Happy Anniversary To Us!

ForestHillsConnection.com went live on April 16th, 2012, and our first email newsletter went out to our earliest subscribers on April 17th. During that first month we had about 500 visitors. Since then, about 10,000 (and counting) have stopped by, and more than 7,000 of you (and counting!) keep coming back for more.

The number of neighbors who’ve volunteered to write for the site has also grown by leaps and bounds. More than 30 people have contributed articles, profiles and essays, 260 in all. We once thought we’d be lucky to update the site twice a week, but our volunteers have put forth such an incredible effort that we’re publishing 4-5 times a week, and sometimes twice per day. (You can keep up with these updates by subscribing to our RSS feed, or following us on Facebook or Twitter). The Current Newspapers and Wilson High School’s Beacon have also allowed us to share articles of interest to our community. And Greater Greater Washington has shared some of our work.

In the past year, we’ve learned more about what makes the people of Forest Hills sit up and take notice: New development, neighbor profiles and food.

The most-read articles in the past year include the Broad Branch Road rehabilitation plans, the Kuwaiti Embassy expansion, the call for a better Van Ness vision, and the effort to draw a better map of Ward 3 sidewalks. Profiles of Mary Beth Tinker, Scott Seligman, and Margery and Mel Elfin continue to draw in readers. Our readers are also guided by their stomachs. Articles on Pho 14, New Morning Farm market and the Melvin Hazen Community Garden round out the top ten.

(You know what else gets a lot of traffic? Our Classifieds page. If you’re not advertising, you’re missing out. So we’d like to announce an anniversary special: One month, free for all. And for students, it’s free for a year. Email us at info@foresthillsconnection.com for details. We are also on the lookout for a dynamic self-starter to help us keep track of advertising and work on beefing it up.)

If you’re a regular visitor, you know we offer much more, and we’ll continue to do so. Regular columnists include our very popular nature writer, Marjorie Rachlin, and arborist Bill Eck. And we’re excited to introduce regular columns on how to deal with our home computers, and on wines we should be checking out.

And there is no shortage of news in Forest Hills: The playground renovation, new sidewalks and pedestrian safety technology such as HAWK lights, WAMU moving in, Van Ness Square coming down, UDC Student Union going up, Broad Branch stream coming to the surface… And that’s just the stuff we know about now.

Thanks to our volunteers’ hard work, we will be here to keep you informed and entertained, with interviews of all the interesting folks, and stories about all the interesting things happening here. And we welcome your ideas. Let us know what you would like to write about or other ways you would like to contribute.