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Nice picturesDCist ran a contest, DCist Exposed, to select amazing photos of DC for an upcoming show. Here are my favorites:
posted on Jan 24, 2008 1:43 pm (comment) Bad urbanism on the Potomac waterfrontIn December, I got into an interesting debate on the Dupont Forum neighborhood list about my feelings concerning the Third Church landmarking. Lance, who considers the building a "masterpiece," asked if my desire to get rid of most 1970s-era buildings in downtown DC extended to more widely praised structures like the Watergate and Kennedy Center.
I replied: The Watergate and Kennedy Center are, as mid-20th century buildings go, pretty nice, and I'm not in favor of razing them. However, they still do not represent good urbanism either, especially when considered in context with the Potomac River Freeway which was built around the same time (the West Leg of the 1971 Inner Loop plan, whose cancelled North Leg would have ruined Dupont). Both buildings are clearly designed for cars and with a more suburban sensibility, such as the way the Watergate has an interior park but presents a mostly blank wall to the streetscape. Most land around the Kennedy Center is used for getting cars in, out and around, than for human beings.I added that I hadn't really had a chance to explore those sites in detail, which prompted me to take a walk down there for some photos.
posted on Jan 9, 2008 1:17 pm (comment)
posted on Dec 5, 2007 8:41 pm (comment) It's all relativeThe Safeway at 17th and R streets in Dupont Circle is derisively known as the "Soviet Safeway," due to its being frequently out of many items. Its defenders point out that it is, after all, one of the smallest supermakrets in the city.
I finally visited it the other day, and it may be small by DC standards, but compared to New York supermarkets, it's a cornucopia of diverse products and low prices. Sure, the stock was a bit thin on a few items, but nothing to the degree one would find at my local Food Emporium or an Upper East Side D'Agostino's. And the groceries were so cheap! Likewise, when signing up to rent this apartment, the previous tenant explained how parking was ample during the day, but difficult to find on evenings or weekends. I've now parked 3-4 times a day for a week, and it's true, if by "ample" you mean "about two spaces available per block" and "difficult to find" you mean "requires driving around for a few blocks first." I just assumed the Manhattan definition of "hard to park," i.e. "you have to drive around for half an hour to find a single space." Yes, it's all relative. The supermarkets here may be barren and the parking scarce compared to Palo Alto, California, but I'm moving from Manhattan. Everything's cheap, from rent to insurance to groceries, from that point of view. The day we got back from Bangkok - the most crowded, polluted, and overrun-with-malls city I've ever been to, and the fifth least green and livable city in the world - we walked around the Upper West Side. Some of the terms that came to mind: "calm," "spacious," and "not so many stores." Not how Manhattan is typically described. Yes, it's all relative. posted on Oct 16, 2007 10:22 pm (comment) Shelley + GreggShelley and Gregg, law school friends of Stefanie's, got married on the beautiful roof deck of Washington's Hay Adams Hotel with a spectacular view of the White House, Washington and Jefferson Memorials, and more. Congratulations and best wishes for many happy years!
posted on Aug 30, 2007 9:44 am (comment) "We Are Smart Growth"You know Smart Growth—the philosophy of building "compact, transit- That business district is Barracks Row, a street of shops along 8th Street SE in Washington near the Eastern Market station. Stefanie and I took the subway out to Eastern Market to check out the District's largest farmers' market and found a vibrant, mixed-use (and rapidly gentrifying) neighborhood full of interesting shops and really cute townhouses.
posted on Aug 28, 2007 11:07 pm (comment) Six wonderful monthsAugust 17, 2007 was Stefanie's and my six month anniversary (mensiversary?), and we were in Washington DC for one of Stef's friends' wedding. To celebrate, we took a dinner cruise up the Potomac, past the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, National Airport, Kennedy Center, Watergate, and the Georgetown waterfront. Despite being sadly marred by highways like Rock Creek Parkway and the Kennedy Center's parking entrances, Washington is beautiful from the water at night, its monuments gleaming from among the trees.
posted on Aug 28, 2007 4:34 pm (1 comment) FDR speaks from the graveI've been in DC quite a few times in recent years, but haven't been to the great monuments on the National Mall since I was very young. Back then there was the Washington Monument and the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was relatively new. Today, there are many more. And most inspiring of all was the FDR Memorial. Filled with quotations from President Roosevelt's speeches, almost every one of his words seems to speak from the grave, bearing directly upon today nearly as saliently as they did over fifty years ago.
posted on Sep 19, 2005 1:09 pm (comment) From the halls of power to the town hallsLast week I spent a few days in Washington, DC, meeting with Congressman Rick Boucher (D-VA) for IPac, Gigi Sohn of Public Knowledge, and Tom Manatos in Nancy Pelosi's office for Drinking Liberally. I also got to see RFD, site of the DC Drinking Liberally, even though I wasn't able to stay for Drinking Liberally itself - unable because that Thursday night, Simon Rosenberg spoke at The Tank about his candidacy for DNC chair, followed by a panel about the race the next day. All in all, between visiting the capital and the Capitol, and the gaggle of Democrats gathered in New York for the DNC meeting, it was a politician-filled week.
P.S. I've added a few new themes, like this and this, plus these strange signs as a tribute to Mike's Satan's Laundromat.
posted on Feb 2, 2005 6:19 pm (comment) | Blog ArchivesMost Popular Tags |
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