The whole package is worth a skim for any train lover or New York expat, but the artistic reconceptions are particularly wonderful, the audio visual package on subway preachers lets you meet the people you never really want to stop and listen to, and this profile should reassure the next Metro general manager that while his or her job might be hard, Jay Walder's is probably worse.

Invasion zone?

A few days ago, Atrios flagged a lede graf in the Washington Post's write-up of a Brookings report on the changing nature of the suburbs, asking: "Nobody noticed what's wrong with this paragraph?" It reads:

The idealized vision of suburbia as a homogenous landscape of prosperity built around the nuclear family took another hit over the past decade, as suburbs became home to more poor people, immigrants, minorities, senior citizens and households with no children, according to a Brookings Institution report to be released Sunday.

Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting made the complaint more explicit, translating reporter Carol Morello's phrasing as socioeconomic fear-mongering: "The traditional image of the U.S. suburb is being spoiled as they become less wealthy, white and native-born," wrote Steve Randall.

When you start looking at it that way, other phrases like "nuclear families are outnumbered" and "suburbs already are facing a rising tide of poor residents" start to make you feel like white suburbanites are under seige.

I certainly hadn't read the story that way initially, though. To my ear, "homogenous landscape of prosperity built around the nuclear family" already sounds like a bad thing, and if it's taking a hit, it's about time. Plus, calling this image "idealized" already suggests that it may not ever have been a real thing anyway. Sure, the reporter could have cast it in a different light by saying, "the suburbs have over the last decade been enriched and vitalized by an influx of hard workers from different cultures," but that might have been seen as editorializing as well.

Here's another lede, from the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON – White flight? In a reversal, America's suburbs are now more likely to be home to minorities, the poor and a rapidly growing older population as many younger, educated whites move to cities for jobs and shorter commutes.

Well, that's a factual statement, and it doesn't have to do with any dream being punctured. Probably would have been a safer way for the WaPo to go, and a little more attention to the connotations of words is always good. But I don't think any major journalistic offense has been committed here.

Photo from flickr user Jana Mills.

A familiar, long-running story is back in the news—and that's definitely a bad thing.

For years, D.C. officials have wanted to build a hotel to support big groups hosting events at the Washington Convention Center. That project—despite the economic downturn—was rejuvenated this summer when Councilmembers Kwame Brown (At-large) and Jack Evans (Ward 2) decided it could wait no longer.*

And so we got our convention center hotel after a new financing deal was inked! Two thousand jobs were on the way! An August 2009 press release from the city stated that "the development team expects to break ground on the hotel project this fall and it is expected to be complete in 2013."

Yet, fall has come and gone, and I recall no groundbreaking. Instead, D.C. was served with another roadblock, this time in the form of a lawsuit from a competing developer.  The Washington Post covers all the latest twists—"No construction bonds have been issued, and a D.C. Superior Court judge has twice refused to dismiss the case"—in a story published yesterday.

On its face, the lawsuit by Wardman Investor, a company controlled by Chevy Chase-based JBG Companies, is a protest against the bidding process. The city selected Bethesda-based Marriott several years ago to develop the hotel, but when financing grew scarce, increased the public subsidy before the deal was finalized last summer.

Wardman Investor claims the D.C. Council acted illegally by negotiating exclusively with Marriott, granting the firm "extraordinarily favorable terms," including not only the subsidy but also a 99-year lease on a city-owned site, with no payments during construction or the first three years of operation. Marriott would run the hotel, which would be built by Quadrangle Development and Capstone Development.

The suit seeks to halt construction and require that the city solicit new bids for the project. When the city initially opened the competition, JBG did not bid, but managing partner Ben Jacobs said the developer "would have been an obvious contender" if the original bidding process had included the new terms negotiated with Marriott.

*After all, Disney had just purchased 15 acres near National Harbor, igniting new questions about whether P.G. county's own hotel mecca was eating up hospitality profits that could be going to D.C.

Image by Kjarrett, Flickr Creative Commons Attribution License

The new year is upon us. December's copious top ten roundups are beginning to dwindle. Now, it's time to bring on the lists of hopes, dreams and expectations for 2010!

Benny L. Kass, a real estate columnist for the Washington Post, wrote his own piece entitled "What the new year and new decade will hold for housing market" this weekend. Among the highlights (if you could call them that...):

• More government paperwork: This year, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Reserve are requiring new forms. "New rules that went into effect Jan. 1 require that within three business days of receiving a loan application, mortgage lenders provide potential borrowers a Good Faith Estimate that clearly discloses key loan terms and closing costs."
  
  Also: "HUD has prepared a 49-page booklet, "Shopping for Your Loan," which must be given to borrowers at the same time they are given the GFE." These are good things, Kass knows. He's just concerned that buyers may not actually pay too much attention and heed their warnings.

• A strong buyers market: The government's homebuyer credits are helping the market. But in many desirable neighborhoods in D.C., finding the property you want—at the price you want—won't be a cinch. (See this week's edition of City Paper, coming out on Thursday, for more on that topic by the way.)

• More foreclosures, especially for commercial properties: "Foreclosures will continue, though not at the same magnitude of the past two years," writes Kass. "The housing market is rebounding, but a growing crisis is on the horizon for commercial properties. If landlords, big and small, lose their properties, how will this affect the rest of us? That is a question yet to be answered."

Image by Mr. T in DC Flickr Creative Commons Attribution License

So I actually published this blog post for the first time almost exactly a week ago.*  People clearly need the message again now: You must shovel your sidewalk.  You're law-bound. But more importantly you're bound by a hovering societal anxiety that, at any point, someone could slip on your snow-covered sidewalk and sue you.

Last week, the Washington Post's Benny Kass addressed the question: Can I be held accountable if someone falls in front of my house?

The response—as often is the case with questions of law—is maybe.

*Or well, most of it. Significant chunks.

First off, D.C. homeowners are expected to shovel sidewalks in front of their houses. "The District requires homeowners to 'remove and clear away' the snow and sleet from their front sidewalks 'within the first eight hours of daylight after the ceasing to fall of any snow or sleet,'" according to Kass.

And what if you don't, and someone ends up with a broken hip a few feet from your front door? "Negligence is another matter," Kass writes. Here's more:

"If a homeowner has made the sidewalk more hazardous by creating ice bumps or has let the snow and ice sit for days after a storm ends, that homeowner may be liable for injuries sustained by a pedestrian.

In the District, the law is evolving. Although the D.C. Court of Appeals has never specifically ruled that a homeowner will be held liable for making the sidewalk more hazardous, a recent Superior Court case has opened the door for such a ruling. Judge Neal Kravitz, in a case decided Aug. 7, held that because the plaintiff alleged negligence on the part of the homeowner, the case would not be dismissed and would go forward for a jury trial.

Bottom line, the plaintiff will have to "prove that the property owner knew (or should have known) that the storm created a dangerous condition and that the owner was negligent."

Image by Grantsview, Flickr Creative Commons Attribution License

Personally, I would never sue someone if I slipped on ice in front of their home. I don't know anyone that would do such a thing. Certainly, not my family members.  And my co-workers don't appear to be very litigious people.

But as we're all aware, some people out there don't mind lawyering up at, say, the drop of an ass cheek on an icy patch of concrete.  And because of their threat, we must endure questions like the one the Washington Post's Benny Kass answered this weekend: Can I be held accountable if someone falls in front of my house?

The answer—as often is the case with questions of law—is maybe. First off, D.C. homeowners are expected to shovel sidewalks in front of their houses. "The District requires homeowners to 'remove and clear away' the snow and sleet from their front sidewalks 'within the first eight hours of daylight after the ceasing to fall of any snow or sleet,'" according to Kass.

And what if you don't, and someone ends up with a broken hip a few feet from your front door? "Negligence is another matter," Kass writes. Here's more:

"If a homeowner has made the sidewalk more hazardous by creating ice bumps or has let the snow and ice sit for days after a storm ends, that homeowner may be liable for injuries sustained by a pedestrian.

In the District, the law is evolving. Although the D.C. Court of Appeals has never specifically ruled that a homeowner will be held liable for making the sidewalk more hazardous, a recent Superior Court case has opened the door for such a ruling. Judge Neal Kravitz, in a case decided Aug. 7, held that because the plaintiff alleged negligence on the part of the homeowner, the case would not be dismissed and would go forward for a jury trial.

Bottom line, the plaintiff will have to "prove that the property owner knew (or should have known) that the storm created a dangerous condition and that the owner was negligent." So don't worry about what happens when you're out of town over Christmas.

Image by Grantsview, Flickr Creative Commons Attribution License

A little over a year ago, I wrote about Founding Farmers, a new downtown restaurant owned by the North Dakota Farmers Union.

The place billed itself as supporting local agriculture and using meat and seafood from producers that followed conscientious, sustainable practices.  Founding Farmers intrigued me because, at the time, it was striving to become the first LEED-certified restaurant. "We think it will arrive in one to two weeks,”  General Manager Christian Holmes told me at the time. “It was one of those things that was supposed to be here a month ago.”

According to this morning's Washington Post, Founding Farmers did eventually receive its official LEED certification. But its food is now in question. The Post's Jane Black points out that the "sustainable" salmon recently on the menu came from "one of the largest salmon farms in North America." Likewise, some of the restaurant's early meats were from the Harris Ranch of California, which drew the attention of no less than food writer Michael Pollan, who questioned the farm's concept of sustainability.

Black's article presents no challenge to the restaurant's green building practices, in fact her colleague, food critic Tom Sietsema, derided the place's cuisine, while praising its LEED certification in his review of Founding Farmers.

But all this controversy presents an interesting question: Maybe it's easier to "go green" in your building materials and waste removal practices than in your food production? Both seem challenging. But food procurement changes every day—whereas some of the LEED practices seem rather consistent, albeit annoyingly complicated.

As I wrote last year, here are some more ways the restaurant has worked toward LEED certification:

• All raw food materials are separated into different bins, which are picked up by a composting company.
• All cooking oils used in fryers are picked up by a local limo/taxi company that uses bioethenol fuel to power a couple of their limos.
• Recovered floorboards and barnboards from various farmhouses and farms throughout Maryland and Pennsylvania.
• High pressure hand dryers. No extra paper waste.

Image by adactio, Flickr Creative Commons Attribution License.

"About $2.4 million will put people who lost their jobs and homes into housing. DHS has set aside more than $1.9 million for rental subsidies that can continue for nearly two years.

An additional $1 million has been allocated for families at risk of losing their homes — $750,000 for past-due rent; $50,000 to help with overdue water, sewage, garbage collection, heat and electricity bills; and $240,000 for use for the first month's rent and security deposit on rental housing. Families are eligible for up to $6,500 in assistance related to homelessness prevention, while individuals can receive up to $5,000, according to a statement from the city.

DHS has $1.4 million more to pay caseworkers and other staff to ensure that families accepted into the program remain in housing with services and counseling. Housing Counseling Services will receive $80,000 to help families in their search for housing."

For the last two weeks, I've been receiving press releases from the American Community Properties Trust about its uber energy-efficient, humongous planned development that will completely revitalize  St. Charles Maryland—located "only 22 miles from the White House," as one announcement stated.

What were they talking about exactly? "An international model of how to design and build an economically vibrant and environmentally sustainable community...When complete, the community will include nearly 25,000 homes and nine million square feet of industrial, commercial and retail space."

Well, I can't say I took the very un-green approach of temporarily acquiring a car and driving down to St. Charles myself. But there was a press conference about the development this morning, and the Washington Post has also just published a piece about the plan, which includes this delightful little morsel:

"What we're trying to do is reinvent the balance of the community," said Steve Griessel,  chief executive of the American Community Properties Trust. "When the green thing first started, people said, 'We're going to put green icing on the cake.' We want to build the thing from the ground up as a green cake."

Oh I was so close to writing a headline something along the lines of "Building Things from the Ground Up as a Green Cake."

Eye-catching! But I abstained.

Anyway, the project does look like a massive undertaking, which will apparently double St. Charles' current size, and ultimately create 20,000 green jobs:

Griessel outlined a plan that will include:

• Dedicating the balance of 4,000 acres of fully entitled land zoned for 11,000 new homes and over 5 million square feet of commercial, schools and community centers to be a smart green and growing community.

• Undertaking a massive retrofitting program for the existing businesses and nearly 40,000 residents to enhance energy and water efficiency.

• Designing and building desirable, quality homes, apartments and commercial buildings that cost less and perform better

• Making St. Charles an international living laboratory for new technologies, products and services and share the results of programs with the world

• Working with universities and colleges to create a green campus, research and development park, and incubator

• Building the largest combination of clean energy infrastructure in the United States, including a 640 megawatt natural gas powered power plant, a 75-acre solar farm generating 10 megawatts, geothermal well fields for heating and cooling buildings, and a biomass gasification technology plant potentially incorporating methane from the Charles County landfill to produce additional renewable electricity

Image by Fabio Ikezaki, Flickr Creative Commons

In case you haven't spotted the news over at City Desk (or every other outlet covering D.C.), I thought I should mention D.C.'s biggest, late-breaking news this afternoon: Abe Pollin, developer extraordinaire, sports team owner, and philanthropist, has passed away.

He suffered from  corticobasal degeneration, according to the Washington Post.

Among his many accomplishments, Pollin developed the Verizon Center "risk(ing) much of his fortune to build the arena in a neglected D.C. neighborhood, [which] has spearheaded a revitalization of downtown Washington since its opening in 1997," as the Associated Press reports. Pollin also owned the Washington Wizards, now part of the holdings of his company Washington Sports and Entertainment, and he previously owned and sold the Washington Capitals and the Washington Mystics.

City Paper's Mike DeBonis has collected numerous statements from councilmembers and others mourning his passing over here.