SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

According to L Magazine, this is what our streets look like. Lay off the acid, hippies… (Source: thelmagazine.com)

The scribes over at L Magazine – who definitely know how to write a good “Best of” list – just compiled their list of 50 Best Blocks In Brooklyn. Like the rest of the city’s media, they overlooked Southern Brooklyn. Just two blocks made it onto their list:

9. Best Block For Low-Brow Entertainment
The Boardwalk between Stillwell and 10th Streets, Coney Island
Shoot the Freak, Ruby’s and Cha Cha’s, two amusement parks, and a handful of places to buy greasy fries and Budweiser. You’re welcome.

27. Best Block For Wildlife
Shore Parkway between Bay 44th and Bay 56th Streets, Gravesend
This big-ass block is otherwise known as Calvert Vaux Park, a south Brooklyn shoreline destination for the borough’s birders.

But we know Southern Brooklyn has some great blocks. How about Emmons Avenue, the best block “where there is water and [you] can walk around pointlessely, spitting seeds and talking shit about fat relatives and friends.”

Or Voorhies Avenue near East 28th Street, the best place to witness a hate crime neighbors will describe as road rage?

East 17th Street between Avenue U to Avenue Z, the best place to shatter your car’s axle going a measly 25 miles-per-hour?

Over in Gravesend, there’s Avenue V and West 11th Street, the best block on which to buy a condo if you want to see your property value go nowhere.

We’ve got loads of great blocks in and around Sheepshead Bay, not to mention the rest of Brooklyn. So, L Magazine, you wags… what the hell?

You know, I’m guessing it’s just that you don’t know our area too well. Why don’t you come down here, and we’ll take a walk to Sheepshead Bay’s prime hipster hangouts?

L Magazine must have known we needed some lettered love. The publication of the city’s uber-hip took a rare look down under (ie. below Park Slope) in a search for the borough’s best local blog. And what they found is that Sheepshead Bites is hard at work bringing you original reporting about one of the city’s most under-appreciated neighborhoods.

In their “Best of Brooklyn (and Manhattan Too)” feature, the magazine singled out Sheepshead Bites as the “Best Local Blogger.” They wrote:

You wouldn’t think you’d care what was happening way the hell out in Sheepshead Bay, but Ned Berke’s tireless reportage at Sheepshead Bites is endlessly fascinating—a mysterious dead body washed ashore? Racist Tea Partiers want to stop a mosque? Rest assured, his blog isn’t just links to Courier Life stories—the one-time journalism student is on the scene, snapping pictures and interviewing witnesses, when he’s not collecting tips and photos from readers.

Well, I’d love to take all the credit, but Sheepshead Bites isn’t just a one-man band. I’ve got to thank Ray Johnson, Samantha LoSapio, Rachel Vasilets, Daniel Gershburg, Joseph Reisman, Arthur Borko, Erica Sherman, Ariela Baranova and all the countless tipsters who help keep this site so rich with content.

Now, there’s no cash reward or champagne-fueled party to go along with the title. In fact, no one from L Magazine even notified us (that came by way of Facebook reader Kathleen L.). It’s all good, though. I’m appreciative because it gives me the chance to once again say thank you – not just to the writers – but to all you awesome readers who keep this site going and constantly evangelize the blog and the neighborhood. Keep it up!

Now… back to work…