I like the urban tradition of leaving books on the curb for strangers to carry off. To one like me who has built his library from cast-offs, secondhand stores, and less honorable means, there are few better surprises than finding abandoned stacks and a sign that reads, "Free Books."
That's just what I found this morning [...]
With all this talk of racism in the gentrifying parts of town, I thought I'd share this anecdote.
On Tuesday, I interviewed a middle-aged black man in Columbia Heights. He was angry about construction that had encroached on his mother's land, and I mention his race because it is relevant. This man expressed racial attitudes that [...]
In April, thousands of cherry trees on the banks of the Potomac will open their petals.
Sponsored by Target.
This sign at Florida Avenue and T Street NW stood under a tarp until Friday, when DDOT director Emeka Moneme and Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham unveiled it for a photo op. Nothing new in any of that. But the sign, for some reason, had to be erected twice. "I watched them install the thing [...]
As a resident, I'm a little concerned about the impact on Capitol Hill if the Old Naval Hospital were to get back its fence.
I mean, how would the guys in big coats sleep on the grounds and stare at passers-by? The neighborhood wouldn't be the same.
Woman: "I'm gonna just forge his signature."
Clerk: "What? You can't do that."
Woman: "It won't be nothin' but this."
On Feb. 19, 16-year-old Brittany Wright was boarding a Metrobus in Foggy Bottom. She set the brakes of her wheelchair while the driver prepared to turn on the lift that would hoist Wright into the bus. "Like, the next thing I know I'm flipped over on the ground," Wright says. "I flipped over and hurt [...]
The Brickskeller, 2/26, 10:56 p.m.:
A mouse runs through the dining room and hops in the fake fireplace. No one else notices.
New sign at D.C. Superior Court entrance: "Please!! Do not bring any weapons"
It's Black History Month, and down at the D.C. Superior Court's small-claims branch, photographs of nine notable African-Americans grace the records-room wall:
Macon B. Allen, first licensed black lawyer (1845)
Charlotte Ray, first black female lawyer, and first woman admitted to the D.C. Bar (1872)
Bass Reeves, first black U.S. deputy marshal west of the Mississippi (1875)
Samuel J. [...]
Courtroom 315 yesterday was full of middle-aged white people in woolly sweaters, bright scarves, and peace-sign T-shirts. These were the protesters arrested at the Capitol in September, facing their first day of trial. Since they were representing themselves in a large group, Chief Judge Rufus G. King III had to keep explaining that testifying and [...]
Judge Gerald Fisher ruled last week that convicted slumlord David Nuyen has broken his promises to get out of real estate. As part of a 2001 plea agreement, Nuyen agreed to sell all of his holdings; Fisher ruled that he hasn't. The ruling means Nuyen now will face all 2,368 charges that were dropped in [...]
Convicted slumlord David Nuyen has been trying to show he's reformed. At age 70, he claims to have turned over the family business to his 23-year-old son, and he's poised to move back to his native Vietnam. “I want to get out. From the bottom of my heart, I want to get out. I'm tired [...]
Safeway ordered a new fleet of shopping carts for its store at 17th and Corcoran Streets NW last year. The company paid a little less than $100 apiece for carts smaller and easier to handle than their forerunners. But they weren't all fitted with the security system that makes the wheels lock when they pass [...]
Every Tuesday and Thursday Friday, we run down what's going on in local Internet discussion groups.
ustreetnews
bgsmith122 is fed up with gang shootings, and he is almost as fed up with superficial police work. Despite a pair of homicides in the neighborhood, he writes, the cops aren't doing much to make the neighborhood safe. They haven't [...]
