Bike to Work Day registration is now open, so mark your calendar for Friday, May 20!  This awesome event, sponsored by WABA, is a great way to get your feet wet riding your bike around the city. At last year’s event, when I had just started out commuting by bike, I won a raffle for a fantastic messenger bag, got all sorts of great bike gear, and enjoyed free food all before 10 AM– all things that made it a bit easier to integrate biking into my daily commute. And no matter where you live or work you’ll probably be close to one pit stop, where you can pick up your free t-shirt and other bike-related goodies.  And best of all, it’s free!

If you need more reasons to dust off that bike and ride it to work, I’ve got ‘em.  The past year of riding my bike to work has been fantastic, so here are my five favorite reasons to bike to work:

5. It could be your fastest way to get there. It certainly is for me!  Every day on my bike I breeze by the bus I typically take, and I get to the office in about half the time it normally takes by public transit.  And with the great network of bike facilities in the city, there are several great bike routes to take through the city.  Still not sure what the best route to work could be?  Check out Ride the City, a fantastic site that gives you options (do you want to get there faster, or do you want to take only bike lanes and bike routes?) for charting the best way to get there.

‘wrong-way bike’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99′

4. You don’t even need a bike of your own to participate. Now that we’ve got Capital Bikeshare stations all across the city, you don’t even need your own bike to bike to work.  Just grab a bike from a station, ride it to work, and drop it off.  The Capital Bikeshare bikes are great for commuting, as they’ve got a little basket area for your bag and you won’t flash half the city if you’re wearing a skirt.  And Capital Bikeshare is also great if you just want to just ride in to work in the morning and commute by another mode in the evening.

‘Hot 99.5′
courtesy of ‘christopher.poole’

3. It’s fun! Biking to work is one of the highlights of my day.  You’re outside, you’re getting a workout, and you’re able to enjoy the trip.  I’d trade a Metro commute where I’m packed like a sardine in for a liberating, refreshing bike ride to work any day. I’m always in a better mood those days when I get to ride my bike to work. So act like a kid again and get on that bike.

‘Biking Rock Creek Park’
courtesy of ‘InspirationDC’

2. It’s healthy and good for the environment. Here’s another time saver: you won’t need to schedule in an extra trip to the gym if you’re biking to work.  You’ll get your blood pumping first thing in the morning and arrive to the office ready to start the day.  And since you’re not taking up an extra seat on the Metro or bus, and not driving your own car, you’re reducing your environmental impact too.

‘bikes’
courtesy of ‘volcanojw’

1. There’s safety in numbers. The more people that ride bikes in the city, the safer it it is to bike in the city.  When motorists see cyclists every day, they expect them more, and drive more carefully around them.  It’s a wonderful thing.  So by becoming a bike commuter, you’d be making it safer for me and every other cyclist out there.  And once cycling in the city is perceived to be safer, even more people will start to bike around the city, making it even more safe.

Choosing to start commuting by bike was one of the best decisions I made last year.   So sign up for Bike to Work Day this year and give it a shot– at the very least you’ll get a free t-shirt, and you may even discover your new favorite way to get around the city.

George Washington was born 279 years ago today, and for the past 126 years our city’s skyline has been dominated by a tribute to him.  The Washington Monument is an iconic piece of architecture, but there are so many myths and legends about it that it could be one of the most misunderstood monuments in the city.  Here’s a collection of our five favorite myths about the Washington Monument.

‘The Moon over Washington’
courtesy of ‘James Turitto’

1. There’s a law in Washington DC that states that nothing can be taller than the Washington Monument. There is absolutely no truth to this. The 1910 height limit is related to the width of the street that a building fronts on and has nothing to do with the Washington Monument (though back in 1899 the height limit was based on the height of the Capitol building). But the Washington Monument never factored into the height limit. That being said, at 555 feet, it is still the tallest structure in Washington– but not the highest point. That title goes to the National Cathedral, which is 676 feet above sea level (even though it’s only 301 feet tall) because it sits on a hill.

2. The Washington Monument lies directly on axis with the Capitol and White House.  This one is also not true.  Because of some issues with ground stability underneath the extremely heavy Washington Monument, it had to be moved, and it sits about 300 feet off axis from the White House. And even though I know the reasoning, this still bothers me when I look at aerial images of the city.  I wonder if it bothers the Obama family when they look out the window?

3. As made famous in The Lost Symbol, there’s a bible buried beneath the Washington Monument. We looked into this one last year and found that it was true. But the bible is just one of dozens of items buried beneath the monument– it was effectively a time capsule, featuring several atlases and reference books, multiple guides to Washington DC and the Capitol, Census records from 1790 to 1848, various poetry, the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence.

‘Sun Rise Over The Nation’s Capitol’
courtesy of ‘Paul Frederiksen’

4. Why does it look like it’s two different colors? It’s not because of some great flood, it’s because the Civil War caused some project delays. There was an eighteen year gap in construction, and by the time the project got back on track, the stone from the original quarry was no longer available.

5. It’s still the tallest all-stone structure in the world. This one’s true. It also remains the tallest obelisk in the world. In fact, for five years it held the record as the world’s tallest structure, but it was surpassed by the Eiffel Tower in 1889.

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Neighborhood names are a touchy subject here in the District, and residents tend to get riled up about what an area is called or what a Metro station is named.  But outside of that, are we even saying these names properly? Chances are you’re actually saying or writing some of these places incorrectly. Read on for some of the most frequently mispronounced names in Washington.

Glover Park rhymes with clover park, right? Wrong. The neighborhood north of Georgetown takes its name from Charles Carroll Glover, a landowner from the 1800s, and the Washington Post tracked down his granddaughter back in 2005 and asked her about how her family pronounces its name.  Her reply?  ”GLUH-ver. Please. Everybody calls it GLOH-ver, and it’s absolutely wrong. It’s GLUH-ver Park.”  But that hasn’t stopped the debate– many residents still say it rhymes with Grover, the Sesame Street character.  So either way you say it, someone will probably tell you that you’re wrong, but if you’re trying to be historically accurate it should sound like lover and not like clover.

‘Madams Organ’
courtesy of ‘MikaAltskan’

That neighborhood next to Mount Pleasant is Adams’ Morgan or Adam’s Morgan, right? This is wrong too, even though you’ll see it pretty frequently. No apostrophe is necessary for this neighborhood.  It gets its name from the two formerly-segregated elementary schools in the area, the all-white John Quincy Adams school and the  all-black Thomas P. Morgan school.  Back in 1956 the Adams-Morgan Better Neighborhood Conference was formed to improve the neighborhood, thus officially coining the name.  Interestingly enough, the neighborhood’s name was hyphenated as Adams-Morgan in the Washington Post up until 2001.  Now the neighborhood is just plain old Adams Morgan.

Think that cute neighborhood up in the northwest corner of DC is called Takoma Park?  You’re wrong there too. We’ve busted this one before, but people still get it wrong.  The neighborhood in DC with its own Metro station is called Takoma.  The city in Maryland that borders it is called Takoma Park.

DuPont circle or Dupont Circle?  You’re both right. Even though the circle was named after Samuel Francis DuPont (with a big ‘P’), Congress named it Dupont Circle (with the lowercase ‘p’) on February 25, 1882.  It’s written just about everywhere with the little ‘p’ these days.

‘L’Enfant Metro Pylon’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

How exactly do you pronounce the name of the guy who laid out Washington DC? It should sort of sound like ‘Longfont’.  In the fabulous book Grand Avenues, author Scott W. Berg writes that many of Pierre L’Enfant’s contemporaries interpreted his name as ‘Longfont’.  So it’s totally okay to anglocize his name a bit to make the transfer point of the blue, orange, yellow, and green Metro lines a little easier to say.

This should probably go without saying, but everything east of the river in the city is not all called Anacostia. There are dozens of neighborhoods east of the river, all with their own character.  Congress Heights is different than Washington Highlands, Dupont Park is different than Barry Farm, and they’re all separate entities from Anacostia.  There are just as many neighborhoods in Southeast as there are in Northwest, and they should not all be called Anacostia.  The fabulous blog Congress Heights on the Rise has an excellent section on ‘Southeast Misconceptions‘ showing how wrong the rest of the city is about this part of town.

And finally, if you think the name of the school for deaf in Northeast is pronounced Gall-yoo-det, you’re wrong. This one is what the Washington City Paper calls the most mispronounced word in the city.  It should actually sound like Gal-luh-det.  The good news here is that you probably won’t get corrected by a Gallaudet student for saying it wrong.

I bet even you DC experts out there are saying something on this list incorrectly.  Are there any other mispronounced places in the city that I’m forgetting?

We love seeing how the District ranks against other cities (not against entire states, thank you very much), especially when we come out on top.  So here’s another first place trophy for DC: the best-designed city flag.  Back in 2004, the flag experts of North America (called vexillologists) came together and voted on their favorite city flags, and DC was voted to have the best city flag out of all of them.  We’re number one!  Interestingly,  in second place was Chicago, with a design that looks like they took ours, rearranged it, and added in another color.  And even though we’re not a state, the good old DC flag also ranked as the eighth best state/provincial flag too.

Anyway, we have a pretty cool flag.  But where did it come from?  And is it really based on George Washington’s coat of arms, as the legend goes?  Or is it the basis for the original United States ’stars and stripes’? This week’s Mythbusting gets to the bottom of the DC flag.

‘DC Love’
courtesy of ‘Tony DeFilippo’

First off, DC didn’t have an official flag for a really long time.  It was founded back in 1791, and it didn’t have an official flag until 1938.  During that in-between time, there were a number of unofficial flags, including the DC National Guard flag.  Back in 1917, a guy by the name of Charles Dunn was compiling a book of state flags, and he noticed that there was no DC flag.  So Dunn decided that DC should have a flag, and it should refer in some way to George Washington.  But then Dunn got involved in the military and forgot about it for a couple years.

Fast forward a couple years to 1938, when Congress finally realized that DC didn’t have a flag.  So they ran a contest to see who could come up with the best design, and Dunn submitted a version of George Washington’s coat of arms.  The Washington family’s coat of arms looks like this and can be traced back to before the 15th century.  Dunn’s design won the contest (beating out another flag that sounds like it was ridiculously complicated: a large star, divided into thirteen parts and featuring the Capitol building, surrounded by 48 small stars).  But even though DC adopted that official flag back in 1938, it wasn’t really used around the city for decades.

‘District of Piiiiiiiiiie’
courtesy of ‘Kevin H.’

The story doesn’t end there though.  Up until the 1980s, most DC-government items featured the city’s seal (which features Lady Justice hanging a wreath on a statue of George Washington), rather than the flag.  According to the City Paper in 1994, the DC seal was being misused in the 1980s– being drawn incorrectly, slapped on vehicles rather than being reserved for official city documents, etc.  So the mayor ordered that the DC flag featuring the stars and bars would replace the seal as the symbol of Washington.  That’s why you see it today all over the place on city vehicles and official materials.  You also see the DC flag as a tattoo more and more, as it’s a pretty cool design that lets you show off your District street cred.

In 2002, there was a movement to change DC’s flag once again.  The new flag would include the phrase “Taxation Without Representation” while following the standard stars and bars design.  The bill passed the DC City Council, but Mayor Williams didn’t sign it and it died.

So, myth confirmed: DC’s flag is based on George Washington’s coat of arms.  But it wasn’t around until way after the original US stars and stripes, and there’s no historical basis for how the Washington coat of arms influenced the creation of the federal flag, so that part is busted.

We’ve come a long way from the days of highlighting a route on a paper map to get from Point A to Point B. And in a big city like Washington, there are so many ways to get around: walking, biking (your own or a shared bike), taking transit, driving, Segway-ing, etc.  But with so many options, it’s often difficult to figure out what the shortest/fastest/easiest way to get somewhere is.  Lucky for us, there are lots of great tools out there that make it a whole lot easier to get around the city.  Here are our picks for our favorite tools for getting around the District!

‘Capital Bikeshare at Night’
courtesy of ‘tedeytan’

5. Capital Bikeshare (Online Map and Apps)
Since joining Capital Bikeshare a few months ago, I’ve been surprised at how frequently I use it.  It’s great for taking short trips to Metro or running quick errands, and the best part is that you don’t have to pre-plan your trip.  Just check out their constantly-updated Station Map, which shows you which stations have bikes or open docks available. Being a bikeshare member makes getting around the city so much easier, because you can add in a bike ride to any part of your trip.  Going from Columbia Heights to Dupont Circle? You can bike the whole way there, or bike over to Adams Morgan and take the L2, or bike over to Mount Pleasant and catch the 42– your call. And when you’re out, you can bring up the app on your phone (there are a couple good free apps to choose from: SpotCycle, iFindBikes, or Bixou), figure out what bikeshare station is closest to you, and see how many bikes are available there. It makes it so easy to decide on the fly whether you’ll be biking part of the way to your next destination.

‘read the sign!’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99′

4. Google Maps
Getting directions from Google couldn’t be simpler– just tell it where you are and where you’re going, and which mode you’d like to take (driving, transit, walking, or biking), and Google Maps will show you the way.  It will also give you different options and tell you generally how long it will take.  There’s just one catch: here in DC, Metro hasn’t yet gotten on board with sharing its data with Google, so the transit directions are currently pretty useless.  However, it looks like they’ll start working together any day now, so keep your fingers crossed!  Even without the transit data though, Google is a great way to figure out driving, walking, or biking directions in the city.

‘R0010349′
courtesy of ‘digital_don’

3. HopStop
HopStop is a great tool for getting from Point A to Point B in the city.  It’s just like the Metro trip planner, but it gives you excellent walking directions and waiting times too.  Tell it where you’re going, and what modes you’re interested in taking (walking, Metro, bus, or a combination), and it’ll tell you exactly long it will take you.  It gives you fantastic door-to-door directions, complete with 360 degree street views to get a feel for an area.  It’s the best tool for telling you how long it’ll take to walk somewhere, how long you’ll be waiting for the bus or train, how long that bus/train trip will take you, and how long it will take to get to your destination.  Great tool for down-to-the-minute trip planning.

‘Doomed.’
courtesy of ‘Cazimiro’

2. Metro Trip Planner, Metro Apps, and NextBus Apps
Metro’s Trip Planner is really helpful in figuring out the best transit options between two points in the region.  You can tell it whether you want to travel by bus, rail, or both, and you can tell it whether you want the fastest route, the easiest route, or the least-walking route.  It’s usually my go-to tool for figuring out how to get to a new address in the city.

And NextBus has pretty much changed my life.  All that standing outside at a freezing cold bus stop, waiting for the bus to arrive?  Just a distant memory. I check my NextBus app before leaving the house, so I can minimize how much time I spend waiting out in the cold.  The apps for Metro waiting times (like iMetroMap, which shows you exactly what the electronic displays on the platform say) are also great– you can always know whether there’s enough time to grab another drink at happy hour or whether you need to say your goodbyes and catch that next red line train.

‘15th St bike lane in use’
courtesy of ‘nevermindtheend’

1. Ride the City
Ride the City is, hands down, the best tool to get around the city by bike.  Tell it where you are and where you’re going, and it will give you three different options for biking there: the safest route (going out of your way to use side streets and bicycle lanes), the safe route (using bike facilities but not going too far out of your way), and the most direct route. It also tells you how far of a trip it is, about how long it will take you, and how many feet of elevation gain you’ll experience.  Their map also shows you bike shops and bike share station locations.  It’s just a fabulous tool that makes biking around the city a lot less intimidating.

One of the greatest things about living in DC is the proximity of so many great museums.  Always wanted to be a spy? Fascinated by textiles?  Love American military medicine?  DC is your place.  And while you might not be fighting the crowds at every museum (I don’t see huge lines at the National Museum of American Jewish Military History, for example), some museums are huge tourist attractions.  Ever wondered what the most popular museums in the city are? And how many objects, art, and specimens the Smithsonian Institution has? Or when the best time to visit a museum is?

‘Sackler #222′
courtesy of ‘andertho’

The Smithsonian Institution’s 17 museums in the DC area (and two others in New York City) attract an average of 30 million visits a year. Admission at all museums is free.  And the Smithsonian Institution has 137 million objects in its collection, but 126 million of those are specimens and artifacts at the National Museum of Natural History.

The museums along the Mall are some of the largest tourist attractions in the city.  It’s pretty easy to guess that the Air & Space museum is the busiest Smithsonian museum, since every single time I’ve ever visited I’ve been overwhelmed with the crowds.  Over 8 million visits were recorded at the Air & Space Museum on the Mall last year, which is crazy when you realize that only 16.4 million people visit DC in any given year.  So it’s safe to say that the Air & Space Museum is on the agenda for most of the visitors to the Nation’s Capital.

Here’s the full list of 2010 visits for the Smithsonian Institution in the Washington area:

1. National Air & Space Museum – 8.3 million
2. National Museum of Natural History – 6.2 million
3. National Museum of American History – 4.2 million
4. National Zoo – 2.3 million
5. Smithsonian Castle – 1.8 million
6. National Museum of the American Indian – 1.3 million
7. National Portrait Gallery & Smithsonian American Art Museum – 1.1 million
8. Air & Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center (out by Dulles Airport) – 1.1 million
9. Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden – 621,000
10. Freer Gallery of Art – 488,000
11. Ripley Center – 363,000
12. National Postal Museum – 343,000
13. National Museum of African Art – 310,000
14. Sackler Gallery – 308,000
15. Renwick Gallery – 151,000
16. Anacostia Community Museum – 58,000

‘Clouds over NMNH HDR’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

But even though the Smithsonian Museums dominate the museum landscape in DC, there are several other notable private museums in the city.  We don’t have exact visitor figures for many of them because they’re private institutions, but they’re just as busy as many of the Smithsonian Museums.  The Holocaust Museum has attracted more then 30 million visitors since it opened in 1993, which averages out to over two million visitors per year.  The International Spy Museum attracts about 750,000 visitors in an average year.  The Newseum attracted 714,000 visitors in its first year here in DC, and that’s not counting the hundreds of private events hosted there in a given year. And the National Building Museum gets over 400,000 visitors in a year.

Even with all of these different museum options in the city, it seems like some of them are perpetually busy.  So when is the best time to visit museums to avoid the crowds?  Try December or January.  Those are the months with the lowest number of tourists in the city, so you’re more likely to have some room to move around.  Whatever you do, beware of long lines and cranky children in April and June, which are the busiest tourist months of the year in DC.

It’s easy to just want to hibernate this time of year– it’s dark when you get home, it’s too cold to be outside for more than 10 minutes, and well, not much can compete with a warm couch and a Snuggie.  And now that the holiday season is over, there aren’t as many fun winter events, like tree lightings or holiday parties, to distract you from the winter doldrums. But there area some great seasonal activities in DC that are definitely worth leaving the house for.  Here are our five favorite winter activities in the District!

‘DC’s first snow of 2010′
courtesy of ‘theqspeaks’

5. Visit a museum.
The tourists haven’t yet descended on the city, so the museums aren’t completely packed this time of year. Yes, you can actually visit the Air & Space Museum without being driven into a murderous rage!  And there are still lots of great exhibits going on, like portraits of the Kennedys at the American History Museum, LEGO buildings at the National Building Museum, and art by Haitian children after the earthquake at the African Art Museum.

‘I think I’ll pass’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99′

4. Make good on your resolution, and start training.
DC is full of athletes, and there are dozens of great athletic events to gear up for here in the city.  Always wanted to run a marathon?  You’ve got time to start training for one– the National Marathon here in DC is 3 months away.  The DC Triathlon is six months away, so you’ve got more than enough time to start training for that too!  Join the DC Tri Club’s New Triathlete Program to figure out how to get from couch potato to triathlete in four months.  Now’s the time to get to the gym and start training for that race you’ve always wanted to do.

‘hot chocolate’
courtesy of ‘jenna_huntsberger’

3. Or ignore the resolution, and eat all the warm, delicious food you want.
As Brittany mentioned in a previous Five Favorites, there are lots of great restaurants in our city that’ll warm you up. And Restaurant Week is January 17-23, so you can try out a new local restaurant without breaking the bank.  Enjoy warm soups, hot drinks, and those leftover Christmas cookies while you still can.

‘23_19A’
courtesy of ‘m hoek’

2. Volunteer.
We get to climb into beds in our lovely warm houses at the end of a cold day, but many others aren’t so lucky.  Many volunteer organizations could use your help this time of year.  Whether you’re interested in making/delivering food for those less fortunate, hanging out with kids who need positive influences, helping take care of adorable animals, or helping an unemployed person get back on their feet, there are dozens of charitable organizations in the city that would love your help.  Take a look at where they are and what they do, and make a new years resolution to help them out.

‘Sculpture Garden Ice Rink’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

1. Go ice skating!
It may not be Rockefeller Center, but the Sculpture Garden’s ice rink is worth a visit this winter.  Sure, it’s a small rink and it can get crowded, but it’s a perfect wintertime activity.  The rink is open daily until 9 PM (or 11 PM on Friday and Saturday nights) until mid-March, so get out there and enjoy this winter weather!  I guarantee you’ll miss it in August.

DC is a city of nerds, and nerds love trivia.  And 2010 was a great year for nerdy trivia here at We Love DC– plenty of busted myths about the District, stories about monuments around town, and plenty of facts about DC neighborhoods. Washington is a pretty cool place with lots of local trivia, so read on for some of our favorite trivia-related features of the year!  And if you’re really a trivia nerd, answer the trivia questions at the end and win a special nerdy prize!

‘a shift to the right…’
courtesy of ‘mofo’

Busting Myths in 2010: The Mythbusting feature has been a pleasure to write, and I’ve learned so much by researching all the things I hear about the District.  Last week I wrote a roundup of some of my favorite DC myths– read it and you’ll learn that everything you think you know about DC is wrong.

Some of my favorite Mythbusting pieces have been the ones that have really surprised me.  Here are a couple of the ones I thought were pretty interesting.

• We love to complain about the weather every year, so I was surprised when I found out that this past year really did have one of the most extreme weather years ever.
• I really liked getting to the bottom of why Metro couldn’t post simple “stand to the right” signs in stations around escalators.
• I’m not really a history buff, but I found the story of DC’s fort system to be really cool.  These little-known forts are definitely worth a visit.

‘View from NPG Tilt-Shift’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

Exploring the City: It’s easy to take for granted what you see every day in the city.  But there are so many cool things here that might surprise you.

• Take a second glance at those monuments you pass every day.  The monuments that you see all the time have some secrets, and there are some obscure monuments and memorials out there in the city.
• The most popular Where We Live features focused on Near Southeast and Columbia Pike, and one of my favorites was the one where I got an all-caps e-mail about how awesome the neighborhood was.
• Wondering what makes a cool neighborhood?  I really enjoyed rounding up the common themes of why people loved their neighborhoods.

‘Jason got whooped by the girl from Harvard’
courtesy of ‘dabdiputs’

DC Trivia Quiz! If you love trivia like I do, take a shot at answering the following five questions.  The first person who answers them all correctly in the comments will get this Amtrak poster (which I tried to give away in February, but the winners I picked never claimed their prize).  Now’s your chance to show off your trivia knowledge!

1. What’s the most-read Mythbusting feature on We Love DC?
2. What is Jenn’s favorite street in the city?
3. Which neighborhood had a living mascot for several years?
4. Which President is quoted on the 40-foot monument outside of the city?
5. Which restaurant in the city is notable for using almost half a mile of material for curtains alone?

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In the spirit of wrapping up the year with a nice little bow on it, welcome to a roundup of our favorite myths over the past year.  There are so many myths about the transportation, history, and culture of the District that we’ve dug into this year. So here are our favorites, all in one place! Read this through and you’ll know more about the District than most people out there.

‘Empty Metro’
courtesy of ‘ewilfong’

Transportation Myths
Whether you love or hate Metro, you’ve got to admit it’s a fascinating system. Many of the most popular Mythbusting features concerned the Metro system, like why Metro can’t post “Stand to the Right” signs, how the bus routes were named, or why there’s no Georgetown Metro station. Oh, and while we’re at it– the Metro map isn’t to scale, so that’s why it takes so long to get from Rosslyn to Court House compared to Court House to Clarendon.

We’ve got a crazy set of streets here in the District, too.  There’s no J Street, but it’s not because the planner of DC hated John Jay.  The network of streets is so confusing that some people think that they were designed that way to repel armies and protect the city (it’s not true, but the myth just won’t die– I hear this one at least once a week on average!).

There are plenty of bike myths out there too.  How bike-friendly is DC?  Pretty bike-friendly.  It’s getting easier and easier to get around the city on two wheels.  But when you’re riding around in the bike lane, watch out– plenty of other vehicles are allowed in the city’s bike lanes too.

‘The Mall (from the Washington Monument), Washington, D. C.’
courtesy of ‘Cornell University Library’

History Myths
The District is a pretty amazing city with centuries of really cool stories behind it.  Was the city laid out on a swamp?  Nope.  But was it planned by Pierre L’Enfant, who then died penniless and alone because someone essentially stole his plans?  Yup.

There are lots of amazing monuments and memorials out there commemorating important historical figures. The Lincoln Memorial has a whole host of stories about it (nope, that’s not Robert E. Lee’s face in Lincoln’s hair), but there are plenty of obscure monuments and memorials you’ve probably never even heard of.  And you know the Hoof Code of statues– the theory that the number of horses hooves on the ground correspond to how the statue’s subject died?– totally a myth.

‘… vs spy’
courtesy of ‘christaki’

Culture Myths
There are all sorts of things you pick up about the city just by living here for a little while. But so much of what you hear is wrong! It’s not true that no one is from DC, DC doesn’t have more non-English speakers than other comparable cities (but it does have an international vibe), and not all the jobs in DC are based around the Federal government.

But there are some truths out there too.  It’s true that more than twice as many people work here than live here, and it’s overwhelmingly Democratic-leaning.  It’s also true that you’re worth about $4,500 for just filling out your Census form.

There’s so much culture and history here in the District that people come from all across the country just to see it.  Here’s what they all need to learn before setting foot inside our (originally) ten-mile square.

There you have it– the rundown of DC-related myths from 2010.  Stay tuned next year for even more Mythbusting!  And if you have a DC myth you’ve always wondered about, drop me a line at shannon@welovedc.com.

Welcome to another edition of DC Mythbusting.  This week we’re looking into the Metrobus system.  The rail system is easy enough to understand– it is organized by color, with five lines in total.  But there are over 300 bus routes serving the DC area, so the color system wouldn’t work (though I would love to ride the Burnt Sienna line or the Dandelion line).  So how are the Metrobus routes named?  Why do some have a letter and a number, some a number and a letter,  and others just have a number?  Read on for the answer!

DC had several successful streetcar companies back in the nineteenth century and much of the city was served by streetcar routes, but by the time of the Great Depression many of these streetcars were forced to consolidate.  By the 1930s, many of the streetcar lines were being converted to bus lines.  To keep it all straight, a naming/numbering system was established in 1936 for the consolidated routes within the Capital Transit Company.  Streetcar lines were given numbers (1 through 9, starting in Rosslyn and going around the city clockwise), bus lines were given letters (A through Z, starting in the far southeast and running counter-clockwise around the city), and individual routes would add a number after that initial number or letter, with even digits signifying all-day routes and odd digits signifying rush-hour service only.  Many of today’s bus routes take their names from this early naming system.

‘metro bus’
courtesy of ’sciascia’

For example, the Mount Pleasant streetcar line was Line 4 in the streetcar numbering system. There were two routes that ran on that line, the 40 and the 42 (both with all-day service, as indicated by the even number). Streetcars ran to Mount Pleasant until the 1960s, when they were replaced by buses. The buses took the names of the streetcars, which is why you can still catch the 42 up to Mount Pleasant all day, but you can only take the 43 during rush hour. This also explains the naming of the 30’s buses on Pennsylvania Avenue (which replaced Line 3 – Pennsylvania Avenue on the streetcar system) or the 52/53/54 on 14th Street (which replaced Line 5 – 14th Street on the streetcar system).

Many of the letter routes also reference the bus routes laid out in 1936.  For example, the G line of buses served Northwest and Brookland, and today the G2 serves Georgetown and Brookland.  The S line of buses served 16th Street, which led to the S1/S2/S4/S9 buses that run up and down 16th Street now.  The X line served H Street NE, and today you can still catch the X1, X2, or X3 to H Street.  So that explains a lot of the letter-number combinations out there.

‘Super Cool New 64 Fort Totten Bus’
courtesy of ‘Wayan Vota’

Virginia’s numbering system is a bit different in that it uses a number-letter system (the 38B or the 5A, for example) rather than the letter-number system frequently seen in the Metrobus routes serving Maryland and the District.  This is because there were two other companies running the Virginia lines, and they numbered their routes to distinguish them from the routes running in Maryland and the District.

So the reason there’s no consistency in system-wide bus route numbering is mostly due to the conversion of streetcar lines over time and the fractured ownership of DC-area transit systems in the past.  Several different companies were running streetcars and buses in the era before Metro arrived on the scene, and it made more sense to preserve the names of the lines than to shake things up.

Wondering where your bus route came from?  Here’s the general rule:

• If it’s just a number, it probably originated from a streetcar line. This is true for the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90 series buses that exist today.
• If it’s a letter and a number, it’s likely that it originated from one of the Capital Transit Company’s bus lines.  Many of these routes still serve the same areas that they served back in the early 1900s.
• If it’s a number and a letter, you’re probably in Virginia.  Many of these routes have been around for a long time too.

The mystery of the seemingly random bus numbering system is solved!  So even though the route names don’t make all that much sense today, it’s nothing new: DC-area commuters have been confused by the bus naming system for almost eighty years.

Ask just about any Washingtonian who planned the city, and they’ll know it was some French guy, or maybe they’ll even come up with his name, Pierre L’Enfant.  But that wasn’t always the case– for years, Pierre L’Enfant never got credit for designing the city.  So while we all know this ‘myth’ is true, for decades it was just that: a myth. Wondering how this all came to be? Read on for the sad story (spoiler alert: there’s a happy ending!).

Back in 1791, George Washington announced the new nation’s capital would be constructed here at the confluence of the Potomac and Eastern Branch rivers, in a square that was to be ten miles on each side.  Pierre L’Enfant, a French artist/engineer, was a friend of Washington’s and asked to be a part of the planning of this new city.  Washington agreed, and L’Enfant was put on the job.

Over the next couple months, L’Enfant worked closely with two surveyors, Benjamin Banneker and Andrew Ellicott, in realizing his plan for the city. L’Enfant came up with the brilliant outline for the city– a series of grand avenues radiating out from the centers of power, with a grid street network on top of that, and a central green connecting it all. Here’s the thing: L’Enfant was really passionate about his work.  And with that passion came a bit of craziness.  He missed some deadlines, had frequent shouting matches, and pissed off some high-powered people.  In March of 1792, Washington was forced to dismiss him from the planning effort.

‘way’
courtesy of ‘Barbara.K’

Banneker and Ellicott took over the planning then, with Banneker allegedly replicating L’Enfant’s plan from memory (it turns out this isn’t true– the timelines don’t match up, and draft versions of L’Enfant’s plan were still in the city).  Andrew Ellicott then took it upon himself to produce a final, engraved plan for DC that was strikingly similar to L’Enfant’s and present it as his own.  He got credit for designing the city, and L’Enfant became a crazy old man who hung out in the Capitol asking for payment for his work (which no one believed he did).  He died in 1825 with only $46 to his name, and with no recognition of his work.

Fast forward 75 years: in 1901, DC was struggling (no one wanted to live here, cows grazed on the Mall, it was all a mess).  The Senate formed the McMillan Commission, a team of planners and engineers who were told to fix it.  As part of their research into the history of DC, the McMillan Commission uncovered Pierre L’Enfant’s initial plans and realized that Ellicott got all of L’Enfant’s credit, and that the kooky old man who wanted his money actually had a point.  They also realized that the best thing they could do to fix the city was to implement more of L’Enfant’s design.

‘L’Enfant’
courtesy of ‘MichaelTRuhl’

Here’s your happy ending: In 1909, Congress decided to make things right.  L’Enfant’s remains were disinterred from a farm in Maryland, transported to the District, and laid in state on April 28, 1909.  Then the remains were taken from the Capitol to Arlington Cemetery, and now his grave overlooks the city the he was instrumental in planning.

L’Enfant was responsible for planning the city, that’s not a myth.  But it’s a shame that L’Enfant didn’t live to see recognition or appreciation for his plan for Washington, and that he died as a crazy old man who probably told far-fetched tales of planning DC that no one believed.  If only there had been a Mythbusting: Andrew Ellicott Planned DC back in the 1800s!

For further reading: Grand Avenues by Scott W. Berg is a fantastic biography about Pierre L’Enfant’s life and experiences in Washington.  It’s highly recommended if you find this stuff interesting.

For the past year and a half I wrote the Where We Live feature for We Love DC.  Every edition would take me to another neighborhood in the city, where I’d talk to residents and find out what makes that neighborhood a great place to live. And while every neighborhood was different, and there were some unique characteristics of particular neighborhoods (like the neighborhood rooster in Takoma), there were a lot of similarities too.  After a while, I’d hear the same things over and over again as the main things that people love about their neighborhoods.  Here are some of the elements common to our favorite neighborhoods in the District.

‘Adams Morgan Day’
courtesy of ‘InspirationDC’

Number 5: Parades, Street Festivals, or Farmers Markets
Regular community events were a major part of what people love about where they live.  Whether it was the ridiculous number of parades and street festivals in Takoma, weekly outdoor concerts in Rockville, or annual neighborhood festivals like Adams Morgan Day or Cheverly Day, people love community gatherings.  Farmers’ markets were big too– having an opportunity to stock up and local produce without leaving the neighborhood is something that is universally appreciated.

‘222/365′
courtesy of ‘Danilo.Lewis|Fotography’

Number 4: Access, but Separation
One of the elements that kept coming up when I’d talk to residents is that they loved that their neighborhood was close to all the action downtown, but it was a little removed from all the action and had a sense of common identity.  Because their neighborhoods are a little harder to get to, residents of Brightwood loved their small town character, residents of Southwest Waterfront have created a great co-op-focused community, and residents of Palisades feel like they live in a leafy suburb.

‘Peregrine Espresso’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

Number 3: Neighborhood Restaurants & Bars
It’s easy to love your neighborhood when you don’t have to leave it for a great meal.  And when you become a regular at your favorite restaurant, it’s easy to feel like you’re part of a community.  While not every neighborhood can have the variety in restaurants of Dupont Circle or Penn Quarter, just about every neighborhood resident I spoke to had a favorite bar or restaurant hangout in their ‘hood.  There are some nights when you just don’t feel like venturing more than a few blocks for dinner, and having a selection of neighborhood bars and restaurants is key.

‘quiet day’
courtesy of ‘ekelly80′

Number 2: Community Parks
Any neighborhood needs a nice leafy place for residents to bring their kids and dogs.  All you need is a bench, a cup of coffee, and a free afternoon to get to know your neighbors.  District residents are lucky to have lots of parkland to enjoy, including an array of fantastic neighborhood parks like circles, triangles, and squares.  Some neighborhoods with great parks include River East and its 20-mile Anacostia Riverwalk Trail, Columbia Pike and its many great parks, and Chevy Chase & Tenleytown with access to Rock Creek Park, several fantastic smaller parks, and the best pool in the city.

‘The view from the stoop’
courtesy of ‘needlessspaces’

Number 1: Front Porches and Stoops
Even with a neighborhood with scheduled community events and lots of great restaurants and parks, you still have to leave the house to be social. This is why front stoops are awesome– they’re perfect for people-watching, bumping into neighbors, and enjoying the outdoors. And the best part is that you don’t even have to leave your property! Petworth has a fantastic “porch culture” and a resident of Bloomingdale told me that walking down her block would sometimes take an hour because she’d stop to talk to all her neighbors on their porches.  Even those of us without big front porches can take part– a friend of mine in Adams Morgan regularly brings out lawn chairs to her front yard for people-watching on summer nights, creating her own front stoop.

The things that make neighborhoods great are the things that bring neighbors together. We spend so much time cooped up in our houses (especially this time of year) that getting to know that cute guy down the block who is always walking his Lab, or the older resident who has probably lived on your block for decades, is the best way to feel like you’re part of a community.  DC has a reputation as a transient city where no one takes the time to get to know their neighbors, even though that’s really not the case.  So the stoops, parks, and community events that bring people together aren’t just nice things to have, they’re your opportunity to make DC feel like home.

We know the statistic: With more than 3% of the population living with HIV, the District HIV rate is on par with Uganda and some parts of Kenya. But how can you make a difference in preventing HIV?  Here’s a way: the DC HIV Prevention Community Planning Group (HPCPG), an all-volunteer group that works with the DC government each year to create a prevention plan to stop the spread of HIV in the District, is looking for new members. Members serve a two-year term and have an opportunity to shape prevention programs in the District.

The HPCPG is currently recruiting new members from all backgrounds, with an emphasis on applicants representative of the following populations: youth (13-24), seniors (50+), men who have sex with men, injection drug users, and individuals living with HIV/AIDS.  If you’re interested in learning more, visit http://doh.dc.gov/hiv or download an application.

DC is a special place: it’s the center of the country’s political power, but it has little to no political power of its own.  And every election season, our city is cast as just about the worst possible place in the world.  The District is notoriously left-leaning, but we’re about to welcome a lot more right-leaning representatives and staffers to the area too.  This week’s Mythbusting will tackle some political myths.  Is DC one of the most liberal districts in the country?  And what about the region as a whole?

So, is the District one of the most liberal districts in the country?  The answer is yes.  DC residents have consistently voted Democratic in elections for decades.  Back in 2008, Obama won an astonishing 92.5% of the vote in DC, the highest rate of any jurisdiction in the country.  And while Obama’s job performance ratings have gone down in the past couple years, DC still loves him: 85% of District residents still approve of his job performance, according to the Examiner.

‘They did’
courtesy of ‘James Bowe’

The District isn’t alone in its Democratic-leaning voting tendencies: About 3/4 of Arlington County residents voted for Obama back in 2004, and it is pretty consistently a Democratic stronghold (Jim Moran has been representing Virginia’s 8th District– which includes Arlington and Alexandria– for 20 years now).  And every elected official in Montgomery County, MD is a Democrat.  Don’t forget about Prince George’s County in Maryland too– with more than 85% of voters there supporting Obama back in 2008, Prince George’s County tends to vote overwhelmingly Democratic as well.  So DC and its inner suburbs are all pretty blue.

But there’s more to liberalism than just voting for Democrats, at least according to Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller. Apparently, liberals also like Whole Foods, unionization laws, same-sex marriage, and smoking bans!  The Daily Caller ranked the 100 most liberal-friendly jurisdictions back in April based on those items and past voting preferences, and many of the jurisdictions in the Washington region were called out:

• Number 59: Fairfax County, VA
• Number 47: Howard County, MD
• Number 32: Prince George’s County, MD
• Number 14: City of Alexandria, VA
• Number 13: Arlington County, VA
• Number 10: Washington, DC
• Number 2: Montgomery County, MD

San Francisco grabbed the top spot, but the sheer number of Washington-area jurisdictions on the list shows the region’s left-leaning tendencies.  And outside of Tucker Carlson’s partisan opinion, the DC region has been identified over and over as among the most liberal/Democratic-voting in the country: DC was ranked the 4th most liberal city back in 2005, and Maryland has been called one of the bluest states in the country.

All in all, the District and many of the surrounding counties are pretty heavily Democratic-voting and left-leaning– definitely to a degree that isn’t matched by many other regions in the country.  And in the overwhelmingly purple county map of 2008 election results, there’s a clear blue swath right around the District.  So that confirms it: the DC region is pretty solidly Democratic, and the District itself is among the more liberal cities in the country.  And this trend seems independent of the makeup of Congress, so even the recent election results won’t likely change the deep blue character of the area.

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This weekend is the Marine Corps Marathon, one of the largest races in the Washington region. Over 30,000 people are signed up for the marathon and 10K, and many streets in Arlington and the District will be closed for the event. Good luck to everyone who is running!

But once the last runner crosses the finish line on Sunday, don’t think that running season is over in the District. We’ve still got several weeks of good road races coming up, including dozens of turkey trots in the area. Here’s the rundown!

‘Runners’
courtesy of ‘EvinDC’

November 6-7

On Saturday, November 6, kick off the turkey trot season with the Turkey Trot 5K Road Race in Manassas.  This 5K run/walk will be held at the Boys & Girls Club of Manassas starting at 8 AM on Saturday.  Registration is $30 for runners or walkers.  Funds raised by the 5K will go to ensuring that the Boys & Girls Club can continue to provide quality services for youth in the area.

On Sunday, bring your dog along to the Dash 5K & Doggie Run in Rock Creek Park (starting at 16th & Kennedy Street NW).  This event features a timed 5K for humans and a 1-mile run for dog/human teams.  Registration is $35 for the 5K and $25 for the Doggie Run, and proceeds benefit the Washington Animal Rescue League.

‘Second-place runner outbound’
courtesy of ‘runneralan2004′

November 13-14

Are you a Redskins fan?  Plan on getting up for the NFL Fit For You 5K at National Harbor on Saturday, November 13. This isn’t just a 5K, it’s a full fun-filled day of fashion, fitness, and family!  So break out your favorite team’s jersey, run a 5K, then spend the rest of the day hanging out with football players, trying to win fun prizes (like Super Bowl tickets), and running around a play area.  Registration is just $5.

The Veterans Day 10K will be held on Sunday, November 14 at West Potomac Park.  The 10K run and 2.25 mile fun walk will take place around Hains Point and the Tidal Basin.  This is the largest autumn 10K in DC with 2,500 runners and walkers expected.  Registration is $25 before November 1 and $30 afterwards, and proceeds will benefit Paralyzed Veterans of America.

November 20-21

The Town of Herndon is sponsoring a Turkey Trot 5K at 4 PM on Saturday, November 20.  This is the race for runners who can’t force themselves out of bed for the typical 8 AM start time!  Registration is $15 plus a can of food, which will be donated to LINK.  The Reuse-a-Shoe Recycling Program will be collecting used running shoes to be ground up and turned into material for use in track fields and playgrounds, so bring your old athletic shoes too.

‘Turkey Trot 2009 – Only 2 miles to go’
courtesy of ‘pixonomy’

November 25

There are several races for you to check out if you’re in town and up for a race on Thanksgiving morning:

• Here in the District, the 40th Annual SOME Thanksgiving Day Trot for Hunger will take place on Saturday morning at 8 AM.  This 5K walk/run and 1 mile fun run will take place on Hains Point.  Registration is $23 and goes to help So Others Might Eat, which provides 1,000 meals on Thanksgiving (and every other day of the year) to the poor and homeless.
• The Alexandria Turkey Trot is a 5 mile run held in the Del Ray neighborhood on Thanksgiving morning at 10 AM.  More than 3,000 runners are expected to participate in this year’s race.  Registration is $20 plus two food donations to ALIVE.
• The YMCA Bethesda-Chevy Chase Turkey Chase will be held in Bethesda on Thanksgiving morning at 8:30 AM.  This race features a 10K run, 2 mile fun run/walk, and a 50-meter Tot Trot.  There’s food, music, and family fun to look forward to past the finish line.  Registration varies by the distance you’re running and the time you register, and proceeds go to benefit the YMCA and other community programs.

There you have it– a whole month of running opportunities!  See you out there!

Having lived in the District for several years, and considering myself pretty knowledgeable about how to get around the city, I’m always happy to point tourists in the right direction when they’re wandering around lost.  But this past weekend, I was stumped– I was asked for directions to the Titanic Memorial, and I had no idea that such a memorial even existed in the District.  If I hadn’t heard about that one, what else was I missing out on?

If you know where the obscure Albert Einstein Memorial (above) is located, it’s easy to think you know where all of the monuments and memorials in the District are.  But would you believe that there’s a monument dedicated to Maine lobstermen here?  Or a park dedicated to Sonny Bono?  Or a memorial showing a fireman being run over? Let me just go ahead and confirm the myth– all these things exist.  Read on to find out what you’re missing!

‘Maine Lobster Memorial’
courtesy of ‘kimberlyfaye’

The Maine Lobstermen Memorial
Really, a tribute to Maine lobstermen here in the District?  Believe it or not, it’s here. And it’s not as strange as it seems– it does sit on Maine Avenue, close to the Maine Avenue Fish Market. This statue is a copy of a statue created for the 1939 World’s Fair. The original was displayed in the Hall of States to show what Maine was all about.  This replica was created in the 1970s and has been sitting here in DC since 1983.  Read all about this “obscure monument to lobsterdom” at Roadside America.

‘Sonny Bono’
courtesy of ‘dbking’

Sonny Bono Memorial Park
A park dedicated to the memory of entertainer Sonny Bono, right in the middle of the Dupont Circle neighborhood? Yep, it’s there.  When Sonny Bono died in a skiing accident in 1998, his friend and local real estate developer Geary Simon wanted to pay tribute to him in the District.  So Simon bought an unused triangle of land at the corner of New Hampshire Avenue, 20th Street, and O Street, installed sprinklers, benches, and a fence, and the Sonny Bono Memorial Park was born.  Fun fact: beneath the park lies a vault of Sonny Bono memorabilia, including sheet music and campaign memorabilia from Bono’s congressional campaign.

‘Monument to a Run-Over Fireman’
courtesy of ‘Chuck â��Cavemanâ�� Coker’

Run-Over Fireman Monument
Ok, this has to be a joke: a monument showing a DC firefighter getting run over? This one exists too!  And it’s so weird that it has garnered a spot on the list of America’s Strangest Monuments.  It shows the demise of Benjamin Grenup, a DC fireman who was killed in 1856 when he was run over by a firetruck.  The monument is located at Glenwood Cemetery in Northeast DC.

‘Women’s Titanic Memorial Sculpture’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

The Women’s Titanic Memorial
The memorial that I was asked about last week is currently located at 4th and P Streets in Southwest, but it hasn’t always been there.  The Women’s Titanic Memorial was unveiled in 1931 in Rock Creek Park along the Potomac River, but it was moved in 1966 to accommodate the construction of the Kennedy Center.  And even though it’s called the Women’s Titanic Memorial, it actually honors men.  After the Titanic disaster, a group of women petitioned Congress to allow them to create a monument to the gallant men who allowed women and children to board the lifeboats first.  Fun fact: Kate Winslet imitated this pose in the 1997 movie Titanic.

If you had told me there were tributes in the District to Maine lobstermen, Sonny Bono, a run-over fireman, and the Titanic, I wouldn’t have believed you.  But DC is full of surprises!  And these aren’t the only bizarre and obscure monuments out there in the city.  Have you come across any other strange monuments or memorials that seem a little out of place here?

Just this week, DDOT adopted a complete streets policy that encourages streets that accommodate all users– motorists, cyclists, pedestrians, and transit users.  This marks a shift from the auto-centric planning that has long dominated transportation planning throughout the country.  Even though DC is slightly late with its policy (168 jurisdictions already have complete streets policies on record), there are already so many great streets in the District that are fantastic examples of complete streets.  So here’s a list of our five favorite complete streets in the District.

‘Day 80: Capitol Hill Sunset’
courtesy of ‘InspirationDC’

Number 5: East Capitol Street
Not only does East Capitol Street have a beautiful view of the Capitol framed by trees, it’s also a lovely street to travel on. Lots of sidewalks, well-marked bike lanes, bus stops, and just two lanes of traffic make this street a pleasure to walk or bike along. The surrounding Capitol Hill neighborhood and the proximity of Lincoln Park make this stretch even more beautiful.

‘Go Skate Day’
courtesy of ‘maxedaperture’

Number 4: 14th Street
The stretch of 14th Street from Thomas Circle through U Street up to Columbia Heights is another great example of a complete street.  There are bike lanes in both directions from Thomas Circle to U Street (and several Capital Bikeshare stations along the corridor), pretty wide sidewalks, and lots of great transit service (the 52/53/54 line serves the street, along with the Adams Morgan-McPherson Square Circulator).  It does have a tendency to turn into gridlock near K Street as people block the box during rush hour, but otherwise it’s a pretty great street for all users.

‘Cowboys in the Street’
courtesy of ‘M.V. Jantzen’

Number 3: 7th Street
DC’s downtown has come alive in the past decade with all the development along 7th Street NW.  And it’s a great street for just about everyone– there’s a shared bike/bus lane (even though that restriction seems to be ignored a lot of the time), nice looking brick sidewalks, plenty of crosswalks, and of course a Barnes dance that lets pedestrians take over the intersection at 7th and H.  And with so much activity on the street at just about any hour, it’s a pleasant place to be.  And there’s so much energy.  Tom says, “I love the different textures that run along that stretch… I love the energy around Verizon Center on a game night.  To see the Caps faithful descend like a red mob, it’s really amazing.  I love the Friendship Arch at H Street, and the shuttle that takes you off to H Street.  There’s a lot to love on that street.”

‘Pennsylvania Avenue’
courtesy of ‘Rob Shenk’

Number 2: Pennsylvania Avenue
The most well-known street in the District also happens to be a great example of a complete street.  Pennsylvania Avenue has a prominent cycle track for cyclists, wide sidewalks on either end to accommodate pedestrians, lots of bus stops to accommodate transit users, and lots of lanes to accommodate motorists.  It’s a great place to walk, with tree-lined streets (seriously, look at all the trees in the photo above!), benches for sitting, a beautiful view, and plenty of attractions like museums and restaurants.

‘Room & Board T Street NW’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

Number 1: Any Number of Awesome Neighborhood Streets
Some of the best streets for bikes and pedestrians aren’t the big streets and avenues listed above, they’re the smaller neighborhood streets around the District that you walk and bike on every day.  Brittany loves Kilbourne Place NW in Mount Pleasant, saying “You can easily walk/bike, there is a gentle hill to it, not too many cars, lots of trees. Very ‘neighborhood’ feel.”  I’m partial to Q Street and R Street in Dupont, which both have great bike lanes, brick sidewalks, and lots of shady trees. They’re perfect neighborhood streets that prioritize pedestrians and cyclists while still accommodating cars.  Calvert Street in Adams Morgan is another great street, with its bike lanes and wide sidewalks and several bus routes.

DC is home to lots of great streets that accommodate everyone, from our big avenues to our one-way side streets.  And while Pennsylvania Avenue has it all, many neighborhood tree-lined streets with bike lanes, sidewalks, and bus stops do too.  DDOT’s policy is a step in the right direction to ensure that all of DC’s streets, no matter what size they are, are safe and comfortable for all users.

This Sunday is the Army 10-Miler, starting at 8 AM at the Pentagon. The race is the largest 10-mile run in the country, with over 30,000 registered participants.  The Metro is opening early on Sunday to get all those runners to the Pentagon, and there will be a whole lot of street closures on Sunday morning as well.

The race expo will be held at the DC Armory on Friday and Saturday this weekend.  This isn’t just your typical pre-race expo with displays and sales on athletic gear, this expo is actually doing some good.  Bring your new or slightly worn running shoes to the expo this weekend to help out Soles4Souls, a charity that distributes shoes to disadvantaged people worldwide.

Sunday should be beautiful weather for the race, so even if you’re not registered, plan on heading out to watch the mass of 30,000 people take over the streets around DC and Arlington.  See you out there!

Whenever I’m having a bad day, I head over to passiveaggressivenotes.com to find people who are having a much worse day.  I was happy to find a DC-based note yesterday about a bike.  Here’s the text of the note:

“This bike was stolen 2 Fridays ago near 14th and Q.  I am taking it back now.  Sorry for the re-stealing.”

I don’t think this is passive aggressive as much as it is completely awesome.  I’d love to hear the story of the rightful owner of this bike who had it stolen and recovered within 2 weeks.  So mysterious Washingtonian with the yorkie stationery, where are you?

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We all know about the Sports Illustrated cover curse.  And we know the story of the Madden NFL cover curse.  But is the worst curse of all just being part of the Washington sports scene?  That’s what ESPN claims, saying, “A star-destroying black hole of unimaginable proportions, the Washington curse goes beyond sports, touching everything from reality TV (worst seasons ever for “The Real World,” “Top Chef” and “The Real Housewives”) to politics (the reputation of any popular pol who stays in town long enough).”  Ouch.  But does the DC area really have a sports curse?

‘Teddy #176′
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

Well, before we can figure out if there is a curse, let’s look into the history of the DC sports scene.  The city hasn’t brought home a national championship since 1992 when the Redskins won the Super Bowl.  Here are some of the oft-mentioned elements of the DC sports curse:

• First, the Redskins.  While they haven’t been terrible (well, last year’s 4-12 record was pretty terrible), they have “suffered nearly 20 years of mediocrity” and have only seen post-season play four times since their 1991 Super Bowl win.
• Next, the Capitals.  They’ve never won the Stanley Cup in their entire thirty-six year franchise history.  They made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1998, and last year they won the Presidents’ Trophy (and got really close, but blew a 2-0 lead in the playoffs), but still… no Stanley Cup.  Ever.
• Then there’s the Wizards.  With “possibly the worst draft luck in NBA history“, the Wizards haven’t won an NBA title since 1978.  The Wizards have had a history of injury-plagued seasons, and they’ve got a curse of their own to deal with.
• On the women’s side, the Washington Mystics have also never won a championship and have reverted to celebrating attendance championships instead.  The team has gone through 10 coaches in 11 years, and even though they made it to the first round of the playoffs last year (with a losing record), they were knocked out in the first round.  Still no championships there.
• And there’s the Nationals.  Even though they started out with a season at .500, they’ve had losing seasons ever since, and they’ve finished last in their division in all but one year since they came to the city in 2005.  And just when things were looking up with the signing of the most-hyped pitcher ever, Stephen Strasburg got injured after just a month and will now be missing a whole season of baseball.
• DC United was the area’s most successful sports team, and the most successful club in Major League Soccer, but they’re currently in the middle of their worst season in franchise history.  Has the curse finally gotten to them too?

When you put it all together like that, it seems pretty bad.  I asked my friend CJ, who works for ESPN and is an expert on all things sports-related, what he thought of a so-called curse, and here’s what he said: “I really didn’t want to say DC is cursed as a sports town but when you add up widespread mismanagement (Redskins), heartbreaking playoff exits (Capitals) and general poor luck (Sean Taylor’s shocking death in 2007, Gilbert Arenas’ knee injury in 2007, Stephen Strasburg’s arm injury in 2010, the entire Kwame Brown era) it kinda starts to feel like the area is cursed.”

But how does DC compare to other cities?  Do we really have it that much worse?

‘DSC_6324′
courtesy of ‘bhrome’

As it turns out, we’re not at the bottom of the barrel.  Cleveland is worse off than DC, as the last time they’ve won a national title was 1964.  ESPN calls them the most tortured sports city in America, and their three teams (Cavaliers, Indians, and Browns) have really suffered through a drought of national championships for over almost fifty years. CJ says, “Now Cleveland, there’s a cursed town. Cleveland’s sports history is built on being the team bad things happen to: Jordan over Ehlo in the 1989 NBA Playoffs, John Elway’s “The Drive” in the 1986 NFL Playoffs, Ernest Byner’s “The Fumble” in the 1987 NFL Playoffs, the existence of the Baltimore Ravens, the Cleveland Indians starring in Major League, and everything LeBron James did this summer.”

Several other cities don’t have it easy, either.  Seattle hasn’t had a major national title since 1979, and the Mariners and Seahawks have never won a national championship, ever.   It seems like Buffalo is cursed too, as they’ve never won a Super Bowl, Stanley Cup, or NBA Championship in their history.  And San Diego is the largest city in the US that has never won a modern major league sports championship.  So there are plenty of other suffering cities out there, too.

While DC has seen its share of bad luck, there are plenty of other cities out there that have gone longer without any national championships.  Still, it’s hard to keep up the positive mindset when DC’s sports teams get so close to throw it all away (ahem, Capitals last season) or get their hopes up on a miracle pitcher and have him taken away.  But, as CJ notes, at least we’re not all dispirited sports fanatics here: “Most of DC doesn’t live and die by the area’s sports teams. Obviously there are die hard fans of the Caps and Wizards but DC is a Redskins town that flirts with whatever other teams happen to be winning. And the winningest D.C. team over the last 15 years can’t even get its own stadium — D.C. United.”  So DC sports fans, if you want to break the ‘curse’, just learn to love soccer and head out to a DC United game.