With the squabble over the stadium's on-site parking garages finished, attention is turning to how the city will provide additional parking to the teeming masses who will insist on driving to the new Nats ballpark. Eventually (as certain sage local observers have noted on multiple occasions), the many new developments that will be sprouting in the Ballpark District will have plenty of underground parking that will be usable for baseball attendees. But until then, where will people park? Friday's Post has a big piece on the scrambling being done by the DC government (with considerable prodding by the Lerner/Kasten team) to line up existing lots (or create new lots) by Opening Day 2008 - here's the Post graphic showing the location of the lots. Some spots aren't surprising--the Southeast Federal Center, WASA, and Buzzards Point are all going to be developed in the future, but in the meantime can offer plenty of space for surface lots. But I also see that they're saying that the site of the current Capper Seniors at 7th and M could be available--putting aside that it's just a touch far away, could it really be emptied and demolished and paved by Spring, 2008? (Not if they hire the same folks currently using forks and knives to demolish the second ribbon of Capper/Carrollsburg.) Yes, some are a bit of a hike--but gosh, don't we all need more exercise these days, anyway? (it's a JOKE, people!) UPDATE: Here are articles on the city's parking presentation from the Examiner and the WashTimes. UPDATE II: Added the link to the Post map of the lots.

With the "crime emergency" that's been announced in DC over the past few days, I did want to mention that crime in Near Southeast is certainly down from a few years ago, which isn't a surprise given that it's got about 1,000 fewer residents now (because of the closure of Capper/Carrollsburg). But what's become apparent over the past few months is that some bad guys have figured out that the on-street parking spaces of Near Southeast are now filled with the cars of construction and office workers, who are parking on empty streets that then are all but devoid of human beings for hours and hours while everyone is working. So that makes these cars very easy pickings. Thefts from autos are also very big at nighttime on the streets near the Half and K nightclubs. So, if you park in Near Southeast (or anywhere in the city!), be street-smart and don't leave any valuables (or even anything unvaluable) in sight in your vehicle. Just common sense.... If you want to browse through the most recent crime reports filed with the city, visit crimeports.com (Near Southeast west of 6th Street is in PSA 105, in the First District). (PS, very soon the city is going to be offering RSS feeds of crime incident data, and once they do, I'll be making Near Southeast crime incident reports available here.)

Big surprise this morning--a correspondent reported that the Sunoco at 50 M Street (Half and M) is being dismantled as we speak. (Waah, where will I track gas prices now?) There's been no record of a land sale in the DC Property Sales database (although that currently runs about 6 weeks behind and is only updated right now through late May). However, a call to the station's phone number revealed a change to a new number with a 703 area code, and the person who answered said that Sunoco had sold the land "to a hotel or something." So do we have yet another new development arriving on M Street? More as I get it.

The Post's Thomas Boswell writes today ("Look No Farther Than Pittsburgh") on the stadium, the Lerners' concerns about dealing with the DC government ("Where's their sense of urgency?" is the quote from one Nationals source), and the worrisome drop in Nationals attendance.