Photo by csuspect.

Good morning, Washington. We’re young, hip and fantastic. At least, that’s the takeaway from this story in today’s Post, which talks of the Washington area’s newfound magnetism for people aged 25 to 34, who, according to Census figures, are flooding into the area en masse. The real question is whether the gains are real, or are simply just a product of D.C. being a place where there are jobs, despite the recession.

Metro Opens A Can of Worms: After the recent suicide of a man at the Clarendon Metro station caused massive backups and customer outrage, WMATA CEO/general manager Richard Sarles has ordered a review of how the transit agency handles emergencies. But while the review may be a standard reaction to such an incident, there’s little doubt that Metro needs to look at the ways they handle things in the event of an unforeseen emergency. And Twitter, while nice, obviously isn’t going to cut it, especially when we’re talking about an event which, as the Post notes, caused about 2 out of every 5 riders to spend more than two hours riding Metro home that evening.

Green Spaces: An interesting piece by Lydia DePillis explores how the protests in both McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza represents a positive thing — not due to anything political, mind you, but because it finally means that some people are actually breaking in the city’s common spaces. The parks “never felt lived in—think of Franklin Square, which is still like a black hole in the middle of the central business district—until the occupiers broke the rules,” writes DePillis, noting that the occupations are helping to break the parks’ reputations “either as manicured show spaces or staging grounds for transitory protests.” Meanwhile, Washington’s occupiers are “resilient and concerned” in light of the police action taken in places like Oakland, where protesters were showered with tear gas.

Don’t Block The Box: Those signs at intersections aren’t joking around — according to the Examiner, District authorities handed out 1,551 tickets to drivers for “failure to clear intersection” in the 2011 fiscal year, which was a significant uptick over the 1,080 tickets they issued in 2010. Drivers’ inability to not try and make the yellow is also a kind of a cash cow: the city has pulled in $263,100 from those citations over the last two years.

Briefly Noted: NATO — no, not that one — not a fan of Gray’s proposed Junior Mint tax…Howard freshman shot and killed in Mount Rainier…Late MetroAccess service is costing Metro an extra $11 million each year…Southwest waterfront to get new park…DDOT names Sam Zimbabwe as new Associate Director for Planning, Policy and Sustainability…They’re on a boat.

This Day in DCist: Last year, a Virginia man was arrested after allegedly casing Metro stations for al Qaeda, the “First Afro-Latino in History” tried to warn us black people about Vince Gray, and the Zoo’s lion cubs took a swim.