Sometimes a story just clicks with our readers — and we’ve counted those clicks! These were the most-viewed stories on Brook
1. Man punches woman in the face after argument about Trump at Boerum Hill bistro
In one of the first of many hate-fueled attacks to take place in Brooklyn following November’s election, a fan of the Donald slugged a lady at Bar Tabac after she expressed her dismay at the election results — then ran off, and is still at large. As you can imagine, the newsroom received lots of messages from very sane and rational people after this story went viral.
2. Trump’s son-in-law buys Watchtower HQ, has big, beautiful plans for it
Developer Jared Kushner has been buying up the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ old Dumbo properties for years, but people started paying more attention in 2016 when they learned that he is Ivanka Trump’s husband and her dad’s right-hand-man.
3. Crown Heights teen learns he is getting full ride to Harvard
Who could resist sharing this heartwarming moment caught on camera? Not our readers.
4. City shuts controversial Williamsburg club Brooklyn Mirage
Brooklyn’s party people had to let pals know that their weekend plans were off after firefighters pulled the plug on this massive outdoor nightclub in May — then again in June.
5. It’s snowing inside Borough Hall station
There’s nothing like a captive audience! Readers stuck at home during a blizzard in February were momentarily relieved from their boredom by eye-catching photos of the snow storm filtering down into the stop’s Flatbush-bound 4 and 5 platform.
6. Park Slope Food Co-op suspends four members over Israel boycott spat
In this year’s “Peak Park Slope” moment, the iconic socialist supermarket’s long-simmering dispute over whether to ban Israeli products finally boiled over when four longtime members stormed a pro-boycott meeting — and were exiled to a year in Key Food purgatory by the store’s Disciplinary Committee as a result.
7. Bed-Stuy board rejects outpost of Williamsburg hipster dive-bar empire
Anti-hipster heroes or everything that’s wrong with America? Our readers were divided after Bedford-Stuyvesant’s community board rejected a trendy bar chain’s bid to open a new outpost in the rapidly gentrifying nabe, instead grilling the proprietors over how many black employees they have.
8. Williamsburg’s Giglio Feast takes starring role in new mob movie
We’re still not entirely sure why people went so wild for this arts article about an indie flick that features scenes set during the storied Italian-American tower-carrying festival, but we aren’t complaining either.
9. Critics: No-prison deal for slumlord Israel brothers is ‘slap on the wrist’
A poll on this article asked whether notoriously crappy landlords Joel and Amrom Israel got what they deserved after pleading guilty to harassing rent-stabilized tenants from their buildings with pit bulls and demolition. “No” was winning pretty handily until we got a surge of traffic from folks who left exclusively sympathetic comments and voted “yes” more than a thousand times.
10. Stop and stair! Luxury development builds its own subway entrance
Along with its in-house third-wave espresso bar and heated rooftop dog run, the over-the-top luxury amenities of Downtown’s Ava DoBro building are an ongoing source of fascination for Brooklyn Paper readers and reporters alike.
