Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. I don’t suppose it would surprise most District residents to hear that there are sharp differences in income between the city’s neighborhoods and racial and ethnic groups. We see it all around us, but especially in those parts of the city where the lives of the haves abut and intermingle with those of the have-nots. These gentrification frontiers are often a locus…

It was a tantalizing prospect. The news that Walter Reed Army Medical Center would close in 2011 had District residents and officials dreaming of the possible uses for the 113 acres of land located between 16th Street and Georgia Avenue in residential Northwest Washington. Getting their hands on the land was always a longshot, however, and news organizations are reporting today that the Feds have lowered the boom on the idea — deciding instead to…

WJLA brings us positive news today in the fight for District voting rights — D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams has announced that three groups will receive grants to launch outreach campaigns for voting representation for the city in Congress. D.C. Vote is set to receive $500,000, Our Nation’s Capital some $300,000, and the League of Women Voters $200,000. The city is forbidden by law from using taxpayer funds to directly lobby Congress for voting rights,…

Come May 1, the steadily increasing global price of oil may finally hit home for District residents who cab it to and from home, work and play. Taxi fares are set to increase by up to $1 a trip to offset rising gas prices, reports the Common Denominator. The increases will be implemented for a 120-day trial period, after which the D.C. Taxicab Commission will decide whether to make them permanent. Global oil prices have…

Through Petworth News, we learn that the essayist, playwright and thinker Gore Vidal will be laid to rest at Rock Creek Cemetery in Northwest Washington. While this isn’t necessarily anything newsworthy, it’s an interesting item for future chroniclers of the city’s various monuments to note. According to Petworth News (where we snagged this photo), Vidal buried his longtime partner, Harold Auster, at the cemetery last month. The Vidal plot is located near a monument to…

Over the weekend, DCist noticed this lawn sign reading “KERRY” on Potomac Avenue NW near Arizona Avenue in the Palisades. While such a landscape political statement isn’t necessarily anything new (Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee had “BUSH” sculpted into a hedge outside his Northwest Washington home), the landscaping supporting Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry’s presidential bid has two distinctive characteristics. First, it appears that the landscapers intended the sign to be seen from planes…

– The Washington Post reports that “Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) shows his enthusiasm for the Bush/Cheney ticket by planning to have their names trimmed into the hedge at his home in Northwest Washington,” but also includes a photo of the hedge, already trimmed. Can a hedge be both not trimmed and trimmed at the same time? – The Post doesn’t seem too impressed with the Capitol Police checkpoints:” … Practices varied from checkpoint…