Shutting off the lights on the very first day of this year, the much-loved Gapers Block Chicago ended a run begun in 2003 at the dawn of a wave of niche internet cultural publishing that saw the launch of sites such as Chicagoist, Salon, Slate and others. For many, Gapers Block, under the direction of founders Naz Hamid and Andrew Huff, and then mainly just Huff, was a place for first bylines, first reviews, interviews, hyper-local updates about things happening around the city. Today, while the site still stands, no new updates are added, leaving only a bittersweet reminder of the erstwhile glory that was the best of Chicago DIY publishing and reporting.
