Arbitrary Rankings

Ronald Brown Middle School has been sharing space with Village Academy, a private school, due to underenrollment; Merritt Middle School is slated for closure, as is H.D. Woodson High School. Hailed as the “Tower of Power” when it opened in 1972, Woodson has fallen into severe disrepair (“End of an Error,” 2/22/2008). It has a date with the wrecking ball this summer.

If you don’t mind enormous complexes, Lotus Square Apartments on Kenilworth Avenue NE is renting two-bedrooms for $1,329. McMansions pop up even here—a 3-floor, 9-bedroom, 7-bath jobber on Sheriff Road is available for $575,000. More typical is a 2-bedroom, 2-bath home on 56th Street NE. Built in 1945, it’ll run you a mere $245,000, though the listing includes those three ominous words: “sold as is.”

There’s a smattering of fast-food and carryout joints, but nothing that merits a trip.

Beer, gas, and keys. If you need more, I-295 isn’t far away.

Church and school events carry much of the entertainment load around here.

What Affordia lacks in amenities it makes up for with folks with deep roots who mind their neighbors. “People come here looking for affordability,” says Sylvia Brown, president of the Deanwood Citizens Association “But they’re also looking for that small-town neighborhood feel, where they can call Miss Maggie up the street and she’ll look out for you while you’re on vacation.”

Affordia in the City Paper Archives

Chairman of the Boards

Overkill
Officer Kristopher Payne piled up some big numbers as a D.C. cop: hundreds of arrests, dozens of guns captured, and multiple convictions. He also had five citizen complaints, three civil suits, and two contested shootings.

Burned Out
Man vs. neighbor. Man vs. car. Man vs. thief. Man vs. fire.

The River Wild
Litter is the least of it at a Northeast stream park.

Swamp Thing
An angry Northeast neighborhood drags Habitat for Humanity into a morass.