Inaugural skating session. (Lydia DePillis)

That was fast: Three weeks after the announcement of plans to build a skate park on the RFK Stadium festival grounds, boards are grinding on "freedom ledges" just a couple days before the start of the Maloof Money Cup, which is free for spectators. It's difficult to see the promised resemblance [...]

This past Saturday, a few hundred prospective homebuyers gathered in a subterranean room in the Grand Hyatt downtown for an old-fashioned property auction: 117 Washington-area properties were on the block, for starting bids ranging from $5,000 to $329,000. The Auction.com staff were in a festive mood, making the most of an economic catastrophe that had [...]

If anybody wants more of the DDOT director before he rides off into the sunset, here are the key bits from his sit-down with reporters this morning.
(Note on one of the subtitles: The change to the Unified Fund doesn't technically take effect until the budget is finally passed, which will happen on December 21.)

Today is gap-closing day at the Wilson Building, where Councilmembers are grappling with the question of how to find $188 million–the difference between revenues and expenses in the FY 2011 budget. The Fenty administration came up with a few suggestions for how that should happen, but since the Council can basically throw them out the [...]

Welcome to the third installment in our "A Walk With" series, this time with U Street fixture Sandra Butler-Truesdale, whose roles are many and varied.

There are some people in D.C. for whom landscapes  have two levels: The current level that they actually inhabit, and a subterranean historical space long covered over.
Sandra Butler-Truesdale, whose family has [...]

Thousands of low-income Washingtonians started lining up early this morning at the Convention Center to get a crack at discounts on their utility bills and free weatherization for their homes, waiting for hours while canvassers for mayoral candidates Adrian Fenty and Vince Gray worked the line (a few heated arguments broke out along the way).
The [...]

The usual suspects took up their shovels this morning to officially begin the restoration of Ledroit Park and Shaw's Howard Theater, which has been falling apart from the inside after decades of disuse. In the audience were dozens of older residents, half of whom raised their hands when Shaw Main Streets president Alex Padro asked [...]

Continuing the trend of cities that are advertising their new bike sharing systems in totally awesome ways, Montreal brings you this mesmerizing video of white dudes rapping about funny-looking bikes (via CommuterPageBlog).

[Big Bear Café owner Stuart Davenport took a more active role in this week's meeting. Please excuse the shaky footage, I'm still getting used to this video thing.]
Last week, the debate over Big Bear Café’s application for a restaurant liquor license in Bloomingdale exploded into the open, with heated discussion at a meeting of ANC [...]

It's about time. The good stuff starts about two and a half minutes in...