My Metrobus commute gives me a quick glance every morning and night on the continuing development of downtown, in particular 11th Street. With all the crazy construction over the past year, this has added a lot of frustration as traffic grinds to a halt around sites crammed with dump trucks and hard hats, but it’s still exciting to see the city continue to rejuventate.

My current Top Three Downtown Development Sites are:

1) The Hertz building at 11th and New York Avenue. Finally this disgusting grey eyesore has been closed and the Caterpillars are chewing it up. Let’s hope something more aesthetically pleasing goes up in its place.
(more…)

It appears that DC’s finest need to get themselves a little education, more importantly, they should learn the difference between “1″, “I”, “L”, “Y”, “J” and several other letters that this author refuses to share. Our beloved Officer Sabir made a critical error when issuing a ticket the other morning, neglecting to double check his inputted information. What could have been plate number IL55 123 was inputted into the Officer’s device as 1L55 123.

Upon checking the District’s online ticket system with the correct plate number, i.e. IL55 123, it appears that the ticket recipient is clear; we feel sorry for the poor bugger who’s been slapped with a $25 parking ticket.

The identifying information has been changed to protect the not so innocent, and thanks to said not so innocent for making us here at D.C. Metblogs aware of the Officer’s faux pas.

If you’ve had any lucky escapes with the powers that be in MD/DC/VA, feel free to share your stories in the comments. After little incidents, it’s refreshing to receive a not so just reward.

Tonight, the ultimate Washington sporting event is taking place — the 45th Annual Congressional Baseball Game, sponsored by Roll Call. Gates open at 6 p.m. at RFK Stadium with annual battle between Republicans and Democrats starting at 7 p.m. Rick Snider previews the matchup in today’s Examiner. No word if there will be testing for steroids or HGH.

Last year’s matchup, won 19-10 by the GOP, raised $125,000 for local charities. Tickets are available through the offices of Rep. Mike Doyle and Rep. Mike Oxley.

Press release: The 45th Annual Roll Call Congressional Baseball Game Hits the Field Tonight at RFK Stadium

The Wizards have taken Oleksiy Percherov with the 18th pick in the NBA draft. Standing a monstrous 7 feet tall, he’ll be a forward, and not a center. Best quote so far seems to come from the Washington Post:

Percherov averaged 11.2 points in 23 games for Paris Basket Racing in the France Pro A league.

Wait.

France has a Pro Basketball League? And a team called “Paris Basket Racing”?!

And Percherov could only score 11 points a game against the French?!

And we picked him in the first round? Okay guys, whatever you say…

The Metro is one of those great spots to people watch in DC. Between the tourists and the interns and the hill rats and other downtown workers, there’s always someone to lock eyes with just for a second. Now there’s a place for all of those missed metro connections: Metro Opens Dates.

Organized by line, you can post your Metro Missed Connections on their free boards. Dave from Crystal City writes:

“To the girl who fainted on the blue line this morning. Once you get your breath back drop me a line here. Your cute. I didn’t see what book you were reading, but I like to read as well. We can use that as a foundation. Dave”

Charley from Springfield writes:

I see you get on at Crystal City with a worried look on your face every morning. Your like a sad Jennifer Aniston as you stare down at your blackberry. I can only assume every morning you receive a depressing email that you read on your way to work. Cheer up my friend, you have a rather large coach bag that should make you smile.

Missed a Metro Connection? Check it out. Thanks much to Ben for suggesting this to us! Have a site you want us to see? Suggest it!

coat vs. escalator

A battle raged today at the Mt Vernon Square Metro station.

On one side was the big bad escalator. On the other a little white coat.

The winner? That is open to debate. The coat was eaten but the escalator is now out of service.

Going to hear the Symphony just got really affordable. The Baltimore Symphony just announced their special summer series on Thursday nights in July at Strathmore Hall in suburban Maryland. The hall itself is a musical wonder, and now that all seats are $25 for the concerts, it’s easy to hear excellent music without breaking the piggy bank.

The Series is focusing on “Classical Hits” with concerts featuring the best of the Baroque, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Beethoven. The Baroque concert makes me quivery just looking at what’s on the program, including the Bach/Elgar Fantasia and Fugue and the Bach/Stokowski Toccata and Fugue in D minor, which are epic masterworks of the Baroque and will likely sound divine in the acoustics at Strathmore. The final concert will feature Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which expresses such magnificent joy that it is to be heard to be believed. Check out the concerts and enjoy the incredible music this summer without mortgaging your house or having to drive to Charm City to hear them.

Two Silver Spring entrepreneurs are breaking barriers, and preventing waters from breaking with Saphia Water, a company due to launch next month. Focusing on the sheer amount of water woman need to drink during pregnancy, these two mums hope to join forces with humanitarian organizations to make sure pregnant women everywhere are able to drink clean, safe and healthy water.

If these ladies are able to create a bottled water with 10.5 grams less sugar than the leading flavoured H20 on the market, then why aren’t more companies doing their part to reduce the amount of sugar that people ingest every day? With bottled water and nalgene bottles being the city’s hottest accessory this summer, this metblogger would hope that the country’s leading beverage distributors would do more to make guzzling the healthiest bevvy on the market, well healthy.

Source – Washington Business Journal – [*]

Around a year ago, I realized that Comcast sucks but like a fool, I went back to it when my RCN Cable + Internet rates went up. All was cool till I returned from my global wanderings to find my Comcast cable + Internet out.

Calling Comcast the first chance I got, yesterday, I was told they would send a technician right out. On Sunday. Sunday, as in four days from when I called and an eternity for my WiFi addiction.

Disgruntled, I decided to call up RCN and see if I could connect to something more. Whoa! RCN Rocks even more than last year!

CSR Chris Coronas explained that not only will my cable + Internet bill drop to $70, almost last years’ $60 combo deal, if I wanted, I could even unbundl the two and just get broadband Internet for $20 a month.

Unbundled Internet service. From a cable company. Wow, I am in shock.

And they’ve been offering unbundled services (as well as bundled, of course) since January 15th of this year. Best yet, the RCN technician is coming out on Saturday, a full day before Comcast, and coming out for free.

Mmm… I like free. I like RCN even more!

Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, all manner of fine films Kevin Smith has produced for us on the big screen. Today, he’s also taking questions on WaPo Live right now. Ask away.