on our most recent weekend in dc, we stayed with brother in his new condo on the frontier of gentrified 'chinatown'. there were two giant pits on either side of his building where new condo high rises were going in. along the perimeter of one pit, though, was a single townhouse, its length jutting into the abyss. it was held up on three sides by metal supports to keep the place from tumbling to the bottom of the 100-foot deep pit. the guy was offered a generous payment to vacate, but declined. his plan is to open a pizza place. a good idea, considering the lack of street-level retail in the area. on sunday morning, after a long drunken night at a friend's wedding, i could not find coffee for 5 blocks. i eventually stumbled into the red roof inn in chinatown, which had an irish pub serving breakfast. i ordered coffee and croissants to go and the guy looked at me like i was nuts.
