EAST VILLAGE — The man behind EV Grieve, a popular neighborhood blog, relinquished his years-long anonymity Sunday night in a post.
“Hello, my name is John Elsasser and I have been running this website for the past eight years or so,” he wrote.
Elsasser has run the blog anonymously with the help of contributors and neighborhood tipsters, and posted information about local businesses, community events and slices of daily life. The website is a must-read for many locals and was named the “Best Local Website” by the Village Voice last year.
Elsasser, a 49-year-old journalist-turned-public relations professional, had thought about revealing his identity “for a really long time” but was hesitant because the blog was not a personal website, he told DNAinfo Monday morning.
He decided to finally out himself ahead of a profile in Bedford+Bowery, a blog run by New York University and New York magazine.
“I figured this would be a good time to just come out with everything,” Elsasser said.
The article — which traces EV Grieve’s origins and provides insight into the Elsasser’s background — went live Monday morning. He said he had not yet read the piece.
“It’s fine,” Elsasser said about the article’s focus on his background. “It was just a matter of time. Somebody was going to do this. I’m not sure why people are terribly interested.”
Elsasser, an Ohio native who moved to New York in 1994, began blogging about the neighborhood in 2007. At the time, he ran a blog dedicated to two neighborhood bars, Mona’s and Sofie’s, which were in danger of closing, he said.
He said he originally decided to abandon the blog after learning that both bars would remain open, but changed his mind after Jeremiah Moss, another anonymous New York City blogger, encouraged him to chronicle the changing neighborhood. Elsasser renamed the blog EV Grieve.
Elsasser said he is not sure how his announcement will affect the blog.
“I have to figure out how it’s going to work moving forward,” he said. “It’s all sort of ‘to be determined.’”
