After its untimely demise, remembering Gothamist’s greatest hits

For over a decade, Gothamist has become synonymous with the city it tags its “ist” to. New York City residents and readers have watched it grow from its nascent snarky origins into a leading source on the inner workings of the city’s cultural and political landscape.

With such witty headlines as “Cuomo Denies Controlling The MTA Despite Controlling The MTA,” “Cuomo, Who Controls The MTA, Asks To Control It After Denying He Controls It” and “Cuomo, Who Controls The MTA, After Denying He Controls It And Asking To Control It: 'Who Knows' Who Controls The MTA,” Gothamist has been able to take topics that speak directly to New Yorkers in a voice that readers have come to appreciate.

That voice, however, was silenced when it was unceremoniously shut down by new owner Joe Ricketts less than a week after its writers, along with those at DNAinfo, unionized. Adding to the loss of such great reporting was the initial scare that in shutting down both sites, Ricketts had removed their content. In its absence, who else would call out the New York Post for its obvious slant on city politics, or expose Ray Kelly’s true colors, or dig through Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio’s secret e-mails?

Fortunately, the archives of both sites were restored in the following days, but Gothamist’s reporting voice has yet to be replaced. While that void may never be filled, we here at City & State would like to pay homage to its work with a list of five greatest hits, compiled with input from the site’s former editors:

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