Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. The Washington Highlands neighborhood of the District of Columbia is terra incognita for many Washingtonians. Tucked up against the District’s southeastern border with Maryland’s Prince George’s County, the area is walled off from the rest of the city by Oxon Run Park, the Anacostia Freeway, Bolling Air Force Base, and the Anacostia River, not to mention the yawning gap between its economic…

Jonetta Rose Barras: “The District government is spending millions to send children to a controversial special education residential facility in Massachusetts that uses electric shock to discipline students.” Wow. Talk about an opening sentence. Rose Barras dedicated her column this week to the 10 District students who have been sent to the facility — the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton, Ma. — arguing that its unorthodox methods of treatment are reason enough to bring…

For all the hand wringing over the Nats 9-17 April record (the second worst in baseball), the month’s last game provided some vindication for many of the teams fans, and especially for centerfielder Ryan Church. At the beginning of April, Church’s fate with the team was cloudy, with his supporters almost hoping he could be traded to find another opportunity. A quick glance at the lineup before a 3-2 win over the Padres late Monday…

> > Totally uninformed theory: Wonderland robbery actually masterminded by the mild-mannered members of Norfolk & Western? Just putting it out there… > > Xmas In Washington play to feature Marion Shepilov Barry playing a heroic angel who sings “Stormy Weather” (WTFx10?!?) and comes to the rescue of Katrina evacuees separated from their children. Gloria Hightower says Barry’s star turn comes from a desire to make the character “realistic”–which can only mean the following…

One of the first lessons you learn about blogging is that timing is everything. Earlier this week I was emailing DCist Matt about a story idea, a two part story that would ask the question that just had to be answered: Who is crazier more eccentric, Gilbert Arenas or Clinton Portis? We decided to write it over the weekend and run it next week. Great in theory, right? But then Esquire had to go…

They’re everywhere: on the bus in the morning, at happy hour, and occasionally at work: prominently displayed ID badges. Reuters has an “oddly enough” article about D.C.’s love of nametags, saying that the city’s “denizens recognize it as Tagtown.” While we’ve never heard that nickname for our fair city, we do recognize the fact that people wear badges everywhere, and we are not impressed. The article quotes American University professor Edward Smith, who says: “People…

If you’re the type who turns to your friends haughtily when they’re jonesing for some Hamlet or Othello and replies contemptuously, “I don’t pay for Shakespeare,” it’s almost your time of year. That’s right, while companies like Folger Shakespeare Theatre and Washington Shakespeare Company are wrapping up their productions, and we’ll have to wait until 2007 for the amazing Shakespeare In Washington extravaganza, we still have options to get our Bard fix, and we don’t…

If you like your composers Russian, your theater traditional and your Shakespeare, well, everywhere, the Kennedy Center’s 2006/2007 season has much to please. As part of “Shakespeare In Washington,” the Bard shows up in lots of the Center’s theatre, dance and orchestral offerings, from a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Coriolanus to the Kirov Ballet’s Romeo and Juliet. The season also brings with it two new partnerships: Arlington’s Synetic Theater, which just had a hand…

Scorching housing markets across the country might be taking a breather, but Washington area buyers and sellers don’t seem particularly fazed by rising interest rates and uncertain economic conditions. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight is reporting year on year growth for the last quarter of 2005 of 12.95 percent nationwide, which equates to a fair amount of continued energy for the country as a whole. In Washington, however, prices last quarter were…

But for a few cities in flyover country the baseball season is effectively over, and the rest of the nation has turned its full attention to the gridiron. In Washington, the story is no different, this being the peak of the D.C. sporting year, and the Post is in full Skins swing, plastering banner photographs on Monday editions above war news and natural disasters. For real baseball towns, however, the offseason is an art in…