Martin Austermuhle
The Year of the Dog kicked off with a bang yesterday, as revelers celebrated the traditional Chinese New Year’s festivities by eating, eating, and eating some more, writes the Examiner. Residents and visitors alike packed Chinatown’s many eateries for chicken, dumplings, and mandarin oranges as a parade proceeded down H Street. Chinatown is home to a number of traditional Chinese restaurants, including China Doll, Chinatown Garden, Tai Shan, Li Ho, Chipotle, Hooters, Potbelly, and La Tasca.
District Libraries to Receive Federal Funding: In good news for the city’s ailing libraries, President George W. Bush is set to announce $30 million in funding for their renovation and repair today, writes the Post. The grant, contained in the president’s 2007 budget and allocated as matching funds, would go towards the $280 million a special taskforce estimated the city would have to pay to build and endow a new central library. Debate remains over what to with the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library — located in Chinatown — with some officials pushing for its redevelopment while others seek to keep the modernist building designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
Craigslist Considers Fees: Say it ain’t so, Craig. Craigslist, the ever popular clearing-house for everything from casual encounters to cars, may start charging fees for job listings, reports NBC 4. Starting in March, Craigslist will start charging fees for rental listings in New York, and is considering charging similar fees for the lucrative job listings section of the local site.
Parking Problems Reach Pages of Post: When we wrote of the Sunday parking problems plaguing parts of Shaw and Logan Circle last December, our post elicited a variety of comments on both sides of the issue. A recent update on the matter similarly provoked lively discussion. Yesterday the Post waded into the issue’s dangerous waters, writing of how the trend of churchgoers to park illegally has divided Logan Circle residents, some of who see the issue as one of simple law breaking and others as a more complicated push and pull between the District’s past and present. While the Post’s take on the issue didn’t break much ground, it did feature this gem, spoken by Dee Hunter, an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner: “What kind of society have we become when we are calling on police to write tickets on people who are going to worship?”
Briefly Noted: Virginia to consider protections for gay workers … Disabled passengers face continued troubles with Metro … Maryland to consider banning internet hunting … D.C. DMV clerk to face jail time … Fight to save Heurich House continues.
Picture snapped by Pak Gwei.
