I got the idea for Tribeca Citizen after I quit my job in the summer of 2008. I’ve lived in the neighborhood since 2003, but I had always loved it a little blindly. Perhaps because I had time to take my pug, Howard, on much longer walks, I found I had all sorts of questions: What was filming on Duane Street? What will that huge new Frank Gehry building look like? What is David Bouley up to now? When I couldn’t find a website with the answers, I began to envision one.

I had been the editor in chief of Budget Travel magazine (and before that, an editor at Fortune, Travel + Leisure, and Town & Country magazines), where I came to believe that no one person can be as much of an expert as all of us put together. As excited as I am about being a reporter on the local beat, my goal is that other people—such as you—will be willing to help. Think of it as a community garden, where people come together to build something for the good of the area. If you love shopping, or restaurants, or history, or taking photographs, or drawing a better building than the one in our logo, or attending community board meetings, or writing in general, or whatever, and you’d be interested in contributing, email me at tribecacitizen@gmail.com. There’s no compensation yet, because we’re doing this on a shoestring.

Tribeca Citizen is entirely independent. While I hope that there will be advertising one day, and sooner rather than later, our editorial integrity will never be compromised. I want this site to be smart, fun, useful, interesting, and above all, trustworthy.

Tribeca Citizen's definition of Tribeca is fairly broad, because I’m as interested in what’s going a few blocks north of Canal, or east of Broadway, or in Battery Park City, as I am about what’s happening at the corner of West Broadway and Franklin. I’m defining Tribeca as anywhere I could persuade my partner, Adam, to walk for dinner. And I’m not spelling it TriBeCa because that’s a pain to type.