Brooklyn Blogfest

Last night I attended the 2nd Annual Brooklyn Blogfest at the Old Stone House in Park Slope. As a newcomer to the blogging world (my first post is dated only three weeks ago!), I felt somewhat out of my league in the same room with the brains (and actual human beings) behind such established blogs as Only The Blog Knows Brooklyn (sponsor of the event), Brownstoner, NoLandGrab, Atlantic Yards Report, and Gowanus Lounge.

Although the news media – via Brooklyn’s own Outside.In (and somewhat randomly, by their own admission)– has declared Clinton Hill to be the nation’s “bloggiest” neighborhood, this finding was questioned last night, with Prospect Heights, Park Slope, Fort Greene and Bed Stuy all declared close contenders. The event brought a number of bloggers from areas outside the “brownstone epicenter”: Coney Island, Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, Greenpoint, and Flatbush (three of us!) were definitely in the house, and I’m sure there were others as well. While Norman Oder of AYR acknowledged that the Atlantic Yards controversy has motivated many of the blogs based in areas nearby, it was clear from last night’s event that there also happen to be a lot of smart Brooklynites with ideas and information to share on a variety of topics, and with journalist rigor that scoops the mainstream media on a regular basis (particularly where Atlantic Yards is concerned). As Robert Guskind of Gowanus Lounge pointed out, “the days when you could tear down a building without anyone noticing are over; within 45 minutes of taking down one brick, one of us will be writing about it.”

I enjoyed chatting with sustainability comrade Chandru Murthi of I’m Seeing Green (his nine-year-old son doesn’t eat factory-farmed meat!), and meeting my neighbors Brenda (Crazy Stable) and Chris (Flatbush Gardener). Thanks to Louise Crawford of Only The Blog Knows Brooklyn for putting the event together. Should be interesting to see what we’re all up to by next year’s Blogfest.