What makes local sites hum?

  Lately it's dawning on people that the mass aggregators of local information aren't achieving critical mass among the locals. Outside.in, a site that never made much sense to me, sold to AOL for $10 million. A lot less money than the VCs had invested in it.
  Anyway, I thought now would be a good time to remind that in spots around the world and even in the US, local sites are kicking butt. Here in NYC, we have quite a few. I keep an aggregator of East Village blogs. Pretty interesting reading.
  A couple of my favorites, close to home and a former home are NYU Local and Berkeleyside.
  I think the common thing is people who care. Who wants to read local news prepared by software. I find it interesting to know what interests people near me. I find the idea of an algorithm making the choices to be sterile, void of nutrients. Unhappy!
  Hey even the curmudgeonly Berkeley Daily Planet has a pretty decent website these days (few offsite links, but hey that's who they are).