Greenline deserves some props

During my stint at a maddeningly disorganized community development corporation, I started writing for the organization's little paper, the Greenline. Billed as the only community paper in Williamsburg-Greenpoint, it was in danger of being seriously eclipsed by more bankrolled (and I have to admit, hipper-looking) journals sprouting up all over the place in the neighborhood.

I picked up my copy (distributed for free) yesterday, and I have to say that I have so rarely felt so connected to the real happenings in the neighborhood as I did when I read this paper. Sure it's not as glossy as all the others, but I learned about the community's inclusive open space proposal, their nuanced reaction to Amanda Burden's Department of City Planning's waterfront plan for the area (not all bad as most other major papers are wont to point out), the YMCA's open house and offers, new yoga studios, an entrepreneurship class for new small business owners, local school sports results, the high school student who is going to Antarctica this winter (!), an inside look at a Polish bakery, art going-ons, etc etc. There's more!

These highly localized media outlets are important, and typically highly underrated, for giving the community a voice and connecting people to the physical and social neighborhood they occupy. Yes, sometimes there are just too many Eagle Scout pancake breakfast fund-raiser announcements, but there's nowhere else that you're going to read about the Swinging Sixties Senior Center along with a gallery opening and intermediate sports news. (Intermediate meaning not varsity, or JV).

Congratulations Greenline. After just a couple of years, you're looking great!!