The Village Voice calls GerritsenBeach.net one of “Gotham’s Best”

The Village Voice gave a great write up about “18 obsessive, cantankerous, and unstoppable Gotham blogs worth going ape over”. We at GerritsenBeach.net are humbled by the headline and honored to be included with other great blogs.

The Village Voice

[The Neighborhood Reporter]
Gerritsen Beach
Proprietor: Daniel Cavanagh
GerritsenBeach.net

Daniel Cavanagh is Gerritsen Beach–born-and-bred, and he knows his deep-Brooklyn neighborhood is a mystery to most of us. Before he started blogging about it at GerritsenBeach.net in 2006, he says, “You’d only know it from its hate crimes, like maybe someone got killed somewhere else, and they’d say they’re from Gerritsen Beach.” He wanted to put out a more well-rounded picture, and show that Gerritsen Beach—and the surrounding south Brooklyn area, in general—is “a nice place with stupid problems, like any other part of the city.”

This he does: If there’s a Lundy’s being refurbished in Sheepshead Bay, or a big tree falls on Noel Avenue, he’s on it. Cavanagh also goes to precinct and community board meetings, and reports on and sometimes posts videos of them, which is a big deal around his way. “Community board meetings suck,” he says. “They’re three or four hours long. People come up to me and say, ‘I can’t go to these meetings—viewing your website and getting the breakdown is easier for me.’ ”

Cavanagh breaks stories: His 2008 coverage of black kids getting hassled on Manhattan Beach during a senior “cut day” at local high schools was followed days later by a story in the Post. He got no credit, though. “It’s their policy,” he shrugs. “I don’t complain a lot. I’m more interested in getting stories that the other papers don’t get.” And sometimes, Cavanagh is the story, as when Nobody Beats the Wiz founder Stephen Jemal came after him for publicizing problems with Jemal’s land development business—and an associate of Jemal’s hacked Cavanagh’s site. The Daily News picked that one up and interviewed Cavanagh.

Cavanagh says he’s “more a photo guy” and is thinking of taking writing courses to hone his journalism skills. We think he’s pretty well honed already. —EDROSO

Other Great Blogs!

1. [The Obsessive] – The Launch Box – Proprietor: Ben Heckscher – TheLaunchBox.blogspot.com
2. [The Exhibitionist] -Art Fag City – Proprietor: Paddy Johnson – ArtFagCity.com
3. [The Reader] – Emdashes – Proprietor: Emily Gordon – Emdashes.com
4. [The Neighborhood Reporter] – Gerritsen Beach – Proprietor: Daniel Cavanagh – GerritsenBeach.net
5. [Community Vent Coordinator] – BushwickBK – Proprietor: Jeremy Sapienza BushwickBK.com
6. [The Newshounds] – Bronx News Network – Proprietor: Jordan Moss – BronxNewsNetwork.org
7. [The Grumbler] – Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York – Proprietor: “Jeremiah Moss” – VanishingNewYork.blogspot.com
8. [The Good Neighbor] – The Lo-Down – Proprietors: Ed Litvak and Traven Rice – TheLoDownNY.com
9. [The Populist] – Queens Crap – Proprietor: “Queens Crapper” – QueensCrap.blogspot.com
10. [The Listener] – Brooklyn Vegan – Proprietor: “Dave” – BrooklynVegan.com
11. [The Historian] – Forgotten New York – Proprietor: Kevin Walsh – Forgotten-NY.com
12. [The Fans] – Faith and Fear in Flushing – Proprietors: Jason Fry and Greg Prince – FaithAndFearInFlushing.com
13. [The Downtown Translator] – Animal NY – Proprietor: Bucky Turco – FaithAndFearInFlushing.com
14. [The Aesthetes] – The House Next Door – Proprietor: Keith Uhlich – SlantMagazine.com/house
15. [The Transit Authority] – Second Avenue Sagas – Proprietor: Benjamin Kabak – SecondAvenueSagas.com
16. [The Local Girl] – New York Shitty – Proprietor: “Miss Heather” – NewYorkShitty.com
17. [The Diner] – Food in Mouth – Proprietor: “Danny” – FoodInMouth.com
18. [The Mom] – Ask Moxie – Proprietor: Magda Pecsenye – AskMoxie.org