One of our favorite new Tumblrs, Petworthies, noticed that searching for Petworth on Google Maps directs users to a singular address: a "humble example of the Wardman-style row home" located at 4161 9th Street NW. This got us to thinking: where, exactly, does Google Maps peg the location of every other neighborhood in the city? more ›

A neighborhood's name is part of its identity. Adoption of it, or aversion to it, can say a lot about where a place is going -- and where it came from. Today, we’ll look at the genesis of "Adams Morgan." more ›

Yesterday's 40th anniversary celebration of Fiesta DC in Mt. Pleasant was either a raucous and colorful celebration of the District's Latino heritage or a complete breakdown of the neighborhood's otherwise peaceful veneer. It just depends on who you ask. more ›

Nightlife impresario Joe Englert may already own a good chunk of the bars on H Street NE, but he's still working to brand an area that has about as many identities as it does places to get a beer. more ›

It's fall, and that can only mean one thing for the District -- it's time for street festivals. more ›

Yesterday afternoon, the D.C. Council gave preliminary approval to a revised redistricting plan after a pair of high-profile amendments to the plan failed to garner the votes needed to enact changes. more ›

According to several media reports, a revision of the D.C. Council's redistricting plan will make some rather large changes from the previous version. more ›

The beginning of May not only means the start of the city's crackdown on littering, but it also brings about the return of the city's regulations regarding lawn work. As usual, the District's Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs will be keeping an eye out for property owners who let their lawns get out of control starting this Sunday. more ›

This editor had been hearing rumblings that Quan Chu, the elderly man who died on Tuesday after he was struck by a bicyclist in an alley near the Convention Center in late November, was a figure many were familiar with. According to some who live in the neighborhood, Chu had been a fixture for years on the streets of Chinatown who -- along with his wife -- was one of the few remaining fixtures remaining from the era before Chinatown developed into the entertainment district it is today. more ›

Washington is no stranger to unique, strange and/or experimental neighborhood names: Swampoodle, Burleith, Foggy Bottom, Stronghold and Civic Betterment have always tickled my fancy for one reason or another. Point being: it's hardly surprising when somebody comes along with a suggestion to carve out a new neighborhood from one or several larger hoods and then brands it with a silly-sounding name. more ›

If you missed it, the District's Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs has updated its regulations regarding vacant buildings inside the city. As of October 1, there are two new tax brackets for properties which are classified as vacant and/or blighted -- the former will be charged $5 per $100 of assessed value, while the latter will be charged $10 per $100 of assessed value. Those are some fairly stiff penalties for an issue which is often a recurring issue in several neighborhoods. more ›

Name the most dangerous neighborhood in the District. Go ahead. Did you come up with "L Street SE"? Yeah, neither did we. more ›

This morning, the Washington City Paper (in association with The Kojo Nnamdi Show) released what they are dubbing the "The Coolest Political Poll D.C.'s Ever Seen." It's hard to argue that claim. Sure, there's a lot of the stock mayoral polling conclusions in the numbers: young, white transplants who think that the city has gotten better over the last four years tend to skew Fenty; older, more entrenched residents who are aching for a change go for Gray. But kudos to the City Paper and WAMU for asking Washingtonians the real questions. You know, like whether people who have spent more than $25 at a restaurant in the last thirty days utilized a city swimming pool this summer. (Turns out it's about half and half.) more ›

If you're feeling like you'd like to get more involved in local affairs, but aren't sure how, fear not -- a mere 25 signatures stand between you and a campaign for elected office. more ›

Local blog New Columbia Heights has a reader who noticed something new in the Columbia Heights Metrorail station: a sign which informs people which side of the station to exit on to get to different neighborhoods. The signs, which used to say 14th Street Southbound and Northbound, are an interesting hyper-local touch for Metro. more ›

Obviously, we're fond of recently-passed indie icon Alex Chilton around these parts. Fitting then, that one of Chilton's most well-known stanzas -- "hangin' out / down the street / the same old thing / we did last week" -- so accurately describes some of the delays in H Street NE's evolution into the city's next corridor du jour. more ›

As you might imagine, the plans have already drawn vocal opposition, complete with a dedicated web site, stopthebillboard.org, which argues that the billboards are illegal and would lead to a slippery slope of LED ads across the city. The BizJo also quotes Gallery Place condo owners concerned that their property values will go down once the bright signage is in place. more ›

A fresh coat of paint has been applied to the exterior of the large vacant building at the corner of 9th Street and Rhode Island Ave. NW, taking with it a number of murals that have served as a landmark, of sorts, since about 2002. more ›

We've been getting a kick out of this recent posting to the Columbia Heights email list, decrying the shortsightedness of the recently implemented 5 cent disposable bag tax. Let's say for the sake argument that an average grocery shopping trip fills five bags. The logic here then seems to be that roughly 25 cents is enough to draw the line on spending hundreds of dollars weekly, and that the extra hour of personal time it takes "someone with a 6 figure salary" to drive to and from Maryland is worth less than a quarter. Also: bringing your own bags is impossible, and recycling cardboard is inconceivable.

I discovered something interesting this weekend while shopping at Target: I now will spend less resulting in less taxes collected by the city for my purchases. Why? I refuse to pay the 5 cent per bag tax. So I will only buy what I can carry in my own two hands. I usually spend hundreds of dollars a weekend at Target. Now I spend very little. more ›

A total of 15 people have been displaced by a house fire that broke out just before noon today at 1408 30th Street SE, according to D.C. Fire/EMS spokesperson Pete Piringer. The nine adults, six children and various pets who lived in the detached single-family home in the Fort Dupont neighborhood of Southeast D.C. are unable to return home due to significant smoke and fire damage. Firefighters believe the blaze started in the basement, but the cause of the fire is under investigation, Piringer said. Thankfully, no injuries have been reported. more ›

A house fire in the 3000 block of O Street NW claimed the life of an elderly woman on Friday evening, as the Post reports. Former Nathan's proprietor Carol Joynt has photos and a remembrance up on her web site, noting that few neighbors knew the woman's name even though she had lived on the block for so many years. "It struck us dumb that her home was in the middle of our block, we saw her occasionally, we knew she was elderly, virtually a shut in, seemingly eccentric, but we didn’t know her name, or of her family or anything about her that could help the investigators. It was the saddest component of a catastrophically sad day." more ›

We've written about the sizzling drama inside the Cleveland Park Citizens Association before, and now the Ward3DC blog reports that the "UNITY" slate, headed by longtime resident John Chelen, has been declared the winner of Tuesday's election. Chelen replaces long-serving president George Idelson, the man who was ridiculed by local media earlier this year for accusing new members of CPCA, drawn to join due to the endless bickering over the Wisconsin Ave. Giant grocery store plans, among other development issues, of attempting a coup. Idelson eventually chose not to run again, leaving Jeff Davis and his "Reform" slate to oppose Chelen. more ›

It feels like it was only a couple weeks ago that the District Department of Transportation confirmed that they would be altering the Georgetown Circulator bus route so that it no longer traveled north on Wisconsin Ave. And the official announcement of the change, wasn't that just last week? Yes, and, oh yeah, that's right. But this morning, city officials announced that they have changed their minds, and the current Circulator route will stay intact. more ›

The fountain water flowed as District officials gathered this morning to formally dedicate the completion of the first phase of the new Columbia Heights Plaza, located at the intersection of 14th Street, Park Road and Kenyon Street NW. more ›

There have been three trash receptacle fires in the last four weeks in the same alley behind a section of 3rd Street SE, WJLA reports. A string of fires like that in the same location makes it tough to speculate that a carelessly tossed cigarette butt might be to blame; odds are some pyro is setting the bins ablaze. So far, no buildings have become victims of the flames, but residents over there are understandably a bit freaked that eventually, one of these fires can and will spread. Fire officials are investigating, and asking the public to keep an eye out. Trash can and dumpster fires are no joke, folks. more ›

Some time ago I asked the DCist writing staff to avoid using the term "hipster" whenever possible. It's a word we all hear and say plenty, but I'm never quite sure what different people really mean by it. Is it just someone who wears skinny jeans and Chuck Taylors? Is it people who compost and keep chickens in their urban gardens? Is any man under 35 who has unusual facial hair a hipster? What's the difference between a scenester and hipster? Are you talking about these people? Or these people? Until I figure out some satisfactory answers, I prefer our writers be more specific about what they really mean. Using "hipster" just seems lazy and vague. more ›

After decades of promises but little action, Shiloh Baptist Church in Shaw has decided to sell two of its controversial vacant buildings and use the proceeds to fund a major redevelopment of its remaining properties. more ›

WTOP's Mark Segraves gets the scoop every local reporter has been angling for: exactly where in D.C. does Attorney General Peter Nickles now live? Segraves says it's Chinatown, in an apartment on 7th Street NW. Nickles, a longtime Virginia resident, took his time about complying with District law that states that senior government officials must reside inside the city limits. The attorney general has said that he moved into his new digs on May 5, but refused to disclose where in the city his residence is located. So, Chinatown/Penn Quarter residents, say hello to your new neighbor! more ›

So D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles says he's finally moved into the District from Virginia, as he was required to do under D.C. law after he was confirmed as Fenty's replacement AG. "I have moved. I have a D.C. license plate. I have my picture on a D.C. license. I'm paying D.C. taxes," Nickles said. But he won't say where, exactly, he's living, and it sure sounds like his wife is not really living there, so we're guessing he won't actually be sleeping there all that often. It's not as though we think we ought have the man's home address, but it would at least be nice if he could say which neighborhood, or which ward even, he's moved into. So, DCist readers, if you see Nickles at the grocery store or parking his car in your neck of the woods, be sure to send in word of the sighting to tips@dcist.com. more ›