Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. The Washington Highlands neighborhood of the District of Columbia is terra incognita for many Washingtonians. Tucked up against the District’s southeastern border with Maryland’s Prince George’s County, the area is walled off from the rest of the city by Oxon Run Park, the Anacostia Freeway, Bolling Air Force Base, and the Anacostia River, not to mention the yawning gap between its economic......

Yes, we're already hungry for lunch. This photo of some Shanghai noodle soup and sushi, snapped by The Washington Post's Keith Jenkins aka Burnt Pixel, was posted in DCist Photos via Flickr. The weather today? Highs in the low 70s with clouds, according to Capital Weather. Now on to this morning's news ... Tourists Trapped in Washington Monument: The Post reports that 25 people got stuck in the Washington Monument's elevator yesterday, about 470......

Need some wheels? The District Department of Public Works has resumed the auctioning of cars after such municipal auctions were put on hold since last year. From dc.gov: The city has made one change to its auction parameters. Only vehicles 10 years and under will be auctioned. Those over 10 years old will be sold as scrap. In the past, cars as old as 15 and 20 years were routinely offered for auction, earning only......

One of our more favorite nicknames for D.C. that we've heard over the years is Capital of Potholes. In the normal course of the freeze and thaw cycle, roads can take a beating. And the District wants you to tell them where they are. (And they say they'll fill them within three days.) Indicate the pothole location (i.e. address, intersection) and describe the severity of the pothole problem (i.e. depth, width, number of potholes in......