The news hits you like a ton of bricks, if you’ve ever lived in the District of Columbia: Marion Barry passed away this morning at United Medical Center. Barry was a four-term mayor of the District of Columbia, and a four-time council member for Ward 8, with a career in DC politics spanning 35 years. 

The contentious council member and former mayor was often a polarizing figure, censured for his actions with his constituent service fund, frequently in trouble with the IRS for failing to pay his taxes and with the city for failing to pay his parking tickets, he is best known for his six-month stint in prison related to a drug charge after a videotaped sting operation in the Vista Hotel on M Street (now a Westin Hotel). 

Beyond those charges, and those misdeeds, it is impossible to ignore Barry’s humanitarian streak. His focus on jobs programs for youth brought the Summer Youth Employment Program to fruition during his first term – something many residents of the District say was their very first job. It is also impossible to ignore Barry’s time in the civil rights movement as a co-founder of Pride, Inc, which provided relief for those whose houses were destroyed in the 1968 riots, as well as job training and food for the poor.

It is sometimes impossible for me to resolve the Marion Barry of the civil rights movement and his focus on his constituents in Ward 8, with the Marion Barry of the Vista Hotel, the tax scofflaw, and council misconduct. The extremes for which Barry is known make him out to be larger than life, with impossible conflicts of character. No man better represented the constant fight between the better angels of our nature and our human flaws than did Marion Barry. He was a complicated figure who did much for many of the least of us, but couldn’t keep himself out of trouble.

If while he was alive, Barry’s presence was a target for criticism from the rest of America – some would say the image of Senator Marion Barry was the single greatest argument against statehood for the District – in his passing, he gives one last gift, freeing the city from that association. 

I visited the Wilson Building recently, to see some friends at Councilmember McDuffie’s office, and up on the fifth floor, just past the council chambers, is a set of standees made for the 40th anniversary of the Home Rule Act. There were a number of pictures I’d never seen before from the early days of the city’s new, more free period. In so many of them are a young and vibrant Marion Barry in his shirt-sleeves working on the city. I think I would’ve liked Barry better if that was the one I knew first, instead of the one that made the city into a series of jokes. Thankfully, those jokes are over now. I think that is one last gift he can give us all.

Rest in peace, Mr. Mayor.

For the past six years, it has been our pleasure, our responsibility, and our joy to bring you stories from the Nation’s Capital. Not just the federal city, but from all eight wards, from beyond the city limits, and from our hearts. We’ve learned so much: that DC was not built on a swamp; that you can totally get a case a month of hard spirits shipped to your door; that Tony Mendez was a cool customer; that forts are super cool; and everything in between.

We’ve always been a bit of an anarchic collective: individual writers who came together to form the site organically over a few pints at Fox & Hounds (our beloved Passenger wasn’t due until 2009). Our goal? To share with you our unique experiences and stories about our lives in the District. Some of us had already lived here a long time, while others were just getting started on their DC adventure. We founders created something we’re all passionately grateful for – and we were joined by absolutely amazing writers over those six years since July 4, 2008. More than ten thousand articles have been written, by more than 70 authors, and the presence of We Love DC in our lives has been an exceptional one. In some cases, a life-saving one.

Yet life has changed radically for all of us, and we feel it’s a good time to wrap up the site with a bow.

Wait, not a bow. A Thank You Tour.

When we began We Love DC, it was our chief goal to wear our hearts for this amazing city on our sleeves, and to be unabashedly enthusiastic about the District. It’s hard to understate the transformation in the past six years. DC has added tens of thousands of new residents, breweries and cocktail bars, new schools, yes, new bike lanes and dog parks, but more than that, DC has added energy and vitality. More than that, DC’s pride is on the rise.

We hear our voices amid the choir, and we’re far from alone in praising our home. It’s an extremely gratifying feeling. And we promise a Thank You Tour that celebrates the spirit and love that inspired us from the beginning.

Our plans? We Love DC will continue to publish through late fall. Then the site will become an archive of these marvelous six years. But before we go, there are about a million people to thank, and we’ll do it lovingly. We’re planning a Thank You Tour that’ll include revisiting highlights of the past years, what’s changed since we began, and where we think the city is going. We’ll talk to notable Washingtonians, past We Love DC writers, and re-enunciate why we still love DC.

Oh, and of course: a farewell party. To say thank you, dear friends and readers. Thank you for everything. This next part is going to be fun.

With all our hearts,

Jenn Larsen, Founder
Tom Bridge, Founder
Don Whiteside, Founder
Tiffany Bridge, Founder
John Athayde, Founder
Ben Rome, Founder
Rachel Levitin, Partner
Rebecca Johnson, Partner