The District opened its newest public park Saturday morning at Seventh and N streets NW. For the ribbon-cutting, Mayor Vince Gray and members of the Shaw community were joined by McGruff. more ›

What should our parks look like in the future? The National Capital Planning Commission is holding a panel tonight on potential ideas to resuscitate the National Mall. more ›

According to a report by the Trust for Public Land, New York City leads the country in terms of parkland as a percentage of city area, coming in at 38,000 acres, or 19.5 percent of the city's land. The District, though, is a close second, with 7,400 acres, or 19 percent of our land. Arlington squeezed into the top 10 with 1,800 acres, or 11.4 percent. more ›

While other cities around the country have been dealing with mass arrests, evictions and pooping in connection to the Occupy movement, the biggest thing to come between the District and her occupiers so far has been making sure demonstrators don't ruin the greenery in McPherson Square. more ›

You know, if you polled this editor and as to what the next big D.C. government scandal would be centered on, a landscaping contract wouldn't have been near the top of the list. But, alas, here we are. more ›

There are quite a few words, many of them fiery, being uttered about the National Mall these days. What better time, then, to dive into some historical maps which document the space? more ›

Starting later this year, D.C. parks, pools and recreation centers will be able to accept corporate sponsorship and ads. Today, we got a sense of what that might actually look like in practice. more ›

Despite public outrage with the reasoning, Council Chair Kwame Brown's decision to reassign Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) off the Council's Committee and Public Works and Transportation passed by a 12-1 vote this afternoon. Wells was the lone objector. more ›

Kelly DiNardo, the owner of Past Tense yoga studio in Mt. Pleasant, had planned to offer a free yoga class to her clientele inside nearby Lamont Park while her almost-two-years-old studio is closed for repainting -- problem is, she can't afford it. more ›

The District Department of Parks and Recreation will convene a meeting this evening to discuss renovations to the park at 11th and Monroe Streets NW, sometimes known as Trolley Turnaround Park. more ›

Capitol One Randall Pool. Chevron Recreation Center at Marie Reed. Purina® ALPO® S Street Dog Park. Sounds foolish, right? Maybe, but under a provision of the 2012 D.C. budget passed on a first vote by the D.C. Council, branded parks, pools and recreation centers may soon be a reality. more ›

Last October, we posted about the site where Bruce Monroe Elementary School once stood, highlighting the messy debate which had surfaced after the school was controversially demolished. In short: the community has been using the site as a park, but the city's redevelopment RFP produced a single bid proposing two options -- one a mixed-use development with a organic supermarket, a restaurant, a hardware store, apartments and town homes; the other, the option to rebuild the school with, perhaps, some housing on the side. more ›

Oh, our Managing Editor will not be pleased: a tipster points us to this Solar Novus Today report, which states that the 2011 Solar Decathalon -- the biennial U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored gathering of collegiate designers and engineers from around the world to show off brilliant, energy-efficient homes -- will not take place on the National Mall. Why? The event is apparently "impacting" the Mall's "long-term health." more ›

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty presided over the opening of a fabulously-appointed new dog park at 17th and S Streets NW yesterday (along with a refurbished park for all living things at 17th and T, but the focus was clearly on the pooches' new playground). As theses photographs illustrate, the park features a hill-shaped, artificial grass surface and a water fountain designed specifically for dogs. more ›

On Tuesday, the Post's D.C. Wire blog reported that Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham's proposal to name the recently renovated park at 14th and Girard Streets NW "Barack Hussein Obama Park," wasn't allowed under D.C. law, which prohibits the city from naming things after people who are still alive. Not so, according to Graham. He wrote in an email to constituents today:

While the Washington Post accurately quoted law, it did not accurately state the legal situation. For years, the Council has been naming "public spaces" after living persons. The Council in the last year "renamed" roadways to honor Kathy Hughes and Chuck Brown. One of my first acts as a Councilmember in 1999 was to successfully sponsor a bill naming the alley next to Ben's Chili Bowl "Ben Ali Way" to honor the restaurant's founders. All these folks are happily still with us! There are other examples. more ›

An anonymous reader sent DCist a series of photos of a D.C. Department of Public Works garbage truck driving through a recreation field in Rose Park in Georgetown last Saturday. The tipster described the truck as having hopped the curb to gain access to the "grass of a children's play area" in the park, and wondered whether this was safe. No one was injured, but a baby carriage in the foreground of the images certainly drives the point home: should city garbage trucks really be driving across recreation areas where children might be running around, not paying attention? more ›

Things continue to look up for the future of the Fort Reno Summer Concert Series, as well as for general safety concerns in the neighborhood surrounding Fort Reno Park. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released official soil sampling results today which confirmed preliminary results that show arsenic levels in the park are well below what is considered safe. more ›

WTOP has the scoop on the latest from the Fort Reno Park arsenic saga. Officials have said that early testing from 13 soil samples at Fort Reno Park, Wilson High School and Alice Deal Middle School show a reading of 10 parts per million -- far below the up to 1,100 parts per million a U.S. Geological Survey finding that closed the park last week. Safe levels of arsenic are listed as 43 parts per million by the Environmental Protection Agency. more ›

Potentially terrible news for local music fans: The Going Out Gurus are reporting that Fort Reno Park, the site of D.C.'s beloved outdoor summer concert series, has been closed indefinitely after United States Geological Survey satellite imaging reports found high levels of arsenic in the soil there. We've since heard from readers who said they saw the park service today in the process of putting a fence around the entire park to ensure no one enters it. more ›

If you're the kind of person who gets excited reading about green roofs and community building projects, Washington Parks & People may be able to fuel your desire to put a hand in making your neighborhood a better place to live. This 18 year-old community group has played a vital role in turning D.C. parks, like Meridian Hill and Marvin Gaye Parks, from dangerous, crime-ridden areas to places where people play and see performances and just enjoy some greenery. more ›

Fall leaves have lingered on trees much later than normal this year, leading to slippery conditions all over the city. Metro once again had to place speed restrictions on all trains passing through above-ground stations over the weekend, and we spotted more than a few people stepping carefully through wet and leaf-covered sidewalks this morning after last night's storm. Seems like a good time to remind everyone how fall leaf collection works in the District.... more ›

We were alerted yesterday via the Art Law Blog that the U.S. Department of the Interior is gearing up to change motion and still photography rules on federally run lands. In an amendment to current regulations, three DOI agencies, the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Services, and the National Park Service, will be authorized to charge standardized fees to and require a permit from commercial photographers who want to shoot in an area... more ›

Editors Note: We enjoyed the tour diaries J. Tom Hnatow wrote for us as part of These United States' last tour, so we asked him if he wouldn't mind doing it again as the band embark on their first ever intercontinental tour of the UK and Europe. He graciously agreed. This is the third installment of an ongoing series. Tuesday, October 23, 2007 A leisurely breakfast, then off to Bath. Bath is stunningly beautiful. And... more ›

>> Sure, meters are great, but what about getting D.C. taxi drivers to use their rooftop lights like cabs in every other city? [NotionsCapital] >> The Quest for Dog Parks: A very rigid search. [Intangible Arts] >> Some D.C. Cab drivers hate Halloween! [WaPo] >> All MARC commuter service out of Union Station on the Brunswick Line has been shut down because of a gas leak in Kensington. [AP/WTOP] >> Vietnam Memorial Visitor Center... more ›

Mark down an initial battle victory to the owners in the long and strained D.C. doggy wars. The Examiner reports on a change in the regulations governing the establishment of off-leash dog parks in the District that should make it easier to create fenced-in spaces for dogs to play. Dog owners in the city have long complained about a dearth of spaces where they could legally let dogs off their leashes to get exercise. Among... more ›

Jason Campbell couldn't miss, the defensive line looked like a wrecking crew, Carlos Rogers actually intercepted a pass (and returned it for a touchdown!), and Baby Jesus announced his preference for Joe Gibbs over Jon Kitna in a beating of the Detroit Lions so savage that Daniel Snyder had plenty of free time to stop worrying about the state of his football team, and start worrying about how the rides from his terrible theme parks... more ›

Just a few days ago there was a flurry of sarcasm over the launch of DipNote, the comically named, poorly designed and dubiously intentioned new official State Department blog. It's fair to say that its arrival was met in the larger blogosphere with a resounding thud, though whether there might be anything worthwhile content-wise in its existence seems worth going back to check at least a few times. Now there's another new government blog being... more ›

Written by DCist Contributor Ben Schuman-Stoler We all know about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, but probably mostly as a stop on the round-the-Mall tour we give visiting family and friends. If they ask, we tell them that a young woman won a competition in the '80s. They say, “Wow, that’s interesting. What a great memorial.” But it remains an emotional site, its message solemn and powerful, which we were reminded of when two acts of... more ›