At Hell Gate, we love all of our blog children equally. But just like when your parents tell you that, it's simply not true. We love some blogs more than others. They call more often, they never flunked out of dental school, and no, it's not weird at all that we've hung more pictures of them around the office. (They just photograph better.)
At the end of each year, we drop the veil and tell you, the reader, which of our blogs, interviews, features, or miscellanea we loved the best from the hundreds of stories we published this year.
And of course, we'd love to hear from you, our readers. Did your favorite blog make the cut? If not, let us know in the comments! Every post, after all, is deserving of love.
The most beautiful paragraph we published at Hell Gate this year, in my opinion, which made me cry the first time I read it:
Among the 5,000 people on their feet, I saw a young man reach his hands through the crowd to embrace his childhood friend, whom he hadn't seen since leaving his village in Guinea. Neither knew that the other had also come to the United States. A separate set of friends who had made the journey to the Americas together reunited. "We got separated in Honduras," one told me. Yet another young man crouched behind me to hide from his uncle, who lives in New Jersey, and who was at the other end of the dance floor. "If he sees me out partying, he'll tell my mom back in Conakry that I'm a bandit!" he said. Many people told me this was their first time ever going out in New York City after almost two years of living here.
Such a special story!
—Katie Way
The Hipster Grifter Looks Back
Ok, if the Zoomers are going to be nostalgic about 2009 in Brooklyn, they have to go all in and pay tribute to Kari Ferrell, the hipster grifter who got caught, did her time, and came through it a true New Yorker, humbled but not defeated, someone with a story to tell and the moxie to tell it. I loved this profile of Ferrell by Esther, because it both captured the heady days of early hipster mania in Brooklyn, but also the fact that a lot of these folks are still around, older, more beautiful, more chastened, more true to themselves, and still getting our attention. The heart of a scammer never stops beating, they just go mainstream.
—Max Rivlin-Nadler
The Wild and Wooly Tale of Frank Seddio and $2 Million in Missing Cash
This story (and all of the subsequent updates) by Nick had me gasping with every graf.
—Esther Wang
I've been meaning to do this myself. Who's in? And is that an AI-generated James Corden on the right in the lead picture?
—Adlan Jackson
The Cops Are (Mostly) Sweating Out the Eric Adams Era
Like many of the excellent scene pieces from bizarre campaign events that our team covered during the mayoral race this year, this one from Max was delightfully descriptive: "Sweat was cascading down the heads of the dozens of cops who had lined up to stand behind Mayor Eric Adams on the steps of City Hall on Thursday afternoon," he wrote. "The cops were hot. The press was hot. But Eric Adams, as ever, was coolly laid back." The photos that go with this one? Chef's kiss.
—Jessy Edwards
'It Felt Like ICE Gone Rogue': The Masked Men of Lower Manhattan
Max and Liv's story shone a bright light on the masked goons stalking the hallways of 26 Federal Plaza and disappearing New Yorkers on their way out of court appointments. And the photography of Stephanie Keith, whose work in 26 Federal Plaza this year (in Hell Gate and also in New York Magazine) embodies the best of photojournalism.
—Nick Pinto
Guitar Center Is Good, Actually
I recently started playing the drums again after a 20-year hiatus, so I have found myself in the 14th Street Guitar Center numerous times over the last year. The scene is always the most wholesome kind of chaos: parents picking out their kid's first electric guitar; teens poorly shredding solos at unholy volumes; workers in scuffed-up black Guitar Center T-shirts, frantically sprinting around looking for that piece of equipment that is back in the stockroom; the 30-year-old guy wearing headphones and a hockey jersey playing drums for 45 minutes. This is a kind of communion, and it's one that we are rapidly losing as e-commerce destroys everything tactile and human about buying stuff, especially something as important and sacred as a musical instrument. Adlan's blog captures all this and more.
—Christopher Robbins
The 53-Year-Old Boutique Keeping SoHo's Bohemian Spirit Alive
I think I say this every year so here's my pick for 2025: This is the platonic ideal of a Hell Gate story! Jeffrey is such a New York City character (down to refusing to reveal his actual age—too cool) and Paracelso seems like a truly special place. I also love how you can tell the writer has a genuine relationship with her subject, versus one that was deliberately forged for reporting purposes. I gotta swing by next time I need silk scarves!
—Katie Way
What Is Happening at Bluestockings?
It would have been easy to tell a simpler story about the abrupt closure of the beloved bookstore, but Katie spoke to everyone involved and emerged with this well-reported, incisive, definitive account.
—Esther Wang
David Lynch’s Cinematographer Talks About How That Incredible NYC Rat PSA Got Made
I'm still coming to grips with that there won't be any more David Lynch films, or even rumors of possible new David Lynch films. But on the bright side, Lynch had a long, incredible career, making hundreds of hours of art, including this totally insane rat PSA from the 1990s. Chris had the right idea to call up his old cinematographer, Frederick Elmes, to learn more about the creepy rat PSA. The resulting Q&A both celebrates and reminisces on the legendary filmmaker's most New York City-centric works.
—Max Rivlin-Nadler
What Was the 'William Banks Jail Saga'?
Writing something coherent about the intransigent kayfabe of the comedian slash provocateur William Banks is basically the Kobayashi Maru of profile journalism, a walk along a razor's edge with disaster waiting on every side. But Katie is a stone-cold killer with icewater in her veins, so this turned out great.
—Nick Pinto
15 Years After Their Creation, Do NYC Restaurant Grades Still Matter to Diners?
A great capture of exceedingly funny circumstances that somehow end up being Eric Adams's fault.
—Adlan Jackson
Tremble Before the Male Baby Falcon SKYFORGER
In this house, our baby falcons subscribe to strict gender roles. Plus, what an honor to have the Bruce Falconmaster's byline on our little website.
—Katie Way
Poetry in Hypermotion: Stop Shoving Subway Poems Between Lottery Ads
When Celia Young noticed that our beloved Poetry in Motion subway poems had moved from stationary posters on train walls to the rapidly-changing MTA digital ad screen, leaving us to either quickly skim the poems or get stuck in the middle of a stanza never to know the end, she went in search of answers.
—Jessy Edwards
We Used to Make Real Gates in This Country
A classic of the "old man yells at cloud" genre. but in this case, the old man (Nick Pinto, not actually old) is completely right—we do live in a debased society where celebrated public art projects are reimagined as a strange, glitchy, corporate-backed augmented reality experience that delivers nothing to the viewer (especially if your phone is so old it cannot actually run the program).
—Max Rivlin-Nadler
I Tried Five of the Subway's Gross Viral 'Recipes' and Survived (Barely)
This is just a classic blog, perfectly executed: take the MTA's viral food slop nonsense at face value, make your friends eat it, record their reactions. Celia Young was brave enough to embrace the task and the result is scrumptious reading—even if the food itself was inedible.
—Christopher Robbins
The Keeper of New York City's Last Real Chess Shop
I loved this profile of Imad Khachan, the owner of Chess Forum in Greenwich Village, by the great Zahra Hankir. Reading it felt like taking a slow, restorative walk on a gloomy fall day (which, to be clear, is the best kind of walk).
—Esther Wang
What ICE Agents Talk About When They Think Nobody Is Listening
An absolute stunner from Liv Veazey, Hell Gate's intern this summer. Amazing reporting and writing, it's like a horror movie.
—Adlan Jackson
Posting 'Happy Birthday Gang' to Social Media Can Get You Added to the NYPD Gang Database
Nick trawled through this 107-page lawsuit against the City to highlight some of the utterly absurd ways the NYPD has been justifying adding people to its gang database, one that he noted is 99 percent populated with the names of Black and/or Hispanic people. "Russian crews? Albanian networks? Chinese syndicates? Entirely absent from the database," he wrote. "What about a violent gang sharing symbols, colors, and a uniform, like the Proud Boys? Nah."
—Jessy Edwards
After All That, the New East River Park Is…Fucking Awesome
Yes, our job here at Hell Gate is to hold City government's feet to the fire when something stinks, but also, to investigate successes. The controversial, years-long reconstruction of East River Park has so far yielded something wonderful: a park that feels sleek and new while also being part of the fabric of New York City. Julianne Escobedo Shepherd watched the park's transformation from her living room window, and marvels at how she can hear the song of crickets muffling the engines on the FDR. Magic!
—Christopher Robbins
Slushies Saved! Beloved Chinatown Bodega Gets a Reprieve
When we got a tip that Chinatown's A&N Fruit Store—AKA everyone's favorite watermelon slushie spot—was being evicted by its new landlord, Adlan jumped into action to speak with the key players. Just over a week after he published a story on the shop's closure, we learned the new landlord had a change of heart. Some happy news, courtesy of Hell Gate!
—Jessy Edwards
Brad Lander, Unfiltered and Unplugged
This is how all political interviews should read: unguarded, self-aware, funny, humane. In an era where access to powerful people is being increasingly limited, Jessy's interview with Lander sets a high bar.
—Christopher Robbins