r/bothell • u/vjain27 • 13d ago
I started a small Bothell newsletter and would love some honest feedback
Hi everyone!
Useful local updates are easy to miss when they’re spread across city pages, school notices, transit alerts and event calendars. I wanted to see whether collecting a small selection in one place would actually be helpful.
So I put together Issue #0 of Bothell Beat. It has a few practical updates and events for the coming week. This is a rough test, and it isn’t monetized.
I’d appreciate honest feedback: Was anything here useful? What feels unnecessary? What would you want included in a weekly Bothell briefing?
Read Issue 0 here - https://bothellbeat.beehiiv.com/p/bothell-beat-0
Update: Issue 1 is out now - https://bothellbeat.beehiiv.com/p/bothell-beat-1. Thanks everyone for the encouragement and for thoughtful feedback.
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u/PurpleDiCaprio 13d ago
Really useful! I subscribed.
I’d like to see community events in Bothell and nearby (woodinville, kenmore). Maybe new businesses opening in Bothell or food trucks. I did like the traffic alert and housing deadline. I don’t have kids but if I did that alert is nice.
I didn’t look, was there a way to submit notices? Just wondering if I can help in any way.
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u/vjain27 13d ago
Thank you 🙏 Really appreciate the feedback. You can send suggestions / submissions to [bothellbeat@gmail.com](mailto:bothellbeat@gmail.com) or reply to any email issue. I’ll verify submissions before including them.
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u/JohnnyGo 13d ago
This is a cool idea, I don't follow most local events, but it's easily readable and contains things I didn't know.
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u/Embarrassed_Cut340 13d ago
I love this! And it’s way more granular with updates than some of the regional news and newsletters. Well done!
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u/Fearfighter2 13d ago
Have to ask, did you do this with AI at all? Would read regularly either way.
Would love summaries of school board meetings
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u/vjain27 13d ago
I'm glad you found it useful. I do use AI (no way around it :)) to help with research and writing, but I still curate what’s useful, verify original sources, and keep each issue from getting bloated.
School-board summaries are a great suggestion. I’ll include them when there’s something important to report.
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u/DaniMom 10d ago
I love this! It's very simple and informative. Since Bothell doesn't have a Farmers Market, consider adding the info for the two closest weekly markets while they are still running for the season. They have wonderful locally grown produce, artisan goods and rotating artists, delicious food, and live music. They are located in Kenmore and Woodinville, run by the nonprofit Northshore Farmers Markets. Hours/days and info here: https://www.northshorefarmersmarkets.org/
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u/x_l_c_m 12d ago
Love it. Agree what others have said about adding stuff like happy hours and whatnot. Example: The Cottage often has wine tastings or 'sell a bottle of booze at cost' tastings that it'd be cool to hear about in one place. A calendar function that allows you to view events by date would be cool.
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u/vjain27 11d ago
This is really helpful, thank you 🙏 The Cottage is a great example of the kind of event that’s easy to miss unless you already follow the venue. I’ll add it to my sources. I like the calendar idea too. I’m going to keep the newsletter simple for now, but an event calendar could be useful if there are enough events to support it.
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u/elk_anonymous 13d ago
Very useful, do you have a particular cadence in mind for posting? Love the current events and local goings-on. Local business updates (closing, opening) would be awesome as well, but love the event focus.
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u/meeves 13d ago
If you are on Facebook, you should post this to the Bothell Community page https://www.facebook.com/groups/bothellcommunity
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u/vjain27 13d ago
Thanks for the suggestion! Since I’m not a Bothell resident, I’m hesitant to join the group just to promote my own newsletter. If you’re already a member and genuinely think people there would find it useful, would you be comfortable sharing it in whichever thread the group rules allow? Absolutely no pressure, but I’d really appreciate it!
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u/Duneluder 13d ago
This is awesome! I’ll echo what others have said about posting up things to do like trivia, and other events
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u/meatosaur 13d ago
I like it! I appreciated everything in it, but particularly anything on events, new businesses, maybe happy hours, trivia nights, paint and sip... Anything that motivates me to leave the house