The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority will adjust several D.C. bus routes as of Sunday, June 24, and one more a week later on July 1. These changes, some of which will make life harder for Metrobus riders, reflect one longstanding Metro bias and two relatively new wrinkles in the agency's muddled approach to bus [...]

A boggling exploration of dreams, nightmares, and Japan's collective unconscious, Paprika is the latest anime feature by Millennium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers director Satoshi Kon. The 43-year-old animator visited D.C. in April to promote the movie, which opened here today. He laughed when asked if he considered the film akin to a hallucinogenic drug experience.
I [...]

Red platform lights, which were installed on the upper level of the Gallery Place Metro Station in March, have now arrived at L'Enfant Plaza as well. Metro has announced that Fort Totten, Metro Center, Smithsonian, Union Station, Stadium-Armory, and Eisenhower Avenue will get the LEDs (light emitting diodes) soon.
The effect is not subtle. When at [...]

One of the favored myths of D.C. officials is that the Frank D. Reeves Center, which opened at 14th and U Streets NW in 1986, resuscitated the area. According to this fantasy, it was the government office building—not the 1991 arrival of the Green Line, nor the expanding gentrification of the Dupont Circle, Logan Circle, [...]

Until recently, activists have carefully watched the assemblage of private property in their neighborhoods, anticipating the next major bid for a midrise office or condo building. That's still prudent, but lately much of the redevelopment action has involved city-owned land. Anyone scouting for the next major development would be well-advised to pay close attention to [...]

After a series of well-publicized pedestrian deaths, walkers' safety is a hot local topic. So the fact that only about 40 people attended Thursday evening's public meeting on the citywide pedestrian plan probably reflects inadequate publicity for the event, not a lack of interest. Still, there was a significant gap between the planners and the [...]

In the ongoing rewrite of downtown Washington's recent history, the Town Theater just got an upgrade.
An April 22 Washington Post piece on the National Museum of Women in the Arts, written by Ann Hornaday, described the building's former tenant as a "kung fu movie house." That's not exactly true, but it's closer to fact than [...]

"The Old Convention Center Site Redevelopment represents an over 30-year effort to create an exciting 'living downtown' in Washington D.C.," explains a brochure that was distributed at yesterday's public meeting on the project, sponsored by the development team of Hines/Archstone-Smith and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development.
Well, that's the official [...]

Yoko Ono embraces peace, health, prosperity, and wishes, but she can do without sunlight. Descending to the Hirshhorn's sculpture garden for a press event this afternoon, the petite conceptual artist and rock-star-by-proxy was protected by an umbrella, carried by a factotum of her "Imagine Peace" and "Wish Tree" projects.
Ono's wish trees arrived in Washington for [...]

Georgia Avenue's rush-hour express buses have finally arrived, six months late and with a different name, but otherwise as promised. When announced in June 2006, the service was called "Rapid Bus" and was slated to begin that September. It actually started running on Monday, dubbed "Metro Extra." The important thing, though, is that the line [...]

D.C.'s underperforming Circulator bus service has found a way to increase ridership: Swallow the competition. As of March 26, the Georgetown Metro Connection "Blue Buses" that run from Foggy Bottom to upper Georgetown will cease operation, and passengers will be directed to a rerouted Union Station-to-Georgetown Circulator route.
This is officially a "six-month pilot project," but [...]

For several years now, the Gallery Place Station has been Metro's equivalent of the Devil's playground. But now it really looks the part.
Recently, Metro began a six-month test of new lights along the platform edge. The latest models use light-emitting diodes, which draw substantially less electricity than the original yellowish-white incandescent bulbs and are supposed [...]

When the West Falls Church Metro station was built, it was configured to allow a spur to the northwest—toward Tysons Corner, Reston, and Dulles. Twenty years after the station opened, it looks as if that feature will actually be used. A planned extension, tentatively labeled the Silver Line, would offer service to Tysons by (perhaps) [...]

The headquarters of the Rotterdam Film Festival is in De Doelen, which is the city's rough equivalent of the Kennedy Center. It's an ugly building, but of the motley postmodern style, not of the KC's monumental neo-neo-classicism. What makes De Doelen appealing is that it's tucked tightly into the city fabric, and its exterior is [...]

Stroll away from the “centrum” of Rotterdam and you'll encounter coffeeshops, usually named for reggae stars, where cannibis is the whole point of the menu. There's probably a red-light district, too, although I haven't encountered it. Still, no one could confuse this pragmatic port town with hedonistic Amsterdam, an hour by train to the north. [...]