Dee Does The District doesn't appreciate a sad bit of race baiting reported from the marathon hearing on the DCPS teacher layoffs.

Harry Potter and the Urban School Nightmare despairs over their students' poor attendance. They write:

"Our school's enrollment is down, and attendance is lower than I've ever seen it. When I first started at my school, I routinely had between 25 and 30 students in my class each day. Now, I'm lucky if I get 12. Today, less than half of my students were in class, and last week the average was 55%. Now, the kids who are there every day are learning like FIENDS, but at this rate 45% of my kids are going to fail. So what gives?"

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: DCPS Students Discover The Working Lunch" »

7th Street SW, between Maryland Avenue and Virginia Avenue

In addition to the new Safeway coming to Georgetown, the go-to D.C. grocery chain is planning similar overhauls at the Southwest Waterfront and Petworth.

At the Waterfront, preliminary work is under way for the new store, which will go up behind the current building near the Metro. When completed in 2011, the old store will be demolished. And, much to the delight of the lunch-starved masses, it will have an enhanced deli with sandwiches made to order.

Petworth's store on Georgia Avenue NW will follow a model similar to what's going on in Georgetown---a new, expanded store will go up where the existing store stands. That means the old store will close at some point. Also, parking will be moved below ground. The space occupied by the current parking lot will be added to the footprint of the new store, taking it from about 20,000 square feet to about 55,000 square feet. Safeway spokesman Craig Muckle says Petworth's plans are not as far along as the Waterfront's and hesitated to give a projected completion date. "I don't have a good sense right now, but I'd say ballpark will be sometime in 2011. It won't be next year, I can tell you that," he says.

Read More "Safeway Update: New Stores Coming to Southwest Waterfront, Petworth in 2011" »

Yesterday, the Washington Post printed some very obvious news to anyone who's been on South Cap. Street in the past year: Nationals Park hasn't sparked much revitalizing in Southwest. The city spent $1 billion in infrastructure upgrades and developers have made huge holes in the ground and left a lot of buildings still vacant.

As the article states, District residents weren't just sold a new stadium paid for with public dollars. No. As an old story noted, they were sold the "Stadium District"--a full-service community of new retail and new museums and new parks. The city hasn't come close to a Stadium District. Last week, Fisher wrote about the missing neighborhood as well.

What spilled forth in Sunday's A1 article was a lot of excuse making on the part of city officials and developers.

My favorite:

"It just so happens that implementation is occurring during the worst economic downturn in recent history. So things are going to struggle a little bit," said Neil O. Albert, the District's deputy mayor for economic development.

Really? This effort had been planned for years--long before the recession and banking collapse. The reasons Nationals Park hasn't revitalized the neighborhood are too numerous. But let me try.

Read More "Nationals Park: No Revival Yet. Here Are A Few Reasons Why" »

DCist reports on some economists who studied the impact of the inauguration. So did it boost the local economy? We know Ben's made out. We know the renters did not.

Frozen Tropics reports on some Catholic University architecture students who are studying H Street transportation. Next study topic: Benning Road. Please. Study it.

Southwest...The Little Quadrant That Could eyes some projects that may benefit from Obama's stimulus package. And there's some news about a new design for the South Cap bridge.

River East Idealist gets R.E.E.L.

Borderstan polls folks on whether 15th Street NW should have two-way traffic. We took on this issue a while ago.

D.C. Foodies takes a trip to the Falls Church farmers market. You decide if its worth the ride out there.

Good morning, City Desk readers. The holiday season is officially over, and that means we here at City Paper are again ready to spend all our time serving the needs of DC's Urban Explorers. And now for some news:

• Geopolitical scientist Samuel P. Huntington died last week. Jonah Goldberg wrote an interesting sendoff for the Los Angeles Times.
• Southwest...The Little Quadrant that Could posts the top SW stories of 2008.
• The Prince of Petworth asks a pretty decent Friday question: What's your favorite foreign film?
• In Shaw (AHGB)'s Mari posts a year-end essay about the good, the bad, and the gentrified.
• The DCeiver got hold of the Annotated Inaugural Advisory, and warns, "You will not in any way be through the security checkpoint by the time the program begins, because the security checkpoint will be a storied clusterfuck."
• Theater News: Studio Theatre's Grey Gardens has been extended (again) to January 11. Woolly Mammoth's How Theater Failed America opens January 7.

Get on with yourselves.

Photo by Flickr user ajagendorf25