Two locals launch MyNabes neighborhood app

When Elodie Bottine lived in Paris as a young woman, she learned of a 93-year-old neighbor had who lived alone in the same apartment building since 1935. The neighbor had no one to look after her, so Bottine looked in, then took care of her until she died at age 102.

Now a mother of two and an entrepreneur living in Menlo Park’s Menlo Oaks neighborhood, Bottine longed for similar intergenerational connections. In fast-paced and overscheduled Silicon Valley, she found them lacking.

She and a friend, Raluca Perkins, a resident of Palo Alto’s Crescent Park neighborhood, have launched a smartphone application to help their neighbors build community. MyNabes links people together in real time without the bother of annoying advertising and negative comments found on other social-networking sites, she said.

Two years ago, Bottine set out to build her own neighborhood social-networking mobile application. The free app lets people connect in 19 categories, from sports to playdates, volunteer opportunities and tool sharing to “need it now” for immediate needs, such as a cup of sugar. The new app launched on Oct. 16.

Bottine was put off by the negativity she found on other sites, she said. On a French-cooking networking site she belongs to, what should have been a pleasant exchange between people was frequently negative. A woman seeking ingredients for a traditional recipes was bombarded with unflattering comments criticizing the recipe as too fattening or too sugary.

“All she wanted was to find out where she could buy the ingredients,” Bottine said.

Perkins agreed.

“We wanted a tool to connect neighbors to each other, one where people can’t bash each other. When communities work together and help each other out, it is the best way to create a social bond for all generations, and that is our future,” she said.

On MyNabes, users reply to a posting by sending a private message to a neighbor. Those making a request post what they want under one of the app’s categories: Loan of tools or objects, Playdates, Need a hand/DIY, Sport partners, Pets, Groceries, Donate/exchange, Meeting with neighbors, Babysitters, Carpool, Request advice, Events and celebrations, Teaching/coaching, Volunteers, Courtesy visits, Garage sale, Computer and web, Daily help/work and Need it now.

After making a request through a short post, a user can also decide the urgency of his or her request by choosing either “now,” “whenever” or by a specified date. Users can also choose who will see the post by selecting “just your street,” “your neighborhood” or “your nearby neighborhood.”

Lastly, posters choose how they want to compensate someone for the favor by selecting one of six reward categories. Compensation can be a simple thank you, sharing fruits or vegetables, exchanges of items or errands, a drink, homemade cooking or money.

Bottine said her children were in French school where they didn’t have the opportunity for many playdates. She also likes to run and could have used such an app to plan get-togethers for her children and herself, she said.

The “need it now” category is kind of an SOS catch-all, and one to which Perkins said she relates.

“I was at home and the fire alarm started ringing,” Perkins said, recalling a frantic moment when the children were at home and she couldn’t leave the house. Using the app, she could have quickly borrowed a battery from a neighbor to end the noise, she said.

The same goes for a badly needed wrench while in the midst of a plumbing project or those two eggs that are so desperately needed while in the middle of a recipe. One post under the groceries category could save a trip to the store if a neighbor is already there.

Perkins and Bottine said the app can help save on trips, thus benefiting the environment. Instead of purchasing a tool one only needs to use a couple of times a year, the app lets neighbors share with each other.

The categories also offer opportunities to check on an elderly or sick neighbor. Retired neighbors can connect with younger ones when they volunteer skills, such as tutoring or woodworking, Bottine said. Perkins said she met with some of her neighbors on her street to discuss what they’d like to see in a neighborhoods app. The categories align with their suggestions.

“Our goal is to bring a social bond between all generations,” Bottine added.

Bottine and Perkins said they chose to launch the app around Halloween, which is one of the few times of the year when people get out to mingle with their neighbors.

How to engage the new population of immigrants is a frequent lament among neighborhood associations. Perkins, a native of Romania, said MyNabes helps eliminate social and cultural differences for new immigrants and could make it easier to connect.

“Everybody comes from a different way to approach people. This app offers a way for people who don’t connect by knocking on doors and who don’t want to bother other people to reach people. It’s bringing knocking on neighbor’s doors back into the modern age.”

The MyNabes app is downloadable on Google Play and the Apple App Store.

Sue Dremann is a staff writer with the Palo Alto Weekly, The Almanac’s sister paper.

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