Gowanus Lounge: Serving Brooklyn

GL Update: We’re Back!!!

October 6th, 2008 · 18 Comments

GL is returning. Thanks from the bottom of my heart for the hundreds of emails and comments that I’ve gotten since I suspending posting last month. I had to hit the reset button on my plans for GL in the future. Your kind words and warm thoughts have touched my heart and reminded me of the role that GL plays.

And now, a few words of explanation. I have always preferred to keep GL as a place for news, observation, images and analysis, but I’d like to offer some insight about what happened. Life events left me no choice but to suspend GL for a time. I had hoped to partner with someone and create a very formidable news team in Brooklyn and beyond. This person was part of the GL team for a long time and is still deeply missed. The real point, however, is that blogging is a huge commitment of time and energy and requires a lot of focus. GL takes up an additional 6-8 hours a day beyond our “day job” at Curbed. It has always been a labor of love. So, it was time to endure some turmoil and reassess. All that having been said, I can no longer sit back and walk past neighborhood news and ignore it. So, I resuming posting with hope that GL will continue to grow.

On that front, I can’t do it all. I often post up to 20 items a day. While I’m deeply grateful to my regular contributors, I’d like to bring some more people on board to help. Since I don’t plan to go from zero-sixty in 24 hours, there may be fewer posts for a while. For now, I won’t be posting on weekends any longer, except for a couple of posts that I’ve always enjoyed. To all those that have emailed and asked what they can do to help, I say this: send me tips, photos and material. If you’d like to help, email me at thegowanuslounge (at) gmail (dot) com.

Finally, to the smartest and best Brooklyn neighborhood reporter I know: Please come back. It’s much less fun without you.

Tags: GL Announcements

18 responses so far ↓

  • 1 brooklyngirl // Oct 6, 2008 at 9:34 am

    Yahoo so glad your back!! I’ll keep my eyes and ears out for some good Brooklyn news for you!!!

  • 2 sebb // Oct 6, 2008 at 10:19 am

    I am happy to see you back

  • 3 david // Oct 6, 2008 at 10:25 am

    glad to see you back. i, too, will keep my eyes and ears open and try to make a contribution every now and again, to help lighten the load.

    welcome back. we missed you!

  • 4 Jeffrex // Oct 6, 2008 at 11:16 am

    Oh My Gawd! I’m glad this site is back. I still, out of habit, went to the bookmark first thing every morning. Thanks for sticking it out.

  • 5 ColinHT // Oct 6, 2008 at 11:28 am

    Indeed! Thanks for coming back! I too, look at that “Still Suspended” post almost every day in hopes you’d be back

  • 6 bloomie // Oct 6, 2008 at 12:28 pm

    Yeah you’re back! What great news to start my workweek with.

  • 7 welcome back! // Oct 6, 2008 at 2:30 pm

    glad to have you back!!

  • 8 Chris // Oct 6, 2008 at 4:47 pm

    Yay! Welcome Back! You were Missed!

  • 9 Red Hook // Oct 6, 2008 at 5:04 pm

    Welcome back,
    Your dreams were your ticket out.

    Welcome back,
    To that same old place that you laughed about.

    Well the names have all changed since you hung around,
    But those dreams have remained and they’re turned around.

    Who’d have thought they’d lead ya (Who’d have thought they’d lead ya)
    Here where we need ya (Here where we need ya)

    Yeah we tease him a lot cause we’ve hot him on the spot, welcome back,
    Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.

  • 10 bby // Oct 6, 2008 at 5:05 pm

    welcome back!!!

  • 11 Carrie // Oct 6, 2008 at 5:28 pm

    SO glad you’re back!!! I’ll do my best to send tips, news and photos from my neighborhood when I can. GL is a huge news source for me and connects me to my neighbors and local businesses. I truly thank you.

  • 12 MarkP // Oct 6, 2008 at 5:56 pm

    Welcome back Rob

    When you say “Brooklyn and beyond,” are you talking about taking Gowanus Lounge global or something, lLike the Gothamist franchise?

    I always thought the charm of Gowanus Lounge was that it was homegrown, and very neighborhood specific, I mean GL is Roebling street like OTBKB is 7th avenue. Why not let the Brooklyn blogosphere do what the Brooklyn blogosphere does, which is speak with it’s own voice in its respective corners.

    I don’t know how I’d feel about a Gownus Lounge franchise covering Sunset Park or Bay Ridge. If I wanted Sunset Park news, there’s Best View in Brooklyn, and Bay Ridge has one of the fastest growing blogospheres in Brooklyn, with something like 5 different blogs… so I don’t really understand the upside in entering that market?

    I do think, however, you’ve taken on a truly ambitious and excellent project here and should try to refine the posting schedule whereas to maintain the quality of the posting, over the frequency.

    Best wishes for all your future success with GL

    Mark, Carroll Gardens

  • 13 Brenda from Flatbush // Oct 6, 2008 at 6:10 pm

    So glad you’re back! I was all twitchy without GL. Good luck to your evolving team effort.

  • 14 Jim // Oct 7, 2008 at 9:24 am

    Very glad to see you back!

  • 15 gowanus neighbor // Oct 7, 2008 at 1:22 pm

    So very very glad you’re back.

  • 16 tricia // Oct 8, 2008 at 3:49 pm

    welcome back! your astute observations were greatly missed

  • 17 Marie // Oct 9, 2008 at 4:29 pm

    Very good to see you’re up and running again!

  • 18 Brooks of Sheffield // Oct 17, 2008 at 10:08 pm

    Welcome back, R.S.G. Glad you returned.