Reddit does pretty well for the "random collection of locals". I follow a subreddit for: - my state - the nearest metro area of my state - politics in my state

Reddit does pretty well for the "random collection of locals". I follow a subreddit for: - my state - the nearest metro area of my state - politics in my state It seems like most of the posters are actually in my local area, so it's fairly easy to kick off a discussion about some local issue. The downside is that there's a significant leftist bias (true for most of Reddit), but it's fine if you take that into account.