With Patch slashing employees, wither Local?

News broke this morning that AOL's Patch will be pink-slipping workers today.  We have seen at least one local Patch editor report on being let go. 

This is especially rough coming on the heels of big changes at the sale of the venerable Washington Post earlier in the month.  For people in the area over forty, and those who haven't yet joined FaceBook, Twitter, Reddit, or some similar social media network to pass word of local news, it's more isolating than ever.

What will you be doing if you are accustomed to reading Patch?  Do you chat with neighbors periodically?  And where do you meet them, at the grocery store, commuting, at church or synagogue or mosque, or elsewhere? 

Do you feel as though you are in touch with what's going on in your community?

Feeling too old

Times are still tough in PG county.  Friends and I see vacant homes with no prospects for buyers every five houses or so along the streets in our neighborhoods.  Business office buildings stand newly built and vacant too at a high rate, and county services and politics are doing nothing good to encourage companies to invest and locate their workforces here.  County homeowners still bear the biggest share of the tax burden, and there are just too few of us with too little wealth to sustain a high quality of life.