The Merriweather Post is a hyper-local community news blog that covers the Columbia Association, development, housing, transit, events, restaurants, retail, and the people and organization working hard to make Columbia such a great place to live.

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The blog was founded by Jeremy Dommu in 2019.  Jeremy enjoys researching and learning about what new things are coming to Columbia and synthesizing his findings in writing.  He aspires to provide a fact-heavy accounting of local issue and believes that shared knowledge increases public engagement by providing a common framework to facilitate more meaningful debate and discussion, especially given dearth of news coverage in Columbia.  And with nearly 1,000 subscribers on the email distribution list, over 2,200 Facebook followers, and articles that read by thousands; the blog has become a trusted source of information.

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Beginning in 2022, the blog has morphed into a community news blog featuring more articles contributed by Columbia residents.  Most notably, Columbia resident Michael Golibersuch has written extensively about the Columbia Association.  

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The Merriweather Post is happy to publish contributions by any Columbia resident.  I welcome articles of any news topic relevant to our planned city, most certainly on ideas and perspectives that differ from my own.  Please consider the following ground rules if you wish to submit an article.

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Ground Rules for Guest Contributions

• Your article is topical to a current happening in Columbia, MD and provides a fair good-faith presentation of facts and circumstances.

• You are a local resident writing from your own perspective about a topic of interest to you and you disclose any financial ties / business interests in the subject of your article.  Articles promoting your own business will not be published.

• May include your own perspective/opinion, but preferably clearly identified as such apart from the description of the news item.

• Is generally optimistic in tone and not pessimistic. In other words, your story is related to an idea, event, topic, organization, person making Columbia a great place to live or a solution/idea to make Columbia an even better place to live. This blog is not a place to vent about people or things you don’t like.

• Contains no personal attacks against any individual, though shining a critical light on a decision made by or action taken by an elected representative or governmental body is fine, provided its not mean-spirited or obviously politically-motivated.

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If you are interested in publishing an article, please reach out to me at themerriweatherpost@gmail.com and I can provide more information, answer any questions that you have, and provide an invite to the Wix platform where you can draft and submit an article.  Thank you for helping to keep Columbia informed!

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ABOUT JEREMY

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My name is Jeremy Dommu.  I’m not affiliated with Downtown Columbia, Merriweather Post Pavilion, the Howard Hughes Corporation or any other related entity. I’m just a guy on the internet blogging about his neighborhood. The topics, opinions, and information covered on my blog are purely my own and I don’t have any financial interest in anything I’m covering. This blog is just a hobby for me.

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As just one person with limited time, I have to pick and choose what I cover. And naturally, I choose to write about the stories that interest me the most - which is predominantly the issues surrounding (and my advocacy for!) the urbanization of Downtown Columbia into a sustainable walkable destination with lots of events, restaurants, venues, public spaces, transit options, and a new mix of housing choices to ensure anybody who wants to live here can.   I certainly recognize that not everybody shares my enthusiasm for smart growth, and that’s okay! I welcome civil discourse on the issues I write about - whether you agree with me or not - and I encourage people to share their knowledge as well - there is so much I don't know about that I'd love to learn.

 

When I first started my blog in late 2019, I stated my goal is to stick to the facts and take an unbiased neutral position when covering controversial topics, and sometimes I have succeeded in that goal, but in others, I haven’t.  My preferred writing style predominantly includes heavily-researched fact-finding and some investigative reporting, but also incorporates my own perspective and speculation. Hey, I’m not a journalist; I’m a blogger, and while this conflation of fact and opinion may turn off some; what makes this fun for me is not shying away from incorporating my own thoughts into the articles I write. And I enjoy covering a mix of topics ranging from things as uncontroversial as a new restaurant opening to as divisive as the Board of Education elections.

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My family and I live right in the shadow of Merriweather on the other side of Broken Land Parkway. We were drawn to Columbia for its diversity, inclusion and fantastic public schools. Plus, my wife grew up here and her parents have lived here since Columbia was founded, so we have plenty of familiarity with the area. We were drawn to living as close as possible to the center of Columbia with the city’s 30-year master plan guiding Howard Hughes $5 billion investment into creating a true urban downtown area, like Jim Rouse always envisioned.

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I’m a Connecticut native, but up until I moved to Columbia this past summer, I had spent the entirety of my adult life - 20 years - living in Washington DC; where I followed many local news blogs covering the neighborhoods where I lived and the city as a whole. These include Petworth News, PoPville, DCist, Greater Greater Washington, Washington City Paper, Eater DC, UrbanTurf etc. These serve as my inspiration and have provided me with plenty of ideas on topics and features for this blog, and while I don't aspire for this blog to ever become a profitable venture with news teams and paid advertisers, I do hope that it helps fill the void of limited local news coverage.

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At its best, a local news blog can help to instill a sense of pride in where you live, highlight those who are working to make their community a better place, and bring neighbors together. I will strive to do those things while informing, entertaining, and encouraging conversation. And with all the construction and plans for the future in our town’s urban core, I’m confident that there will be no shortage of topics to write about.

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The views expressed on this website are my own, Jeremy Dommu as a individual, and do not reflect the views of my employer or any organization in which I serve.