The annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund begin on Friday, and the city will see a number of changes in traffic patterns and road closures this weekend as a result. Here’s what you should plan around: Streets closed to vehicles: Beginning at 8 p.m. on Friday, October 19, until 2 a.m. on Sunday, October 21 * Pennsylvania Avenue, NW between 17th Street and 20th Street, NW * 19th Street, NW…

While outdoor Eastern Market vendors set up outside – on the first Saturday since the dreadful inferno – DCist writers and friends were just across the way, pretty-ing up Hine Junior High. After a whole month of reminding and re-reminding you, Servathon 2007 finally came! Not only did we paint the gym a brand-spanking-new shade of off-white, but we owned the fundraising. Since our original $2,000 goal proved easy as pie, we dared readers…

FRIDAY: >> Nothing wrong with another strong all-local lineup: Washington Social Club, These United States and Let’s French will be on Black Cat’s mainstage. DCist has interviewed two of these bands before, and we’re set to get up close and personal with the third. So check ’em out. 9:30 p.m., $10. >> We’re definitely impressed with the speed at which DC Rollergirls have gotten their act together since hosting a series of recruitment happy hour/arm…

It was 45 years ago today that the District of Columbia took one step towards fully enjoying the democratic rights granted to all Americans — on this day in 1961, the 23rd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified by the states. The amendent grants the District the right to choose electors for president and vice president. So yeah, District residents still suffer the daily injustice of being denied voting representatives, but in the…

DCist is excited to welcome back our founding editor, Michael Grass, who comes to us this Sunday with a special Opinionist. One of the most frustrating things about living in Washington, D.C., for me is walking along Eye Street up and around the corner from the International Monetary Fund. Between 20th and 21st streets NW sits Kinkead’s, one of the city’s long-standing respected restaurants. Kinkead’s sits in the house where my late grandfather and my…

Really, what isn’t filming in DC these days? Major Hollywood muscle has been spotted all over town, giving us celebrity gossip hounds a rare and local fix. Last night’s premiere of the Miramax movie “The Great Raid” at the Uptown in Cleveland Park brought out more then a few famous faces, but the buzz was all about Mayor Willams and Michael Douglas shaking hands in front of the Mayflower Hotel. In addition to the movie…