View Larger Map “Dear PoP, I have a strange question, what neighborhood do I live in? I live on Morton St NW between Sherman and Georgia. Park View doesn’t seem to want to claim us, and I think we’re a distinct neighborhood East of Columbia Heights (Sherman is a veritable DMZ, while I find Georgia [...]

Photo by PoPville flickr user jimbographer ⓓⓒ Submit your photos to the PoPville flickr pool here. Follow PoPville on twitter here. Photo by PoPville flickr user JRoseC

Photo by PoPville flickr user AWard Tour From WMATA: This weekend, Metro will close the Takoma, Silver Spring, Forest Glen, Wheaton and Glenmont Metrorail stations from 10 p.m., Friday, Sept. 3, to 1 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 7, while maintenance crews replace a track switch to improve rail system safety and conduct several additional projects in [...]

This home is located at 1908 New Hampshire Ave, NW: View Larger Map The flier says: “Best Value -This Dupont home is a 3 BR 2.5 Bath upper unit with a 1 BR, 1 Bath lower rental which was rented this year for $2,125 need c of O . This home is located between 2 [...]

In an amazingly close vote, with the lead going back and forth all week, Goblin pulled out the win with a razor thin margin: Coolest Pet in PoPville 2010customer surveys Thanks to all who entered (over 300) and gave us all so much to look forward to these hot summer afternoons. As the winner of [...]

Photo by PoPville flickr user KJinDC You can talk about whatever is on your mind – quality of life issues, a beautiful tree you spotted, scuttlebutt, or any random questions/thoughts you may have. I’ll open this thread every Monday and Friday. So anything good happen to you this week? And for those taking off early [...]

DC-Inspired Recipes are by Laura from Lauralicious in DC. Ready for a long weekend? This week’s recipe is a Peach Crisp Tart, which would work well for Labor Day picnics or just enjoying at home on your day off (or for grumbling at home over the fact that Metro always deems it necessary to close [...]

Voted one of the best real estate agents in DC by the Washington City Paper Readers’ Choice Poll in 2009, hipchickindc aka the not-so-hip Suzanne Des Marais is an Associate Broker with Urban Pace. She lives (and sells a lot of houses) in Bloomingdale, but works all over DC, with everyone from first time buyers [...]

Since we’ve got a three-day weekend I thought this could be a useful question. It actually came to my mind when I saw the sign above for an Octagon House Museum and I was like, what the hell is that? Anyway, I thought it’d be fun to share our favorite museums in DC. For those [...]

Photo by PoPville flickr user christopher.poole Congrats to DL with: “I never thought I’d say this, but I miss the puppy mill.”

I don’t know if this is a birdhouse village or what but it’s definitely awesome. It’s located in a little park across the street from today’s house of the day on 26th St, NW.

I thought this one is pretty wild from Mass. Ave K Street, NW by Foggy Bottom. At first glance you can’t even tell it’s there.

Convention Center, September 3

This modern looking row house from Foggy Bottom actually also has a cool looking roof deck that is a bit obscured by the branch. What year do you think this was built/renovated like this?

If you have an event, fundraiser or happy hour you’d like featured on the 5pm Post, please send an email to princeofpetworth(at)gmail(dot)com and please include ’5pm post’ in the title. Photo by PoPville flickr user schmiddi North Columbia Heights Civic Association: Neighborhood Clean-up and “Meet n Greet” Brunch @ Meridian Pint When: Saturday, September 4th, [...]

This is the new building off Washington Circle where we recently learned a Whole Foods grocery store will also be in the retail space. We judged the new building here. But back to the restaurant, District Table/District Burger, according to their liquor license application this will be a: “New Restaurant serving American brasserie fine dining [...]

This might be a re-PoP because I know I’ve seen it before (around 15th St, NW near T) but it continues to blow my mind. The entire roof is copper: I don’t think it’s actually a garage but some sort of work or studio space. Very very cool.

For the ink-by-the-barrell platform of Washington City Paper, I wrote this week about the origins of the NFL's blackout policy. That rule allegedly requires games to sell out before they can be broadcast in the host market. Turns out the Redskins were as responsible as anybody for getting that policy put in place. Legendary Skins Coach George Allen even took personal credit for the blackout rule. Pick up a copy, read the column, wash your hands.

Color me crazy, but I'm beginning to think the league's gotten all loosey goosey in its enforcement of the blackouts.

But things weren't always that way. Looking over the old newspaper clippings about the genesis of the policy in the early 1970s, when Congress first forced the NFL to air sold out games in host markets, I was reminded that management used to view TV as the enemy. In fact, time was when NFL owners even tried to rig things to look like games weren't sold out -- Philadelphia Eagles owner Leonard Tose once put hundreds of lousy field-level seats on sale close to gameday hoping they wouldn't all be bought -- just to keep football off of television.

Things have changed. The blackout rule is still on the books. Nowadays, however, it sure seems like there's all sorts of looking the other way going on so that non-sold out games won't be blacked out.

The Redskins games, despite what the team tells you and what some trusting souls believe, are not sold out.

Dan Snyder, in fact, likes to say in press releases that the games have been sold out since 1966. Yet anybody who looks into the situation for more than a few seconds should realize that the Redskins don’t sell out home games. It’s almost a certainty, in fact, that the Redskins haven’t sold out even a single game during Snyder's 11-year reign as owner.

The Club Seats, at the very least, have been available to anybody with a checkbook since FedExField opened in 1997, so anybody who parrots the team's sellout streak line after seeing a sea of yellow seats show up on TV screens for more than a decade is a tool.

But the non-sellout status of the stadium has never been so obvious as of late. And we're not just talking about premium seats being available now, folks.

No, just a week before the incredibly hyped opening game with Dallas, the Redskins are rolling out last-minute seat-filling gimmicks as coupling their general admission season tickets with college football games held at FedExField,  putting various ticket giveaways in place and offering discounted tickets to employees of giant corporations and dumping more and more Cowboys game tickets on the market.

So when tickets are up for grabs at face value from the FedExField box office next Sunday, as they are at every home game , and the Redskins/Cowboys game is nevertheless on TV in the D.C market, you'll know the NFL now knows TV, and not the live gate, is its best friend.

Photo by Amber Wilkie Photography Well, that's it. Summer's officially coming to an end, though with the almost 60 days above 90 degrees that we've had so far, that's certainly not a bad thing. As of next week, the District will pick up its somewhat regular rhythm, as Congress slowly makes it way back to town, everyone comes back from their extended vacations, and we finally get this whole local election thing over with. It's a bummer that we're that much closer to winter, but we gave this whole summer thing a try, and maybe we're ready for a break. (Of course, we'll probably have a freak mid-Fall heat wave, knowing our dramatic weather these days.)

Earl Downgraded to a Category Two Storm: The Post writes that Hurricane Earl has been downgraded to a Category 2 storm, and while it's currently hitting the North Carolina coast, everything should be somewhat in the clear for the weekend beach-goers in Maryland, Delaware and north. (Ocean City has closed its beaches until Saturday, though Sunday looks OK.) It may still be a somewhat nightmarish drive out to the beach, though, and TBD's got all the details you need to miss the traffic. In summary: leave at 5 a.m.

Gray Cost D.C. $2 Million in Fines: Mayor Adrian Fenty has made challenger Vince Gray's leadership of the Department of Human Services in the 1990s a key part of his re-election campaign, using Gray's stint as evidence that he's not fit to be the city chief executive. (A new TV ad admits that Gray isn't a bad guy, just a "bad manager.") The Examiner today digs into Gray's record, and finds that his slow reaction to a congressional mandate that the city close down the Cedar Knoll youth detention center over two decades ago cost the city over $2 million in fines. Gray claims that the deadline imposed by Congress was too tight to effectively move kids into other facilities.

Avoid the Red Line This Weekend: We may often complain about Metro being slow, but it well be very slow this weekend as five stations along the Red Line close down for repairs. WTOP writes that the Glenmont, Wheaton, Forest Glen, Silver Spring and Takoma stations will be closed Friday, Sept. 3 at 10 p.m. until Tuesday, Sept. 7 at 5 a.m. Shuttle service will be offered for those that use those stations.

Go-Go a No-No, Says Gray Volunteer: The City Paper is reporting that a volunteer for the Gray campaign has filed a complaint with the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance, asking that the go-go concerts put on by Fenty ally Ron Moten be regulated as if they were events put on directly by the campaign. James Abely argues that Moten works closely enough with the Fenty campaign that the event he puts on, as well as his publication The Otherside Magazine, should be considered campaign materials and subject to the $2,000 cap on donations.

Briefly Noted: I.M.P. adds MoCo to suit over Silver Spring Filmore venue ... New D.C. gang law gets tested in court ... Teens on Metro beware ... Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) called a "dinosaur."

This Day in DCist: On this day in 2009, a murder suspect walked out of the Washington Hospital Center and Metro asked riders to report on those pesky kids. In 2008, alcohol was ruled a factor in the death of two men on a double-decker bus, and more and more people were being cited for talking on their cell phones while driving.