Recent Posts
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Last minute gift ideas for urbanists
If you’re a responsible adult, you’ve already finished all your holiday shopping. If you’re like me, you’ve still got some to do. So here are some gift ideas for the urbanists in your life, all from brick-and-mortar stores in DC that you can visit today or tomorrow. Keep reading…
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If you’re parking, be especially careful on these blocks
DC has created maps of where parkers get the most tickets downtown and citywide (but it’s mostly downtown). Keep reading…
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Alexandria’s King Street will get bike lanes after all
Alexandria’s transportation director gave the order Friday to build bike lanes on King Street west of Old Town. The decision ends a long and contentious debate over whether to remove parking spaces. Rich Baier, director of the city’s Department of Transportation and Environmental Services, announced that Alexandria will proceed with a “compromise plan”… Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: 2 Mount Vernons, many visions
Spa in NW, poor in Anacostia?; Mount Vernon v. urban blight; Expanding transit beyond Metrorail; Nonprofit tax exemptions fading; MGM casino coming 2016; Surge into the New Year; And…. Keep reading…
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Morning bell: Festivities for DC test gains, but not for graduation rates
DCPS celebrates test gains compared to other cities: Officials exulted in recent results showing DCPS as the only large city school district to make major gains across the board on tests given nationwide to 4th and 8th graders. But DC’s ranking is still below the urban average, and its achievement gap is the largest of any big city. (Post) But graduation rates only inched… Keep reading…
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Discuss: Lesser Washington in the Flickr pool
Last week, reader Jeff Norman pointed out that we tend to stick to the best of Washington with our picks from the Greater and Lesser Washington Flickr pool. So this week, we’re taking a new tack. Here are our favorite new photos of “Lesser Washington.” Keep reading…
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Can affordable housing create wealth and stay affordable?
There is a debate raging in Washington, DC, about how to best balance two equally valid but competing public objectives with the city’s affordable homeownership programs: wealth creation and preservation of housing affordability. Homeownership is critical to wealth creation for low and moderate-income families. Home equity represents fully 60% of low-income households’… Keep reading…
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Watch DDOT’s beautifully animated streetcar video
In anticipation of the upcoming H Street streetcar, DDOT created this safety video that illustrates how drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians should act once the streetcar begins running. Keep reading…
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Three ways Metro’s loop proposal could get better
Metro’s proposed loop has generated much discussion about the future of the transit system. While new capacity is an important goal, it’s not the only goal. Metro should also try to avoid designing in problems. A few tweaks could greatly improve the proposal. One of the challenges of adding in a new crosstown line where one was never envisioned is dealing with transfers. It’s… Keep reading…
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DCPS students are getting better at taking tests, but are they getting better at thinking?
DC’s 4th- and 8th-graders outperformed every other large urban district in gains on recent standardized tests. That’s great, but does it tell us anything about how they’ll do in high school? DCPS is justifiably celebrating its students’ gains on recent standardized tests that are administered nationwide. The increases in scores here were larger… Keep reading…