Up the East End, up the workers

Well, that was fast.

It seems like just last week, I was firing up our grill for our Memorial Day cookout. The fact that we watched Fourth of July fireworks at Chimborazo Park almost two months ago is hard to grasp. What’s that? The Lowe’s on West Broad Street has already been selling Halloween decorations for weeks now? Come on. Be serious.

I know Labor Day Weekend isn’t the official end of summer, but it is the unofficial end, and goddamn, does it feel like it, what with this unseasonably mild late August we’re having. Your humble Lookout editor will be spending this holiday weekend catching up on some reading, hanging out with friends, and listening to Billy Bragg and The Dropkick Murphys at medically inadvisable volumes. May that you all can enjoy some end-of-season leisure, too.

Driving home from a Flying Squirrels game the other day, a billboard on the southbound side of I-95 (similar to the one above) caught my eye. Next to a photo of noted techno-fascist centi-billionaire Elon Musk read the ad’s message: “We Make, They Take.” Advertising—it works! Or maybe not, as I did not recall the URL at the bottom of the billboard. (Turns out it was paid for by More Perfect Union, a progressive media outlet.) But as a proud son of New Jersey, I appreciated the reference to Trenton’s famous tagline, “Trenton Makes, The World Takes.” And as a worker, I appreciated the concise diagnosis of America’s existential ailment.

Labor Day was founded to honor the workers that built this country. Well also maybe to blunt the popularity of May Day, an international call for worker solidarity from more radical corners than the federal government of the United States. But my point is that this is not just the three-day weekend that marks the (unofficial!!!) close of summer. Like Memorial Day, it has a deeper purpose. And seeing as how the Trump administration has supercharged this country’s already-obscene wealth inequality, ripped up hundreds of thousands of federal employees’ union contracts, and terrorized innumerable vulnerable workers here and across the country, that purpose is more salient than ever.

On Labor Day proper (Monday, September 1st), the group 50501 Virginia is holding a rally here in Richmond under the aegis of “Workers Over Billionaires.” The event will take place beyond The Lookout’s standard geographic remit: it starts at Monroe Park, which even the sloppiest cartographers can tell you is not located in the East End. But the rally’s themes affect everyone in this neighborhood (not to mention the rest of the country) who works for a living. I’ve already heard from several Church Hill residents that they plan to attend. I’ll be there to cover, and aim to publish a recap of the event here at The Lookout.

Between now and then, I hope you’re able to relax with friends and family, and enjoy these fleeting final days of summer in the neighborhood. Penelope and I will be back in the saddle to resume regular programming next week. Up the East End, up the workers. Happy Labor Day Weekend, Lookouts.—Dave.

👀 A look at The Lookout’s growth

It’s been a while since I last published performance metrics for this publication. Now seems as good a time as any. The upshot? We’re growing! The Lookout’s subscriber count surpassed the 500 mark in late July-ish, and continues to pick up new readers basically every day.

This publication doesn’t have a marketing budget, or even a budget budget, so save for a few (much appreciated) links from my colleagues at The Richmonder, this growth has been entirely driven by word of mouth. Thanks to everybody who has told a friend, neighbor, or bar mate at the The Roosevelt to sign up for The Lookout. I can’t do this without you! Speaking of which:

Some other topline stats, for those interested:

• Editions published (all-time): 48

• Open rate (L4): 79.6%, -0.3% from the prior frame

• Click-through rate (L4): 15.77%, +17.7%

In terms of editorial vital signs, that’s a pretty healthy patient! Encouragingly, these benchmarks have stayed very steady as I’ve published a mix of human-interest features, original reportage, and East End-specific analyses on other outlets’ reportage. This would get pretty old, pretty fast if the only thing I could reliably convince you to read from The Lookout was, like, road-closure coverage, or whatever. Thanks for the license to experiment!

📊 The Lookout’s first-ever reader poll

This publication is a one-man band, and for the foreseeable future, a one-man band it shall remain. But if its readership continues to grow—and, crucially, if it begins to generate revenue—I’d like to grow its offerings in kind. What does that mean? God, who even knows. But I’d like your help to figure it out. Kindly select an option from the this survey below:

I must emphasize that all of this is pretty “pie-in-the-sky” for now, because I don’t have the time to do any of it. Not at the level of quality you deserve, at least. But I’d love to know what—if anything—you’re looking for from The Lookout beyond the weekly news and views from Richmond’s East End. And if you’ve got other ideas not captured in the poll above, drop them in the comments or get in touch directly!

✂️ And now, to the clips!

Here are the the top-five most read editions of The Lookout since the Fourth of July: