Let's take a breather from all this parking stuff (which I had my fill of about two years ago) and get back to the original JDLand modus operandi--posting lots of photos of the neighborhood. Yesterday's press conference on the-subject-I-just-said-I-wasn't-going-to-talk-about was held on the 10th floor of 20 M Street, giving me a chance to update my photos from that perch, with views of 70/100 I, Velocity (now working on floor #2), the 1015 Half Street site (where nothing seems to be happening just yet), 55 M, and the ballpark. You can see all photos I've taken from atop 20 M in the past 10 months, or just compare the oldest and newest ones (there's been a few changes!).

Switching to the opposite side of the neighborhood, I took a few shots from Poplar Point on Sunday of the ballpark and The Yards.

You can also see all the new photos (along with the ones taken inside the ballpark looking out at the surrounding neighborhood) on a single page.

I hope to get out this weekend and update the ground-level photos of all the latest happenings.

* A three-person arbitration board ruled unanimously that the Nationals and not the District should pay for "ancillary items at the new stadium, such as golf carts, fork lifts, and medical and office equipment," saving the city $4.2 million and keeping expenditures within the $611 million cost cap, according to WTOP.

* Links to the avalanche of stories about the new on-street parking plan around the ballpark are at the end of my entry about it from yesterday. Perhaps the saturation coverage--and the advertising campaign by the team scheduled to start next week--will indeed drill into the noggins of the public what's been said for months now: that really, truly, you're not going to find on-street parking, and traffic's going to be crazy anyway. So just take Metro. (And read this Dr. Gridlock blog entry and its comments to get a sense of the wide-ranging views of the public on using Metro. And have fun with the writer who discussed the "questionable neighborhood" the N22 bus goes through--you know, Capitol Hill.)

* And, what if nearby residents start scalping their visitors passes?

* But can we also drill into the collective conscience that there's not "only 1,200 parking spaces" at the ballpark? Yes, the ballpark footprint itself has only 1,200 spaces, but the team has contracted with close-by lots to cobble together more than 4,000 spaces. As we found out in the Post, those didn't even all get taken by season-ticket holders and in fact may now allow for a small number of spaces to be made available on gamedays to non-season ticket holders.

* On the residential streets (marked in purple on the map), parking restrictions will be in effect from 7 am to midnight seven days a week. One side of the street will be for residents with Zone 6 parking permits only, and non-Zone 6 cars can be ticketed immediately. On the other side of the street, non-Zone 6 cars can park for two hours.

* On "retail" streets (marked in red), multispace meters will be installed that will have varying costs to park based on the time of day, and the price will escalate as the amount of time you park grows, in order to make it a better deal to park in an off-street lot for a long period of time rather than using up a metered space.

* There will be visitor passes mailed out (one per household).

Read the text beneath the map for more explanations of these different zones.

What the meters will charge, and what the fines will be for violating any of these parking restrictions, were not spelled out with the map. Perhaps that is coming at the press conference. I'll be back to update with additional news as I get it.

If you live in Southwest, or on Capitol Hill, or in Near Southeast, pass this page to your neighbors. If you're a Nats fan thinking about scavenging for on-street parking, look at this map to understand that you won't be getting it on any of the colored streets without risking a ticket (or maybe even getting towed). So click on the Take Metro! tab to get information on your transit options (including distances to stations other than Navy Yard, bus routes, and additional information).

UPDATE: Nope, no specifics from the press conference on meter rates or fines if you overstay; that will all come after the council (presumably) passes on March 4 the legislation that gives the mayor the authority to set rates. Also, there's a slightly updated map on my on-street parking page--dotted-purple streets have been added, which will get the same protection as solid purple streets, but not by Opening Day. And here's Tommy Wells's press release on the plan. There was a fair amount of media at the announcement, so I'll link to their reports as they come in.

UPDATE II: Here's News4's report (and video). It addresses the safety issue as well: "Officials said there will be a heavy police presence in the area on game days to ensure traffic and pedestrian safety."

UPDATE III: The Post writes on the curbside parking plan, and also mentions that the Nationals say "all season ticket holders who wanted parking spaces have gotten them or are in the process of getting them. The team is trying to determine how many spaces might be available to fans without season tickets." And, after ignoring the Take Metro mantra, Marc Fisher finally figures out that, gee, maybe driving to the ballpark isn't such a good idea. Apparently the Nationals' media push urging fans to use transit will begin next week, and they now have a Way to Go web site.

UPDATE IV: Wrapping up, here's the Examiner and WashTimes articles. And the mayor's press release.

(For those just joining us, a little background: Monument owns the entire east side of Half Street between M and N, just to the north of the ballpark, and is currently building the 55 M Street office building on the north end of the site, on top of the west entrance of the Navy Yard Metro station, which was expanded as part of the office construction. The south end of the block is slated to be a 200-room hotel and a 340-unit residential building, and is current a half-block-long excavated hole.)

Monument executive vice president Russell Hines has told me that construction drawings for the the hotel and residential part of Half Street are being finalized, and construction will begin in late spring or early summer, with completion in late 2009 or early 2010. The entire block was excavated early in 2007 because it made economic sense to do it all at once, but that because of the need to complete the subway station improvements by Opening Day, the 55 M construction was "accelerated" and the hotel/residential part of the project is just now "catching up." In fact, Hines says, work on the office building is continuing, with the building "topping out" in the next week or so. (You can check the web cam for up-to-the-quarterhour progress.)

Hines also wanted to make clear that what Boswell called a "legal battle between two developers" over the Southeastern Bus Garage site is in fact litigation between Monument and WMATA, not Monument and Akridge.

And maybe now's a good time to mention that the sales-office-that-never-was for Onyx--the construction trailers deposited last spring just south of Normandie Liquors at First and M but never opened--was demolished within the past week. I had to make a value judgment, but I decided since the office never actually opened it doesn't get the honor of being added to my Demolished Buildings Gallery.

Wednesday's Post has a column by Tom Boswell ("Nationals Park: Best of a Bad Lot") listing the myriad problems he sees with the ballpark and its surroundings, with Opening Day now just a month away. The Navy Yard subway station. The parking situation. The Florida Rock site ("an enormous and inexcusable 5.8-acre eyesore" that will be "sitting there all season, damaging the river views from all the ramps to the first base upper deck"). (He does mention that fences to obscure the view at ground level will be going up, which I posted about a few days ago.) The WASA site (which "would be the Most Unsightly Thing Near Any Big League Park if Florida Rock and Gravel hadn't already retired the trophy.") The Monument Half Street site, where he says "construction has stopped." The fact that city views are only available in the cheap seats.

But he ends with a stab at optimism: "Someday, the Anacostia riverfront will amaze us, just maybe not as soon as we hoped. When it comes to fulfilling huge civic dreams, what's a few years, more or less. In for a dime, in for a decade. "

On the other hand, the article confirms that the garages, which have long been a focal point of much complaining, will indeed be covered, as has long been shown in the renderings, with "league logos, replicas of the 'Washington All-Stars' from the right field scoreboard in RFK as well as colorful baseball-themed ads."