It's the rhetorical question that plagues anyone who has spent any amount of time in our neighborhood. Why Leave Astoria?

When I moved here, I found myself asking the question so often that I started this website to help connect people with the amazing things Astoria has to offer. The next thing I know, it's five years later, the neighborhood is BOOMING, and our 10,000 members have written over 5,000 blog posts and discussions to build one of the biggest and best local social networks in the world. Members of this site have found roommates, purchased homes, formed life-long friendships, and even met their soul mate.

This is why it's so hard for me to break the news that after eight years in the hood, the time has come for me to move on.

You're probably wondering, "what does that mean for the website?" Trust me, I've put more hours and money into this site than you can imagine, so you can bet your cannoli it's not going anywhere. In fact, there are some really exciting conversations happening with potential partners that will ensure more frequent content that we've been starving for over the last several months. We hope to be able to tell you more about the new and HUGELY improved WLA in the coming weeks--including the return of THE WEEKENDER!

Most of you probably don't know, but I actually have a day job--I run the Entertainment division of AOL. As you can imagine, managing the P&L of major brands like Moviefone, AOL Music, AOL TV, Spinner, Winamp, and a handful of others can be pretty time consuming. And it also keeps me traveling to the West Coast on a very regular basis. So it's quite bittersweet for me to finally have the answer to the question that's haunted me for years...why leave Astoria? Well, my friends...to be able to come back, of course! And I'm already looking forward to it.

I'm going to miss you Astoria. If you'd like to stop by for a good ol' fashion WLA mixer, nothing would make me happier than to see some of the faces that have helped make WLA the beautiful beast that it's become.

Thanks for everything, Astoria. You've changed my life.

-Ran

Here are the details:

Tonight, Saturday, January 26th.

7p at Break (32-04 Broadway) in Astoria