The competitive real estate and built environment news community of Philadelphia has a new player.

Curbed.com, the New York City based blog network, which also has regional versions in nine other markets, today launches Philly.Curbed.com. The local site will be edited by Liz Spikol, the former Philadelphia Weekly columnist and editor of the now defunct Hispanic tech magazine Tek Lado.

“Curbed marries an obsession with real estate and neighborhoods with wit and entertainment,” said Spikol. “It’s fun.”

The site was launched in Manhattan in May 2004 by writer and sometimes entrepreneur Lockhart Steele, who has since built a small empire of focused niche sites beyond the Curbed network, which also has local versions in Boston, Washington D.C., Detroit, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco and the Hamptons.

The display advertising model will be tested, following the path of the short-lived Philadelphia expansion of Brooklyn-based real estate blog Brownstoner. Since then, the niche has been attacked locally by Naked Philly and Plan Philly’s Eyes on the Street, in addition to historically-focused Hidden City and others.

[Full Disclosure: PlanPhilly has retained Technically Media, this news site's parent company, for web strategy work in the past.]

It’s a place that Spikol says Curbed can distinguish itself with her local leadership, noting her “thorough knowledge of the city and its quirks.”

“People should come to the site if they have a sense of humor and if the following things make their hearts pound faster: castles in Mt. Airy; Frank Furness; confusing neighborhood renamings; community forum threads; mysterious new construction; urban ruins; street art; the fate of the Reading Viaduct; historical architecture; catchment issues; remarkable houses and apartments; hideous interior design; economic development; urban planning; sexy floorplans; Ed Bacon’s interest in skateboarding—and so much more,” Spikol wrote Technically Philly in an email. “I look forward to Philly readers helping us define the site.”

Below, watch Curbed.com founder Lockhart Steel talk real estate blogging.

Evan Kalish

For much of its 220 year history, the U.S. Postal Service was something of a technology company: speeding communication and commerce through innovation, says postal geek Evan Kalish.

Today, in batch machines that can process 40,000 pieces of mail per hour, some 95 percent of handwritten addresses are properly dispatched by OCR technology, the 25 year old student in Penn’s master of urban spatial analytics program.

“[The machines work] from the ZIP code first, then to the address and select the proper street from the limited number of options available, tagging them with the bar codes that you can see on the bottom of first-class letters you receive. Human operators resolve the rest of the addresses remotely,” said Kalish, who lives in University City. “With Delivery Point Sequencing, another machine properly sort the mail for dozens of carriers in proper delivery order, based on their routes, with just two passes of the mail through the system.”

From today to the first ‘fully automated post office‘ back to the pneumatic mail tubes of the past, Kalish, a native of Queens, N.Y., has discovered new corners of the world’s original modern national postal system while writing his popular Going Postal blog, which has been profiled by Time magazine, the Washington Post, BBC and NPR.

All the stories use young Kalish as something of a juxtaposition for growing news of inevitable cutbacks at the U.S. Postal Service. While no doubt an important issue to Kalish, he says the best he can do is grow interest in what remains an impressive organization.

The blog kicked off in September 2010 as a way to share photos and stories about the postal service with other devotees of the historic agency, says Kalish, who did his undergrad work at Brown University.

The first effort followed a cross-country road trip but has grown from there.

“My newer entries have also been more in-depth, and shares the broader experience and anecdotes of rolling into any given town, as opposed to just showing a photograph of its post office.  I think it’s more relatable and I’ve gotten positive feedback with respect to my unique telling of my postal visits,” he said.

While his post office trekking has taken him across the country, it has also helped him get to know Philadelphia better, by visiting 45 21 offices in the city’s neighborhoods.

“There were three post offices that I had to visit because I knew they were likely to close: the Adams Avenue, Girard Avenue, and Wissonoming stations.  Those were all discontinued April this year,” he said. “Two offices I’ve enjoyed a lot in Philadelphia are Spring Garden on North 7th Street and Southwark at 925 Dickinson. Both are historic buildings constructed during the 1930s as part of Roosevelt’s WPA program, and each features a great interior mural. This is how the government kept artists working during the Depression.”

Kalish lobbied the Postal Service to donate a unique sign from the Wissinoming office to the Post Mark Collectors Club museum in Bellevue Museum and adds that Manayunk’s is unique for featuring a street level parking garage beneath the post office.

I have never seen that before or since,” he said, but, of course, being in Philadelphia, it’s hard to top the B. Free Franklin Post Office in Old City that was the nation’s first.

“Overall, my favorite post office, at least in terms of architecture, is that of Greenville, PA.  Its sheer grandeur, combined with unique materials and fantastic architectural details, make it a true standout,” Kalish says. “It’s tough to pick a general favorite since I’m fortunate to have had great postal experiences all across the country.”

If nothing else, a hastily launched blog can speak to a moment in time.

This weekend, local street artist devotee Conrad Benner launched Nutterbook, which highlights the more memorable comments on Mayor Michael Nutter’s Facebook page. Simple enough that it might be confused with the inane, instead, Nutterbook is a fun way to follow a communication tool still in its infancy, said Benner, 26, who also runs StreetsDept.com, dubbed the ‘Huffington Post of Philly street art‘ and made famous for following a subway ‘yarn-bombing.’

Visit Nutterbook here.

“Mr. Nutter is, I believe, the first sitting [Philadelphia] mayor to have a Facebook page, and it’s fun to watch this new forum for democracy take its baby steps,” said Benner, who works as a social media manger for a local ad agency. “I’m sure this is not what the Mayor of Philadelphia’s Facebook page will look like in 15 years, if there even is still a Facebook.”

From non sequiturs like a professed Nutter family member leaving his phone number and asking for a call back to the outrageous and downright spammy, Benner, who says he has been commenting himself on Nutter’s Facebook page for months, says that while many of the less constructive comments appear to be the norm of higher-volume, potentially partisan web traffic, there might be a lesson for the mayor’s communications staff.

“I think it might be interesting for the mayor, or his people, to interact with some of these more serious commenters however,” said Benner, a Fishtown native who attended the Community College of Philadelphia for a few semesters before pursuing other interests. “Right now Mr. Nutter seems to be using the platform to broadcast news and information, but it would be interesting, and potentially very benificial for him, to interact with the commenters. They are, after all, citizens of Philadelphia and potential voters. Perhaps he should see this as a modern day public forum.”

After announcing a three-city expansion in September, Old City-based TheDrinkNation.com and its related mobile app have launched a slew of new features, including a pitch for event submissions, in an effort to grow a robust events listings calendar.

See a blog post from the nightlife news site here and the press release here.

The local outpost of the Occupy movement, the wide-ranging, peaceful uprising turned tent city, has made fine use of the social web for connecting groups around the world. Most viscerally though, the weeks-long demonstration is captured by a sea of people and their signs — messages inscribed for a soundless moment.

Michael Bixler is seeking to bring those local moments back to the web, by way of his straight forward Tumblr 99 Faces, 99 Signs.

The Point Breeze freelance writer, photographer and videographer was motivated to capture Occupy Philly after he and his girlfriend visited the Wall Street demonstrations on their seventh day.

Now it’s gone much further than he had planned.

Michael Bixler

“On the first day of Occupy Philly I decided I really should find an angle that furthered the story on a more individual, human level. Something niche, that stands on it’s own and a bit more personal than a slew of action photos or videos of divergent political rants,” said Bixler, originally from South Carolina. “Something clicked and I ended up spending seven hours at City Hall taking 250 photos, 99 street portraits of which became the basis for 99 Faces, 99 Signs.”

He first posted just 99 pictures but decided that, as the demonstrations moved on, so should he. Now, the tent count is pushing 300 and he’s had more than 150 people and their signs, he said.

“I’m very sympathetic to the movement, despite my, albeit loose, adherence to the non-partial, non-political ‘journalism code’ I’m theoretically bound to, even if this is just a hobby. I feel like my personal politics don’t interfere very much with simply taking a picture of someone and their protest sign,” he said. “Yet, I maintain that Occupy is, at it’s core, a very nonpartisan movement and therefore I am relinquished from any judgement or journalistic guilt for participating.

Bixler came to Philadelphia from Asheville, N.C. almost a decade ago, “for more opportunity,” having grown tired of the politics and economy there. He had been visiting Philadelphia since being in middle school.

The photos come from Bixler’s visits to the Occupy Philly tent city, two or three times a week for a few hours. He follows their marches and finds himself talking to participants and, of course, scanning the crowd for clever or poignant signs.

“I don’t really have a stopping point now that I decided to keep it going,” he said. “I think it’s important for people to see the vast diversity of ages, ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds populating the movement up close.”

From Tumblr user anacrisi, and referenced on This is Not a Cheesesteak.

Cheesesteaks don’t have to be just another cliche we’re saddled with, says Michaelangelo Ilagan.

The SAP web designer and Geekadelphia contributor is embracing the 80-year-old native hoagie variation by chronicling how far, wide and wrongly it has spread. Meet This is Not a Cheesesteak, a Tumblr that Ilagan is curating to collect new takes on the steak sandwich standard that he considers an insult to our roots.

“Unlike Rocky, we’re not revering something fictional. @visitphilly called it ‘Cheesesteak Pride’ when they tweeted a link to my Tumblr,” said Ilagan, 27, who goes by Mikey Il. “Let’s make that a thing. The cheesesteak is 100 percent real and absolutely delicious when done right.”

The St. Joe’s Prep and Art Institute of Philadelphia alumnus took to Tumblr after seeing a Facebook posting from a high school friend and another friend noting the new Arby’s ‘Philly’ sandwich. It wasn’t the first time.

Mikey Il. Photo by Colin Lenton

“I see many former Philly residents or expatriates post  photos from menus or even photos of the offending aberrations themselves,” said Mikey Il, who lives in Queen Village, was born in Olney and grew up in East Oak Lane at 5th Street and 66th Ave. “The result is always the same, there’s shock, awe, disappointment and even insult.”

Mikey Il says he sees this as a hobby, with no real revenue plans, though if the blog were to take off, he wouldn’t fight it. He’s hoping for reader submissions of cheesesteaks gone bad, though he may in time also highlight variations that go a new route the right way.

“The point I’m trying to make in the time being is recognizing the difference between authenticity and lack thereof,” he said. For the record, Mikey Il says his favorite cheesesteak shop is the famed John’s Roast Pork, beating out Dalessandro’s.

Is there enough cheesesteak errors to drive a Tumblr?

“Bars, restaurants, food bloggers, fast food franchises, everybody is seriously abusing their creative licensing on our beloved sandwich,” he said. “I’ve even seen and had a terrible cheesesteak-like sandwich in the Philippines this past summer. It was beyond awful, I’ll be posting that at some point.”

Keep up to date with This is Not a Cheesesteak on Facebook and Twitter. Mikey Il says he plans on updating several times a day, usually Monday through Friday.

PlanPhilly, the built environment news site, has launched Eyes on the Street, a blog to serve as an extension of its coverage and aimed at offering shorter and more accessible coverage for casual readers.

Visit the blog at EyesOnTheStreet.com. Read the PlanPhilly announcement here.

PlanPhilly, funded largely by the William Penn Foundation and housed at the University of Pennsylvania’s civic action outpost PennPraxis, was launched in 2006 by former Inquirer Jersey editor Matt Golas, who has reigned since then as the site’s managing editor, and then PennPraxis staff Harris Steinberg and Michael Greenle.

PlanPhilly, among the oldest of independent news sites in Philadelphia, is known for its deep, long and comprehensive coverage of the city’s planning commission, zoning board and other authorities around planning and design that otherwise are rarely covered in detail. The aim for the new blog is to attract and engage new audiences, Golas said. To lead Eyes on the Street, PlanPhilly hired Ashley Hahn, who was formerly with the New York Landmarks Conservancy and has a master’s degree in historic preservation and regional planning from Penn.

Eyes on the Street will join real estate-driven Naked Philly and historical preservation-focused Hidden City in a clutch of independent news sources dedicated to development, expanding upon the niche vacated by Brownstoner.

[Full Disclosure: PlanPhilly is a client of Technically Media, the parent company of Technically Philly, and the William Penn Foundation funded our Transparencity project.]

Hidden City Philadelphia, the festival celebrating “remarkable but obscured” heritage sites, has launched a daily news site dedicated to coverage of historical preservation in the region.

tweeted:

VISIT THE SITE HERE.

Hidden City was a celebrated summer 2009 urban exploration art showcase, hosting fitting installations inside otherwise forgotten developed wonders, like Girard College’s Founders Hall or the Metropolitan Opera House. The second version of the festival is scheduled for 2013.

The initial festival was funded by the Knight Foundation and conceived by Thaddeus Squire, with whom Technically Philly spoke in June. Squire, aiming to stabilize and strengthen Hidden City, now a client of his CultureWorks program, said he hopes to build a community leading up to the next festival.

In a unique step forward for a nonprofit’s web presence, the editorial team playing the dominant site role. It’s a flip of the model. Think: instead of a news site like Technically Philly launching events, this is an event series launching a news site.

The site will work with the festival to bring in memberships and some advertising to fund the work.

TheDrinkNation.com will launch “in the next two to three weeks if all goes well”, beginning the national expansion plans of DrinkPhilly.com, says founder Adam Schmidt.

“That will serve as a nation-wide content site and parent site for all the cities we are in. The nationwide content will be aimed at being general enough that anyone could enjoy it and will help populate the content to the local city sites and those local sites will also have freelancers contributing local content. So the city sites will have a combination of local and nationwide content, as well as all the happy hour data like what we have for Philly,” Schmidt, 29, tells Technically Philly. “I think it will be a pretty new type of media model in this industry.”

The online bar guide and nightlife news site launched in 2009 as an expansion on Schmidt’s Excel spreadsheet of Philadelphia Happy Hours. Technically Philly has spotted splash pages for DrinkDC, DrinkBaltimore and DrinkNYC.

“We’re looking at launching DrinkBaltimore and DrinkDC in early-mid October. No firm dates yet as we are still working to organize the launch parties. DrinkNYC is a ways away yet, probably in the spring or later,” he said.

In May, Schmidt announced the site’s launch to the Jersey Shore. New DrinkPhilly Editor Danya Henninger, who replaced outgoing edit lead Justin Giza, will lead the DrinkNation editorial operation, she told Technically Philly.

This is Exit Interview, an occasional interview series with someone who has left Philadelphia, perhaps for another country or region or even just out of city limits and often taking talent, business and jobs with them. If you or someone you know left Philly for whatever reason, we want to hear from you. Contact us.

At the Philly Geek Awards last month, the Geekadelphia crew behind the event included an ‘In Memoriam’ segment.

Pictures of a dozen former members of Philadelphia’s technology community who had moved in the past year, many of them Exit Interview alumni, were shown on the large projector screen, set to ‘It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday’ from Boyz II Men. The bit was funny and well received.

In the audience was Justin Giza, then editor of DrinkPhilly.com, which was founded in 2009 by Adam Schmidt and Technically Philly profiled in June. At next year’s Geek Awards, Giza could be on that ‘In Memoriam’ screen.

Just a week after the Geek Awards, Giza announced his plans to move with his girlfriend to the 67th ward, like others before him (Giza has been replaced by Zagat writer Danya Henninger). It’s not without love for Philadelphia. He’s still staying involved with the site — handling some audio work for videos — but, following some car trouble, the pair made it to their new digs in Jersey City, with an eye to the skyline just east.

Giza, 26, is originally from West Haven, Conn. and moved to Center City in 2007 after Drew University, chasing a big city life, “and got pretty cozy there,” focusing on his interest in sound work.

“I did day shifts at coffee shops — 3rd Wave all the way — and spent the evenings doing sound design or working as a board operator for various theatre companies,” Giza said. “My education was… for theatre with a music minor. Naturally, becoming the editor for a website about drinking was the next logical step.”

His time in Philly was adored on almost all fronts, yet something drew him away. Below, Giza, a nerd rapper by love,  talks to Technically Philly about music drawing him away and the burgers calling him back.

What are the primary reasons you left Philadelphia?

I love Philly so much, but I like to travel and explore. My original plan was just a year in Philly, but that turned into four!

Beyond the editing and drinking gig, I’m a musician and my girlfriend is an actress. Markets for both of those fields are strong in Philadelphia, but we wanted to try a different environment for a while.

Was there anything that could have been done to keep you in Philly?

I think a lot of factors fought to keep us there – the food, the bar scene, our amazing jobs and our awesome friends. We came very close to staying at least another year. Ultimately, if someone hooked me up with a citywide discount on burgers, I’d probably move back and eat until I was sick. I miss Philly’s burgers.

Do you think you would return to Philadelphia under appropriate circumstances?

Absolutely.

Is Philadelphia going in the right or wrong direction?

If we’re talking in terms of technology and new companies and such, very much the right direction.

Philly companies really seem to have the right idea when it comes to networking and building relationships. It’s great to see dozens of small companies find ways to band together and use their numbers to achieve what they want.

The Drink Philly office was right next to Cipher Prime, and I was always shocked at how much networking overlap we had. Considering we were two completely different companies with differing goals and products, it was nice to still find ways to team up and get stuff done.

Anything specific you would do if you were suddenly put in charge of the city?

Find a way to make Old City less bro-y on the weekends. I honestly don’t think anyone who actually lives in the city appreciates it, and walking there can be moderately terrifying after hours.

When someone you meet from outside the region asks about Philadelphia and its tech community, what do you tell them?

Generally speaking, I try to stress that Philadelphia has a great sense of camaraderie. The Philly Geek Awards proved this. The companies and start-ups in Philadelphia may not always be the largest, but they know how to team up, high five everyone in the room and make some waves.

What is the perception you most often find of Philadelphia?

Most often, it’s the stereotypical one. I think every city earns a stereotype of some sort — ours just happens to involve delicious meat and cheese on a roll. I am proud to report that I’m receiving more and more comments about Philadelphia’s beer crowd. That’s a good feeling.

What’s the latest you’re up to?

Right now, I’m focusing hard on my music. In my other life, I’m a nerdcore hip-hop artist who goes by Zilla Persona. In a nutshell, I try to make awesome music with NES sounds and various beepy noises. I rap about video games and Star Wars instead of about how much money I have. I’m in the middle of a rolling EP release called Unfair Advantage. It’s a sci-fi space opera presented in a hip-hop format. Yes, it’s every bit as odd as it sounds, and my mother is very proud of me.

Besides working on that, I’m just doing freelance audio and such.