Carrying the Ball

Produced on a Sony a6000

Entrepreneurs spend a lot of time talking about “product market fit” which is kind of fancy jargon that translates into English as “making something that people need or want that didn’t exist before.” Oftentimes, that means taking an idea or thread and then building on it. TwoZeroTwo, as a project is just that, something that I wanted to see out in the world, that I couldn’t find today.

When I moved to DC after two years in Chicago I thought I knew the city. I had gone to college here and naively assumed that my four years of limited exposure meant I knew the District. Chicago, which I love, had felt expansive and warm, constantly unfolding to show me a new little corner of the place that I had never seen before. DC, in contrast, felt small and a bit stuffy.

That was stupid of me, period. I know that now, but at the time it felt oh so real. I had put DC into a little box without even realizing it. 

Over the last year I’ve started to make good on a promise I try to make with any new place – to look deeper, approach it with an open view, to focus on what’s good, not what’s not. 

This project is not a purely original creation. I don’t want you, the reader, thinking that it is. Instead, the lens to view this project is best thought of as joining a conversation that’s been happening for a long time. First, of course, through print media, but all the more recently through small blogs, growing news sites, newsletters and Substacks. DC has been part of the conversation for decades and decades. We’re not discovering anything, rather, we’re picking up where others have left off, hopefully adding some unique context along the way. 

There are so many fantastic places for you to find other parts of the conversation, check out 730DC, PoPville, the new site the 51st. All of them are joining or have joined the conversation and are doing great things. 

There is one blog that deserves a special mention when discussing the origin of TwoZeroTwo. WeLoveDC is a blog that ran for nearly a decade and published its final posts in 2014. The website is quite dated, but so much so that it almost feels more relatable. The site is still live, a kind of frozen repository from a time when Obama was still President and I was not even halfway through high school. If you visit the link today, the front page has letters from all the founders and editors, each titled “Why I love DC.” 

On this ancient looking website from the early twenty-teens were these incredibly genuine, letters from a kind of motley crew about why they loved DC. Each letter was so joyful, so rooted in place, that it was hard to look away. 14 years later the message still felt relevant. Here across these letters, was a thread I wanted to pick up. Here was a ball I wanted to carry just 5 more yards.

“Deliberately, thoughtfully, and joyously focus on people and place. ”

So, what is our theme for those next 5 yards. Where, to continue the metaphor, do we want to carry the ball? 

Here’s what I think: TwoZeroTwo aims to deliberately, thoughtfully, and joyously focus on people and place. How? Well – we want to zoom in on the small places you visit, the people that have put down roots, calling DC home and making it a home for others.