An interesting resource that I came across is EveryBlock.com.  EveryBlock filters an assortment of local news by location so you can keep track of what’s happening on your block, in your neighborhood and all over your city.  It lists everything from traffic stops and violations to houses for sale and apartments for rent to building permits and zoning to which restaurants rock and which ones have rats for guests.

The site, still young in age, only covers only a handful of major cities.  While the site needs a little organization, I like the idea behind it.  You don’t have to subscribe, however by subscribing to the site’s RSS feed readers can find out new information about their respective neighborhoods as it hits the newswaves.  For Twitter-users they have twitter feeds.  What would be really cool is if it utilized user-submitted reviews via Twitter so that it would capture the true noise about a given neighborhood. 

But that would require giving up control.

Regardless, EveryBlock.com is a fun peek into your neighborhood.