Activity 9 - Zachary

http://lostnewyorkcity.blogspot.com/ is "[a] running Jeremiad on the vestiges of Old New York as they are steamrolled under or threatened by the currently ruthless real estate market and the City Fathers' disregard for Gotham's historical and cultural fabric." Cool.
As it turns out, while about half of the posts on this blog are, in fact, savage laments over the effects big business has on New York, the other half consists of interesting photographs of weird things. For instance, one post displays an interesting sign hanging outside a now-abandoned liquor store, another shows a weird sign found in a laundromat, and plenty of fascinating store-fronts. Granted, there are also the requisite rants about Bloomberg and gentrification, but the best part of this blog is its ability to express those problems through photographs of found objects and out-of-the way oddities. There's something touching about condemning the growth of out-of-town franchise stores in New York by posting a picture of a "Staples Now Open!" sign hung over an old clock.


http://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/ Ephemeral New York's mission is "chronicling an ever-changing city through faded and forgotten artifacts." It offers micro-histories of places and buildings in New York. In this sense, it's the opposite of the blog we've created. Whereas Ephemeral New York focuses on the hidden past of New York, barely protruding into the present in the form of old advertisements painted on buildings or dates carved into buildings, our blog focuses on the New York of the present.


http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/ "a.k.a. The Book of Lamentations:
a bitterly nostalgic look at a city in the process of going extinct" is a combination news aggregator (excellent links!) and photo blog. It angrily laments gentrification in New York, with a focus over specific political and community conflicts over changes in the urban landscape. Reading it made me feel like a jerk for moving here.


http://secondavenuesagas.com/ is a politics blog about the MTA. Recent topics include: budget cuts, protests over budget cuts, business deals between the MTA and other entities, the oddities of New York local politics etc. It's pretty standard so far as politics blogs go, except that it's notably well-researched. It bears little resemblance to our blog.


http://www.idreamofpizza.com/ This is a blog about pizza in New York. It has a single purpose: showing off awesome pizza joints. There's no history of New York, no commentary on local politics....just pizza. I like this blog a lot. It bears no similarity to our blog except that it's about a facet of New York life.


The comments I left on these blogs were, I'm sad to say, a bit too close to spam for me to not feel dirty leaving them. It felt wrong, but I did it anyway. My expectation is that they will be deleted quickly. Maybe there is a subtle and polite way to link someone to your blog in a comment you leave on theirs, but it's beyond my creative capacities to figure out how.