Good morning, Washington. Well, this is it: the holidays are finally, tragically over. You're once again sitting at your desk. And now we begin the slow, terrible death march toward spring, with only brief, inadequate celebrations of Presidents' and MLK Day to sustain us. Stay strong, D.C. — we'll get through this. Can You Hear Me Now? Hello? Hello?: The ball dropped, the phones came out and... nothing. "Y2K8 Bug" doesn't sound very catchy,......

Good morning, Washington. Not too upset about the coming Metro fare hike, are we? WJLA is reporting that only four people showed up to last night's hearing on the measure. Of course, the meeting was held way out in Reston and was only the first of six opportunities that Metro riders will have to voice their opinion on the price increase. Maybe you're just biding your time. Tax Scandal Grows Even Bigger: This is......

Whether we like to admit it or not, most of us are Monday morning quarterbacks when it comes to local government. Whenever the District's government does something foolish, many of us are quick to assume that we could do better. Well, now we have a chance to prove it. During last year's mayoral campaign, the D.C. Appleseed Center ran a campaign soliciting resident input into the city's most pressing problems. From the 1,500 submissions they......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

Yes, you heard it here first -- the District's pro soccer team might be moving out to Loudoun County. Or Baltimore. Anywhere but here. Why? The stadium, of course. D.C. United had long ago requested the rights to build a stadium at Poplar Point, an unused stretch of federal land along the Anacostia River. But, unlike the publicly financed $611-million baseball stadium it would sit across from, D.C. United owner Victor A. MacFarlane promised to......

Good morning, D.C. There's no denying it's hot enough to cause real discomfort, but is it too hot to reasonably believe that two young girls willingly got inside the closed trunk of their father's car to play? That is one of the questions before a Massachusetts judge in the case of a D.C. man who pleaded not guilty yesterday to reckless endangerment and assault charges after police responded to a neighbor who spotted the two......

Welcome back to work, Washington. This week promises not only to feel longer than normal thanks to its coming on the heels of a holiday, but also hot enough that you might want to consider setting up an ad-hoc shower in your office, as there's little chance you'll get there without breaking into a sweat first. The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments has issued a Code Orange alert because of the heat wave, and......

Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. Over the past few weeks, events have conspired to place race squarely at the center of the debate over public education in the District of Columbia. After appointing Michelle Rhee the first ever Chancellor of District Schools, Mayor Fenty found himself faced with a barrage of criticism and innuendo from the Washington Post drawing attention to the fact that she was not......

“Before there was Harlem, there was U Street,” and before there was national Prohibition, there was the Sheppard Act. Passed by a Congress intent on making the District of Columbia a beacon of temperance for the saloon-soaked nation, the Sheppard Act closed Washington’s four breweries and nearly three hundred licensed liquor establishments on November 1, 1917—two years before it outlawed the sale of alcohol in the rest of the country. Congressman Morris Sheppard successfully had......

Welcome to June, Washington. Also welcome to the end, at last, of your short post-holiday work week. We do hope it wasn't too painful. Even if it was, the good news is that it's going to be relatively pleasant, if a touch on the hot and humid side, most of the weekend. So spend some time sitting on your front stoop sipping iced tea. Just remember to slather on the sunblock, and of course, invite......

Add one more local film festival to your list of events to watch out for in the coming year. Yachad, a Jewish non-profit devoted to affordable housing development and maintenance in Washington, D.C., is starting up the new Our City Film Festival, a one-day event to be held at Busboys and Poets on Feb. 3, 2008. The festival's focus will be to showcase films set in or about Washington, D.C., with particular attention paid to......

Via City Desk, the excellent homeless publication Street Sense scooped everyone on a big story about the potential closing of the District's largest family shelter, D.C. Village Family Emergency Shelter in southwest Washington. Under a new city proposal, the shelter could close sometime this fall, to be replaced by a bus operations center for WMATA in advance of the opening of the new Nationals stadium. From Street Sense: ...more than 350 ... people - mothers,......

It's going to be 73 degrees today Washington, and we can hardly think straight for the giddyness associated with the possibility that it's time to put our winter coats away. But don't worry, we're not too drunk with sunshine to forget that Sweet 16 action in the NCAA mens basketball tournament starts today -- so don't forget to check in on your standings in the DCist pool. The only problem of course being the......

One of yesterday's major stories was the release of a new study indicating that about one-third of adults in Washington, D.C. are functionally illiterate. Wikipedia actually has a decent definition of functional illiteracy: "the inability of an individual to use reading, writing, and computational skills efficiently in everyday life situations." In other words, a person may be able to read somewhat, but nowhere near well enough to hold down a job. The reality of the......

Boy howdy, yesterday sure was quite the hootinany over at the D.C. Council, as members scrambled to push their pet bills through before this year's session finally, finally comes to a close. Here's a quick rundown of what went on, gleaned from the WaPo and Examiner: >> We told you this was in the works before, but the council finally did pass a nice pay raise for themselves and incoming Mayor Adrian Fenty. From the......

When we think of affordable housing in the region, we usually envision huge apartment buildings, such as those marching up 7th Street north of the Convention Center. Or we’ll think of the varying percentages of affordable units promised in the multitudes of luxury condo developments popping up all over our city, and often not delivered in the final construction. For the next several weekends in Silver Spring, you can get a close-up look at a......

Let's take a look back at a week that raised this Zen koan: if Kevin Federline got into a wrestling ring with a wrestler, who would you root for? Austinist was in an entertainment state of mind as they covered the dickens out of the Austin Film Festival, depicted all the Big 12 football coaches as South Park characters, and interviewed Jose Gonzalez. Chicagoist talked about the passion as they bid adieu to Bell's Beer,......

As Columbia Heights, Logan Circle, Shaw, and U Street have become the hottest neighborhoods in town, we've spent more than our share of time discussing the unintended effects of economic growth and a red-hot housing market. Gentrification has been the District's dirty word in recent years, so much so that the recent mayoral campaign was focused on how best to mitigate its impacts. Candidates debated how to keep the city's low-income residents from being displaced,......

This morning, the Post reminds us that in cities, as in everything, there's no such thing as a free lunch. The paper covers a new study from the Center for Housing Policy today, which finds that the advantages of cheaper suburban housing are quickly offset by the expense of longer commutes. The report goes on to note that even so, there is no question of living near the central city for lower income residents;......

It was on April 27, 2005, that we took our first of many stabs at the District mayoral race. And it's tomorrow, some sixteen months after we first tried to guess who would throw their hats in the ring, that voters will finally have their say. Voters in the District and Maryland go to the polls tomorrow to vote in primaries for everything from senators to council-members to ANC representatives, with more than 800 candidates......

Debating Where to Debate: It was big news a few weeks back when Marie Johns challenged Adrian Fenty to a duel...errr...debate during a phone call she placed to a radio show Fenty was guesting on. The ambitious one-on-one challenge by Johns was set for August 12 at high noon...errr...9 a.m. But WTOP is reporting today that both Fenty and Johns may end up debating themselves, because they can't seemingly agree on a location for their......

The District has changed dramatically over the last few years, spurred in part by policies implemented by D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams. But what was once considered a trend that would help lift all boats is now seen as doing just the opposite, writes the Post. According to a poll they conducted, some 61 percent of voters see the city's many development projects as "mainly bad" for the poor, a dramatic shift from a similar poll......

Whenever a community sees a spike in crime, politicians tend to rush towards solutions that look good on paper but are thin in substance. Such might be the path taken by D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams in legislation recently proposed to fight the jump in violent crime in the District. According to the Post, Williams has convinced the D.C. Council -- now on recess until September -- to consider two proposals that, he claims, would serve......

This morning we asked you all what about the city scares you most? Despite my lack of specificity, the vast majority of you chose "That dunderhead in the White House." Next came crime, the issue of the day, followed by affordable housing. Happily, an even number of folks complained of loneliness, so if you'll all kindly send me your email addresses, we'll arrange 23 blind dates.......

We're a bit late on discussing this, because yours truly was on the left coast last week when the news came out, but considering the potential impact of the issue, we're posting late, rather than never. The Armed Forces Retirement Home made news earlier this year after announcing plans to develop a portion of its large Northwest property. The news was greeted with excitement by many, but neighbors of the property, particularly on the western,......

Yesterday D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams laid bare his opinion on what type of parking facility he'd like to see around the new stadium in Southeast: "I strongly believe that it’s in the best long-term interest of the District to put these parking spaces underground, not above-ground as is frequently done in the suburbs,” said Mayor Williams. “It will serve the ballpark as well as the surrounding community for us to place this parking garage below......

From a Post article on a mayoral forum yesterday, sponsored by the Washington Interfaith Network: Each candidate was asked to respond to three questions: Would they dedicate an additional $500 million to neighborhoods, $350 million to youth services and at least $117 million a year for affordable housing? Their answers -- an unbroken string of yeses -- were recorded in foot-high letters on a big, white board.And the following: "Others have come before us, and......

Instead of just my coat rack greeting me last week, I had a letter from Borger Management, the company that manages my apartment building and dozens of others in the District. Usually, the only things that are slipped under my door are package pick-up notices and take-out menus, so I was suspicious. In a craftily-worded letter, the company gave a full-out endorsement of the D.C. City Council's possible elimination of the current rent ceiling......

Should we just call the election now? Probably not. But Linda Cropp walked away with a small, symbolic victory yesterday, emerging the leader of a straw poll sponsored by the Ward 6 Democrats. Cropp walked away with 42 percent of the 203 votes, trailed by Marie Johns, who took in 21 percent and Adrian Fenty who received 17 percent. Michael Brown and Vincent Orange trailed behind, with 7 and 4 percent of the votes, respectively.......

Crime, education and affordable housing. Ask a candidate for public office in the District what their campaigns are focusing on, and chances are that they'll spit out any combination of the three issues listed above. And while there is little doubt that many residents are concerned about crime, education and affordable housing, few of us really know what matters most to whom and why. The D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice is looking......