Bye Bye to the `Boogie

I was really saddened to learn — via NY1, no less — that my friend Elie from Bowery Boogie is discontinuing the long-running blog after 14 years. I first met Elie way back when we both members of the so-called “NYC blog mafia” alongside folks like EV Grieve, Jeremiah Moss, Hunter-Gatherer, Ephemeral New York and a few others. Elie and I both even took part in a NYU discussion panel back 2009, talking about our different approaches in covering our respective turfs.

Where my blog spiraled further into richly overwritten, myopic navel-gazing, Elie’s became a bona fide resource for neighborhood news, expanded its reach with other staffers and actually got in the habit of breaking stories before the “legitimate” media sources were even aware. I was and remain in awe of Elie’s resourcefulness and tenacity.

The internet (and the Lower East Side) will be much less interesting without his efforts. Here’s hoping he’s moving onto more interesting pastures.

Here’s Elie and me at Motor City (long, long gone) on Ludlow Street in 2011.