We know what you want! The web has really changed the game for news outlets — not in the least because we can see what stories get the most traffic and (hopefully) bring you more like them. In preparing for a busy 2016, we took a look back at the most popular stories of the year, and boy do you folks have good taste. Here they are — your favorite stories from 2015!
Family matters
Readers rallied around a Marine Park mother’s desperate plea to help find her missing, 20-year-old autistic son Brian Gerwitz after he went missing from his Coleman Street home on Feb. 17. Sadly, Brian’s lifeless body was discovered in Marine Park in April, but there’s a happy ending to this story — the city dedicated a bench to Brian in his beloved park.
A star is born!
Folks who couldn’t wait for Mill Basin actor Jared Riley’s big-screen debut in the summer movie “Pixels” got to know the 13-year-old thespian reading about him on their computer screens.
Stoop shrimp — need we say more?
The Internet loved our story about Dyker Heights residents leaving shrimp out in the sun to cook. The health merits of scattering seafood on the sidewalk are up for discussion, but there’s no debating this story went viral!
A dream come true
People seriously enjoyed our article about the guys from television’s “Impractical Jokers” dropping by a Cyclones game at MCU Park to visit 11-year-old cancer patient and mega fan Alexiana DePrima.
No zoning out here
Readers weren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and get wonky with it! You all really dug into our coverage of the mayor’s up-zoning proposal, and stories chronicling the plan’s potential effects on Marine Park and preservationists’ concerns that the rezoning would destroy low-rise Bay Ridge were the fifth and seventh most-read stories respectively.
Smells like a story
News hounds were all over our coverage of the bombshell announcement that the Brighton Beach lot on which a developer wants to erect a controversial 40-story tower reeks with toxic sludge.
Vindicated at last
Justice-loving Brooklynites enjoyed the news that a Sunset Park teen accused of attacking police during last year’s Puerto Rican Day parade festivities in Sunset Park was exonerated after a months-long court battle to prove his innocence.
Party time!
Sunset Parkers more than skimmed our story that police awarded the neighborhood’s Puerto Rican Day party a parade permit for the first time in two decades — it was our ninth most-read article.
Game on
And gamers really got lost in our coverage of a Sunset Park video game mecca that may be on its last life. We posted that story less than a month ago and it rounds out our list at number 10!
