The Merriweather Post is a local news blog that provides news & information on the neighborhoods in and around downtown Columbia, Maryland. 

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My name is Jeremy Dommu. I’m 38 years old with a full-time job and I'm the dad of two amazing young daughters (4 and 7). In keeping with the HoCo tradition of citing how long you have lived here when introducing yourself in public, I've lived in Columbia MD for 7 whole months! 😄 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 (though, I do look forward to meeting many of you IRL!). 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 purely a hobby for me.

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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, 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. In Howard County, I have found many great Facebook groups, a few education/politics focused blogs, and lots of great info on many county/village center websites, but I couldn’t find anything comparable to the local news blogs I loved in DC, leading to the decision to start my own.

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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. My goal will be to stick to the facts and take an unbiased neutral position when covering controversial issues (see my blog on the Hickory Ridge Village Center Redevelopment for an example), though I’m sure that my excitement for all that is to come will shine through! I intend to cover quality of life, development, restaurants, bars, retail, transit, and any other general observations about life in Columbia. 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.