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 [...]
Trees have had a rough time of it in the last few weeks: Getting axed by local restaurants, and almost axed by construction, and wilting in the sun. To make matters worse, in the last budget cycle, $539,000 was cut from the "Tree Fund," which is set aside to plant trees around the District.
This morning, [...]
At a large, brick house on Reno Road NW last Friday afternoon, casual passersby would have been forgiven for thinking a baby shower was underway. Smiling attendants in sky blue polos welcomed guests to a yard with tables full of refreshments, as a photographer snapped away. Inside, neighbors flocked to congratulate a visibly pregnant woman, [...]
Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh has no declared opponent in her race for reelection. But the building industry has her back anyway: Next Thursday, the Associated Builders and Contractors of Metro Washington PAC, the DC Building Industry Association PAC, and the Apartment and Office Building Owners PAC will host a joint cocktail reception and fundraiser [...]
So there's an election on, obviously, and councilmembers are in high gear campaigning to keep their jobs. There's a tricky balance to strike, though, between stocking a war chest while avoiding the perception of influence–especially when it comes to awarding construction contracts. Mayor Adrian Fenty has built up a reputation for being too cozy with [...]
Last year, during the game of musical chairs that had D.C. government agencies moving around to different buildings all over the city, the Office of the Chief Technology Officer decided to move some of its data center operations to the newly-purchased warehouse at 225 Virginia Avenue instead of the Unified Communications Center, as previously planned. [...]
A few weeks ago, several dozen Woodley Park residents sicced Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh on the subdivision of a corner lot on Garfield Street NW, where the Zuckerman Partners were planning to build two gigantic houses on spec. Since then, they’ve gotten the support of five more councilmembers, who all signed a letter asking [...]
The corner of 29th and Garfield Street NW in Woodley Park is open and green, with a stately Colonial that looks tucked away in a forest. It’s been empty since January, and neighbors didn’t know what would happen to it about a month ago, when a raze permit appeared on the garage.
Shocked, the neighbors investigated. [...]
If solar energy in D.C. has a problem, it’s not enthusiasm. Three and a half years after a solar coop started in Mount Pleasant, they have over 50 roofs topped with panels, and new coops starting up in Capitol Hill, Petworth, Georgetown, Palisades, Shepherd Park, and Brookland.
One of the reasons behind the flurry of interest [...]
Marion Barry heard testimony today on the Tenant Access to Justice Reform Act of 2009
You don't need to spend much time in D.C.'s landlord and tenant court to learn a rather perplexing fact about how the place is run: Tenants don't file lawsuits here–they're not allowed. The tenants are always defendants; the landlords and/or their [...]
