Photo by AndrewEick on Flickr.

5 years ago today, Greater Greater Washington made its debut.

Happy birthday, Greater Greater Washington, and thank you for 5 great years! To celebrate, we will be having a 5th birthday party one month from today, Tuesday, March 5. It’ll be from 6-10 pm at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, 641 D Street, NW. Hope you can make it!

On the day we launched, I wrote in an inaugural post for the new blog:

Urban centers and walkable suburbs in America are experiencing a renaissance, including the Washington, DC region. Unfortunately, too many people are forced to leave great neighborhoods to find affordable housing or good schools. If people want to live in single-family homes, they certainly may. But everyone should have the choice to live in an apartment or townhouse in a walkable, safe, livable neighborhood.

People make a city great. Downtown job centers, historic neighborhoods, and new edge cities should all be full of people, walking to do errands, sitting outside at sidewalk cafes, enjoying parks, living life, and interacting with each other. … As the region grows, we must preserve what already works and expand what is possible, to ensure that there are enough great neighborhoods for everyone who wants to live, work, shop or play in one.

That still seems just as appropriate today as then. A lot has changed, but a lot has not.

After it launched, Greater Greater Washington gradually grew. We got links from a number of local bloggers, and some national ones, like Matt Yglesias and Atrios. The Washington Post’s Marc Fisher featured us in a column about my escapade trying to get a cab to a Southwest impound lot.

Other bloggers started volunteering to post articles as well, beginning with Jaime Fearer, then Michael Perkins, and then many more. Many people helped edit, redesign the site, do links each day, and much more. A lively and intelligent community of commenters formed on the site.

We fought some big fights, like to get enough funding to stop Metro service cuts, or save streetcars. We pushed (over years) for open data at Metro. We campaigned successfully for DC’s zoning update to lower parking minimums, and years later, that battle has come around to the next phase.

All of this is possible because of all of you: our readers, our commenters, our editors, and our contributors. I wish there were room to thank every person individually. Instead, here are all of the photographs on all of the author bio pages for people who are, or have been, regular contributors. This leaves out many, many people, whose photos we don’t have, or who were editors behind the scenes, and everyone who’s contributed by commenting or just sharing stories with their friends. Thank you, all.

David Alpert
Ken Archer
Ryan Arnold
Jacques Arsenault
Agnès Artemel
Alex Baca
Marlene Berlin
Andrew Bossi
David C.
Herb Caudill
Cheryl Cort
Alison Crowley
Aimee Custis
Veronica Davis
David Edmondson
Jaime Fearer
Sam Feldman
Eric Fidler
Neil Flanagan
Moira Gillick
Steven Glazerman
Miles Grant
Christine Green
Geoff Hatchard
Bradley Heard
Matt Johnson
Tracey Johnstone
Jenifer Joy Madden
Ksenia Kaladiouk
Joey Katzen
Malcolm Kenton
Julie Lawson
Adam Lewis
Dan Malouff
Topher Mathews
Stephen Miller
John Muller
Dave Murphy
Steve Offutt
Nikki Peele
Michael Perkins
Marion Phillips
Rob Pitingolo
Kurt Raschke
Dan Reed
Ben Ross
Matt Rumsey
Jamie Scott
Roland Stephen
Jake Sticka
Jim Titus
Celine Tobal
Nolan Treadway
David Versel
Mitch Wander
Bryan Weaver
Kevin Webb
Erik Weber
Cavan Wilk
Steven Yates

David Alpert created Greater Greater Washington in 2008 and was its executive director until 2020. He formerly worked in tech and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco Bay, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He lives with his wife and two children in Dupont Circle.