I reported on this rumor a few weeks ago, and apparently it's true, according to the Post: "Pope Benedict XVI will visit Washington and New York in April, the first papal visit to the United States since 1999 and the current pope's eighth foreign journey since becoming head of the Catholic Church in April, 2005. [...] The pope will arrive on April 15, and visit the White House the next day, according to the schedule released by the Vatican. On April 17 he will celebrate Mass at the new Nationals baseball stadium and meet later that day at Catholic University with leaders of Catholic colleges and universities from throughout the country." On April 20 he'll be at Yankee Stadium, I guess to make sure that both the American League and National League are covered. Here's the press release from the Catholic News Service on the announcement.

It started innocently enough. On Sunday morning, when I woke up to find such a brilliant sunny day, I decided to go take a new batch of photos of the demolition at old Capper Seniors to replace the dreary ones from Saturday. Then I started moving away a few blocks, to catch more distant views of the building. Then I decided that there were a bunch of locations where 70/100 I and Onyx on First were changing the skyline that I hadn't captured. Then I realized that it had been a long time since I had taken a complete set of photos of the western side of South Capitol Street at O and P streets, to show the changes since the demolition of the viaduct and all the streetscape improvements. And then of course, while I was there, I had to take a set of shots of the ballpark's western facade. Then there were more shots needed of the changes along M Street thanks to 55 M and 100 M. By the time I was done, I had a ridiculous number of new images up on the site, which you can see all on one page; you can also see most of them paired with past shots by clicking on the "Photo Archive Before-and-Afters" links at the top of that page, like the "South Capitol Street Makeover", which shows the new photos from both sides of the street (along with some older angles I didn't update). After a while they all run together, I know. But they make for some spiffy before-and-afters!

This has been rumored for a long while, but today's Examiner is reporting that it appears to be moving forward: "The D.C. Circulator bus system is expected to expand with at least two new routes in 2008, one between the Walter E. Washington Convention Center and Adams Morgan, and the other from Union Station to the new Washington Nationals ballpark. [...] But it is not expected to be implemented until late 2008, after the Nationals' season." The article doesn't give an exact route, but previous statements by DDOT and others mentioned that it could run past the new US Capitol Visitors Center (yeech--don't get me started) and the Capitol South Metro station as well. And no reason is given for why it wouldn't start until late next year. The Circulator is run by DDOT.

After a few days of knocking out the exterior brick walls and windows from the inside by driving Bobcats into them over and over, the showy demolition began at old Capper Seniors this morning, as the wrecking ball started bringing down the western wing of the building. Not the prettiest morning for pictures, but maybe the glum light is apropos. You can look at my main old Capper Seniors page for the basics, or the Expanded Project Archive for photos of the demolition from considerably more angles. (And don't forget to click on the on any of these pages if you want to see the images in between the first and last ones.) It's going to be a slow process, and the demolition is not expected to be finished until the end of December.

Saturday's Post has a piece on the new turf at the ballpark, giving specifics about the grass itself, the installation, the drainage system, and more. Of course, you can look at my Stadium Interior Photo Gallery for pictures taken last Monday if you want to see lots of images of the field midway through the turf's arrival, or check the Stadium Web Cam for the gazillionth time to see it now that it's completed. There'll be a ton more media coverage of the ballpark's progress on Tuesday, when the mayor and other bigwigs come to the stadium to celebrate the new field.

The second camera angle at the Stadium Web Cam site is back in business, providing a full view of the press box that's now been painted red as well as complete coverage of far left field, where it looks like the turf installation will be completed today. To see it, choose "Centerfield" in the dropdown box at the top of the page.

A notice in this week's District Register says that JPI has applied to remediate the land it recently purchased at 23 I Street, as part of the District Department of the Environment's Voluntary CleanUp Program. Quoting: "The application identifies low to elevated levels of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) and Benzene in soil and TPH, Benzene, and methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) in groundwater." JPI is planning a 420-unit residential building with ground-floor retail on the site, with construction expected to begin sometime in 2008. The VCP application for 23 I is not yet online, but you can see JPI's 2005 application for 100 I Street and the city's 2006 application to clean up the stadium site to get the idea.

On Nov. 6, the city council passed the final version of Bill 17-0159, which creates a new Southeast Water and Sewer Improvement Benefit District, where landowners will be subject to a special assessment to fund $12.45 million in upgrades already underway to the water and sewer infrastructure under streets near Nationals Park.

On Wednesday morning at 11 am, demolition began at the old Capper Seniors building at 601 L Street, SE. And, 24 hours later, a lot of progress has already been made on getting rid of the exterior windows and walls. I was amazed to see that, instead of swinging the wrecking ball, workers are actually working inside the building, driving Bobcats into the brick exterior walls over and over to punch them out, turning the building into a skeleton before the actual bringing down of the skeleton begins. (Don't hit the gas instead of the brake, boys!) I've created an Extended Project Archive for this building, to see the before-and-afters from lots of different angles beyond the basics on the main old Capper Seniors page (which also has some photos taken from the interior of the building last week) so take a look at today's photos to see how the work is progressing.

Word has officially gone out that next week (Nov. 13) the mayor and other city bigwigs will be at Nationals Park to "celebrate the new, freshly-laid playing field" -- for those who want specifics, the turf is 13-month-old Kentucky Bluegrass sod, arriving in strips 5/8" thick and 65" long. At the same event, team president Stan Kasten will "share information about the seat relocation process for season ticket holders." The turf installation is moving along today, with right field now finished and work progressing out from the infield to the center- and left-field walls. And the last panel of the HD scoreboard has been installed.

The daily feeds of crime report data that the city makes available have now been expanded to include a "narrative" explaining what happened. (These narratives have been available for a long time in other places, but not in the city's own daily data feeds.) So you'll now see these explanations here on my home page, in the DC Data Feeds/Recent Crime Incidents section. And, if you never scrolled down far enough to know that I have this data, then you'll be surprised to find that I display Near Southeast public space permits, building permits, property sales, and requests to the city-wide call center (which is now pretty much all-parking-enforcement-all-the-time).

Time to go back to watching grass grow on the Stadium Web Cam--this morning workers resumed laying the turf, in right field. And you can also see that there's just a few more panels left to complete the HD scoreboard.