal information is needed. The need for privacy was important to Carie Schoenfeld when she and her husband started building the website a few months ago.

“I don’t want to give that information when I’m signing up for something online,” Carie Schoenfeld said. “So, we didn’t want to ask anyone else to do that, either.”

No advertisements or pop-ups flood users’ screens when they sign up or visit the website, either. The Schoenfelds intend to keep the website that way and don’t plan to utilize ad dollars to keep the website going.

For now, the couple funds the website straight from their wallets.

They spent about $500 on the software to create the interactive forum and estimate website maintenance will cost about $400 a year.

But, to the couple that hopes to connect neighbors to resources the Schoenfelds wish they had years ago, the fees are small prices to pay for quality information.

“Users are getting real information from real residents,” Andrew Schoenfeld said. “Your neighbors are your best sources of information for some of these questions.”

For the forum’s founders, the website can help unify communities and create camaraderie between neighbors.

“You don’t have to be alone when you move somewhere new or live in a community,” Andrew Schoenfeld said.

LAKEWOODRANCHTALKING.COM // To join, click the sign up link in the upper right corner next to log in. To create an account, individuals just need a valid email address.