I understand you
You've got a problem
Now understand me
It's your problem not mine
—Dag Nasty, “All Ages Show"
Last summer, several teenagers were shot (though none fatally) outside a matinee go-go show at Market Lounge, a venue at the Florida Avenue Market. In fact, shootings and stabbings in (or, more often, outside) clubs are not uncommon in D.C. [...]
The D.C. Public Library Board of Trustees is among the more opaque of the city's many nontransparent entities. The board convenes in private before its monthly public meetings, so its decision-making process is largely hidden from view.
Certainly things weren't fully explained at the board's Aug. 9 meeting, when board president John W. Hill blandly made [...]
Jan. 1, 2057—The nation's capital got a new name today, when the city of Washington was redesignated “Penn Quarter.” The term, which originally applied to a mere 20-square-block area, became so popular that local residents stopped using “D.C.,” “the District,” and “Washington” altogether.
“I'm thrilled at the change,” said Mayor Christopher Barry. “It's great to [...]
The Metro fare increases floated on Thursday will not be instigated, at least not in their entirety. Some of the $116 million budget gap the hikes are designed to close will be eliminated by cost-cutting, and the most onerous provisions will yield to public outrage. Still, the proposal reveals the mindset of Metro's current management: [...]
“What's the urgency?” asked Councilmember Marion S. Barry Jr. That was one of the many unanswered questions the evening of Tuesday, Dec. 5, when Barry's lame-duck colleague Kathy Patterson tried yet again—and failed yet again—to win D.C. Council approval for a plan to build a new central library on the old Convention Center site.
Over the [...]
On Tuesday, Nov. 21, the D.C. Council's Education, Library and Recreation Committee voted to table legislation authorizing the construction of a new central library. Prominent supporters of the new-library proposal were clearly shocked by the 3-2 vote but were quick to suggest that the bill still might move forward, perhaps as emergency legislation.
A week later, [...]
An irregular feature pitching urban ideas big and small
II: The Great Dupont Cover-Up
On a clear day, the Q Street portal to the Dupont Circle Metro station is the most dramatic in the system. The circular opening offers a vast, beckoning slice of blue sky. But Washington isn't San Diego, and the sky isn't always blue. [...]
In 2003, the Williams administration made some noises about replacing the Tenleytown library with a mixed-use structure that would include a new library as well as residential and possibly commercial space. The neighborhood reacted skeptically, and the trial balloon was deflated.
It now turns out, however, that the concept wasn't abandoned; it was just quietly moved [...]
The future of the Avalon Theater, D.C.'s only nonchain cinema, got a little more secure earlier this month. The Avalon Theater Project, the nonprofit group that rescued the Chevy Chase moviehouse in 2002 and reopened it in 2003, has bought its building from local developer Douglas Jemal for $3.5 million.
Jemal had only recently purchased the [...]
On July 13, the anniversary of the D.C. Circulator's first run, the D.C. Department of Transportation (DDOT) issued a press release labeling the bus service the “Coolest Ride in Town” and calling it an “ongoing success.” But what's the definition of success? Well, there isn't one, which is why boosters of the shuttle-bus operation can [...]
It was supposed to be a coming-out party for new D.C. Public Library director Ginnie Cooper, who started work last month. Instead, the Aug. 9 meeting of the library system's Board of Trustees turned into a showdown with citizens at which—according to several observers—Cooper, board president John W. Hill, and board member Richard Levy all [...]
Motorists regularly curse D.C.'s traffic circles, but these ceremonial features are an even bigger affliction for people on foot. Most of the circles make little or no accommodation to pedestrians. And even the ones that do—notably Dupont—require dodging multiple lanes of traffic to enter or simply cross.
One roundabout, however, has just gotten a whole lot [...]
The redevelopment of downtown Washington was (and is) a political process, guided by political decisions made by elected officials, city planners, and zoning administrators. This statement is well-supported by the facts, and yet is continually denied by opinion pieces published in the Washington Post. (Also by its news articles, but that's another story.) Instead, such [...]
There are many frustratingly inefficient Metrobus routes in D.C., but the worst of the major ones is probably the 70/71 line, which runs along the 7th Street/Georgia Avenue corridor. The D.C. Department of Transportation—which insists on calling itself DDOT, as if Columbus hadn't been credited with discovering North America—estimates that buses on the route average [...]
An irregular feature pitching urban ideas big and small
I: Putting China Back into Chinatown
The D.C. government has long practiced a sort of trickle-down approach to development, focusing on the individual large project rather the overall tenor of the surrounding neighborhood. One problem with this is that the touted development frequently doesn't materialize; a related difficulty [...]
