Friday, April 1st, 2011

When I read that Lauren and Torrey were retiring from MyUpperWest, my first thought was “NOOOOOO!”

Having discovered the site when I moved to the neighborhood in early 2010, MyUpperWest quickly became my go-to source for all things UWS. Judging by the 100,000 pageviews in March alone, I’m clearly not the only person who embraced it as a local resource. The last 22 months have seen Lauren and Torrey grow MyUpperWest from a couple’s hobby into a legit source of information for countless people.

After the initial surprise wore off, I started to wonder about the future of the site. How was I going to get my daily dose of UWS info?? Was I expected to actually walk the streets and read newspapers to find out what was going on?? The mere thought of that was so daunting that I quickly realized the only solution was to grab the torch from Lauren and Torrey and keep MyUpperWest going. So that’s what I’m doing.

I’ve followed several blogs over the years that have changed writers and the results have been mixed. Some stayed the same, others actually improved, and, unfortunately, a few became unreadable. As “the new guy,” my promise to you is that I intend to keep MyUpperWest as the preeminent source of information for our neighborhood. If for no other reason, ** I ** need to know what’s happening around the area. Remember, up until this morning, I was a reader. So to quote the great Sy Sperling of Hair Club For Men fame, “I’m not only the president, I’m also a client!”

A quick bio: Born and raised in Westchester (21.4 miles north of Gray’s Papaya for those of you who think Riverdale is “the country”), I’ve lived in Manhattan for nearly ten years. After eight years on the East Side, I made the move to the UWS in February of 2010, settling a stone’s throw from the 1 train at 79th. I’m about a five minute walk from the apartment that my grandparents and father moved to when they emigrated from Europe to the Upper West Side in 1951.

Lauren and Torrey repeatedly told me that one of the great things about this site was the input from readers. I can’t encourage you enough to continue to send your tips, suggestions, and feedback to alerts [at] myupperwest.com.

I may be the guy at the keyboard, but this is our Upper West.

-Mike

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Tags: MUW, MyUpperWest, New York City, NYC, Upper West Side, UWS