The District, from what I've seen, isn't a big block party town—rarely are streets shut down for the purpose of eating, dancing, playing, whatever, in the summer, with your neighbors, with kids running around out of danger from rushing cars. Sure, people have cookouts, but they tend to be invite-only, and someone's personal front yard [...]
You know the real estate economy is back when groups that used to organize around new developments and subsequently went quiet—given that there were no viable projects to argue about anymore—start to come out of hibernation. Case in point: Ward3Vision, the "Yes-In-My-Back-Yard" smart growth advocacy group that formed back in 2005 to counter the strident [...]
All that rage over Pepco's difficulty keeping the lights on? Turns out there's a way to quantify it. Via Business Insider, the American Customer Satisfaction Index uses at least at least a reasonably scientific method to rank the popularity of all manner of different companies. Washington's electric power utility, with an index that plunged 23 [...]
When Broad Branch Road closed on account of a second giant sinkhole that appeared over a culvert on April 14th, it wasn't just another inconvenience. It was the potential for another decades-long battle to regain passage across Rock Creek Park.
“The last time I was told repairing a road in Rock Creek Park was complex was [...]
You thought the little tax increases on consumer goods in D.C. were over? Well, you're probably right. But after getting burned this spring with the institution of a 6 percent sales tax on sugar-sweetened drinks, the American Beverage Association has started campaigning afresh, this time against a new tax they think could go as high [...]
Trying to pin down funding for solar energy in the District is like wrestling a slippery fish: You think you have it, and then it jumps out of your hands again, forcing another round of pursuit.
Along with incentives from the federal government, a $3-per-kilowatt subsidy has brought rooftop solar energy systems within the reach of [...]
In a climactic vote just now in the Wilson Building, the City Council passed Councilmember Tommy Wells' proposal to require that homeless shelters turn away people who can't demonstrate District residency during the coldest part of the year. By my count of the 30-day Congressional review period, the bill will go into effect on March [...]
In every other state in the nation, when some industrial entity pollutes an area, the state government can sue that entity and force it to pay for cleanup without the federal Environmental Protection Agency having to come in and take over.
You know what comes next: Not in the District.
Although in 2000 the Council created incentives [...]
Yesterday, I got a couple of distress calls from the vicinity of 2910 Garfield Street N.W., the large corner lot in Woodley Park slated for subdivision into two gigantic single-family homes by the Chevy Chase-based Zuckerman Partners. Even after enlisting Councilmember Mary Cheh and getting a letter opposing the development signed by almost half the [...]
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 [...]
