Over the course of two a half years, the word “change” has come up in many of The Local’s 4,200-plus posts about the East Village. Now it’s time for some change of our own.
Next month the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute will launch an exciting new site with New York magazine. Bedford + Bowery will continue to cover breaking news, big issues, and cultural events in the East Village and Lower East Side while also exploring three kindred neighborhoods directly across the river: Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Bushwick.
The new site will launch June 17. As The Local publishes its final post today, please bookmark nymag.com/bedfordandbowery and follow @bedbow on Twitter. You can also sign up for B + B’s newsletter to get top stories delivered to your inbox.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this collaborative experiment in community journalism as much as we have. The Local’s robust archives will remain right here at NYTimes.com – because we know how important preservation is to East Villagers. Thanks so much for reading!
As you may have heard, the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, which produces The Local, is teaming up with New York magazine to launch a new site, Bedford + Bowery. We’ll still be covering the East Village and Lower East Side but we’ll also be jumping on the L train to cover Williamsburg, Bushwick and Greenpoint – where, of course, the East Village already has a strong presence.
Are you an experienced blogger or reporter who knows and loves these neighborhoods? We’re currently seeking contributors as well as a full-time deputy assistant editor. If you’re a lively storyteller who can break news, recruit fellow writers, and sniff out the best and latest in arts and culture please send your resumé over to Daniel Maurer at editor@bedfordandbowery.com.
We’re excited about this next venture. If you are too, sign up for The Local’s newsletter and follow us on Twitter and Facebook, where we’ll announce our launch in the next weeks.
Stephen Rex BrownBeing The Local ain’t always easy. Last year someone hacked our Twitter account and stole all of our followers. Boy, was that a bummer. But things are looking up: the new @nytlev handle just got its 1,500 follower, and we just passed 2,500 likes on Facebook. That’s almost as cool as getting the Mosaic Man treatment!
So, thanks, superfans. As for the rest of you good folks, follow us on Twitter and Facebook — and better yet, subscribe to our newsletter for free daily access to our top stories. And if you’d like to write for us, tell the editor a little bit about yourself, or pitch something via our nifty Virtual Assignment Desk. We do compensate our wonderful contributors. So let’s grab coffee somewhere in the neighborhood?
Daniel MaurerIf your New Year’s resolution is to keep up on neighborhood news, we’re here to make it easy like Sunday morning. Though we’d like you to read us every morning — and afternoon! and evening! Hence these easy ways to stay posted:
Our newsletter. Enter your e-mail address here to get our top stories delivered to your inbox daily. Clicking from the newsletter won’t count toward your monthly limit of free NYTimes.com views, so you’ll be reading for free.
Twitter. Follow us at @nytlev, where we post breaking news, retweet our neighbors, and share random nuggets of wit and whimsy.
Facebook. Like us on Facebook. We won’t feel truly loved until we reach 2,500 likes. We’re almost there!
The Virtual Assignment Desk. Have a story you’d like us to cover, or that you’d like to write yourself? Suggest it at the Virtual Assignment Desk. Want to volunteer to cover other readers’ suggestions? See our Open Assignments.
Noah Fecks Pork buns at Jum Mum.Here’s one more reason to sign up for The Local’s newsletter: You could win free tickets to the East Village Eats Tasting Tour.
This weekend will be a gut-busting one for the food obsessed: Saturday is Lower East Side Pickle Day; meanwhile above Houston, Fourth Arts Block is hosting its annual eating extravaganza. From 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., ticket holders can roam the neighborhood (with a compostable spork, naturally) sampling bites from restaurants like buzzy newcomer L’Apicio (where F.A.B. just installed a colorful mural), Veselka Bowery, Jum Mum, Bikinis, and more. After the food crawl, the revelry continues as a trio of bars will offer discounted drinks.
So how do you score a ticket? Well, you can either buy one for $60 here, where you can see a full list of participating restaurants and dishes, or you can take two seconds to sign up for our newsletter. We’re giving away two tickets to a random person (and friend) who subscribes between now and tomorrow at 4 p.m. The icing on the proverbial cake: you’ll get free East Village news delivered to your inbox daily. Just sign up here.
Just a friendly reminder, folks: if you want to read every last bit of The Local, there are two ways to do it: get a digital subscription to NYTimes.com or subscribe to our free newsletter and get East Village news delivered straight to your inbox daily. Reading stories from the newsletter won’t count toward your monthly limit of free views on NYTimes.com. All you have to do is type your e-mail address into the nifty sign-up box at right and press “Subscribe.”
Daniel MaurerYou’ll have to shell out $16.5 million to own Allen Ginsberg’s old apartment on East Second Street (along with the building and the one next door), but you can visit one of his other former homes without paying a cent.
Last month, we invited you to sign up for The Local’s newsletter for a chance to win a tour of Ginsberg’s later digs at 437 East 12th Street. The rare sit-down in the poet’s living room of more than two decades will be hosted by his longtime assistant Bob Rosenthal, who has many a memory of the place (it doubled as his office). Turns out, a couple of our lucky winners won’t be able to make it on the evening of Aug. 7, so we’re giving you a chance to take their place. Just sign up here to get The Local’s top stories delivered to your inbox daily, and we’ll be in touch Aug. 1 if you’re a winner.
Good luck!
The Local can’t be everywhere at once. (Though we did ask Peter Saraf to share the secret of the time machine in “Safety Not Guaranteed.” No dice.) That’s why we need you to tell us what we should be covering, and we need you to cover it. Happily, you’ve been doing just that, via our Virtual Assignment Desk. It’s not a time machine, but it’s pretty neat: It allows you to pitch stories and write them yourself, or suggest stories that others can volunteer to cover at our Open Assignments page. Here are the latest reader submissions:
PS Project Space, “Joie de Vivre ” Hullaballoo Collective Opens August 3,2012
Opening reception: August 2, 6-9pm PS Project Space presents Joie de Vivre, a group exhibition featuring artwork from the Hullaballoo Collective, an eclectic New York City-based group of artists. Hullaballoo Collective first exhibited in the 2011 Fountain Art Fair at the legendary 69th Regiment Armory, the site of the original 1913 Armory Show in which modern art was first publicly presented in the United States. Seeking Joie de Vivre is a theme in our daily lives as visual artists. Embracing joy, inclusiveness, and unity, while respecting artistic diversity is our collective “work in progress.” Read more…
As you may have noticed, we’ve just launched a nifty new tool that allows you to suggest stories you’d like to see on The Local. Using our Virtual Assignment Desk, you can either offer to write or photograph stories yourself or we’ll post your ideas so that fellow readers can volunteer to cover them. Below are just some of the suggestions we’ve recently added to our Open Assignments page, including a protest against N.Y.U. 2031 tonight, an upcoming play, and a record release party. Want to volunteer for one? Click through to sign up and we’ll be in touch!
Angry Greenwich Village Residents Hold “Memorial Service” in Sasaki Garden to Stop Bulldozers Under NYU Expansion Plan
Tomorrow, Thursday, June 28th @ 5pm: there will be a memorial service for the Sasaki Garden, lead by Rev. Dr. Donna Schaper, Senior Minister of Judson Memorial Church. It will be R.I.P. for the Garden and all our green spaces if the NYU plan goes forward. Come with your own stories and pictures, and bring your friends & family; kids very welcome. This place where trees of all kinds bloom, birds of many species sing, and children laugh and play, will soon be razed by NYU’s bulldozers, and the ground sowed with rat poison, to make way for a gigantic office park…unless we stop it! http://savewsvsasakigarden.blogspot.com/?utm_source=NYU+FASP+First+Eblast&utm_campaign=NYU&utm_medium=email VERY IMPORTANT! Friday, June 29th: The City Council holds its ONLY public hearing on the expansion plan. Join the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation @ an 8:30 am press conference on the steps of City Hall, before the hearing begins. (If you go, try to be there @ 8:15am). Bring your energy, your voices, your signs. The hearing is inside City Hall and starts at 9:30 am. We hope to have a packed hearing. If you do go, be aware that hearing can last well into the night and that photo i.d. is required. Be prepared to stay for a quite a while. Written testimony is also accepted. Read more…
Would you look at that – The Local just passed 2,000 likes on Facebook. And now liking us is easier than ever: look to the bottom of this little announcement and you’ll see new sharing buttons that allow you to easily post our stories to Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. We hope you’ll use them!
Speaking of Twitter, you might be aware that we recently lost control of our account. (Rumor has it, it’s being replaced by a Starbucks. Or was it a 7-Eleven?) But fear not: you can find our new Twitter page here. Make sure to re-follow us, and let us know what’s going on in your neck of the nabe.
And last but certainly not least, subscribe to our newsletter to get all the East Village news that’s fit to e-mail, daily – plus the occasional bonus content that isn’t available online.
Just a reminder, folks: Sign up for The Local’s just-launched newsletter and each day, you’ll get our top stories delivered to your inbox. And they won’t count toward your monthly limit of complimentary NYTimes.com views. That’s right: read all the East Village news that’s fit to e-mail, even if you’re not a New York Times digital subscriber.
As an added perk, you’ll get the chance to win a tour of Allen Ginsberg’s apartment, led by his longtime assistant Bob Rosenthal. Just sign up here.
Vivienne Gucwa Last year’s Howl! festival.Happy Howl! Festival, everyone. At 4:30 p.m. in Tompkins Square Park, Bob Holman, poet and beekeeper, will kick off the annual group reading of Allen Ginsberg’s epic poem, and to celebrate the bard’s birthday weekend, The Local is offering up something special: a chance to visit Ginsberg’s former apartment on East 12th Street with his longtime secretary, Bob Rosenthal, as your host.
Mr. Rosenthal recently shared some memories of his nearly two decades working alongside Ginsberg at 437 East 12th Street, and he’ll share more during an intimate chat in the poet’s old living room. (Naturally, borscht will be served.) All you have to do is subscribe to The Local’s newsletter and you could be one of five lucky attendees. And you’ll be getting East Village news and events delivered straight to your inbox daily, for free! Just sign up here. The contest ends June 15.
Plus, if you’re interested in writing for The Local, have suggestions for coverage, or just want to hear more about us, look for our table at Howl! Festival over the weekend. We’d love to meet you.
Earlier this week, students from across the country arrived at 20 Cooper Square for the first of two six-week sessions of The Local East Village’s Hyperlocal Newsroom Summer Academy, a program that gives college and high school students at all levels – from rank beginners to seasoned reporters and multimedia producers – an immersive journalism learning experience for college credit from NYU and the opportunity to get published on The Local.
The first session is underway but there are still places for session two, which begins July 2. See the Hyperlocal Newsroom site for specific details and the NYU summer site for how to apply and register.
