This is a bit of a precursor to the next annotated conference program post, which I’ll put up this afternoon. Before I introduce the bloggers we’ve asked to talk on Saturday afternoon about the relationship between blogging, literary culture, and cultural memory, I wanted to offer a sort of umbrella view of the NYC blogosphere, at least from where I sit in downtown Manhattan.
Over the last year or so, on the links page of my personal website, I’ve gradually accumulated a hefty set of links to NYC-oriented blogs. I don’t claim to be comprehensive: I generally make a quick pass through a site I’ve stumbled across and give it a quick thumbs up or down based on a few set criteria. Is it oriented toward a specific neighborhood or borough or the city in general — or even toward a particular aspect of the city — as much as it is toward the idiosyncratic details of the blogger’s day? (I don’t have the time or space for every New Yorker’s livejournal, in other words.) Is the blog fairly active? (If the most recent entry is already a month old I won’t include it.) And does its take on the city comport with the roughest outlines of my own? Now, that last question may sound a little harsh, and when you see the list below I think you’ll find that my umbrella is pretty broad. But I am aware of at least a few blogs geographically and/or spiritually rooted in certain neighborhoods I don’t really care for, or focusing on items such as cupcakes or high fashion that really don’t float my boat, and I’ve simply chosen not to include them. As Cyrus repeatedly reminds me, attempts at cosmopolitanism aren’t the same thing as an uncritical cultural relativism. Maybe there’s a place for pink blogs about shoes written by Carrie Bradshaw wannabes on the Upper East Side, but that place isn’t my own personal links page.
Still, I love the fact that this set of links constantly expands in size and in the breadth of material it takes in, from Central Park birding photos to love-hate relationships with The New Yorker. As Cyrus and I have tried to map out what our own single-volume cultural history of New York will look like, we’ve confronted head-on the difficulty of reining in so much culture. What’s not going on here, I ask you? And then there’s the five borough problem: I’ve tried to maintain — and to publicize, though my occasional Friday links posts — a handle on blogging that’s rooted uptown or in outer-boroughs, though my daily reads tend to gravitate toward neighborhoods and interests adjacent to my own. Is that provincial?
Enough preamble. What I really want to put out there is the list. So take a look. Tell us if there’s something here you particularly like. Or hate. Or if you have a blog we should note or know of one you wish had been included. I’d like to compete with City Room for the most comprehensive city blogroll. Well, and still maintain my standards of course. If you’d prefer to see the links in a single column, click here and scroll down until you’ve passed the NYC Cultural History Resources.
NYC blogs
AIANY Blog Central
Animal New York
ArtCal
ArtSlant
Art Fag City
Be in Brooklyn
Bed-Stuy Banana
Bed-Stuy Blog
Bitch Cakes
Bitch Cakes Commutes
Blah Blog Blah
Bloggy
Bowery Boogie
The Bowery Boys
Brokelyn
Bronx Bohemian
Brooklynometry
Brooklyn by Bike
Brooklyn Diners
Brooklyn Parrots
Brownstoner
Burn Some Dust (Blog)
BushwickBK
The City Birder
City Room (NYTimes)
City Snapshots
Civic Center Residents Coalition
Colonnade Row
Curbed
East Village History Project Blog
East Village Idiot
East Village Podcasts
Eating in Translation
Emdashes
Ephemeral New York
EV Grieve
Fading Ad Blog
Fecal Face NYC
Flaming Pablum
Forgotten New York
Found in Brooklyn
Free NYC
Fucked in Park Slope
The Girl Who Ate Everything
Gotham Lost and Found
Gothamist
Gowanus Lounge
Greater New York
Greenpointers
Greenwich Village Daily Photo
Harlem Bespoke
Harlem Hybrid
A History of New York
Historic Districts Council Newsstand
Holla Back NYC
Hotel Chelsea Blog
Hunter-Gatherer
Idealist in NYC
I Hate The New Yorker
I Shot New York
I Spy NYC
Inside the Apple
Inwoodite
It Was Her New York
John Egan Harp
Lens
liQcity
Lower East Side History Project Blog
Kinetic Carnival
Knickerbocker Village
Lost City
MaNNaHaTTaMaMMa
The Masterpiece Next Door
The Met Everyday
Metroblogging NYC
Mommy Poppins
My NYC in Color
Neither More Nor Less
Newyorkette
NewYorkology
New York Daily Photo
The New York Nobody Sings
New York Portraits
New York Shitty
New York Yak
Not for Tourists
NY Art Beat
NYC Garden
NYC-grid
NYC The Blog
NYC Rhymology
Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn
Plain in the City
The Origin of Species
Out My Window NYC
Queens Crap
Roosevelt Island 360
Roosevelt Islander
Runnin’ Scared (VVoice)
Save the Lower East Side
Scouting New York
Second Avenue Sagas
Second Circuit Blog
Sense & the City
Shooting Brooklyn
Slum Goddess
Streetsblog
Street Level
Stupefaction
Subway Blogger
Tenement Museum Blog
Today in NYC History
An Unamplified Voice
Untapped New York
Uptown Flavor
Urban Hawks
Urbanite (AMNY)
Vanishing New York
Walking Is Transportation
Walking Off the Big Apple
Washington Square Park
We Heart New York
What about the Plastic Animals?
Who Walk in Brooklyn
Williamsburg Is Dead
Writermama
Young Manhattanite
I would argue that this is an NYC blog: http://thisaintthesummeroflove.blogspot.com/. Although done by someone not living in NYC, the postings are passionate and consistent.
Thanks, Rhymology. I should add that yours is one of the most consistently fun blogs I know. I hope you publish a book of your best posts someday.
p.s. — I should have added that I’ve also enjoyed TATSOL … I don’t know why I haven’t added it to my list before now!
I don’t have one to add–I need the time just to browse through the great stuff on this list! 🙂 But I do like bouncing around the nycbloggers.com site from time to time to pick up on some new thoughts and goings-on. I’m into the geographic thing they have there…so I can feel like a virtual visitor to other parts of the city.
I like that site too, but it doesn’t seem to have been very actively updated since 2006. It’s a great idea though. Thanks for the comment, Kristen!
Ask and ye shall receive: I’ve updated the
“Keys to the City” links with the sites listed in this post.
Wow — that was like magic! It’s a handsome blogroll. So many curious and entertaining and informative blogs. The other night I was at the Bowery community event at Dixon Place and guess who I saw: Kirby Carnegie, the blogging bulldog! I was so happy.
Thanks on both counts!
The Newtown Pentacle: http://newtownpentacle.com/
Miss H, NYShitty (Thanks for the shout-out!)
Thanks for that link, Miss Heather. What amazing photos. I love that they feature parts of the city I rarely get to myself.
Thanks, too, for helping to expose the way the papers have been ripping off bloggers. Now we need to get NYMag to start listing sources for their little Intelligencer feature.