Yesterday afternoon when I tweeted about how cool the Corehaus Design store is, it got me thinking about the best non restaurant/bar stores that have recently opened up in DC. It seems like every week we are talking about new restaurants and bars opening up in the city, which I think is great. But I also like to discover other cool new retail options. Personally, I think Corehaus is the coolest to open up in a long time. Kultura is pretty sweet as well.

So my question to you guys is – what’s the coolest non restaurant/bar to have recently opened up in the city? If none have opened recently – what are some cool retail shops that fall below the radar? Could be house stuff, a hardware store, clothing, other furniture, used books, comic books etc.?

Ed. Note: And on an unrelated note because the weather is going to be so nice this weekend I wanted to share a previous FQoTD where we discussed nice things to do around the city outside.

We’ve spoken about metro robberies and other safety issues many many times. It’s nice to see the Transit Police address the issue (albeit unintentionally comically). The following stats were just released by WMATA in a press release:

“The transit system has seen an increase in robberies recently. In 2009, there were 894 robberies reported, up from 581 reported robberies in 2008. In January, there were 122 reported robberies. Metro Transit Police officers made 142 arrests in January, including 19 robbery-related arrests.”

So my Friday Question of the Day is a rather simple – do you feel safe on metro?

When walking to Chinatown last week I noticed that the old convention site is referred to by the Mayor as CityCentreDC. Who knows when this huge project will be built but whenever it does get built it’s gonna need a better name than CityCentreDC. It’s not quite Chinatown and not really Penn Quarter either. So what a great opportunity for us to name it. I know folks haven’t been happy with some recent new neighborhood names like NOMA.

So hopefully we can get something really good that will stick. Unless you like City Centre? Maybe some history buffs can nominate a name from back in the day? Any suggestions?

“Dear PoP,

I work on public health policy and am seeing a trend across the nation that is especially obvious in DC. It is getting harder to find things to DO. The new development is always focused on condos, bars, and restaurants. Love to live in a home, and am a huge fan of drinking and eating . . . but people need something to do. There is this notion that going to the gym and getting on a machine or lifting heavy items with an ipod on is the only activity that people need. It is not a winning strategy for building a happy healthy society.

Look around– where are the bowling alleys, arcades with skeeball and air hockey and foosball, driving ranges, live music venues with dancing . . . etc.? Where are the racquetball courts? Nobody works 9-5 anymore . . . and when people get home at 7, there are no lights in the parks (or they are just scary). There are gyms with basketball/volleyball courts in every school in DC, but they are chained up at night. Once-a-year street fairs are nice, but having places where people can consistently go to find a band and a dancing mass is better. (Love Madam’s Organ and Wonderland for that but such places are oddly few and far between)

We need to make sure there are fun things to do in every community– things that lure people out away from their TVs and computers, that bring them together to meet each other, and use their bodies in some way besides eating and drinking. People seem to be yearning for it. Look at the popularity of H St. Country Club and Comet Ping Pong– goofy fun. Look how much people are willing to pay to bowl at that crappy place in Chinatown. How can there not be a reasonable bowling alley in a city this size? I know we can find a spot for one in the GaP. The good DC tennis courts (like Howard/Banneker) are packed all day until the dusk . . . why not put in some lights, and maybe with a pay-meter to defray the costs?”

What do you guys think – are there enough “things” to do in our neighborhoods (especially at night)?

Well DCist covered the harsh words from MSNBC’s Chris Matthews yesterday. And I was personally surprised to see the following tweet Tues. night from At Large Council Member Kwame Brown:

“Mayor needs to clear residential streets of snow now. Only getting worse with today’s storm.”

Believe me I wish all the streets and alleys were plowed but that is simply impossible with back to back storms like this and a limited number of plows.

I’m not trying to be naive but it seems like a simple calculation. Paving all the streets is going to take time. (Especially given the delay due to the whiteout.) But my question is simple – is it fair to blame the mayor if your sidestreet wasn’t plowed yet? When do you think it is fair to assume that all the sidestreets will be plowed?

Overall how would you say the city/Mayor did given this is the most snow the city has ever seen?

My question is a simple one – do you think we’ll get more snow than the Dec. blizzard? I’m putting the over/under at 20″. Is anyone going in to work?

I already received word from Duffy’s located near 9:30 Club (a PoP advertiser) that they’ll be open on Sat. no matter how much snow comes down. So if you guys know or hear of any other places that will be open on Sat. please leave in the comments.

Also don’t forget to shovel your sidewalks and if you have elderly neighbors help them out with their shoveling please.

And finally don’t forget to upload your snow photos to the PoPville flickr pool here.

The old Caribou Coffee spot on 18th Street in Adams Morgan has been vacant for ages. It seems insane to me because this is such a prime location. Many folks have probably walked by this space dozens of times. It’s not a huge space so I’m curious what you think would work in this location. What would work is not necessarily a dream retail outlet, rather I’m curious what you think would realistically be successful in this spot. Any ideas?

Irish Coffee, originally uploaded by Carlos Porto.

Back in July we had a great discussion about some of your favorite summer drinks. Given the foul weather tonight it got me thinking about what were your favorite winter drinks? Last winter, Robyn suggested a few places to get hot drinks around town. I’m curious about what are your favorites to make at home. Is there anything better than a classic Irish coffee?

Yesterday I mentioned that I attended a blogger round table discussion with WMATA chief John Catoe. Then we all learned he was resigning. But many of the bloggers were expressing huge complaints that they personally faced and/or problems their readers have faced. Granted I don’t ride the metro that often anymore, but still I have been very happy with the Green Line/Yellow Line service. Knock wood, knock wood, I can’t remember the last time I encountered a big problem. Though when I was taking the Orange Line I do recall numerous occassions when I wanted to never ride metro again.

So I guess this is a multipart question – first do you think metro is doing a good job in general since the tragic metro crash in June (if you do have problems please mention which line you have problems on)? Second, do you think replacing the WMATA chief will improve the service? And third, given the budget problems, would you rather see a 10 cent increase or a reduction in some service lines?

As most have surely heard by now Washington WIzard’s star Gilbert Arenas has been suspended indefinitely by the NBA. ESPN reports:

“Arenas is under investigation by federal and local authorities after admittedly bringing guns into the Wizards’ locker room. The Wizards’ troubles may not end there. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that according to firsthand accounts, teammate Javaris Crittenton, whose disagreement with Arenas reportedly fueled the incident, loaded and cocked his own gun in response to Arenas. In text messages, Crittenton called that account “false,” according to the report.”

I was a party where guy says, I can’t even bring a candy bar into the Verizon Center, how the hell did he get a gun in? Obviously he was kidding but this really seems to be beyond defense. What do you think the punishment should be if he just brought the gun to the locker room but didn’t brandish it? What should the punishment be if he did brandish it? Do you think he will prosecuted and face jail time? Are you bothered by how Arenas seems to be making light of the situation?