The anti-social network for people who actually want to get to know their neighbors
Townese is a verified events feed for Mercer Island. Post a gathering. Find one near you. Go.
No algorithm. No ads. No anonymous accounts. Just a chronological list of what your neighbors are doing — and an honest count of who's coming.
Nextdoor is for complaints. Facebook is for ads. Townese is just: here's what's happening, come if you want.
Real names, real neighbors
Everyone on Townese is a verified Mercer Island resident posting under their real name. That's the whole trust model. When someone says "come join us," you know exactly who's asking — and they know who's coming.
Verification is handled by a person, not a bot. Right now that person is me. I'm the only admin, and the only one who ever sees your address. Wherever Townese grows, it will always work this way: hyperlocal, one community at a time.
I'm the only admin, and the only one who ever sees your address.
Why I built this
The answer to "what's happening on the Island this weekend?" was scattered across six web calendars, three bulletin boards, and whatever you happened to overhear after it already happened. It finally clicked at an all-Island arts meeting, where I was hearing about amazing events for the first time — events that had already come and gone.
That frustration, plus my own desire to be released from Facebook, turned into this: one unified event feed. No comments. No noise. A feed you check quickly, find something that resonates, and put your phone back in your pocket.
The goal was never to keep you scrolling. It's to get you to the park, the storytime, the game — and back into real life with your neighbors.
The goal was never to keep you scrolling. It's to get you to the park, the storytime, the game.
The deeper why
It's easy to post banter about the city council, the school board, the PTA when you're hiding behind Facebook. But then you see those people in real life, with real families, trying to live their lives. Maybe you chat. Maybe you find common ground in shared interests — or in your differences. That doesn't happen on Facebook.
I'm an unwavering optimist. I believe people have goodness in them, and the more we meet face to face, the better chance we have at making things better for our children and grandchildren. What I get from familiar faces at school pickup — a real conversation, an actual hello — infinitely outweighs anything I've ever gotten from scrolling on my phone.
No algorithm? Really?
That's right. You control what you see. Make a profile and you can customize how the feed loads for you (mine opens to Family, Arts, Outdoors, Community, Sports + Fitness, and Food + Drink). One quick toggle shows you everything else. The feed is yours — nothing is deciding for you.
But how will you pay for the servers?
Fair question. Right now Townese is small enough, and the costs low enough, that I'm fronting it as a passion project. In time, I hope to build simple tools that let major community stakeholders sync their calendars easily, for a nominal fee. The feed always stays chronological — paying organizations don't get more visibility, just tools that save them time.
I mean it when I say no ads. I built this to bring people together, not to become a billionaire.
Who's behind this
I'm Katie. I live on Mercer Island with my husband and three boys — I'm an artist, designer, school volunteer, arts council member, and mediocre T-ball coach. Townese is my answer to wanting more of this island in my life and less of my phone.
Every resident belongs here
Townese is for every verified resident of Mercer Island. We don't care how long you've lived here, whether you know your neighbors yet, what language you speak at home, what you look like, or how much money you have. If you live here, this is yours.
Land acknowledgment
Townese operates on the ancestral homeland of the Duwamish People (dxʷdəwʔabš) — and specifically the x̌ačuʔabš, the Duwamish subgroup whose territory surrounds Lake Washington, the waters Mercer Island sits within. We acknowledge the Duwamish People, past and present, and honor with gratitude the land and the Duwamish Tribe.
We also acknowledge the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe — the federally recognized successor to the Duwamish and Upper Puyallup peoples, the Treaty Tribe of King County, and the stewards of these lands under the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott. The promises made in that treaty were not kept.
Acknowledgment is only a beginning. If you live or work on this land, consider supporting the Duwamish Tribe directly through Real Rent Duwamish — a voluntary contribution that goes directly to Duwamish Tribal Services.