At this point in the COVID-19 pandemic, memories of office life are a bit hazy. Commutes have shrunk from crowded subway rides to a few short steps between bed and desk. Coffee breaks amount to another refill from the kitchen.
Why did TPM move from DC to NYC?
I like to fantasize …Post-Covid, where will be the next TPM evening affair? I was lucky to attend one in DC and one in NYC (March, just as the s**t was entering the fan’s air stream).
Because NYC is better. 
The best writing about national affairs often comes from people outside the DC bubble. The best DC-based journalists often seem to have beats that require a DC presence (e.g., Dana Priest on intelligence and security matters—I still miss her reporting) and connections to the peculiar communities that exist here. But for the big picture, it’s often better to be somewhere else. It’s too easy for people to be like Peter Baker, Maggie Haberman or Bob Woodward or to approach stores in the same way.
It didn’t. Not really. I lived and worked in DC until late 2004. But TPM’s first employees were hired, first office etc. in New York. So TPM as a company started in NY. I moved to New York because my now-wife lived there. So my move was purely for personal reasons.
Having said this, I think the move to New York ended up being a very good thing for TPM, even though it terrified me professionally at the time. It allowed TPM to always be looking at DC largely from the outside.
One can argue that New York is part of the same northeastern metroplex. And that’s true to a significant extent. But it’s still quite different from being based in DC.