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From Michelle Lancaster
There’s No Kissing in Football
A number of sports references could be used here, but the story of a lesbian couple ejected from a recent Ravens game is simply too important to get lost in an analogy. The Blade has the full story, including the team’s response that the ejection was the result of a ‘stolen’ plastic cup and not a display of affection. Sometimes it’s hard to decide what is more important to a multi-million dollar franchise: a plastic cup or ensuring equal rights. There’s a lot of coverage of this event, and I encourage you to read it all, get disgusted at the nature of some of the comments and do a quick search of how to let the team’s PR staff know how you feel about this. Hint – it’s an email form.
DC City Government & Money: For Upcoming Elections – Where’s the Money?!
Who’s surprised that nearly two-thirds of the District’s Advisory Neighborhood Commissions failed to file quarterly financial reports on time? Check out how each ANC did at TBD (two of the three local ANCs filed on time). As we move forward with our ANC coverage, look for this to be a question to discuss with candidates. While you’re following the money, it’s worth investigating this item from Washington Business Journal on $100,000 for Logan/U St – does our neighborhood really need budget funds?
Stuff We’re Still Following: 14th and U Plans, Rent & Economic Security
After an uproar over the plans for 14th and U’s new streetscape, DDOT Director Gabe Klein asked for new ones. Congrats to all the local bloggers, especially Greater Greater Washington, for raising specific issues now being addressed, including better civic space around the Reeves Center. On the other hand, if the local survey was right and $32,000 is enough to have “economic security” in DC, can you even find a place to rent? Urban Turf reports on the tightening of the rental market on and around 16th St.
Your Friday Food Fix
Rogue States has flipped its last burger at the Connecticut Ave. NW location, after a judge found for the plaintiff, powerhouse law firm Steptoe & Johnson. The neighboring lawyers found the grills smell a “nuisance” as it wafted in their workspaces. Check out the full story of the last hours at Washington City Paper. It may be bad news for small business, but maybe a win for us with a new location at 14th & U? While on the topic of U St., we should mention that The Saloon, the latest drinking establishment to encounter DC’s labyrinth of liquor law, applied for their tavern license on Wednesday. WCP again.
Top DC News Out of the Borderstan area: The Bay Bridge is ‘Very Scary’
Hottest story out right now is how Travel and Leisure ranked our Bay Bridge the 9th scariest bridge in the world. Speaking as one of the hundreds of Borderstan residents that have made that drive back after a long weekend at Rehoboth or Dewey, the return to reality is almost as tough as the drive across the span. Full coverage of the area’s obsession with the story is at the WCP‘s City Desk blog.
TThe 2010 “Best of DC” Readers Poll winners were released Thursday. (Washington City Paper)
The Washington City Paper released the results of its 2010 “Best of DC” Readers Poll results yesterday and there are numerous retail businesses who are winners in the Dupont–Logan–U Street area. No big surprise there: We are in the middle of one of DC’s most dynamic neighborhoods, with new businesses opening (and sometimes closing) on a regular basis.
Borderstan thanks the MidCity Business Association for compiling a list of winners and second-place finishers among their members. MidCity’s members are businesses along the 14th Street and U Street corridors. The list below also includes some local businesses in the Borderstan area that are not Mid City members (designated as such).
Check out the “Best of DC” site at Washington City Paper for a complete listing of the four categories: Food & Drink, Arts & Entertainment, Goods & Services and People & Places.
In addition, there are City Paper Staff Picks. For example, Logan Hardware was the staff pick for best hardware store.
MARCH 15: Today is the last day to vote in Washington City Paper‘s 2010 Best of D.C. Readers’ Poll. Please remember your favorite businesses in the Dupont – Logan – U Street area. You can vote Borderstan for best local blog/blogger; we appreciate your support.
Amanda Hess, “The Sexist” blogger/reporter at the Washington City Paper, attended tonight’s ANC 2F/Logan Circle meeting and has an update on the goings-on at 1618-A 14th Street NW: “Men’s Party” Sex Club Victim May Have Broken Neck.” From her report:
At tonight’s ANC 2F meeting, 3rd District Lieutenant Vanessa Moore provided some details into the police investigation of Sunday’s sex club death at 1618 14th Street NW…. Moore says D.C. police are working with the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs to attempt to close the club. “I know he does not have any license at that location,” Moore said. “We’re looking for ways to shut him down.” Go to CP article
The Washington Blade posted a story online on Tuesday by reporter Lou Chibbaro Jr.
MPD says crime was down in 2008 in DC. (Image: MPD website.)
The FBI says DC crime was up in 2008. (Image: FBI website)
Did the crime rate in DC go up or down in 2008 compared to 2007? If you use the DC MPD’s crime stats, the answer is “down.” If you use the numbers compiled by the FBI–based on information submitted to them by MPD–then the answer is “up.”
I have read about the issues around these two types of numbers before. Yesterday, I saw the following blurb in the WCP’s Loose Lips Daily column: (more…)
The property in question at the southwest corner of 14th and T Streets NW. (Photo: Washington City Paper, Housing Complex blog.)
The Housing Complex blog at Washington City Paper has the story… plans by the furniture chain, Room & Board, to open a store at the southwest corner of 14th and T NW have collapsed, apparently due to the chain’s inability to get financing:
How much is your condo worth per square foot? (Image: Washington City Paper.)
Ruth Samuelson at Washington City Paper has a story this week on the price of condominiums by square footage in different D.C. neighborhoods. This is from her blog posting, which links to the full story (“That Erie Feeling”):
Washington Business Journal has the story:
With a $40 million loan default looming, Creative Loafing Inc., the owner of Washington City Paper and a handful of other weeklies across the U.S., sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday.
According to a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s Middle District of Florida, Tampa, Fla.-based Creative Loafing reported estimated assets of between $10 million and $50 million and liabilities of the same amount.
Guess the blogger at Washington City Paper saw the post here last night… about her post on Borderstan. She followed up today with this short mention:
Borderstan, an in-between hood described here, is inching toward legitimacy here, with its own website.
Can any Borderstanian out there define “legitimacy” as an in-between hood? Are we a mini-hood… sub-hood… or just an autonomous region of the Logan Circle and Dupont Circle hoods trying to get good city services?
In case you missed it, this from Washington City Paper blogger Angela Valdez on July 2. The title of the post was “What the [email protected]#9 is Borderstan?” We forgive Ms. Valdez for her intended profanity toward our lovely land of Borderstan. She did, however, get it right when she described the reason for Borderstan becoming a semi-autonomous region of Dupont Circle and Logan Circle.
A bit of neighborhood trivia: Residents living near 15th Street between P and T streets have taken to calling their area “Borderstan.” The not-quite-Dupont not quite-U-street-Logan hood is divided between two police districts, with the eastern side falling under the Third District and the western side going to the Second District. (Not quite Laptopia, either.) The name arose when residents in Eastern and Western Borderstan convinced police in both districts to cooperate in solving crimes centered along 15th Street.
