Washington, D.C. · guides
Washington, D.C. guides
Written against what Washington, D.C. actually publishes, not adapted from another city by swapping the name. Every figure in them is a count we ran, stamped with the window it covers.
How to read a Washington reportWho keeps which record in the District, why an address here needs a quadrant, and the pair of numbers this city publishes that most cities do not.Why the District asks which quadrant1st Street exists four times over. The quadrant is not decoration on a Washington address, it is part of it, and a report cannot be run without one.This year's assessment, and last year's beside itThe District publishes the current assessment and the prior one on the same row. That pair answers a question a single number cannot.What Washington files, and under what nameThe permit type column does not say what the permit is for. The subtype does, and knowing that is the difference between finding a demolition and finding nothing.Washington property records, in plain wordsSSL, ANC, ITSPE, MAR. The District's record-keeping has its own vocabulary, and none of it is explained on the records themselves.What a Washington report does not tell youThe gaps, named. What the District does not publish, what we choose not to read, and where a number here stops being the whole answer.