Takoma Community Vision is run by a small, anonymous group of Takoma Park residents who are tired of watching advocacy claims go unchallenged in our community.
Takoma Park has a vibrant, engaged community — and that's one of the things we love about living here. But engaged communities can also be vulnerable to misinformation, especially when one group can distribute claims through flyers, email blasts, and community meetings without anyone checking their facts.
We've watched city planning debates derailed by claims that don't hold up to scrutiny. We've seen advocacy materials describe planning documents as guaranteeing things they only aspire to. We've watched neighbors make decisions based on incomplete or misleading information.
So we started reading the actual documents. Sitting through the actual council meetings. Downloading the actual planning board minutes.
"We don't think fact-checking is a partisan act. We think it's a civic responsibility."
We're a small group of Takoma Park residents — renters and homeowners, long-timers and newer arrivals — who share a belief that good civic decisions require accurate information.
We've chosen to remain anonymous, in the same way that other community advocacy groups in Takoma Park don't fully disclose their membership. We believe our arguments should stand on their merits and their sources — not on who we are.
We can tell you what we are not: We are not funded by developers or real estate interests. We are not affiliated with any political party or candidate. We are not paid for this work. We are just neighbors who think Takoma Park deserves better information.
These aren't aspirations — they're the rules we hold ourselves to. If we violate them, call us out.
Every factual claim we make links to a primary source — an official document, a public meeting record, a peer-reviewed study, or a government dataset. If we can't source it, we don't publish it.
We distinguish between factual claims (which we source) and our analysis or opinions (which we clearly label as such). "CVT's framing omits important context" is our opinion. "The plan uses the word 'striving'" is a fact we can show you.
We will make mistakes. When we do, we correct them at the top of the affected article, note what was wrong and what is correct, and date the correction. We do not quietly edit without noting the change.
When the advocacy materials we check include accurate information — even if we disagree with the framing — we say so. Every one of our fact checks includes a "What they got right" section where appropriate.
We publish a contact form and accept tips from all perspectives. If you have a source that contradicts something we've published, send it to us. If it checks out, we'll update our coverage.
We accept no funding from developers, real estate interests, political campaigns, or any entity with a financial stake in Takoma Park planning decisions. This site is volunteer-run and self-funded.
We believe that how an organization handles errors says more about its integrity than how rarely it makes them.