WTOP's Mark Segraves got a hold of a partial list of the folks who've been receiving tickets to use the city's free luxury box in the Verizon Center -- the one that the D.C. Council is so miffed they're being boxed out of -- and there's some fun tidbits he discovered.Most of those invited to D.C.'s Luxury Suite at the Verizon Center by Fenty either contributed the maximum $2,000 to Fenty's campaign or worked on......

Are you ready, D.C.?! That's right: it's the first snowfall of the season. We talked about it yesterday, and the outlook remains pretty much the same. Both Capital Weather and our local TV weatherpeople agree that we'll get about an inch of unusually fluffy snow, with most of it falling by early afternoon. City Starts Looking For More Theft: Watch out, D.C. government ne'er-do-wells: Dan Tangherlini is on your trail. NBC4 reports that the......

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......

Good morning, Washington. We always thought it might be sort of fun to suggest something totally off the wall about President Bush, like that he might, oh, hate your children and want them to die sick and alone. Now that he's gone ahead and confirmed it, it's hard to know where to go from here. Is there anything worse than sick and dying children? How about, President Bush is in league with the devil? While......

Good morning, Washington. It's only the end of September, but if drug store candy aisles are any indication, many of you are probably already thinking ahead just a little bit to the holiday season. What will you be for Halloween? Will you stay in town for Thanksgiving? What kind of Christmas bonus will you be getting this year? For some D.C. government employees, the answer to that last question is now up in the air.......

UPDATE: The Metro Board has put the proposed fare hikes on hold, saying they would like more details about the proposals before they would approve public hearings. They voted to hold a special informational committee meeting on Sept. 27. More than a year ago, then interim Metro Chief Dan Tangherlini began uttering those two little words no transit rider likes to hear: fare increase. At the time though, our favorite transit official was reassuring......

If you've ever wondered how D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton keeps fired up, it's not just the indignity of being denied full voting privileges in the House -- it's race-walking and low-calorie smoothies. According to an article published yesterday in The Hill, Norton does her best to stay in shape, exercising and eating well to ensure that she never goes soft on anti-voting rights Republicans: On weekends, or days when she has more free time,......

Several hundred citizens turned out on Monday evening in support of the effort to quickly rebuild Eastern Market, and to share their feelings on a temporary location for the displaced vendors. Mayor Adrian Fenty, At-large council members David Catania and Phil Mendelson, Ward 6 council member Tommy Wells, city administrator Dan Tangherlini, and District 3 School Board member Lisa Raymond turned out to show their support too, as well as to canvass the opinions of......

Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. Except for the last two weeks, when he was on vacation. Amid the cascade of (welcome) local news stories chronicling the growing momentum for District voting rights, one tangential piece in the Post, a Saturday essay from staff writer Philip Kennicott, stuck out to me. My attention was assured, specifically, when I read the following passage concerning a symposium which took place......

As we mentioned earlier this week, sometimes we don't envy Washington's urban planners. Their challenges often encompass issues as varied and complicated as economic development, land use planning, sustainability, design and social justice. Add to that the design politics associated with the symbolism invested in the nation's capital, and planning for D.C. becomes a unique urban problem to tackle. Not that it stops us from trying. Yesterday, the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission......

Yesterday Mayor Fenty made his way to the far north end of the city with plans to demolish a brand new home. Why would the mayor and neighbors invite the media to see the shiny, $1.5 million building dismantled piece by piece? The answer lies in an almost farcical gaffe on the part of city officials and the federal government's control over lands in the District. We've mentioned it briefly before, but the full story......

Whether we make the mental connections or not, everything about our city is interrelated: • The health of the Anacostia and Potomac watersheds is directly affected by runoff from roads; • Our roads are designed and routed to ease our daily commute to get to and from jobs created by regional economic growth policy; • Growth is dependent on a reliable and expanding base of skilled workers; • Workers attracted by lively mixes of shops,......

Just when you thought the District's public schools were facing enough hurdles these days. The Examiner reports that most of the Ward 3 public schools were without telephone service yesterday, in what appears to have been an error on the part of DCPS. The outages ocurred after DCPS gave the District’s Office of Finance a list of phone numbers they supposedly weren't using anymore. The disconnects began March 8 under the city’s Zero Usage Project,......

While the new stadium for the Washington Nationals slowly rises from the ground, city officials gathered yesterday to break ground on the renovations slated for the Navy Yard Metro station. The station, which can currently handle 5,000 passengers an hour, will undergo a series of changes to allow for an additional 10,000 passengers an hour to flow through on game days. Everything seems to be coming together for the new stadium, right? Well, not really.......

Buck up, D.C. Of course we're all still reeling from the Justin Timberlake-Cameron Diaz split confirmation, but there's plenty to be cheerful about this Friday before a holiday weekend (especially one that's shaping up to at least be mild temperature wise, if rainy). Why, even a few of this morning's headlines seem downright cheery. New Taxi Zone Map in the Works: Even while the new District government is considering making the switch from zones to......

This year has proved to be quite a ride for D.C.'s commuters, travelers, and residents. There were highs: record ridership, the Yellow Line extension (scheduled for Saturday!), the rollout of NextBus, Tangherlini's arrival. There were lows: MetroAccess troubles, worker fatalities, Virginia politicians, Tangherlini's departure. And of course, there was more traffic. Heading into 2007, we're looking forward to having a big debate over closing Metro's budget shortfall. We're excited to watch Metro's new chief......

Accusations of mismanagement and incompetence at Metro are nothing new. The Post ran a special series detailing Metro's internal challenges last summer, and most recently, more than a few Virginia delegates used Metro's alleged management lapses to justify their votes against funding the system. At this point, Metro must take it as given that any proposed changes in service or rates will be followed by a calls for reform of internal mismanagement at the transit......

Happy day before Thanksgiving, everyone. The holiday weekend isn't getting off to the most auspicious start here at DCist, since our browser keeps crashing before we get a chance to save our work, thus the lateness of the usual morning roundup. But really we feel worse for those of you about to head out of town today, whether by car, plane, bus or train, everyone seems to be predicting the worst holiday travel day in......

The sad reality of Dan Tangherlini's departure from the helm of Metro has long since set in, and we have shifted from transit-geek depression to equally geeky curiosity over his potential replacement. As was reported on Tuesday and confirmed on Wednesday, D.C. native John Catoe Jr., currently second in command at the L.A. Metropolitan Transit Authority, has been asked to come home and run the trains and buses here in Capital City. The Post and......

Batten down the hatches, Washington. Proving that no good spell of weather goes unpunished, we've now got some major storms headed our way. Two separate storm lines, to be precise, are barreling down on the metro area as we speak, the first having just begun, and the second, more powerful system, expected between noon and 5 p.m. With winds at 30 mph, we'd suggest upgrading your umbrella to something more than cheap and crappy. District......

Morning, Washington. First things first: how freaking awesome was that field goal? Second, how wonderful was the gorgeous fall weather we had all weekend? Hope you all got out to enjoy the colors of the trees a bit -- 25,000 of which Mayor Williams has planted since he first took office eight years ago. This past Sunday, the city's biggest tree was honored (which begs the question of how one honors a tree, exactly).......

The bride was beautiful, with a red line-appropriate bouquet; and the groom looked as handsome as Dan Tangherlini. Do you think they tied cans to the back of the train? Anyway, best wishes to the happy, carbon-conscious couple. And thanks to ohdebbieo for posting this shot to our photo pool.......

Well, as we mentioned Tuesday in the Morning Roundup, it's official: Dan Tangherlini, patron saint of all things Metro, has removed his name from the list of candidates for WMATA's top job. Presumed mayor-elect Adrian Fenty mentioned Tangherlini's name as a candidate for city administrator back in September, and at a press event Monday, the two officially declared their partnership. Assuming Fenty wins the November general election, Tangherlini will serve as his City Administrator,......

What a beautiful weekend, eh? Except for a bit of rain on Saturday, the weather was, if I may say so myself without sounding like my grandmother, delightful. We hope you got out during it, as the city played host to a number of activities - the National Book Festival, Crafty Bastards, and a bit outside of town, the continuation of the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Which I went to, mainly to gawk at the......

When we found out earlier this year that Richard White, WMATA's troubled general manager, would be replaced by District Department of Transportation Director Dan Tangherlini, we were happy. Tangherlini had long been known for being approachable and affable, a young and ambitious civil servant dedicated to improving service and quality in his day-to-day functions. Those qualities translated quickly into his work at Metro, where he visited with the rank and file, encouraged riders to offer......

So far this week in transit we've posted on some big stories, including the "official" (but not really) groundbreaking for the Inter-County Connector and a possible answer to the age old question, "How many Metro employees does it take to screw in a light bulb?" Not much else in transit news this week, however, we would be remiss not to include one important item: Metro Chief Dan Tangherlini will be hosting a Live Chat tomorrow,......

Metro has always been on the search for more and more money. The transit agency is invariably described as "cash-strapped" by local media outlets (this one included), and rare is a year that Metro officials don't beg the District, Maryland, and Virginia for just a little bit more to cover everything from operating costs to capital improvements. Given that getting more money is always a fight, how can Metro seek to better spend what it......

Parents Question Schools Lockdown: Well, it seems like we weren't the only ones questioning the lockdown of the District's public schools last Friday during a gunfire scare at a House office building. WTOP is reporting that some parents are asking why the entire school system was locked down, instead of school in the immediate area of the U.S. Capitol. Metro Plans to Improve Lighting in Stations: Though the low lighting at many underground Metro......

We've seen this coming for some time, but it seems that Dan Tangherlini is finally going to get serious about getting rid of Metro's cushions and carpet. The Post notes, this morning, that vinyl floors will be tested this summer, but only in one pair of cars. Lots of interesting asides in the piece; I was not aware that the cushion and carpet "luxuries" were added to draw suburbanites out of their cars (thank goodness......

It was quite a week for baseball here in the District. MLB finally granted the Nationals an owner, but the Lerner group will certainly have its work cut out for it. Emboldened by the culmination of their baseball dreams, some city officials might next try to bring home the Redskins. Owner or no, the battle to get Nats games televised continues. This week, we announced our next big musical event, and we bid farewell......