Much gratitude to DC DDOT for paving over what I affectionately call “The Button Moat” around the pedestrian crossing button at Rock Creek Parkway and Virginia Ave NW in Foggy Bottom. (Bigger before-and-after-pictures after the jump.)

Set apart from the sidewalk by a patch of dirt on a traffic island, the Parkway crossing button is shielded from use in inclement weather by a large puddle of mud — which often turns to ice in the cold of winter. It’s always been just enough trouble to be an annoyance, but not enough to be worth calling 311 over, but someone else must have called, because on Friday morning I ran into some DDOT workers surveying the moat, and by afternoon on my way back the puddle had been buried in concrete, lovingly marked by locals with various messages and footprints. Now I will no longer get my feet wet walking to and from work across the Rock Creek Parkway. Yay.

Paulo Ordoveza

Roving Asian mendicant, can occasionally be seen wandering the streets of downtown Washington, muttering unintelligible gibberish to passers-by while pushing a “bag lady” shopping cart full of old blankets, American flags, soda cans, and healthy secondhand snacks from organic food shop dumpsters. Used to live in a cardboard box at 16th and K but the rent was too expensive.