DC Website: Virginia Local Blogs Do Not Exist

By: TheGreenMiles
Published On: 3/10/2008 9:49:19 AM

While this doesn't cover Virginia politics directly, a slam on Virginia blogs is a slam on us all. Spotted on BeyondDC.com:
BeyondDC administers DCurblogs, a directory of websites about urbanity in the DC region. We recently reshuffled the list of sites to break those with a specific local focus down by jurisdiction - DC, Maryland or Virginia. We were surprised to notice that the District has ten sites, Maryland has seven, and Virginia has… a big fat goose egg.

There have got to be blogs out there about Arlington, Reston and Alexandria. Surely somebody out there has something to say about Tysons Corner’s potential transformation from edge city to downtown.  Where are they?

Here's what's currently on their DCurblogs links page (photoshopped to fit here and for impact):

All you have to do is Google "arlington blog" and you'll find What's Up Arlington and Drinking Liberally Arlington on the first page of results. That's to say nothing of the Shirlington Blog, Blueweeds, and the freakin' phenomenal Buckingham Herald TribBlog, all of which commenters have quickly mentioned. And there are plenty more.

But how can you just claim Northern Virginia blogs don't exist? Are they lazy or do they just not care?  


Comments



And another thing ... (TheGreenMiles - 3/10/2008 9:56:44 AM)
I link to BeyondDC at The Green Miles, yet somehow they can't find me. Bizarre.

Also, the NoVA blogs I mentioned here isn't meant to be a complete list, I just threw out the first that came to mind. Feel free to plug others in the comments!



Maybe they don't consider them (Lowell - 3/10/2008 10:24:57 AM)
"about urbanity, architecture and neighborhoods?"


urbanity, architecture and neighborhoods (bcat - 3/11/2008 3:02:26 AM)
Yeah, I think BeyondDC is looking specifically for blogs about neighborhood development, urban growth issues, etc. But the Shirlington Village blog, Blueweeds, GM, the PG Growl, Restonian, and a few of the others mentioned there all cover those issues to a greater or lesser extent. BeyondDC itself is actually a Virginia blog, ironically--I'm pretty sure Dan M. (the administrator) lives and works in NoVA. So he's not exactly insensitive to Virginia issues. Give him a chance to rectify the omission, and he'll do it, I'm sure.


Ridiculous. (Jack Landers - 3/10/2008 10:00:04 AM)
Virginia has possibly the most thriving population of political blogs in America. Including NoVa blogs. In fact, I would think that at least half of the political blogs in Virginia are focused on NoVa issues.

Y'all have your blogging act totally together up there. These BeyondDC people have their heads stuck where the sun doesn't shine.



Maybe that is what Dave Albo was referring to (Alter of Freedom - 3/10/2008 1:38:37 PM)
I wonder who got it right, BeyondDC or Albo, it terms of the numbers. Maybe you can't fight something that doesn't exist I guess would be the BeyondDC view. Please are they for real, they may just be as narrow minded as Albo.


Penning Thoughts - An Arlington Blog/column for 19 years (njpenning - 3/10/2008 8:22:08 PM)
Nick Penning began writing a column called "Penning Thoughts" in the Arlington Courier in 1989.  When the Courier folded, his column was picked up by The Arlington Connection.  For the past several years, Penning's column has also been online as a WordPress blog at www.penningthoughts.com.  I'm nick penning and my column has been removed from the Connection, so my Arlington/Northern Virginia blogwriting will appear more frequently at penningthoughts.com.


from where the sun apparently don't shine (BeyondDC - 3/11/2008 2:43:59 PM)
Hi.

1) As the description on the screencap explains, we're looking strictly for blogs with an urban development bent, not just blogs about politics.

2) Pretty sure that doesn't read VA blogs don't exist. Pretty sure it reads VA blogs must exist somewhere; somebody show me where they are so I can list them.

3) Thanks to a number of responses both in the comments and via email, I now have some VA blogs to list, which I'll check out and add to the directory as time permits. Which again, was the whole point of the post.

Cheers. :-)