Jen, a New Jersey-born New Yorker, edits Gothamist. She attended Columbia University, likes learning about NYC infrastructure (the subway system's intracies, how engineers design skyscrapers), and also hopes that one day a NYC zoo will have pandas.

Jake was born and lives in Brooklyn. He attended PS321, JHS51, Stuyvesant, Columbia, and NYU, where he got an MBA. He claims to have never been away from New York City for more than ten weeks in the last thirty-five years. Surprisingly, his mortal enemy is... milk. You can learn more about Jake at facebook.com/jakedobkin or twitter.com/jakedobkin.

Neil Epstein is a graphic designer with his hands in cookie jars around the city. He is left brain by day, right brain by night and no brain by the early morning hours. Neil is a New Yorker gone native who enjoys films, scuba diving, useless knowledge, and going feral in Prospect Park.

Tien Mao, a New York native, formed his sports allegiances in the mid-80's and will watch almost any sport on TV. For some strange reason, Tien owns more than 50 pairs of sneakers while only wearing about 3 pairs. When not taking pictures of himself eating, Tien is either updating his blog, swimming in stacks of The Times, watching a Netflix movie, chasing his cat around, or chilling in his Greenpoint apartment with a slice of pizza. Simply put, Tien needs to get out more.

Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has resided in NYC since 1995, and started writing for Gothamist in 2006. His first interview for the site was with Ian MacKaye, and he's since gone on to interview each member of Fugazi. Next up: everybody in Nickelback. His writing has also appeared on The Awl, The Resident, The New Yorker ["The Mail" section, citation needed], and in electrifying theatrical form at The Brick Theater. He currently resides in Williamsburg surrounded by the ghosts of stalled condo projects.

"Rewriting her bio" has been on Jen's to-do list for 4 years, but until it is complete (let's face facts, this may never happen) here is what we can tell you: her first big concert was New Kids on the Block and her last one was Radiohead.Take that for what it's worth.

Ben Yakas was born and raised in NY, and has written for WNYC, The Encyclopedia of NYC, and several little-read poetry journals; he also had a brief stint at Vandelay Industries. He has a giant poster of the legendary Dan Smith (who will teach you guitar), but still has yet to have a guitar lesson with him. He subsists on a diet of chinese food, billiards and concerts, and firmly believes that between here and there is better than either here or there.

Chris was born and raised in “The South,” meaning that he spent many years sighing and drinking iced tea under magnolia trees. Fed up with life in the NASCAR belt, he arrived in New York with two suitcases, a bike, and a nose that had yet to smell urine on a daily basis. Chris is well aware that he is named after a famous, future ambassador to Lithuania from the UK. Stop asking him about it.

East Village born and raised, Garth is a product of the New York Public School system (for better or worse). After a regrettable stint in the Windy City, Garth returned to the Big Apple to find himself priced out of the neighborhood he grew up in and, like so many of his peers, upped and moved to Brooklyn. When not watching an inappropriate amount of television, Garth spends too much time obsessing over his cats and looking forward to the day that New York City secedes from New York State and sues for the name.

Tom Boorstein grew up in East Norwich but has almost no Long Island pride. When his body cooperates, he likes to run over and under bridges throughout the city. When his body doesn't cooperate, he watches movies. He works as a website editor and has been known to view sporting events from time to time.

Growing up in NYC, Peter spent an inordinate amount of time following sports in general and the Yankees in particular. Living in Boston for ten years required him to subdue this passion and become an embedded Yankee fan. Now that he is back in friendlier territory he is happy to openly root for the Bombers and all of the other New York teams. He can usually be found reading every sports section in town or watching too much baseball.

Joe Schumacher grew up in lake effect snow country in upstate New York. Joe liked the snow so much he majored in meteorology at college. When not enjoying the weather, Joe is busy blogging, eating Mexican food, and buying more CDs than is financially prudent.