Ditmas Park Corner's fallen-tree map

Two days after Hurricane Sandy last week, The Observer met up with Liena Zagare, the publisher of Brooklyn local news network Corner News Media, at a local coffee shop in Ditmas Park, and found her standing by the sugar and creamers, talking to a fellow customer and asking her to send tips along. That's just how it goes for the publisher of one of the local sites that were particularly useful during the hurricane; for instance, the Ditmas Park Corner ran a tree map detailing the locations of downed trees throughout the neighborhood, a map assembled not through on-the-street reporting but through an assiduously groomed network of readers and tipsters.

"It's mostly about having credible sources," said Ms. Zagare, once we'd reached her workspace in a large Victorian-inflected house in Ditmas Park. She'd foreseen that the trees were likely to be a bigger problem than possible flooding in Ditmas Park, she said, due to years of living in the neighborhood. "We're going to be trapped here forever," she said. Ms. Zagare was also gearing up to edit an obituary of Jessie Streich-Kest, the woman killed by a falling tree while walking her dog during Sandy: Ms. Zagare was a friend of her family. Her reporters had worked throughout Sandy, with Ms. Zagare noting, "It's some way of keeping sane when everyone's going crazy." One such example: a photo of the dwindling supply of cigarettes at a local bodega, posted by Ms. Zagare herself after she ran into the shop for a quick errand.

The site, with a masthead of one full-time reporter, a managing editor, and two contributors, has a similar mission, in some senses, to Patch, the national network of local news sites that bought Ms. Zagare's original neighborhood blog and employed her for a time before she left to start the Corner News network (which also includes Park Slope Stoop and Kensington BK). Of Patch, Ms. Zagare noted: "It's a suburban site--it's not as local as we think is necessary." The site, she said, lacks much aggregation simply because there's not much to aggregate; seeing a dearth of specific news about individual neighborhoods in Brooklyn, she hopes to expand the network throughout Brooklyn.

Ms. Zagare resides in Ditmas Park with her husband, Buzzfeed editor Ben Smith. When asked to compare those two enterprises--the small-scale Ditmas Park Corner with the massive meme engine of Buzzfeed--Ms. Zagare was yet more forthcoming. "I like to say that Ditmas Park Corner is just the Buzzfeed of Ditmas Park," she joked. "They both have cat pictures, but we actually know the cats."

Jacob Vogelman and Jessie Streich-Kest.

Tragedy struck last night in the Ditmas Park section of Brooklyn, as the daughter of a prominent local activist and her friend were crushed by a fallen tree and killed.

The female victim was Jessie Streich-Kest, the daughter of Jon Kest, executive director for New York Communities for Change, according to a spokesman for the family. Council Member Mathieu Eugene identified the male victim as Jacob Vogelman of First Street in Brooklyn.

Neighborhood residents said the victims were out last night walking a dog when a tree was uprooted from the sidewalk and trapped the pair beneath its weight. They were discovered on Ditmas Avenue near East 18th Street early this morning.

"Jessie was an amazing young woman who was known and loved by many NYCC members, staff and allies," said Jonathan Westin, the spokesman for the Kest family, in an emailed statement. "Jessie loved life and was deeply devoted to social justice."

Ms. Streich-Kest, 24, was a teacher at Bushwick High School for Social Justice, the spokesman said. She attended Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn, and belonged to Facebook networks for the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University and New York University. She had previously done activist work with New Yorkers for Clean, Livable & Safe Streets, and engaged in protests against horse-drawn carriages.

Mr. Vogelman, a friend of Ms. Streich-Kest from middle school, graduated from SUNY Buffalo with a degree in theater design, according to his LinkedIn page, and was currently studying at Brooklyn College. According to the Ditmas Park Corner, he attended Goldstein High School near Manhattan Beach.

Pat Atia, who lives across Ditmas Avenue from the scene of the accident, told The Observer that the worst of Hurricane Sandy lashed Ditmas Park yesterday between the hours of 8 and 9:30 p.m., when she could hear trees whipping in the wind. "I knew something was going to give," said Ms. Atia, who had a large tree felled on her lawn. "If I would have known someone was out there, I would have done something," she said.

A New York Police Department spokeswoman confirmed that a male and female were found dead at the Ditmas Park location, but wouldn't confirm the names of the deceased until the victim's families were notified. There have been 12 storm-related deaths in New York City, the spokeswoman said.

The Ditmas Park Corner reported that the dog, Max, a white pit bull mix, was taken to an emergency veterinary hospital.