Thank you for supporting almost ten years of neighborhood news

by Marlene Berlin

Nearly a decade ago, a group of neighbors founded Forest Hills Connection to develop a place for our community to share news, and share our diverse interests and talents. What we were hoping to find was a common curiosity about what goes on in our neighborhood, the passions of its residents, and a desire for a deeper sense of community. Our hopes have been fulfilled many times over. And we need your support to continue to feed this curiosity and desire for community.

The hunger for news for and about our corner of DC is strong, and we strive to bring you news and information you won’t find anywhere else. For example, Forest Hills Connection was the only DC-area news publication to report on the return of the Rock Creek Park deer hunt in November. We recently discovered, in this age of rapid climate change, that the District is using decades-old rain predictions for infrastructure project planning. And through dogged reporting by a neighbor and contributor, we learned about health concerns linked to DC Water’s preferred method for refurbishing old sewer pipes.

In April 2022, we will celebrate our first decade, and everything we mention here and more has been possible through the financial support and volunteer efforts of our readers. In order to maintain the quality and diversity of our writing for the next decade, we need your continued support as writers, photographers, and donors.

You should know that if you don’t volunteer, I will ask! I have been known to recruit people I meet on the street to write about something they mention to me in conversation. So beware: I always have my antennae up. [Editor’s note: She’s not kidding!]

We are also grateful to the Forest Hills Neighborhood Alliance, which under the leadership of Denise Warner, then Jane Solomon, was our launchpad. And we are grateful to Van Ness Main Street, which upon the alliance’s dissolution, offered us a place to hang our hats. We are coming up on the one-year anniversary of our partnership.

It’s been an easy transition. While Forest Hills Connection is maintaining our editorial independence, we’ve long reported on the many ways the Main Street enlivens our commercial corridor, and in the past two years, we’ve reported extensively on the important role the organization has played in supporting our small businesses throughout the pandemic. We encourage you to include VNMS in your year-end giving as well.