Remembering F’d in Park Slope, 10 Years Later

Erica Reitman said goodbye to her popular blog F’d in Park Slope nearly 10 years ago. We chatted about The Blue Hat Incident™, engagements, now-defunct restaurants, Jonathan Safran Foer & more!

Oct 18, 2024

In November 2008, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States and Erica Reitman launched her blog F’d in Park Slope. It was a big month.

“The main thing that gave us the idea to start the blog is that incident with the blue hat,” Erica told me during a phone interview last week. “ We knew that that was just the tip of the iceberg, and we thought it would be fun to have some sort of spot to talk about all of the crazy stuff that was going on in our neighborhood.”

If you haven’t heard about The Park Slope Blue Hat Incident™ — I hadn’t before talking to Erica — here are the Cliffs Notes: Someone found a child-sized blue hat at the corner of 11th Street and 8th Avenue. Then, in an attempt to return the hat to its owner, the person posted about the lost hat on Park Slope Parents. The title of the PSP post was “Found: boy's hat,” followed by a short description. The first person to reply pointed out the word boy: “...does the hat in question possess an unmistakable scent of testosterone?” they asked, adding, “It's innocent little comments like this that I find the most hurtful...What does this comment imply about the girl who chooses to wear just such a hat (or something like it)? Is she doing something wrong? Is there something wrong with her?”

You can guess what happened next.

A typical photo from FIPS’s Breeder vs. Baller series. This one is from Breeder Hall of Shame: Not-So-Smiling Pizza.

Parenting in Park Slope became a central topic on F’d in Park Slope. The series Breeder vs. Baller explored points-of-views of parents (breeders) and non-parents (ballers) on various topics. It wasn’t surprising if posts about breastfeeding in public, turf wars, bringing kids to museums, parent fury, running noses, and people who are child-free by choice racked up 50 or more comments on each post. “That was the thing about FIPS — it was all about the comment section. People actually took the time to leave comments,” remembered Erica. “I always said, skip the article and just read the comments.”

Who Gives a Shit: When the Hell Are People Going to Take Down Their Christmas Trees?; Cool or Not Cool? Dogs in Bars?

Was it the topics themselves that encouraged so many comments, or was it the witty, snarky voices of the FIPS writers? Most likely, it was a combination of the two.

Erica told me her signature writer’s voice and style developed as the blog did. She always considered herself a writer, and writing was part of Erica’s day job as a Marketing Director. But to keep up with the demands of running a thriving blog — sometimes publishing six posts per day — Erica had to maintain a daily writing practice, which helped her to develop her style. “Part of my fondness looking back is I feel like creatively, it was such a special, cool time in my life. I was forced to figure out the way that I have the most fun expressing myself, my definition of being a good writer, and what sort of stuff I like talking about.”

As she wrote her blog, Erica uncovered how broad cultural phenomenons showed up in the neighborhood — think: baby name trends, adults wearing animal ear hats, dogs in bars, when to take down the Christmas tree, and bagel toppings. She also enjoyed writing about the Food Coop: “I always did love writing obnoxious stories about the Coop, for some reason. I don't know why, that just always entertained me [laughs].” She also added that comments and engagement skyrocketed whenever FIPS wrote about the Food Coop. “People just loved to talk about it, bitch about it.”

An investigation into JSF’s ironing habits.

Erica regularly wrote about Park Slope residents who made headlines in large media outlets, namely Jonathan Safran Foer, author of the bestseller “Everything Is Illuminated” and several other fiction and non-fiction novels. Erica first wrote about Foer in 2008 and proudly declared her affiliation with “Team Jonathan Safran Foer.” Within a year, she was officially over her crush on Foer. The breakup definitely had to do with his opinion about Park Slope restaurants.

Just for fun, I asked Erica who would win in a fight: Jonathan Safran Foer or Noah Baumbach (a Park Slope native who people have a lot of opinions about)? “I remembered an article I read in the New York Times about JSF's decades-long email/pen pal relationship with Natalie Portman. Cool, right? Except that in that article, he shared that he was one of the world's last Hotmail users. I'm sorry, but while I appreciate the loyalty, that fact doesn't scream to me: ‘I can hold my own in a fight.’ So for that reason, I'm going with Noah.”

Franny’s, the popular Brooklyn pizzeria, located at 295 Flatbush Ave, closed in 2017.

“Restaurant stuff was always fun,” Erica said. Food Throwdowns was a recurring series where FIPS writers ordered the same dish from two different Park Slope restaurants and compared the food. They did everything from burgers and banh mi to pizza and guacamole.

They covered when new restaurants opened in the neighborhood, and when old favorites closed down. “This closing happened after we left but I was really gutted to hear that Franny's closed. Loving Cam Pizza was definitely never on my foodie bingo card, but that place made me do it,” said Erica.

The FIPS staff got to know local restaurant owners and got an inside look at the businesses. Sometimes this left them with questions. “Did Tutta Pasta ever close?” Erica asked me. I found out it did close, but apparently it relocated to Downtown Brooklyn (and then closed again). “This restaurant was legit the thing that scrambled my brain the most when we lived in Park Slope. The food was horrible, the vibe sucked, no one was ever there and yet restaurants were closing all over town while they just stayed open,” she said. “It was a mystery for the ages for me.”

We talked about the FIPS contributors. At one point, 15 writers contributed regularly to the site, Erica told me, and over 30 writers contributed over the lifetime of FIPS. “I really did love all of the people we worked with, and these were the people, particularly in the later years, who made the site so fabulous.” Writing for FIPS was a launch pad for many writers. Dave Quinn, who Erica hired to be the Contributing Editor of FIPS, went on to be an editor for PEOPLE and a New York Times best-selling author.

The connection Erica developed with the community was one unexpected part of running a neighborhood blog. She never anticipated how fully entrenched she and her husband would be in the community. One reader even asked if Oliver, their senior basset hound, could be part of his proposal to his girlfriend, who loved FIPS and was a “gigantic fan” of Oliver.

“We didn't just live there, we were immersed in that world, when FIPS was a thing. I was writing about it every day, and we did events all the time and meet-ups,” she said. “I've tried recreating that again, and I have not felt — ever — that same connection I did when FIPS was in my life.”

I can’t help but wonder if F’d in Park Slope could be as successful today as it was in the late aughts and early 2010s. It was Park Slope’s Newsfeed/Timeline/For You Page. But social media did not exist then in the way it does today — FIPS launched two years before Instagram existed. Even though you have to visit them all individually, now we have multiple social media options, a few local newsletters, and hyperlocal websites to keep up with the neighborhood.

One thing I know for sure: Erica won’t be coming out of retirement to relaunch FIPS. “As much as I loved it at the time, I’m at a different phase in my life now,” she said.

But who knows? Maybe there’s someone else? We’re 13 days away from November 2024 — another big month for elections and for…

After FIPS, Erica became an interior designer when she and husband Greg Reitman moved to Los Angeles. They also run an Airbnb business in L.A. In April of this year, Erica and Greg moved to Hudson, NY. Their “dreamiest dream” is to open up a property in Upstate NY that's a combo boutique hotel/Airbnb and a senior dog rescue, inspired by Oliver. If any old FIPS readers would like to follow their Upstate adventures, you can find Erica here, going deep in Upstate real estate, design, and cool things to do.

(Top photo graphic by Kelley MacDonald. Brownstone photo by Josh Wilburne. Blue hat photo by L.L. Bean. White Pizza photo by Hannah Whitaker/New York Magazine. Cereal bagel photo via Thomas Bread. Jonathan Safran Foer photo by NYT. Prospect Park photo by Sanden Wolff/Prospect Park Instagram. All other photos are courtesy of Erica Reitman/FIPS or product/brand images.)

This week’s puzzle is a photo of fall colors in the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, by photographer Michael Stewart.

The puzzle is 60 pieces, but you can change it by clicking on the box of nine dots on the left of the bar, selecting the number of puzzle pieces you want, and clicking OK. Also, you can view the original image by clicking the photo icon on the top bar, and you can make your workspace full screen by clicking at the top right.

DO THE PUZZLE!

Joe Holtz, founder of the Park Slope Food Coop retired: On October 2nd, Holtz sent an email to all 16,000 members announcing his retirement as general manager, treasurer, and general coordinator of the Food Coop after 50 years.
Washington Park’s newly redesigned dog park is open: The new turf, fenced-in zones, and dog-sized water fountains are major upgrades for Park Slope dogs and their owners.