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.


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  1. i think the stringer for any particular neighborhood should have to be someone who has lived in the area for at least 10 years. otherwise their opinions arent worth much and their insight irrelevant.

    *rob*

  2. Minard Lafever,

    11217 once lambasted me over my refusal to eat an Austrian hotdog at Bark.

    …but when you think about it, what’s wrong with a foreign weiner anyway? I like the way he courts controversy that way.

  3. personally it would be nice to have someone as a stringer from Red Hook
    but 11217 would be good for park slope
    but then again Mr. B – I think Park Slope is big enough to have a 2 -3 stringers

  4. Bob Marvin is awesome for history of PLG and its architecture but you could also seek a stroller-mom resident to cover PLG. Somebody who is really social locally and active in various new efforts like the charter school and bringing new businesses to PLG. Those women know absolutely everything fresh and new that’s going on.

  5. my first run-in with 11217 was on a thread where I lamented that a particuarly lovely rowhouse had been chopped up into many units. He launched into about eight consecutive posts saying that no one needed more than one room and one 60-watt lightbulb, that more than that was piggish, etc.
    For a long time I thought he was a smart 12 or 13-year-old pretending to be a grown-up, but evidently he is a grown-up and works as a musician. His posts have gotten much mellower I have to say since his “one 60-watt lightbulb” diatribe. but he is still overbearing about the Slope.

  6. I nominate DIBS for Bed-Stuy. His posts are always honest and informative plus he knows his “hood” in and out. Also, if PLG is ever invited to the mix, Bob Marvin would be my choice.

  7. another idea would be to start a battle of the neighborhood stringers…

    on court 1: 11217 v minard lafever
    on court 2: benson v bxgirl
    on court 3: dibs v whuh

    oh sorry, already happens.

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