#dcpolitics

A downside to D.C.’s population and economic boom? More rats.

Nate Brown got married in a small town in Spain on July 1. When he returned home to the District, ahead of his wife, Ana, he realized he had a problem as soon as he entered his house in the Park View neighborhood. “It ate through all our food,” he said. “Literally, all of it.” The culprit, Brown knew, was a rat. Like many northeastern cities, the District has long struggled with rodents. But the…

Only in D.C.: What to do when that eyesore next door is owned by a foreign government

From Alan and Irene Wurtzel’s master bathroom, they can watch shingles fall off the neighbor’s roof, pigeons flutter through broken windows and rain pour into the four-story brick behemoth. And then there are the rats. There’s nothing the city can do about the vacant Kalorama property because it’s owned by the government of Argentina, which doesn’t have to pay property taxes, adhere to local…