Man, this forecast really sucks, huh? Hope your beach plans didn’t get rained out—but if they did, I hope we cross paths at Patrick Henry’s for a beer. More neighbors hanging around the neighborhood on a holiday weekend is the best silver lining these rain clouds could offer.

As has become tradition over the past [checks calendar; does double-take] 18 months of weekly publication, this Memorial Day Weekend edition is a newsletter about a newsletter—namely, this one. The Lookout has come a long way since its launch in November 2024, and growth has been particularly strong through the first half of the year, as you’ll see below.

But before we get to the performance metrics and the clip show, get into The Lookout’s latest report on l’affair pétanque, filed earlier this week to the website:

As ever, thanks to all the tipsters and commenters who have chimed in about this ongoing saga. Stay abreast of the latest at The Lookout’s L’Affair Pétanque Liveblog. If you have information to share with me, here’s how to do so securely. If you want to speak your mind publicly, all logged-in readers can comment on any Lookout article, including this one:

On a tactical note, I’m still experimenting with publishing and promotional strategies for timely reportage like this. As the situation at Chimborazo Playground has unfolded, The Lookout has been publishing timely items to the site as they happen. But organic site traffic is very low, because most social-media platforms now suppress link posts, and only a very specific sort of sicko (laudatory) direct-loads websites and/or runs RSS feeds in 2026.

To that end, The Lookout sent its first-ever breaking-news bulletin on Monday, May 11th with official confirmation that the city had halted construction, and another a week later to highlight the new documents pertaining to the project that I’d obtained via public-records request. Those newsletters were both posted ~76% open rates, which is higher than the trailing four-week average, and neither triggered a single reader to unsubscribe. You seem to appreciate the one-off blasts highlighting big scoops, or at least tolerate them. Got it. Still, it is The Lookout’s considered editorial opinion that the fewer emails, the better. I’ll be reserving that move only for stories that really feel like they demand it.

Overall, 2026 has already been huge for independent neighborhood journalism in and about Church Hill. The Lookout’s email list is growing at a terrific rate, and strictly through word of mouth. Comments and tips are flowing, and I’ve got a parade of East End Animal Friends to introduce throughout the summer. Please submit yours!

That’s all for now. I’m looking forward to a summer of more scoops—news and ice cream both. Hope you’re able to relax a bit this holiday weekend. Regular programming resumes next week. See you on the other side.—Dave.

Welcome to the oodles of new readers who have signed up over the past three months, and thank you to all the old readers who’ve been here since the beginning. The best thing you can do to help The Lookout continue to grow is tell your neighbors to subscribe.

Some other topline stats, for those interested:

This snapshot is a bit less apples-to-apples with the previous ones because of the introduction of East End Animal Friends, the L’Affair Pétanque Liveblog, and The Lookout’s first-ever breaking news dispatches. At the suggestion of a few readers who were presumably tired of getting newsletters at 8pm on a Friday night, I also shifted publication to Saturdays about a month ago. I’m still gauging the effects of that move on open rates.

In terms of list growth—obviously, the ongoing snafu at Chimborazo Playground accounts for that enormous spike in signups starting in early May on the chart above. I’m proud that when people went looking for information about the neighborhood, The Lookout was there to provide it. That’s the whole idea! Welcome again to all the newcomers; hope you stick around.

As a reminder, I’m always on the hunt for killer photos of the neighborhood to feature in the A Very CHill Photo slot at the bottom of every standard edition of The Lookout, so please submit those, too. See examples from readers above and below, then email yours to [email protected].

Very CHill Photos are just one way the community can contribute to the weekly editorial production of The Lookout. I’ve got some other ideas cooking, though, and will have more to share soon. In the meantime: send more photos!

Here are the top five most-read editions of The Lookout this year so far (not including pétanque coverage, the web traffic for which has, unsurprisingly, been dwarfing regular coverage.) In reverse chronological order: