The "Farewell" Edition

Farewell from Rob Blatt, the creator of The Briefly

Hello!

This will be the last edition of The Briefly by me and possibly ever. I’ve become the all too common villain in the eyes of many a New Yorker and moved to the suburbs of Westchester. I garden, I make maple syrup from scratch, the dogs have plenty of yard to run around and get into trouble, and life has been good.

What have I been doing? I am opening up a bar and restaurant in Peekskill called Copperhead Club. We are hoping to open within the next two months and have a crowdfunding campaign to raise some funds and help us print some awesome merch. Follow us on Instagram.

The Briefly is a few thousand New Yorkers who give a shit about their city enough to want to feel a stronger connection to it. I loved writing The Briefly and I loved hearing from all of you, even if you wrote in to correct my grammar, complain about my spelling, or called me out on something I wrote that you disagreed with. If you are someone who loves the idea of The Briefly and wants to see it continue, please let me know.

I want to acknowledge a few people. This list is incomplete and I hope that I have shown gratitude in person to everyone who deserves it.

• I would have never started The Briefly if not for Chris at the skint.

• Julie and Scott at Littlefield and Parklife have always been extremely supportive of The Briefly and they run an incredibly wonderful venue. Littlefield was and remains a driving force of creativity and life in Gowanus. And Caitlin, I can’t thank you enough for everything you did to help me.

• Tim and Mary, who run Young Ethel’s in Park Slope, are two of the coolest folks in the city and always showed love to The Briefly. I love you both and hope Wolf is blessed.

• I found the inspiration for The Briefly in the death of DNAInfo and Gothamist. The writers who went on from those outlets to essentially glue the city’s independent journalism back together will always have my admiration.

While I’m acknowledging things:

• You should call 311 to request new trees everywhere you can.

• Congestion pricing is a net positive.

• The reason Prince St Pizza is popular is the editors of Thrillist wanted free pizza near their office so they hyped the place up online and took credit for it in person.

• I will keep this website active for a few years. I don’t want someone taking it and putting some stupid AI nonsense on it.

• Eric Adams is a fraud and does not deserve to be your mayor.

Thank you,
Rob Blatt