The Examiner ran a story on Monday about Bloomingdale’s recent round of talks with the city regarding opening a new store in downtown D.C. Along with the recently approved development at the Old Convention Center site, sources in the Fenty administration told Michael Neibauer that the talks have included the controversial Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library at 9th and G Streets NW as a “possible option” for the store. The library, as you’ll recall,…

Good morning, Washington. Remember that recent weird burglary at Ward 8 Council member Marion Barry’s house — the one that Barry seemingly didn’t want investigated in favor of telling the police they had more important things to do? Well, Harry Jaffe got hold of the police report, and it turns out Barry may have had good reason not to want it looked at it too closely. Apparently the former mayor had a large collection of…

Good morning, Washington. Buried at the bottom on the Post’s updated story this morning on the controversy surrounding Monday’s Adams Morgan fire, which has caused Mayor Fenty and Ward 1 Council member Jim Graham to start foaming at the mouth to take WASA to task for not replacing inadequate water mains fast enough, is a little human interest nugget. Apparently fire fighters managed to recover an engagement ring left behind by one of the building’s…

Good morning, Washington. Does your commute include the Wilson Bridge? If so, enjoy this morning’s trip — it’s the last speedy one you’re likely to have this week. As Fox 5 details, some of the traffic around the bridge will be redirected beginning at 10 a.m. this morning. But the worst will be saved for overnight on Friday, when traffic will be reduced to a single lane. Hateful Vandalism Galore: What the hell is going…

Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. It wasn’t easy to keep up with the business flooding through the Council as the latest session neared its end. Amid the bills dealing with Greater Southeast Community Hospital, authorizing development bonds, addressing land deals in the West End and over the Center Leg Freeway, and placing moratoria on new Adams Morgan taverns, an interesting pattern nonetheless emerged. In just this past…

As you’ll recall from last summer’s round of Crime Emergency-associated legislation, teens in the District were forced to obey a curfew of 10 p.m. throughout the summer months in an effort to stem the tide of law breaking that was often blamed on youths being out on the streets, up to no good. Did it help? Not particularly as far we could ever tell, though it did allow police to release figures about how many…

Ahh. Fifty-eight degrees, Washington. Fifty-eight! That’s what the temperature is right now according to my trusty OS X weather widget, and I couldn’t be more pleased: with a broken office A/C office unit and a floor of the building prone to soaking up heat, things have been a little warm around here. A last-minute spring extension sounds great, and that’s just what we’re in for: temps will barely top 70 until the weekend (although…

Via City Desk, the excellent homeless publication Street Sense scooped everyone on a big story about the potential closing of the District’s largest family shelter, D.C. Village Family Emergency Shelter in southwest Washington. Under a new city proposal, the shelter could close sometime this fall, to be replaced by a bus operations center for WMATA in advance of the opening of the new Nationals stadium. From Street Sense: …more than 350 … people – mothers,…

Yesterday we asked you to complete a very short survey about your opinion of Mayor Fenty’s performance during his first 100 days — and here’s the results. You’ll note that we stupidly left the option to answer “Good” out of the first question, and that this survey is not at all scientific. 1. How do you feel about the quality of city services under Mayor Fenty? Excellent  27.4% (29) So-So  65.1% (69) Not Good   9.4% (10) 2….

One of yesterday’s major stories was the release of a new study indicating that about one-third of adults in Washington, D.C. are functionally illiterate. Wikipedia actually has a decent definition of functional illiteracy: “the inability of an individual to use reading, writing, and computational skills efficiently in everyday life situations.” In other words, a person may be able to read somewhat, but nowhere near well enough to hold down a job. The reality of the…