If you're a sex offender who lives in north Minneapolis, Johnny Northside is on to you. If you're a slumlord who owns properties there, Johnny will track your every move. Same goes for drug dealers, shoddy storefront renovators, and proprietors of crime-ridden strip malls. The old "Neighborhood Watch" signs that went up a few decades back might as well have stickers with the Adventures of Johnny Northside's URL pasted over them, because John Hoff's single-minded dedication to shedding light on NoMi blight is matched only by his irreverence for the people causing it. (One memorable headline: "Whorehouse Mattresses Hit the Dumpster at 2700 Morgan Ave. N.") Part police blotter, part political gossip sheet, and part community bulletin, Johnny's blog is widely read among community members and Minneapolis cops alike. And while it's been a lightning rod for controversy—its targets have a habit of trying to get his site pulled off Blogspot—it's also beaten many other publications to the punch in unearthing crimes and clarifying the details that traditional journalism doesn't always follow up on.