Welcome to DCist, the newest metro blog from Gothamist.com. For the next week, DCist will be in a public beta testing period. So please mind the dust as we tie up all the loose ends.
On top of our local readers, we welcome visitors from Gothamist and our sibling sites in Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. You all know D.C. as a stuffy, formal, capital city on the banks of the mosquito-infested Potomac River. While your impressions may be true, there is much more to the capital city besides politics. And that is our purpose. Well leave the policy discussions and political debates to countless wonkish blogs (See “Political Blogs” on the right). DCist will cover D.C.
We here at DCist love D.C., but recognize and appreciate its faults. As a city of many transient outsiders, people have been complaining about the capital city for years. John F. Kennedy described D.C. as “a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.” In 1868, Mark Twain wrote “what a rotten, rotten, and unspeakable nasty concern this nest of departments is, with its brainless battalions of Congressional poor-relation-clerks and their book-keeping, pencil-sharpening strumpets,” adding that “the Prince of Darkness could start a branch hell in the District of Columbia.”
While an official visit of the Prince of Darkness is forthcoming, the “brainless battalions” are still here, grist in the machinery of democracy. Whomever you are of the nearly 6 million people living in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, we hope you add us to your Web-surfing repertoire. Dont worry, democracy will take care of itself without your every minute of attention – it always has.
Who is DCist? We’re students and professionals, young and old, newcomers and longtime residents who live, work, and play in the District of Columbia. As you learn from us, we will learn from you: Leave comments or send us tips and feedback. Right now, DCist is edited by Rob Goodspeed and Mike Grass with contributions from Catherine Andrews and Rebecca Walters. If you like what you see and like to write about D.C., you may be a good fit as a future contributor. Drop us a line at staff [at] dcist.com.
