Brick Underground released this week its annual list of “22 best NYC neighborhood news sites of 2019” and Washington Square Park Blog is pleased to be included, alongside so many great sites. This site has been on the list since 2014. There are not real awards for blogging and recognition is always nice.
You probably won’t be able to find out about the construction project on your block or fate of a shuttered restaurant in the mainstream press. That sort of information is more likely to be on the website of a neighborhood news site.
Community-centric news sites deliver hyper-local, real-time information, filling a void for news about what matters most, where it matters most—your very own stomping ground.
This is nowhere more true than in New York City, which is made up of distinct neighborhoods. …
This year, we’ve done away with calling this list Brick Underground’s best blogs and made a few changes accordingly. After all, while some still call themselves blogs, these are sites are reporting the news, not merely repurposing other writers’ work.
Of Washington Square Park Blog, they write:
This targeted site is a bit of a departure from the others included here in that it was born out of the desire by its founder, Cathryn Swan, to chronicle the famous park’s controversial redesign back in 2008.
Since then, it has widened its scope to cover other aspects of the park (and her concern with the privatization of other green spaces in NYC) as well as the greater Greenwich Village neighborhood. However, the blog still bears its original reportorial, well-researched bent. Plus, Swan is a devotee of all things WSP, and has even compiled some of the blog’s essays into an ebook.
Recent posts centered on the 50-year honoring of the Stonewall Riots and PRIDE 2019 Parade that took place in the park. The site also encouraged followers to attend the upcoming Community Board meeting that was slated to discuss “quality of life” issues at the park.
Thanks, Brick Underground!