Announcement

We want to try something new around here. It’s impossible for us to cover all of Brownstone and North Brooklyn as comprehensively as we’d like on our own, so we’d like to put in place a few stringers. As a stringer, you’d probably write anywhere from two to six posts a month about your ‘hood. The topical scope would be meat-and-potatoes Brownstoner fare: New buildings, new restaurant and store openings, new bike lanes, notable quality of life issues; we also might call on you occasionally to attend an important community board meeting or to grab a photo of something specific for us. You don’t need to have a professional writing background. You do need to be the kind of person who always has a camera on hand and is constantly attuned to what’s going on in the community; it also helps to have a couple of competitive bones in your body so we can beat other publications to the punch. You also need to be pretty darn sure that you’re going to stick with it, as it’s a big effort to get a new writer set up and trained. We’ve already got someone lined up for Ditmas Park but, as a start, would like to get correspondents for Park Slope, Bed Stuy and Williamsburg; if it works well, we’ll expand to other nabes as well. The pay will be $20 a post, since most of these posts are really just a photo and three or four sentences. If you’re interested, please email us at Brownstoner@Brownstoner.com with “[Neighborhood] Stringer” in the subject. Thanks.

Looking for info about Brownstoner Philly? Check here.

For this shortened holiday week, Mr. B. has graciously allowed me to drive the Brownstoner bus. Whaddaya mean ya need a license to drive one of these things? As the What now knows, it’s one thing to criticize someone else’s blog, it’s a whole ‘nother animal to come up with as much content as Brownstoner.com does day after day. Fortunately, (wiping brow) I am not required to do so, primarily because most of the world has the week off. I’ve planned some of the usual stuff around here, and have some new goodies for the mix. Please let us know what you like, and it might stick, thus enabling Montrose to pay a plumber to fix her kitchen sink, which has had issues for so long, it’s turned into a subscription.

If our calculations are correct, this should be the 25,000th post on Brownstoner since the standalone site launched almost four years ago in January 2005. (We published at brownstoner.blogspot.com for three months before that.) This tally includes 10,730 posts on the home page; 13,285 posts on The Forum (initially called “Services” when the current site launched); 120 posts in the recently-added Restaurants section; and 865 posts in the various Renovation Blogs, including 192 in the original reno blog of our house.

We’re looking for a motivated, blog-savvy, Brooklyn-loving college student to help us with research, handle a couple of daily posts and pitch others if they want. Candidate must be super reliable and able to work from home/dorm. Interested folks should send resume and a note to lisa AT brownstoner DOT com. Work is eight to ten hours per week.

City pools may have closed up shop for the season, but the Brownstoner Flickr pool is available 24/7 for your Brooklyn photographs. Please join us there so you can see your photographs here.

Urban Hurdle. Photo by weenieart.

We’re pleased to announce that Ron Schweiger, the official Brooklyn Borough Historian, will be taking questions from readers on all matters of Brooklyn’s past, and a few on its future, too. He’s particularly knowledgeable about Coney Island, Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach and Victorian Flatbush — from their famous inhabitants to the developers who first plotted out the areas — and about the history of our street names and neighborhoods.

Ron was appointed by Borough President Marty Markowitz in 2002. Raised in Gravesend, Schweiger moved to Victorian Flatbush after graduating from Brooklyn College and getting married. He taught science for 31 years at P.S. 219 in East Flatbush and, after retiring from the Board of Education, began teaching science to grades three, four and five at Yeshivah of Flatbush. He’s been instrumental in helping landmark several Brooklyn locations, from Fiske Terrace to the Avenue H subway station on the Q line.

Please leave questions for him in the comments below or email them to us.

And we don’t mean money. Please send in your eco-friendly Brooklyn projects, big and small: decorating, renovating, new construction. The idea is to show others how to accomplish green living in the city, to share your sources (Salvaged windows? A great resource for mold-resistant sheetrock?) and your ideas and accomplishments. Send photos (500 pixels wide) and text to lisa AT brownstoner dot com.

A couple of housekeeping items:

1) If you haven’t taken the reader survey yet and want to participate, please do so as soon as possible. We’ll be closing the polls at 5 o’clock today. Update: Polls are closed. We’ll have the results for you on Wednesday.

2) One interesting result of the survey so far is that about half the respondents are in favor of requiring registration. We’re not ready to require it yet, but we would like to take an intermediate step of strongly encouraging readers to register for a TypeKey identity. In addition to providing greater continuity in the discussion threads, it also helps us weed out the trolls from the real posters. Over time, if you stick to the same identity, you also start to develop the respect (or at least the recognition) of fellow readers which makes the sense of community stronger on the site.

Thanks