Rumors have been swirling around for the last 24 hours about the whereabouts of Bob Guskind, the journalist who runs Gowanus Lounge.
I found out yesterday that his immensely popular blog, which focused on real estate and development issues in Park Slope, Gowanus, Williamsburg and Coney Island, was non-operational.
Readers and fellow bloggers were concerned that their phone calls, and texts were not being returned.
This morning, Susan Fox of Park Slope Parents received an anonymous text that Bob was dead.
His death is now confirmed. A communications official at the Medical Examiners Office told me that he died on March 4th, 2009.
This is very sad news for the Brooklyn Blog community. My condolences to his wife and loved ones.
This picture was taken at last year's Brooklyn Blogfest. I know the year of his birth because we talked about the fact that we were both born in 1958.
Though I never actually met Bob in person, I used to exchange email with him pretty often and I read his site everyday. When my old building was evacuated by the FDNY, I knew exactly who to tell first in hopes of getting the word out quickly. That was Bob and he covered the story better than anyone in the traditional media.When I started getting media inquiries about the story, they were all directed my way by Bob. The trad-med reporters all knew to go to Bob first too. When I had a question about anything Brooklyn related, he was the go to guy. When I was organizing a blogger get together with a candidate last year, he was the first person I invited.
And now he's gone.
Godspeed, friend.
