Framingham Unfiltered was started as a petition to encourage the Mayor to hold a regularly scheduled and cancelled meeting on the crime and vagrancy situation downtown. The petition amassed over 700 signors and the mayor held a meeting and promised follow-ups, which never happened, further growing our support base.

After the petition efforts had run their course, a name change and a site build occurred. The petition, Clean Up Downtown Framingham, became known as Framingham Forward.

In late 2018, a survey was developed to rate the city councilors and the mayor, which helped grow the Framingham Forward forward. In November 2019, days after the election, the founder of the site stepped away bringing in a team of locals who changed the name of the site to Framingham Unfiltered (FU).

As FU, the site grew even further with multiple contributors adding independent news and views to the site. We had experts on the schools, the government, food, construction, and law all involved in FU, and by early 2021, FU held over 6000 followers on Facebook.

To deal with a larger site, more contributors, and some technical challenges, FU updated its domain name and hosting, ensuring FU a future in Framingham.

-Frank Wood