In the Internet age, far fewer people still regularly turn to a paper version of the yellow pages, but that doesn’t mean several companies aren’t still delivering phone books to homes and businesses in Washington every year. We spotted about 5-6 brand new Yellow Books on the sidewalk on 9th Street NW in Shaw (around the corner from DCist HQ) over the weekend, having been delivered to what are clearly boarded up and abandoned buildings…

A new report from the Brookings Institution shows that the D.C. metro area has the most “walkable places” per capita of any American city — one for every 264,000 people, beating out even New York City for walkability. Visiting Fellow Christopher B. Leinberger says that the Washington region could serve as the model for the direction the country’s other metro areas are heading over the next generation. The Associated Press already picked up on the…

Fall leaves have lingered on trees much later than normal this year, leading to slippery conditions all over the city. Metro once again had to place speed restrictions on all trains passing through above-ground stations over the weekend, and we spotted more than a few people stepping carefully through wet and leaf-covered sidewalks this morning after last night’s storm. Seems like a good time to remind everyone how fall leaf collection works in the District….

You’d think District employees would be on their best behavior these days now that the entire city is having an even harder time trusting them than normal. At the very least, you’d imagine the driver of city vehicle 96 5734 would realize that just about everyone is walking around with a camera, and if you park somewhere illegally, someone is going to notice – possibly even someone who’s going to send their photos in…

Anyone who has spent time attending neighborhood association meetings in much of D.C. knows that 99.5 percent of the topics discussed there tend to revolve around the basic conceit that residents want a say in the kinds of businesses that are near them. More often than not that means putting pressure on existing businesses to operate in certain ways, but without a doubt a major topic of conversation at the meetings we’ve attended is…

Usually in our Revisiting Series, we like to talk about the monuments and memorials you pass on a regular basis; this time, by revisiting the District’s boundary stones, we thought we’d point out something you might never have even seen. In fairness, they’re easy to miss. Of the 40 original stones, two have been lost, and the rest have been marred and eroded from sitting outside for 216 years. Some sit in no trespassing zones,…

DISCLAIMER: PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT THE FOLLOWING LINK IS INCREDIBLY NSFW. Please do not follow it if you are squeamish, are in a public place, or have any other reservations about seeing graphic photos of public sex and drug use. D.C. resident Kevin Keith Eby, of the blog Knee Deep in Mud, recently came home to a rather rude surprise in the alley that faces his kitchen window: two individuals engaging in sex acts and…

We’re certainly woe to make the poor soul who was evicted from the tony condo building The Flats at Dupont Circle, at 20th and N Streets NW, this morning feel any worse. But after being tipped off by a resident of the building to the eviction and subsequent dumping of all of this woman’s worldly belongings on the street corner, we couldn’t help but feel it makes a rather striking image when you consider…

Authors Matthew Gilmore and Andrew Brodie Smith dug through a wealth of treasures at the Library of Congress and in the D.C. public libraries to produce Historic Photos of Washington, D.C.. Gilmore and Smith will be at Candida’s World of Books tonight to sign their weighty book. Though certainly an attractive book for anyone with a coffee table, Historic Photos is also a gem for local history buffs, with nearly 200 photos that span…

A frenzy over whether staff-led tours of the U.S. Capitol will continue began earlier this month. At issue is a proposal from the Architect of the Capitol that would require all Capitol tours to be led by professionally certified tour guides once the new Capitol Visitor Center opens in November 2008. Unlike the smaller tours currently led by Congressional staff and interns, visitors would be put into groups of 40, given earphones and shown a…