Image by Dru! licensed under Creative Commons.

2016 has been quite a year in many ways, from Metro crises to national affairs. On Greater Greater Washington, before switching to our new site earlier in December, we brought you 1,151 posts and 2,033 Breakfast Links; you wrote 37,771 comments. Let's look at the most popular posts of this year.

What you read

Rank Title
1 Fifteen big shutdowns, and many smaller ones, will get Metro repairs on track
2 What do 80,000 people in a square mile look like? Depends on where you put them.
3 Copenhagen uses this one trick to make room for bikeways on nearly every street
4 DC has almost no white residents without college degrees. (It's a different story for black residents.)
5 WMATA is up against a budget deficit. Today, it floated ideas for some very big, very difficult changes.
6 To bid a Navy ship farewell, this DC bridge swung open for one of the last times
7 Metro proposes ending late-night service PERMANENTLY. That's a terrible idea.
8 We're getting closer to having a bike trail from DC to Baltimore
9 The difference between Maryland and Virginia in one photo
10 Where DC used to bar black people from living
11 The biggest beneficiaries of housing subsidies? The wealthy.
12 Check out where DC's workers commute from
13 If we lowered transit construction costs, we could build more transit
14 For DC Council at large: Robert White
15 BREAKING: Metrorail will shut down completely Wednesday(!)
16 Upper Northwest hits peak NIMBY about a homeless shelter
17 Metro doesn't have four tracks. That's not why maintenance is a problem.
18 Our endorsements for ANC in Ward 1
19 DC's streetcar may go to Georgetown with dedicated lanes
20 “Ludicrous” ruling could delay or scuttle the Purple Line

It's little surprise that Metro stories (highlighted in blue above) make up five of the top 20. Metro has had a roller coaster year, from shutting down the entire system for a day in March to SafeTrack, late night cuts, budget woes, and more. Bicycle infrastructure and density are also perennial top subjects.

Our political endorsements (tan above) also reached many people. We endorsed Robert White in a 3-way race, and he beat Vincent Orange by just under 1,800 votes, while third candidate (who we also liked) David Garber netted 14,000. It's likely that the efforts of several endorsing organizations, including GGWash, helped White consolidate enough of the anti-Orange vote to win. Likewise, we mounted a large-scale effort to survey, select, and endorse Advisory Neighborhood Commission candidates all across the city; our first post, Ward 1, which also revealed the full set of endorsements, racked up high traffic.

Finally, our readers also seem to really be interested in articles delving into our region's racial and income inequalities (orange above). This is an area where we've been working to increase our stock of articles, and the traffic we've seen reinforces the value of continuing this. (We know a few commenters disagree, though.) Look for more on this in the coming year—and if you want to write about it, get in touch!

What you commented on

Rank Title Comments
1 Buying a house is incredibly difficult for me. Here’s why. 315
2 I-66 widening will happen soon whether it makes sense or not 299
3 “Ludicrous” ruling could delay or scuttle the Purple Line 177
3 More housing is now banned from Lanier Heights. Organizing is what won the day. 162
5 Upper Northwest hits peak NIMBY about a homeless shelter 155
6 WMATA is up against a budget deficit. Today, it floated ideas for some very big, very difficult changes. 154
7 For I-66, outside-the-beltway lawmakers say “toss the facts, widen baby widen” 138
8 Not building enough housing is morally equivalent to tearing down people’s homes 136
9 Today [our open thread for contributors to discuss the election of Donald Trump as president] 129
10 What’s so great about the Purple Line, anyway? 121

This year, the top ten commented posts were almost all about housing, the Purple Line, or I-66 widening. We've been increasing our coverage of housing issues, especially housing affordability, and you have a lot to say about that! We're looking forward to continuing the conversation about these and other topics. This week, we'll be reposting a few top posts and favorites from 2016 alongside some new content. Have a happy New Year!

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.