Washington Post hires national transportation reporter

Washington Post local editor Mike Semel, deputy local editor Monica Norton and transportation/development editor Victoria Benning sent out the following announcement on Thursday:

We are thrilled to announce that Ian Duncan will be joining The Post as our national transportation writer, joining Michael Laris on this crucial beat.

Ian will focus his considerable talent for accountability reporting on the U.S. Department of Transportation, the secretary’s office and the politics of transportation policy, including the decision-making that goes into the dissemination of the billions of dollars of agency money.

He comes to us from the Baltimore Sun, where he covered city government. There, he earned a formidable reputation for using documents and difficult interviews to tell stories of unfair treatment and to hold elected officials to account. His story of a Los Angeles investor buying liens on black churches in Baltimore that had failed to pay a water or electric bill led to legislation banning the practice.

Those same skills produced an investigation of a Baltimore program that was supposed to reduce the number of vacant and blighted lots. After eight years and more than $80 million, Baltimore had gone from 16,800 vacant properties to 16,500. His work on Baltimore’s botched search for a police commissioner showed his ability to own a story.

Ian has a degree in modern history from St. Anne’s College at Oxford and a master’s in journalism and international relations from NYU. He lives in Maryland with his wife and young son and daughter.

Help make him feel welcome when he starts Sept. 23.