Dear BK Readers,
As the busy holiday season ends and a new year begins, please let me introduce myself as your new managing editor.
My name is Kaya Laterman and I am a long-time freelance reporter and editor based in Brooklyn. I started in the business as a wire service reporter covering finance- something I knew nothing about but learned to love. And over the past several decades, I’ve written stories on all five boroughs, covering gentrification, infrastructure, parks, politics, breaking news, GreenTech, real estate and much more.
To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of New Year’s resolutions, as I never seem to be able to keep up with my promises for very long. And yet this year, I do have one major resolution for BK Reader: to introduce more local coverage that affects the average Brooklynite like you and me. When the mayor or governor announces sweeping climate change mitigation plans, how will that change affect someone’s life in Bed-Stuy or Coney Island? When the city schools chancellor changes the reading curriculum, what does that mean for teachers and a 4th grader in East New York or Kensington?
And looking ahead, there’s much to talk about in politics as the November presidential and mayoral election is only (!) 11 months away. I am eager for the BK Reader team to fan across the borough to figure out what makes Kings County tick. This, of course, doesn’t mean all the great profiles of people, culture, art, and sports will disappear. Quite the contrary- I’ll be looking to add more!
On a more sober note, local media outlets continue to disappear at a rapid clip, where about two newspapers shut down every week in 2023, according to researchers at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Thus, I find myself very grateful to be in a position to keep Brooklynites informed at an outlet that has thrived for a decade, which in this climate, is quite a feat!
I would love to hear from all of you about what works and what doesn’t in our beloved borough. If you can’t figure out how to fix some nagging municipal problem that local officials continue to ignore, or have some wacky “only in Brooklyn” story, please write to us at [email protected]. As much as I aim to keep you in the know, we also need your help to stay abreast with what’s happening on your block.
Happy New Year, Brooklyn!
Sincerely,
Kaya Laterman, Managing Editor
BK Reader
