Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent begins a new weekly opinion column on neighborhood issues today. To many central city residents, the suburban enterprise can seem a quixotic one, and the suburbanite a perplexing character. Pressing ever outward, he seeks to leave behind the impedimenta of urban life, only to find that the more pristine his new surroundings, the faster and thicker does the baggage of congestion gather around him. Almost immediately he finds that his new…

Forget Paris. There’s no stage more iconic to the Tour de France than the one that includes the brutal Alpe d’Huez. The steep “hors categorie” ascent up the Alpine peak to end the stage separates potential champions from mere mortals, as the weak fall away from the peloton and the expert climbers push ahead through the fan-crowded hills. In other words, even if you’re not so addicted to the Tour that you TiVo coverage of…

Over the last few weeks we’ve been highlighting some of the proposals coming into the Solving D.C. Problems website, an initiative launched by the D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice earlier this month to encourage residents to identify local problems and propose solutions. Today we focus on two ways to make the District a more entertaining city. The first proposes that the city invest in its own climbing wall: The city owns the historic…

If you are a Red Line commuter who is planning to stay in the District this coming Labor Day weekend, watch out: construction at the future New York Avenue-Florida Avenue-Gallaudet University metrorail station, aka NewYoFla, will shut down the Red Line between Union Station and Fort Totten. If you are Silver Spring or College Park commuter, WMATA adivses you to use the Green Line (via Fort Totten) to access the center city at Gallery Place-Chinatown….