Breakfast links: pigging out

Where’s the food court?: One reason for the new signs on the Mall: tourists not only often don’t know what the tall obelisk is in the center, for example, but officials “often get calls from the public asking if there is a Nordstrom on the Mall.” (Post via BeyondDC)

McMansion epidemic: Since 1950, the number of household square feet per person has continued to rise, to almost 1,000 square feet today. We’ve moved more of our lives from public space (playing on the street, going to parks, hanging out in public squares) into private space (home theater rooms, private pools). (CoolTown Studios)

We’re number two: Infrastructurist’s Yonah Freemark lists the seven “most ridiculous new roads being built with stimulus money.” Number two: the ICC. Technically, I believe Maryland isn’t so much using stimulus money for the ICC as dumping all their other money into it, then using stimulus money to pay for all the maintenance they should have been funding instead. (Huffington Post)

Wanted: drivers who won’t rob or punch cops: After one Metrobus driver tried to rob a police officer and another punched one dressed as McGruff the Crime Dog, Metro will reexamine its hiring practices. No word about the cyclist assault incident around the same time. (Post)

SmarTrip on your credit card: priceless: Metro’s Smartrip technology provider has signed a licensing agreement with a software provider that would allow the Smartrip readers to work with contactless bank cards like Visa PayWave and MasterCard Paypass. Michael adds: This makes using these other cards possible, but not necessarily cheap or fast, and WMATA has yet no plans to license the technology. (Contactless News, tip: Michael P)

Ha ha, wrong platform: District, schmistrict wonders why some northbound Yellow Line trains turning at Mount Vernon Square then leave from the “wrong” track, without clear announcements. (district, schmistrict)