Councilmember Jim Graham knew he was on friendly turf at last night’s Ward One councilmember debate, hosted by a group of labor unions and social services advocates.

He had arrived at the True Reformer building on U Street a half an hour late, but with good reason: Celebrating a tenant purchase at 1372 Kenyon Street NW, which the tenants had “snatched out of the hands of the owner” and bought for $580,000. Then, Graham waved his scarlet red hero’s cape that one of the forum’s sponsors, Save Our Safety Net had awarded him during the last budget cycle. Several of the unions present had already endorsed his reelection.

The debate was a demonstration of the power of incumbency in a field that mostly agrees on the basics. Things his opponents said the Council should do more of—strengthen emergency rental assistance, increase taxes on the wealthy, toughen tenant protections—Graham has crusaded for in the Council. After Brian Weaver talked about the housing code violations at the Deauville Apartments in Mount Pleasant before it burned down, the president of the building’s tenants association passionately thanked Graham for helping to secure funding to acquire the building, lashing out at Weaver for even attempting to use the Deauville as a knock on the councilmember. And when a questioner raised a grievance against Pepco, the minor candidates decried the injustice, but Graham actually had his staff on hand to look into the complaint. Read more Graham’s Opponents Struggle to Make Employment, Housing Critiques Stick

(DCCondoboutique)

Home Rule 2.0? [Post]

One vote for a bus garage at Walter Reed. [GGWash]

Always a good idea to check your zoning before opening a wings joint. [FairfaxVillage]

Skip the show, read the blog post. [Urbanturf]

Burger bar to U Street. [UStreetGirl]

City planning director as house hunter. [Examiner]

Today on the market: Lofty living in Penn Quarter.

Probably still on top though.

City Desk reported yesterday that the D.C. Chamber of Commerce’s PAC put its thumb on the scale for Ward One Council candidate Jeff Smith, making a pointed statement against Councilmember Jim Graham’s continued service in the Wilson Building. I share Jason’s surprise–it’s not often that an organization will take such a risk on someone who was last seen polling around 15 percent. The Washington D.C. Association of Realtors, for example, just chose to quietly not endorse Graham instead of throwing their weight behind a challenger. “We haven’t endorsed him before,” WDCAR President Elizabeth Blakeslee told Housing Complex. “That’s not unusual.”

The Chamber, though, has some specific grievances with Graham’s record. Contra Chuck Thies‘ charge that the Chamber “represents downtown business interests,” a Chamber spokeswoman sent over a statement: Read more Jim Graham Striking Out With Businessfolk

The Skyline team. (Darrow Montgomery)

Skyline Innovations, a one-year-old solar installation startup, feels straight out of 1999: Instead of a glassy downtown office, the seven-person staff operates out of a corner room in Affinity Lab, a communal workspace in Adams Morgan. Tasks are managed using a bulletin board covered with index cards, and typical work attire includes a T-shirt and flip-flops. So far, they’re rolling in venture capital, counting on profits down the road.

If you measure in megawatts rather than dollars, though, Skyline is already putting some serious numbers on the board. The company’s solar thermal systems—which heat water, rather than generate straight electricity—now have about 88 kilowatts of capacity. That’s a big chunk of the District’s total registered solar capacity of 645 kilowatts (all of which is photovoltaic, spread out over more than 100 locations). By the end of August, Skyline expects its systems to create more energy than anyone else in the city.

The business model: First, target big apartment buildings, and energy-intrusive businesses contracting for large systems with single landlords. And second, offer solar power with zero startup costs, guaranteeing a 35 percent reduction in water heating bills. Essentially, Skyline is renting roof space—the tenants pay less for hot water, and Skyline sells the environmental value of the renewable energy generated in the form of solar renewable energy credits (SRECs, pronounced ESS-wrecks) on the open market. Read more Here Comes the Sun: D.C.’s Solar Power Industry Tries to Grow-Around Pepco

D.C.’s done pretty well in the rankings lately. We’re the best city for vegetarians. The second highest for wellbeing. The second-best city for college grads. If there’s a top ten list we’re not on, it’s probably because we’re somehow disqualified.

I usually ignore such lists as arbitrary and cheap ways to drive traffic by tapping into the human instinct for one-upmanship. But the latest ranking to cross my radar screen struck me as particularly absurd: According to ForbesWoman, the District is the second-best city in the nation for working mothers. In their video describing the top three (Minneapolis won out), the analyst talks about D.C.’s low unemployment, plummeting crime rate, and the “huge transformation in their public education system,” all of which are apparently Things Moms Want.

I’m not saying that each of those individual metrics isn’t true (though the education one is certainly up for debate). But you’ve got to ask: Why aren’t jobs, low crime rates, and a good education system things that working dads would want just as much? Or, for that matter, people generally? Most of these lists are essentially based on common quality-of-life indicators that should be able to stand on their own. A recent college grad, for example, might pay more attention to the number of entry level jobs available in a given city, but they might also have other priorities, like proximity to other urban centers or a vibrant arts scene–all of which depend on the person.

If publications were honest, they’d just publish individual metrics relating to employment, quality of life, etc., and let individual working mothers, recent college grads, and vegetarians work out for themselves what they find appealing (actually, CNN does a pretty good job of this). But subjective compilations for different demographics attract clicks and generate angry responses like this one. So I suppose we should just enjoy being on top.

(Sotheby's)

Silver Spring condo project goes rental. [Urbanturf]

Here’s one realtor that isn’t buying the Midcity brand. [DCCondoBoutique]

…and one urbanist. [RPUS]

After a year of delay, Reid moves car-rich, transit-poor energy bill to get it done before recess. [Streetsblog]

That’s a lot of construction in the pipeline! [CityBizList]

Paperclip bike racks? Sure, why not. [Washcycle]

Strict land-use regulations create real estate bubbles. [Yglesias]

Today on the market: P Street mansion.

So, the news broke yesterday in Minnesota and then the D.C. political sphere that both Target and Best Buy, taking advantage of our newly liquid corporate campaign finance rules, have dropped $150,000 and $100,000 respectively into a the state’s gubernatorial race on the side of Tom Emmer, via a business group that has been running T.V. ads on his behalf.

Tom Emmer is sort of your run-of-the-mill Republican–wants lower taxes, less spending, fewer illegal immigrants, etc. But he also embraces some of the harder-right positions that tend to really make Washingtonians wince: He would nullify federal health care legislation, cut the wages of workers who also earn tips, support a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, and once proposed chemical castration for sex offenders.

GLBT groups, among others, are pretty miffed at both retailers’ support for Emmer. Target defended itself, saying it made the decision based on the Republican’s pro-business stances, and that its “support of the GLBT community is unwavering.” But that hasn’t stopped groups from springing up to boycott Target especially.

Just, you know, something to consider next time you need a crappy side table.

DDOT will be arriving shortly. (Monument Realty)

The Department of Real Estate Services tells me that Councilmember Marion Barry has dropped his disapproval resolution on the District Department of Transportation’s move to 55 M Street SE, which momentarily put the whole thing in limbo. That means the move can go forward as planned, without having to wait until reconsideration by the Council in September. (No word that Barry has granted similar clemency for Gage-Eckington Park.)

Meanwhile, don’t cry for the Reeves Center, which Gabe Klein and Co. are vacating. It will henceforth be the home of the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration and the Office of the Tenant Advocate, which are moving out of their offices down the way at 1250 U Street. Seeing as there’s been an awful lot of musical chairs in District buildings lately, we’ll have a comprehensive listing of all the moving around tomorrow.

The first generation.

As plans for the McMillan sand filtration site have sat on the shelf, and a new battery of studies gets underway, the Vision McMillan development team has quietly hired a new master planner to knit the vast site together. Ehrenkrantz, Eckstut and Kuhn, an unspellable architecture firm based out of New York with offices in D.C., will also serve as the primary interface with the community. The guy in charge, Matthew Bell, has done several projects in the area: master plans for George Washington University and the Armed Forces Retirement Home, as well as the just-opened Deanwood Community Center and Library.

I say “quietly” because Jair Lynch and EYA, the two major players in the deal, have not returned repeated calls for comment. A representative of the Lessard Group, the architectural firm that’s been with the project from the beginning, says that they would continue to be involved on the residential elements of the development, and that even more firms may be brought on to design other parts of the 25-acre site. It’s unclear at this point how much money the city will be kicking in to help pay the bills.

When will this place get a break? (Darrow Montgomery)

The back and forth over the Big Bear Cafe’s battle for a liquor license reverberated through the internet after ANC 5C withheld its approval last week. And on Monday, owner Stuart Davenport’s application for a zoning map amendment from residential (R-4) to commercial (C-2-A) hit the city’s highest court: The Zoning Commission, which decided to set the case down for a hearing when it reconvenes in September.

Not without some rumblings of trouble, though. The Office of Planning favors Davenport’s application because the zoning change, which allows a wider range of business uses, would be consistent with the District’s Comprehensive Plan–last year, in fact, the address was recommended for a residential-to-commercial zoning change along with dozens of other sites across the city. However, commissioners aren’t going to let it through easily. Michael Turnbull grumbled about carving out a commercial island in the middle of a bunch of residential, and Peter May worried that, since C-2-A zoning allows for an extra 10 feet in height, a future developer could construct a tall, skinny apartment building there.

Plus, he’s apparently been reading comment threads. “There are some legitimate concerns in the neighborhood about the use of this property,” May said. “The existing use seems to be a very comfortable fit…but gee, a liquor license there, or a sidewalk cafe? I’m not sure.”

Konrad Schlater raised similar concerns in absentia, and Greg Selfridge–mostly quiet in his maiden meeting–endorsed his new colleagues’ comments. So, expect Big Bear round bajillion in the fall.