We learned back in July that 903 U Street, NW a former art gallery was going to turn into Dickson Wine Bar. I’m happy to report that they are having a soft opening tonight and hope to open to the public over the weekend or early next week. I took a peek [...]

C’mon Svedka – you’re better than this…

“Dear PoP, Looking glass dropped their entrees. Their excuse: we are transitioning away from being a restaurant. Hmm. I’m disappointed.” Did many folks go to Looking Glass Lounge, on Georgia Ave at Princeton Streets, NW, for the entrees? Personally I’ve always been a big fan of the grilled cheese and tomato. Will you miss the [...]

This is truly a bizarre contraption. It appears to be some sort of mirror contraption outside of a second floor window. Any ideas here?

I’ve seen an elephant and a donkey separately before but it’s rare to see them both in a residential area. For the record I’ve also never seen a flying donkey before: And the elephant is pretty sweet too as it is covered in Pat Oliphant political cartoons:

Notice the house number on the left hand portion of the door.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a row house with great circular rooms like this.

@metrocurean shares the news on twitter that “Ezme is having its grand opening today at 2016 P St, NW”. We spoke about Ezme a few weeks ago. That was a quick arrival! And in other restaurant news the original Thai Tanic at 1326 14th Street, NW is looking to expand [...]

Obviously the building above still has a ways to go before it is finished but I thought is was wild how large the expansion is. You can see the size of the original building in blue. Hard to predict at the moment but do you think this large an expansion/Pop up and out [...]

One of the big mysteries in the Pershing Park case centers around the gaps in the radio dispatches during the mass arrests on Sept. 27, 2002. Plaintiffs lawyers have long argued in U.S. District Court that the tapes turned over by the District contained gaps at the crucial time of the arrests.

When 400 individuals are rounded up and arrested in a park,  it seems reasonable that there would be some police radio activity.

For a time at least, the Office of the Attorney General defended those tapes as being a complete recording of the infamous police activities in Pershing Park. Exhibit A: The affidavit of Denise Alexander [PDF].

At the time, Alexander worked as a training instructor with the District's Office of Unified Communications. In her sworn declaration, she stated: "I did not detect anything technically deficient with the recordings."

Plaintiffs attorneys countered with deposition testimony from D.C. Police Inspector James Crane [PDF] who stated that the tapes were indeed faulty.

So how did Alexander get it so wrong?

In February, Alexander was deposed. She admitted that she did not write nor edit a word of her false affidavit. In fact, that affidavit was given to her to sign by the D.C. Police Department's Deputy General Counsel Ron Harris.

According to court records and sources familiar with the matter, Alexander is clear that she did not understand or have knowledge of the allegations surrounding the problematic tapes. She was just happy that Harris had given her the extra work assignment. She was paid overtime for her tape review.

It appears that Alexander did not actually review the tapes for gaps. In an e-mail she had sent to Harris, it seems she only checked to see if the time stamps were accurate. When she was given Crane's testimony to review, she admitted that she didn't quite understand it. Crane's refutation of her affidavit may have been too technical.

Alexander admitted that she didn't even understand her affidavit. She just signed it.

The one person in charge of that affidavit, who actually understood it, and who had been aware of the controversy surrounding the faulty tapes was D.C. Police Deputy General Counsel Ron Harris.

*file photo by Darrow Montgomery.

This apartment is located at 215 C Street, SE: View Larger Map The Craigslist ad says: “We invite you to discover 215 C Street Apartment Homes, a hidden gem in the heart of Washington DC’s Capitol Hill. We are conveniently located two blocks from the South Capitol Metro and one block from Pennsylvania Avenue with its shopping, [...]

“Dear PoP, We live in a row house as many DCers do and the people in the row house next door are, as I understand, Section 8 tenants. Not to pass judgment on these individuals but I’ve certainly had cleaner, more courteous neighbors. The biggest problem is that they have not bothered to get [...]

The great shot above from LGography is titled, “there’s an elephant in the room…”. And the shot below from AWard Tour has an equally great title, “6AM”. Submit your photos via email or to the PoPville flickr pool here.

This home is located at 3028 N Street, NW: View Larger Map The flier says: “FANTASTIC NEW LISTING in the heart of East Vill of Georgetown. Highly-distinguished, prominent, classic Federal of exceptional scale, quality & sophistication. 6BR/5.5BA. Beautifully proportioned public rooms; tall ceilings; VERY large, south-facing terraced garden; glamorous pool & pool house w/ FB; 4-CAR PRKG! Property [...]

I enjoyed reading yesterday’s judging of the recently opened Churckey/Birch & Barley spots on 14th. Another recently opened spot I’m curious about is Againn which we first heard about back in Sept. ‘09. Againn is located at 1099 New York Ave, NW. Their Web site says: “A contemporary British Isles [...]

Danny Harris is a DC-based photographer, DJ, and collector of stories. In September, he launched People’s District, a blog that tells a people’s history of DC by sharing the stories and images of its residents. Every day, People’s District presents a different Washingtonian sharing his or her insights on everything from Go Go [...]

Yesterday’s LOOK photo has been deemed too controversial for this blog and was removed yesterday afternoon.  Be sure to check out the complete award winning photo essay about autisim by photographer Gihan Tubbeh.   Last week, a photograph  of two men kissing caused some people to cancel their WAPO newspaper subscriptions.   Photographer Gordon Parks took this photograph titled “American Gothic” in 1942 while [...]

Photo by PoPville flickr user ddoubleud From a press release: Public Meeting Scheduled for Thursday, March 18 (Washington, D.C.) The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) is developing innovative new bike infrastructure in the greater downtown area, to accommodate increased bicycling in the city, and to prepare for the expansion of the bikesharing program. To see the latest [...]

Back in the begining of Jan. we heard that Adams Morgan was getting a new coffee shop at 2204 18th Street, NW. It has officially opened. It’s a nice little space with pastries and other food options (the menu was still be finalized when I stopped in) as well as coffee. [...]