The Issue: Are dropped calls taking priority over community concerns in a historic Southeast neighborhood? Some neighbors are worried about the radiation effects of six 10-foot T-Mobile antennas installed in early October on the roof of the Polk Court Apartments at 525 G St SE. To install the towers, T-Mobile had to get permission from both the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) and the Historic Preservation Office (HPO). But some feel left out of the process and say that formal HPO approval was inadvertently bypassed. In order to belatedly meet the historic district requirements, T-Mobile recently moved the towers six feet from the roofline. But residents argue that this doesn’t change the fact the towers are still chilling on their roof.

Not Good: Besides being peeved about the eyesore factor, locals gave an impassioned presentation at a Ward 6B Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) meeting in October about the potential health concerns of radio  waves. ANC Commissioner David Garrison told City Desk, “For this particular kind of facility, a specific neighborhood notification process does not exist. It certainly would be helpful if it did.” In his time as ANC commissioner, he says, he has never heard of cellular towers being placed on a residential building. Read More "Neighborhood Watch: Can You Hear Me Now? Unfortunately, Say Unhappy Capitol Hill Residents" »

• Health care. Jesus Christ on toast with Marmite, am I ever sick of hearing about health care. Whole Foods---SHUT UP. Public option opponents---SHUT UP. Fox News---SHUT UP. Meanwhile, in British rationing news, I'm horrified to report that my wife's grandmother recently had to wait over an hour to be seen, mostly because the Edinburgh Council moved the Royal Infirmary from right across the Meadows all the way out to Little France, which is as far from the city center as it sounds. This is outrageous and would never happen in the United States, where there is no socialized medicine and never will be---SHUT UP.
• MEDIA NEWS! Battle of the Hottest rages on Capitol Hill. Jayson Blair is a life coach! City Paper's parent company begins its Week of Reckoning today! CEO tells Atlanta Journal-Constitution decision to buy CP and Chicago Reader was thoroughly vetted: "It wasn’t just me running over a cliff."

Read More "Morning Roundup: Yesterday’s News RIGHT NOW Edition" »

Trash fires are again becoming a trend in Capitol Hill. WJLA has a small story on the trend and notes that investigators are looking into it. Of course, the last time trash-can fires had worried Capitol Hill residents occurred around the time of the Eastern Market fire. The D.C. Fire Department quietly dispatched a team of investigators to try and apprehend the fire bug; investigators believed that there may have been a connection between the dumpster fires and the Easter Market blaze.

Fire Department investigator Greg Bowyer was part of that team looking into the previous dumpster fires. That investigation, he says, did not come to a proper resolution. "The investigation of the trash fires in 2007 were totally mishandled," he says. "This should be an indicator to the Fire Department that these mishandled fire investigations are not going to go away."

Read More "Capitol Hill Residents Enduring Another Round Of Trash Fires" »

Two years after the fact, Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells has gone on the record suspecting that the Eastern Market fire was arson. Wells tells the Voice of the Hill:

"'I have a tremendous amount of suspicion that it was arson,' Wells told the Voice immediately after the market reopened Friday."

Eastern Market re-opened today with the expected fanfare. Which is great. But it doesn't erase the screw-ups surrounding that massive blaze. In December 2007, we wrote a piece addressing the concerns of numerous fire fighters that the Eastern Market case was arson. Two arson investigators got bounced off their beat for making their concerns known.

Read More "Not Breaking: Councilmember Wells Suspects Eastern Market Fire Was Arson" »

When Joe Englert goes to work, he doesn't drive to some sterile office building in Arlington. After a game of tennis with friend Matt Weiss, Englert is chauffeured to work in Weiss' black Lexus. His office? It's a converted garage on Capitol Hill, where Englert's modest desk takes up a tiny fraction of the space. The rest is filled with pinball machines, Pittsburgh memorabilia (Englert's hometown), a TV lounge, a diner booth, a collection of random signs and souvenirs, a Ping-Pong table, and a bubble hockey game.

Read More "Joe Englert’s Office Is a Shrine to Stunted Adolescence" »

Read Scott Martin says he never left his bike---a silver Specialized Rockhopper he bought used-- untended or unlocked until, one afternoon, he did. Stopping off at a friend's Capitol Hill office building for a quick chat, Martin left his bike outside, behind a wrought iron gate and leaned into the storefront's doorway. The bike was in full view of the office's bay window, so he figured it was safe.

Loquacious in a Harvard-math-professor kind of way, the sandy-haired 43-year-old was unlikely to keep his tète-à-tète brief.

After talking over a "business matter" for about 30 minutes, Martin left the office, planning to hop on his mountain bike and pedal four blocks to his house on A Street NE. Not a chance. The bike had vanished.

Despite feeling "dumb" for neglecting to use his U-lock (it was attached to the bike, so the thief got that too) the marketing consultant called 911. "A squad car was there in 10 minutes," Martin says. "The thing that stood out was the officer was very familiar with the problem."

The other thing that stood out for Martin was that the cop didn't blame or criticize him. "I kept waiting for her to roll her eyes and say 'You stupid turkey,’...she didn't." In fact, she did the opposite, assuring him it wasn't his fault.

Though District cyclists might think a dude like Martin, naive enough to leave his bike unprotected while he runs an errand, got what he deserved, Sgt. Christopher Micciche of the D.C. Police Department’s Crime Reduction Team doesn't see it that way: "If you leave your car unlocked while you pump your gas, you probably do not want someone coming along and stealing your laptop out the passenger side door. And if you run into 7-11, it would be nice if you didn't have to worry about someone coming along and riding off on your bike."

That's one of the reasons he and the CRT plant bait bikes on D.C. streets. Micciche explains in an e-mail that the unlocked, decoy bikes are leaned "in a plausible location, such as in front of an occupied home, or on the porch, or outside of a business establishment-where one might likely find that an individual left their bike to transact their business momentarily."

When a bike hustler tries to wheel away the bait, the officers swarm.

The stings have produced 13 arrests so far, and have yielded some odd moments: Micciche remembers how two bike thieves were warned by officers to not take the bike, but then moments later "did so anyway" and how another "waited until his Metro bus arrived, then hustled over and grabbed the bike, placing it into the bus bike rack and boarding the bus."

He also remembers how most of the perps saw nothing wrong with what they did.  Almost every person who stole a bike “could not understand the concept of not taking property that didn't belong to them," Micciche says.

Some consider it their occupation.

An admitted bike thief, who would not allow his name to be printed, is likely the guy who stole Read’s bike for two reasons: He operates exclusively in Capitol Hill and Georgetown and his favorite  boost is an unlocked bike. "If a bike is unlocked," he says, "how's that stealing? It can't be stealing--you just found a bike."

The thief, a middle-aged guy built like an ex-athlete, stakes out a dimly-lit spot on a curb. This is where people can find him if they’re in the market for a stolen bike. Some he’s sold over the three or four years he’s been at this retail for thousands, but the thief has never let a hot cycle go for more than $75, he says.

He's never been yelled at or chased, much less arrested by the police. Really, he says, he’s providing a service: When he takes someone's wheels, it encourages people he robs to register their bikes next time.

Update: How to Use the Inaugural Bike Valet

Yesterday, Loose Lips Daily linked to San Francisco Bike Blog-- which thinks the Washington Area Bicycle Association should bring its bike valet service to Inauguration 2009.

"Who wants to get hands-runneth-over by security guards just so you can stand on a packed [Metro] platform with dudes in blue, carrying big, automatic weapons? Not me. People need to be able to go by bike, and they need a place to put their bikes when they arrive. The local cycling organization knows how to do bike valet parking - they should offer it at the inauguration."

Turns out WABA has a Thursday meeting with DDOT to discuss doing exactly that.

If all goes well at the meeting, says WABA staffer Henry Mesias, the organization will set up a bike valet station towards the south of the Capitol and just outside the inauguration's hard-security-perimeter.

The local food boards are starting to light up over a rumor that Bread & Chocolate (and maybe Ben & Jerry's) on Capitol Hill will be closing. I've tried call B&C several times, but the lines are busy, busy, busy! Calls to B&J are rolling straight into voicemail.

More as we know it.

In the meantime, let's recount some of the restaurants that have already died this year: Butterfield 9, David Craig, M'Dawg Haute Dogs, Montsouris, New Orleans Bistro, Colorado Kitchen, Meridian Restaurant, Bistro 123, among many others.

Man, it's getting ugly out there. If you have a favorite restaurant, go there. Now.