Keeping up with the city’s fiscal crisis is difficult enough, with four major daily newspapers and a plethora of smaller periodicals to scan.

But I have help: Every weekday, the Eye Opener from Gotham Gazette e-mails me a selection of links to key newspaper articles from dailies, weeklies, and monthlies on New York City issues.

The editors include stories written for the Gazette, a comprehensive and handy Web page about the city, which is put out by the Citizens Union Foundation at www.GothamGazette.com.

In addition to providing easy access to many articles you might otherwise miss, this service facilitates comparison of the coverage by various newspapers to see which — if any — get it right. (For my money, N.Y. Newsday offers the best reporting on New York City.

The Gotham Gazette editors usually include a good, but not exhaustive, selection of what’s printed. Unfortunately, they do not include union newspapers or the “Chief,” which covers many stories that are important to city employees.

The Gazette also puts out the Web pages Rebuilding NYC, with news of 9/11’s aftermath, and The Citizen, a monthly selection of translated articles from NYC’s immigrant/ethnic press. They call this section “The Citizen” because all New Yorkers are citizens of the city, whatever their federal immigration status.

Their weekly e-mail, City Links Extra, will also connect you to city-oriented reports, articles and web sites. The “Gotham Gazette” web page, updated daily, also includes reports from neighborhoods throughout the city, an excellent on-line guide to reference resources, links to community newspapers, links to other web pages on city issues, book reviews, maps and basic information about city government.

It’s a shame there is no special focus on labor or unions, as there is for a long list of city issues. But there’s certainly enough to justify using this page and their e-mail service over and over again.

— Ken Nash,
Ed Fund Library, Room 211