2021 bright spots: Transparency, accountability, and a lot of great stories

In a COVID-19 era where days seem like months, and months can feel like days, it’s sometimes hard to measure time, let alone growth within a certain timespan. But when we look back at our editorial department and our publication over the past year there is a lot to be proud about, and much more to look forward to in 2022.

Over the last couple of weeks, you’ve heard from our colleagues on GGWash’s policy team about their top accomplishments in 2021. Now, we’d like to share some bright spots from the editorial side of the organization.

Throughout 2021, our small editorial team (managing editor George Kevin Jordan and editor/writer Libby Solomon) spent a lot of time strategizing how to best deliver trusted, quality journalism.

GGWash is unique: not many organizations combine journalism and advocacy under one roof. That comes with a unique responsibility to be clear with our readers.

One major step we took was to establish a new editorial policy, one that allows us to keep producing the mission-based articles GGWash is known for, while holding ourselves accountable and being transparent with our readers about who is writing our articles and why. That’s why, for instance, we started transparently labeling opinion and advocacy articles, and committed publicly to adhering to ethical standards set by the Society of Professional Journalists.

That work isn’t over. We’re still fine-tuning our processes to make sure we’re adhering to the standards we’ve set for ourselves. And beyond that, we’re spending a lot of time thinking about the kind of content that will best serve you, our readers, in the world we live in today.

In addition to our own departmental revamp, we’ve been participating in a larger organizational strategic planning process led by our Executive Director Chelsea Allinger, who started this spring.

With so much to do, we were so grateful to be able to rely on an amazing team of contributors to help us keep you up to date on the happenings in our region.

Our GGWash community stepped up, big time.

Over the course of this year, a mix of new and old contributors, fellows, interns, and staff wrote insightful, thought provoking posts.

Stephen Repetski continuously broke news with Metro coverage, from station closures to safety issues like the separating wheelsets that took the 7000-series railcars out of commission this fall.

Nena Perry-Brown completed her riveting and meticulously reported series on the redevelopment of Greenleaf Gardens public housing complex (much of which was done during the height of the pandemic).

DW Rowlands took on the tough task of explaining Census-Designated Place (CDP) boundaries, and with the help of Bradley Heard also examined redistricting in Prince George’s County.

Abby Wester, our editorial intern, wrote one of this year’s most popular pieces, an explainer about the Purple Line; Alex Holt kept us up to date on transit in Baltimore; and Ethan Goffman covered transportation and climate change issues throughout the region.

A multitude of first time and new-ish GGWash contributors covered everything from parking fees (Alyssa Alfonso), to our most hated intersections (Charlotte Lee Jackson), to housing challenges in Montgomery County (Mike English).

Rounding out the submissions from volunteers and freelancers, in-house we covered everything from traffic fatalities in DC, to the District’s unpaid ticket dilemma, to affordable housing.

We could go on and on but there isn’t space. Our heartfelt thanks goes out to all our contributors who dedicate their time, talent, and expertise to write about the issues our readers care about. We’ll be sharing some of those top-performing stories with you again between now and the end of the year.

This is just the beginning

The journey of transformation from a volunteer-run blog run into a professional news site has been long, but the continued dedication from our GGWash community throughout this process feels very special to me.

In the new year we have a lot to accomplish. We will continue to focus on bolstering our publication’s financial future, through new partnerships like our advertising collaboration with Local News Now. We plan to boost the frequency and quality of our content, update our comment policy and style guide, and work with an expanded edit board to strengthen editorial independence. And of course we’ll continue to provide critical news, analysis, and opinion pieces on land use, housing, and transportation issues in the region.

We know none of this would be possible without your support. As we wrap up this pivotal year, can you go the extra mile and make a one-time or recurring contribution to GGWash to help us reach our $25,000 year-end goal? We’re excited for our next phase — we hope you’ll be a part of it.