Do you know the yik yak or jodel apps?
I'm mentioning them because those also focus on small talk or general discussions for everyone, but found their niche in hyper locality.
They basically show you what people write in (I think) 10km distance in an endless stream. So it's something like an anonymous hyperlocal twitter, with pretty much all kinds of random stuff that you can imagine. Too much downvoted comments are hidden, similar to HN and reddit.