By Ben H. Rome
‘Pedicab’ courtesy of ‘Washington Area Bicyclist Association’
Need some summer work that’ll help keep you fit, cruise downtown, and is environmentally friendly?
Well, I just got word that Capitol Pedicabs is looking for drivers.
Experience in verbal fencing with Park Police not necessary.
By Kirk
‘Adams Morgan’
courtesy of ‘N.S.’
Ah, Adams Morgan: quaint, bustling, and completely impossible to park in. The lack of a metro stop and the narrow streets has long been the bane of DC drivers out for a night on the town. Apparently, this problem doesn’t extend only to non-residents. The popularity of Adams Morgan is making it difficult for locals to find parking near their homes. WUSA reports that Councilman Jim Graham is proposing a solution: Enhanced Residential Parking. He plans to introduce legislation that would designate one side of each street for residential parking only. While this may be a welcome development for people that live in Adams Morgan, it is going to make the area much less accessible to outsiders. Hopefully the draw of the nightlife will be enough to induce people to walk long distances for it.
By shannon
‘The Shape of Colors in DC’
courtesy of ‘Gen Jones (Gen-esis Photography)’
This week we’ll be looking at the Capitol Hill neighborhood. This neighborhood could probably be called the largest in DC, since essentially anything east of the Capitol, north/west of the Anacostia River, and south of Union Station is generally known as Capitol Hill. The area is home to so many great places, from Eastern Market to Barracks Row to Union Station, and it also has some of the best historic architecture in the city.
History: The hill that the Capitol sits on was originally called Jenkins Hill (or was it?). Pierre L’Enfant decided that it would be a good location for the “Congress House”, and before you knew it, it became the center of residential development in our fair city. Because it was so close to the Capitol, congressmen lived in Capitol Hill boarding houses, and because it was so close to the Navy Yard, it was also home to craftsmen and laborers. The neighborhood continued to grow throughout the nineteenth century, and many historic rowhouses in the area date from this era. It was mostly a mixed-income neighborhood for the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, the fringes of Capitol Hill were hit hard by drugs in the 1980s, and as recently as 2000 crime was out of control in Hill East (if you get a chance, check out Jim Myers’ description of that time in The Atlantic). Most of the area has bounced back, and Capitol Hill is now the city’s largest historic district and one of the city’s greatest neighborhoods.
Neighborhood Character: The neighborhood is certainly one of the District’s most diverse. You’ve got empty-nesters, long-time residents, recent college grads, families with small children, and Hill staffers all mixed together in a few square miles. Hill East resident Shaun says, “My fiance and I live in a condo that’s home to Georgetown law students, Hill staffers and a retired woman who’s lived at our intersection for so long, she remembers when the new condo around the corner was a crack house.” Historic rowhouses make up the majority of the housing in the area, with a few apartment buildings and condominiums throughout the area. Commercial development is mostly located along Pennsylvania Avenue, 8th Street SE (Barracks Row), and around Metro stations. The area is quite pleasant to walk around, with brick sidewalks and mature trees and beautiful views of the Capitol.
By shannon
courtesy of ‘NCinDC’
As an urban planner in DC, I cringe every time I hear a myth about the city (OMG, if I hear the “Pierre L’Enfant hated John Jay” reason for there being no J Streetone more time I’m going to scream). One of the most widespread myths I hear from out-of-towners and Washingtonians alike is that the height limit in DC states that no building can be taller than the dome of the Capitol, and that the limit was enacted to preserve views of the Capitol and Washington Monument. This is just plain wrong, and I’m here to tell you why.
Back in 1894, the Cairo apartment building was built on Q Street NW in Dupont Circle. At 14 stories tall, it was the tallest building in the city at that time, and some residents had concerns about it. Would it overwhelm the lower-density neighborhood? Was it structurally sound? Would existing fire-fighting equipment be able to reach top floors? Those last two questions were primarily the reason that Congress stepped in in 1899 to establish the Height of Buildings Act. Technology at the time was advancing quickly, but questions remained about the safety of such a tall building. Height limits at the time were fairly common in American cities, including Boston and Chicago.
The 1899 Height of Buildings Act established that no building could be taller than the Capitol (289 feet), but if that’s the case, why don’t we have a city full of 28-story buildings? Well, in 1910 the act was amended to restrict building heights even further: no building could be more than twenty feet taller than the width of the street that it faces. So, a building on a street with an 80-foot right-of-way could only be 100 feet, or 10 stories. This preserved the “light and airy” character of Washington that Thomas Jefferson envisioned. This 1910 law is still in effect today, and it essentially means that no building can be taller than about 13 stories (with the exception of Pennsylvania Avenue, which is zoned in some places to allow buildings of up to 160 feet). Continue reading
By Tom Bridge
‘Cinderella Castle4’
courtesy of ‘Definitely Disney’
A 15-acre parcel near National Harbor will be the site of Disney’s next resort hotel. The hotel will sit on Oxon Hill Road not far from the site of the Gaylord resort. The $11-million dollar parcel seems an odd choice in this economy, but would house a 500-room luxury hotel amongst a cluster of other large hotels at National Harbor. While designs and construction timetables won’t be available for some time to come, it’s clear that National Harbor will be rivaling the downtown Convention Center for business in the years to come. This would, though, bring a number of new jobs to Prince George’s County, both as part of the length construction phase, and then to the hospitality sector.
But, will it look like a hotel? Or maybe look like Cinderella’s Castle? I’m hoping for the latter, as it would counterbalance the oddly-amusement-park-esque Mormon Temple on the northern side of the Beltway…
By Ben H. Rome
‘It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine…’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’
According to a new list put out by Forbes.com, Washington, DC is the third-best ‘bargain’ city, behind Phoenix, AZ and Austin, TX. The list is a look at the country’s 50 largest metro areas among four data points: average salary for workers with a college degree, annual unemployment statistics, cost of living and the Housing Opportunity Index (a measure of the number of homes sold in an area that would be affordable to an average income family of that region).
While DC ranked low on the COL scale (38 out of 50) and average on the HOI (21 out of 50), our area’s lower unemployment rate (2 out of 50) and average salary (4 out of 50) were near the top.
I have to admit, I never once thought living here was a bargain. And I’ll be curious to know how the more recent unemployment numbers would skew the results the next time they compile their list…
By Katie
‘porch seedlings’
courtesy of ‘HDC Photography’
My friend, who will remain nameless, works in a DC office that will also remain nameless. She works at said office, and shares cube space with a guy who grows an herb garden on his desk. Using one of those gardens only seen in in-flight catalogs, he grows mint, basil and other assorted herbs right in his cube.
Said friend has shared with me that the area surrounding their desk space smells like Panera Bread, and that people will walk by their desk space and sniff the air, making comments about salads and pasta. In fact, my friend goes home smelling of basil. Now, to some this would be wonderful, and fun. To others this would be annoying and quirky. I personally think it is hilarious.
This desk-herb garden is certainly the weirdest DC office habit I’ve heard of so far. But it makes me wonder – what is the weirdest co-habitation workplace situation you’ve ever heard of, or experienced?
By bstanfield
Courtesy of NASA.
HacDC announces the return of Nerd Movie Night tomorrow with a showing of rare NASA footage from the Apollo years. The 16mm film snippets, part of a collection from one of our members, feature all sorts of archived NASA footage rarely seen, including clips from moon landings and other Apollo missions.
If you’re interested in space, tomorrow’s movie night starts at 8. You can find HacDC in Columbia Heights at 1525 Newton Street NW, at the intersection of 16th Street and Newton.
By shannon
‘Schneider Triangle’
courtesy of ‘NCinDC’
Welcome to another installation of Where We Live. This time we’re focusing on the area between Dupont and Georgetown. Some call it Foggy Bottom, others call it GW, but the neighborhood most recently has been calling itself West End. Read on to hear why this area is among the city’s oldest, but also one of the most rapidly changing, neighborhoods.
History: The area is known as West End because it literally was the west end of Pierre L’Enfant’s original plan for Washington. It was also known as Foggy Bottom because of the marshy, humid conditions and the concentration of smoke-emitting businesses in the area along the waterfront (so really, it’s more like Smoggy Bottom). The rowhouses in the neighborhood housed these industrial workers, so the area was home to many Irish and German immigrants back in the 1850s, along with their breweries.
Then the area started changing rapidly. Columbian College (what we now know as George Washington University) was established near Meridian Hill in 1821, moved to the Foggy Bottom area in 1912, and expanded significantly in the 1920s and 1930s. The decline of river-oriented industries led to the closing of many waterfront employers, and the area lost a lot of ethnic diversity as industrial workers left the neighborhood. By the mid-twentieth century, rowhouses were being torn down in favor of high-density apartment buildings, and much of the character of the neighborhood was lost. We can thank the Foggy Bottom Restoration Association and the DC Restoration Office for preserving the rowhouses that still exist in the area today. (If you’re interested in more history of the neighborhood, check out this PDF brochure put out by the DC Office of Planning.)
By Tom Bridge
via alexashrugged and twitpic
In a day that saw a crowd of over 1,000 kids and another few hundred adults opposite the Wilson Building, including a number of students who are directly part of DC’s current voucher experiment, the White House announced that they will seek to continue the voucher program for those already in it, but will allow no further applicants to the program. The new plan is contingent on the Congress reauthorizing funding for the vouchers of those students currently in the program, which would be an uphill battle.
Seems odd to discontinue this popular program right now, but, well, what the unions want, the unions get…
By Katie
‘Café Stühle’
courtesy of ‘mueritz’
The Phillips Collection is opening a new cafe tomorrow. This would be rather blase news, except this cafe is not that. Almost too-deep and meta for me to grasp (I’m having to reach back to my time at art school, here) Cafe sounds badass. Pairing actual art, with a literal eat-place, bound by the concepts in and around art, (see, told you this was deep) Cafe challenges the typical. Continue reading
By shannon
‘Locomotive’
courtesy of ‘wfyurasko’
Calling all trainiacs! This Saturday is National Train Day, and lucky you– DC is home to one of the biggest events to celebrate it! From 10 AM to 3 PM, head over to Union Station to meet American Idol’s Randy Jackson (not sure how he’s related to trains, but that’s cool), listen to some live music, or check out some train equipment, including the train car that President Obama rode in to the inauguration. There will also be exhibits all day that explore how trains are related to economic development, the green aspects of rail travel, and photos showing the connection between the national landscape and trains. Think Joe Biden will stop by?
By Rebecca
‘Yoga Time!’
courtesy of ‘lululemon athletica’
Get your Lululemon gear in action as DC Yoga Week 2009 kicks off tomorrow. Multiple yoga studios across the metro area are offering either free or $5 classes starting May 2. Whether you’re Gumby himself or a first timer, your yoga teacher will guide you through these various poses and will encourage everyone to work at their own level in a non- competitive environment. Expect to leave your class stretched and strengthened with your body & mind tranformed through this meditative exercise. Also, don’t be surprised if you’re sore–in that good sore way–for a few days after. It all cumulates with Yoga On The Mall on Saturday, May 9 from 2-5pm.
By Max
Scootergate 4 by Spoffy
I recently became the father of a 1979 Vespa P200E, a toy I’ve had my eye on for a long time now. But to some it’s more than a toy and a mode of transportation, it’s a way of life. These scooter people make their way across the country for rallies all year long, and in June they’re coming to DC for Scootergate 4.
The festivities kick off Friday evening at the Pug which includes registration and basically a “Hey! Good to see you, mutherf#*@$r!” type of gathering, complete with a DJ, Stupid Human Tricks, and a late night ride. Assuming you survive that night, Saturday brings you breakfast, rally rides, Scooter Jackassery awards, dinner, and a concert at the Rock and Roll Hotel. Still alive? Then ride to brunch on Sunday at Airborne’s and say your tearful goodbyes until next year. For a full itinerary that is subject to change, click here.
By Tom Bridge
‘a vegan is crying…………….’
courtesy of ‘LaTur’
When a friend sent over the Food Network’s Best Burgers in America guide, I was shocked: There was no DC entry in the contest. How the hell did this happen? I mean, I’m super pleased that Ray’s Hell Burger won for Virginia, but where’s DC’s entry?
There are so many awesome burgers in DC, from Spike Mendelsohn’s Good Stuff Eatery (oh man could I use one of their epic milkshakes!) to the delectable mini-burgers at Matchbox, Capitol Grille’s Kobé Burger, and who can leave Old Ebbitt out? If we want to include vegetarian options, I think you have to include the old veggie burger ever to make me crave another: the Veggie Burger at Science Club.
So, why did DC get such a shafting by Food Network? Our emails to the network haven’t been returned yet. Maybe we should take them a sampling? Where’s the best burger in DC?
By Rebecca
Far Infrared SlimDome Sauna Treatment
DailyCandy today featured the FAR Infrared SlimDone Sauna Treatment currently being offered at PureSkin of Chevy Chase. The treatment exposes the body to FAR infrared heat, which penetrates 1.5 to 2 inches deep below the skin. This makes the body sweat at temperatures of 110 – 140 F, producing 2-3 times the volume of sweat and eliminating 3 to 5 times more toxins than in a regular sauna. Now why would anyone want to subject themselves to this? Continue reading
By Rebecca
Taking a water break, Originally uploaded by philliefan99
With temperatures in the 80s and even 90s for the past few days, I’ve been DYING to jump into a pool, run through a sprinkler, or catapult myself down a slip-n-slide. But no. DC public pools aren’t open until after Memorial Day, and I’m without a lawn/yard for a sprinkler or Crocodile Mile, so I guess I’ll have to settle for misting myself with a spray bottle. What are you doing to keep cool during this April Heat Wave?
By Tom Bridge
How’s that for some sweet victory?
The Nats beat the Mets, 8-1 on the stellar pitching performance by rookie Jordan Zimmerman (now 2-0), and off the bats of Jesus Flores and Austin Kearns. The usually virile bats of the Mets were struck dumb by Zimmerman for almost 6 innings, and then kept quiet by Hinckley, Mock and Wells for the rest of the game. The Nats are still not that great at 4-13, but we’ll talk more about that tomorrow on Sports Fix.
The Caps forced game 7 against the Rangers today, which will be played on Tuesday at the Phone Booth. The Caps have won two straight against the Rangers, both routs, and they looked as good as you’d hope going into a final winner-take-all matchup. Simeon Varlamov had 29 saves, and is at 90% plus for Save Pct. Not bad for a guy who didn’t start much at all this season.
DC United edged the Red Bulls 3-2, in a real nail-biter. DC United lead 1-0 at the Half, but the Red Bulls scored two goals in the middle of the second half, and the situation looked very dire for the boys in black. It wasn’t all lost, though, as Luciano Emilio scored in the final minute of the game to tie the match at 2. I was content to think we’d pull out a tie and save the point, but Chris Pontius had other ideas, and put a right-foot shot into the upper corner of the goal with just seconds on the clock to capture the win for United.
What’s that, New York? Is that the sound of crying I hear? Perhaps gnashing of teeth for ruining your weekend? Excellent. Just what were going for.
By Tom Bridge
‘Capitol – In Pre-Dawn Light – 3-9-09’
courtesy of ‘mosley.brian’
Tomorrow pits the best of DC sports against the best of New York sports:
So, who’s for taking down those feckless thugs in New York? Bring the spirit DC! See you at the sports bars!
By Tom Bridge
”Hollywood’ Parking Ticket’
courtesy of ‘p_a_h’
Apparently even Congresswoman Norton’s car isn’t safe from ticketing in her own driveway. Apparently if you have a driveway, but don’t pull far enough forward in it (not just so you’re off the street or the sidewalk, but beyond that) you can, and will, be ticketed by the District of Columbia:
