EveryBlock in Boston

The New York Times today has a too-brief story on hyperlocal Web sites that attempt to aggregate local news down to the neighborhood level. The focus is on EveryBlock, founded by the noted programmer-journalist Adrian Holovaty, best known for creating ChicagoCrime.org and the Washington Post's Congress Votes Database.

The EveryBlock site for Boston is down at the moment. (Noon update: Now up.) When I've checked it out in the past, it has struck me as intriguing, but not ready for prime time. Enter a zip code and you get a pastiche of blogger, media and government information that doesn't add up to a whole lot. But it's easy to imagine its growing into something pretty useful.