The gourmet cupcake trend really took off back in the late ’90s when HBO’s Sex and the City series name-checked New York’s Magnolia Bakery.

But I don’t think the craze began spreading (seriously) to Washington, DC until a few years ago. Hello Cupcake appears to have opened in August 2008, while Red Velvet Cupcakery didn’t open until January 2009. Georgetown Cupcake claims to have opened in February 2008 as “DC’s first and only cupcakery.” Cupcakes Actually located in Fairfax, VA opened in May 2009. And Frosting in Chevy Chase, MD opened sometime in late 2009 or early 2010.

So if the lines of people stretching up the block from Georgetown Cupcake aren’t enough evidence for you, how can you verify the spread of this fad? Well, the Washington Post‘s Going Out Gurus have added a “best cupcake” to their Best Bets guide, and personal blogs have also sprung up on the topic.

DC has no shortage of good (traditional) bakeries — Patisserie Poupon in Georgetown is one of my personal picks. So what makes people shun the old school bakeries in favor of what a type of sweet that has in the past been considered a low-rung “poor man’s” product? One commenter on the DCist blog sums up my thoughts on the matter rather succinctly:

Anyone who is willing to stand in line for a cupcke for the same amount of time it would take to bake a dozen cupcakes deserves to stand in line for a cupcake.

And another notes, “And pay as much for one cupcake as it would cost to make a couple dozen.” Perhaps somewhat less PC, a third commenter adds, “I see about several people in this photo who would be better off jogging around the block a few times rather than standing in line all day for cupcakes.” All in all, waiting as much as an hour in line for a cupcake seems like a waste of time (especially when you can bake a dozen in your own oven for probably about $5). The mark-up on these “designer” bake good is enormous — As DCist again notes, I hope this is one fad that has already jumped the shark.

The concept of car-sharing is no newcomer to the DC region — Massachusetts-based Zipcar opened its DC office in 2001, and Seattle-based Flexcar was also in the area (before its merger with Zipcar). However, bicycle-sharing for commuters (as opposed to tourists) hasn’t been as quick to catch on. SmartBike DC is a self-service public bike rental program operated by Clear Channel Outdoor and the DC’s Department of Transportation. It consists of 100 bikes and 10 rental stations in downtown DC — Dupont Circle, Farragut Square, Foggy Bottom, Gallery Place, Logan Circle, Judiciary Square, McPherson Square, Metro Center, Reeves Center, and Shaw.

The announced expansion, according to the Washington Post, will create the largest regional network in the United States — Arlington will add 15 bike stations while DC will add 90, bringing the total number of available bikes to a whooping 1,100. James R. Sebastian, a city transportation planner in DC says that 1,500 current members take about 100 trips a day on the present system, and Chris Hamilton, Arlington’s commuter services chief, praised the expansion, saying: “We join the cities where people enjoy the urban core without a car… and that is the future. That is where we are going.”

The expanded network will be called “Public Bike System” (or Bixi) and will utilize solar power and wireless technology — the system has been running in Montreal since 2009 and will also be coming to Minneapolis, Boston and London. Unlike Zipcar, the pay scale will focus more on annual fees rather than fees for individual rides: Annual membership will be $80, monthly membership $30, or daily $5. All of these memberships allow for an unlimited number of rentals — After the first 30 minutes of free use, members will be charged a usage fee for each additional increment of 30 minutes.

But although it looks like DC will be getting more bikes this Fall, the reality still remains that the city lacks a good network of bike lanes (compared to some other urban centers), and in the Central Business District, it’s illegal to cycle on DC sidewalks.

• Click here for a PDF map of DC bike routes.
• Click here for more resources on where to bike in the DC area
• Click here for some common commuter routes

See also:

• Borderstan: DC, Arlington Launch Regional Bike Sharing Program

Monday, March 30th, 2009
12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. (lunch will be served)

The Cosmos Club
Powell Room
2121 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.
(business attire required)

Speakers

Bambang Harymurti, Corporate Editor-in-Chief, Tempo (Indonesia)

Mr. Bambang Harymurti is Corporate Editor-in-Chief of the news magazine Tempo Weekly and the newspaper Tempo Daily. He is also CEO of PT Tempo Inti Media and member of the Press Council in Indonesia. He has also worked as a Deputy Chief Editor of Tempo Weekly, Executive Editor of Media Indonesia Daily, and Editor of the Sunday Edition of Media Indonesia. He graduated from Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia, majoring Electrical Engineering (1984) and from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (1991). In addition to receiving the Knight International Press Fellowship Award, he is a winner of the Mason Program’s Vernon Award at Harvard and the Excellence in Journalism Award given by the daily Indonesian Observer. His publications include, “Indonesia, Challenges of Change” in Journal of Democracy.

Kavi Chongkittavorn, Executive Editor, The Nation (Thailand)

Mr. Kavi Chongkittavorn is Assistant Group Editor of Nation Multimedia Group, responsible for The Nation, Krungthep Turakit, and Kom Chat Luek, Nation TV Channel. He has been a journalist for more than two decades, covering Thailand and regional affairs. He was bureau chief in Phnom Penh (1986-88) and Hanoi (1989-91). From 1993-94, he served as a special assistant to the ASEAN Secretary General. In 1993, he was a Reuters Fellow at Oxford University and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2001. He was named the Human Rights Journalist of 1998 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of UNDHR by Amnesty International, Thailand. From 1999-2003, he was the president of the Thai Journalists Association. He has also chaired the Bangkok-based regional free media advocacy group, Southeast Asian Press Alliance.

Yuli Ismartono, Executive Editor, Tempo

Ms. Yuli Ismartono is Executive Editor of the English edition of Tempo, Indonesia’s largest circulating weekly news magazine, and concurrently the Managing Editor of AsiaViews, a regional online publication, a collaboration between Tempo and four other Southeast Asian news publications funded by the Tokyo-based Sasakawa Peace Foundation. She is also a senior advisor at APCO Jakarta, a media relations consulting agency. Ms. Ismartono has been in media and communications since 1970, following her undergraduate studies at the University of India where she studied political science and where she met and befriended Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. She did her graduate studies at the Newhouse School of Journalism at Syracuse University. As Tempo’s Bangkok-based Asia bureau chief from 1983 to 1993, Ms Ismartono reported on issues and events ranging from Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to the Sri Lankan civil war and the first Gulf War. She returned to Jakarta in 1993, only to have Suharto close down Tempo in June 1994. Ms. Ismartono rejoined Tempo when it re-launched in 2002, after a stint in public affairs and corporate communications.

Moderator

David Steinberg, Distinguished Professor of Asian Studies, Georgetown University

Professor David Steinberg is Distinguished Professor of Asian Studies, Georgetown University. He was previously a Representative of the Asia Foundation in Korea; Distinguished Professor of Korea Studies, Georgetown University; and President of the Mansfield Center for Pacific Affairs. Earlier, as a member of the Senior Foreign Service, U.S. Agency for International Development, Department of State, he was Director for Technical Assistance in Asia and the Middle East, and Director for Philippines, Thailand, and Burma Affairs. He spent three years in Thailand with the USAID Regional Development Office. Professor Steinberg was educated at Dartmouth College, Lingnan University (Canton, China), Harvard University, and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is the author of thirteen books and monographs, including: Turmoil in Burma: Contested Legitimacies in Myanmar; Burma: The State of Myanmar; Stone Mirror: Reflections on Contemporary Korea; and The Republic of Korea: Economic Transformation and Social Change. He has authored numerous articles, book chapters, and op-eds.

Summary

To state the obvious, Barack Obama is the first President of the United States with deep ties to Southeast Asia. But what might that mean for U.S. relations with ASEAN and its member states? This panel will discuss three general topics: the potential for American cooperation with Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority state, and how that can serve to address America’s problems in the Islamic world; how the U.S. and ASEAN can address issues in the region relating to Burma, China, and India; and the changed perceptions and expectations of the U.S. under the Obama administration.

Invitation (PDF Format)

(1) Some Republicans in the House have claimed that programs such as Pell grants shouldn’t be part of the stimulus package because it’s unclear how such spending would immediately help our economy. My response to this argument is that as families fall on hard times, it’ll become more and more difficult for students to pay for tuition (or even get side jobs while they study). Without federal support, there’s a good chance that some of these students will end up dropping out of school and joining the ranks of the unemployed (7.2% in Dec 2008).

• Young people receiving unemployment compensation instead of attending college would further strain state governments in a time when some state, such as California, are in deep financial trouble.
• Regardless of whether continuing/increasing federal scholarships for higher education will have an immediate, direct effect on the US economy, it’s in the best interest of our nation for students to continue their schooling instead of being forced into the lousy job market.

(2) Another sore spot for some legislators in the House package is money to re-seed the National Mall. Perhaps I’m biased (being a former DC resident), but I’ve seen the Mall post-inauguration, and it’s essentially a frozen dust bowl — bereft of grass and looking pretty bad.

• On the one hand I’ll make the argument that redoing the lawn will be done with US labor using US supplies and that it’s essentially shovel-ready once the ground thaws in the spring.
• On the other hand I’ll also argue that regardless of whether re-doing grass or building a new road is more useful in the long run (no, that’s not a trick question; in most cases the answer here’s the road), the National Mall is part of our public face to the rest of the world.

In the same vein as how the NYCPD’s crack down on petty crime such as window-breaking and graffiti arguably helped decrease violent crime too, if our National Mall looks like a dump when visitors from overseas come to DC, isn’t it the same as just putting up a huge screen and broadcasting our economic weakness to the world? Of course, we shouldn’t seek to disguise the problems in our credit markets or mis-portray the value of of currency — global markets are build on trust, and deliberate lying won’t get us anywhere. But just as a taxi driver with peeling paint and no hubcaps might find it more difficult to pick up passengers, it’s my personal opinion that the US would find it harder to maintain its image as a global superpower if it can’t even keep up its national lawn.

To Do:

• Pick apples at a local farm and make an apple pie completely from scratch
• Take photos of the Air Force Memorial at sunrise
• Eat a burger at Ray’s Hell Burger
• Eat Japanese noodles at Wagamama (if they open a DC location, as is the rumor)
• Fly a kite in the Smithsonian Kite Festival
• Attend at least one event at this year’s Duke Ellington Jazz Festival

Have Done:

• Visit the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Anacostia
• Take pictures of the National WWII Memorial at night
• Wander around Adams Morgan Day Festival (I think the last time I went was in 2006)
• Watch free international films at the National Gallery of Art and the Freer/Sackler
• Eat Greek food at St. Sophia Cathedral’s annual summer festival (again, it’s been years since I attended)
• Taken pictures of the sakura over the Tidal Basin at sunrise

Anyone who’s heard my schpeel on suburbs knows that I despise suburbia with a passion. But with America on a relative economic decline compared to much of the world, there are strong reasons why (besides personal preference) we need to repopulate our cities and curb our energy consumption.

I watched the documentary “The End of Suburbia,” which is to some extent an alarmist film that assumes that our whole way of living is going to change with the decline of fosile fuels — but though I don’t think everything the film warms of will actually come to pass, we’re definitely going to have to wake up and truly start to reduce of reliance on cheap oil.

Suburbia is an amazing inefficient way of life that sprung up in 20th century America and relies inseparably on the personal automobile. Unfortunately, it’s not a good way forward if we, as a country, want to maintain economic growth in the decades ahead. The solution is not to procure more petroleum. It’s to reign in our consumption.

In short, I have a car, and I commute farther to work that I would like, but I’m strongly in favor of gas prices rising. America needs a wake up shock, despite any near term economic consequences. We need to realize that we need to change our lifestyles because it’s not sustainable. In other countries where energy prices are higher, average consumers are much better about conservation — but although “green” is now a concept that’s beginning to catch on among young professionals who wish to be cool, we need to embrace conservation for its own benefits (not just the coolness factor) if we want to break our addiction to oil.

1) We need better public transportation. If we’ve learned anything from this summer’s gas prices, it’s that America needs more options for mass transit. DC residents are papered with a decent subway and bus network that networks the city and several miles into the suburbs, but there are so many places were there are frankly no mass transit options. This isn’t to say, of course, that DC’s subway is ideal. Tokyo, for one, puts us firmly to shame.

2) We need better urban planning — mid-sized communities connected by mass transit that supply residents with commercial areas and civil services that are walkable to residential areas. Americans need to be able to walk to their grocery stores, their schools, and their offices. Suburbia is, by and large, artificial and soulless. Why is everyone enchanted by old urban villages like Georgetown and Old Town Alexandria? Why then do these same people live out at the end of a cul-de-sac? Why does the “American Dream” involve a cookie-cutter house on a treeless patch of grass down the highway from a Walmart? Look at the housing situation in your area. I bet that the close suburbs (like Arlington) haven’t lost much if any value while the exurb sprawl has declined.

3) The answer is to bulldoze our strip malls and create new mixed-use developments. The suburbs aren’t beautiful. They’re not historic. McMansions beyond the beltway aren’t the future — Theyr’e the foreclosed past. But we need to start redesigning and regrouping before we’re foreclosed, before all the value is lost. I mean, economically, if we switch from SUV’s to Prius’s now, we’ll have more money tomorrow than if we keep driving the SUV hoping that gas prices will decline. Because they won’t. Energy was too cheap. It needs to go up to become the scarce commodity that it really is.

4) Alternative energy is local, not global. The 1990′s and 2000′s have been and still are the age of globalization. Not that globalization didn’t exist in earlier years, but these have been the decades of true globalization. Alternative energy is best positioned to meet the needs of local communities — solar panals on the roofs of houses, wind turbines up on a hill, even hydro-power won’t solve our industrial needs, but it can power communities.

Is it going to far to say that SUV’s are unpatriotic?

If you haven’t heard the recent news, the National Cathedral has, to the dismay of many long-time locals, decided to close its greenhouse. Of course, I oppose the decision. Do I ever shop at the greenhouse? …well, no. But it’s an institution, and the Cathedral close just won’t be quite the same without it. The truth of the matter is, though, if the Cathedral wants to shut the greenhouse, can the neighborhood residents really do anything to stop it?

• WP: National Cathedral In Fiscal Squeeze
• City Paper: National Cathedral’s Greenhouse Closing Shop
• Save the Greenhouse

And if the thought of losing a neighborhood institution stresses you out, how about trying a trip to the new Korean sauna Spa World? Of course, the traffic along the drive from DC all the way out to Centerville could perhaps just add to your stress level… but hey, what would you do for a foot-ball field’s worth of Asian sauna experience? The truth is, though, I don’t really like all the glitz and whatnot of this type of of Korean bathhouse. What I’d really love is a nice little Arlington sento — definitely one of my favorite aspects of Japanese culture!

• WP: A Bathhouse Immersed In Tradition
• WTOP: Sauna and Bathhouse Offer Slice of Korea in VA

So all the suckers who move out to the suburbs to get away from urban traffic (yes, I know it’s a pain when cars back up through Georgetown trying to get across Key Bridge, and all you want to do is park your car, but no one will give you the space to do so) are now realizing that this very traffic is following them out to Fairfax and even more distant exurbs. Of course, with traffic like that (oh yeah, and gas prices too), it’s not surprising that Meto’s ridership has increased in the past three months despite a record price hike this December. Now if only the region were finally able to build that long-awaited Dulles rail line…

But despite these ongoing traffic woes, it appears that real estate is beginning to rebound in areas such as Prince William, Manassas and Manassas Park. One report says, “Metropolitan Regional Information Systems data show that the number of housing sales for Manassas is up 33 percent in March 2008 from March 2007. Although 673 active listings remained on the market at the end of March, 52 units sold, compared with 39 that sold in March 2007. Eighty-six sales are pending.” Of course, my first question would be — who in the world wants to like in Manassas? But since the numbers are saying that people are indeed purchasing homes out there, I guess that’s rather beyond the point. And although data shows that sales in Fairfax and Loudoun counties and in the city of Alexandria are down significantly from last year, it’s just my luck that Arlington’s market is still as strong as ever (more proof that I’m not off my rocker when I say I’d rather pay higher prices for prime location).

Well, fear no more. This website conveniently maps the location of over 17,000 pay phones in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Just input in your current address and how far you’re willing to hike, and the results (including snapshots of each phone itself) will appear overlayed on Google Maps. Amazing. Just one slight problem — Everyone in Japan seems to access the internet via their cellphones, so if you don’t have one, this website may not be be of much help.

On a different note, the Newseum in DC will open tomorrow at its new downtown location over six years after closing its doors in Rosslyn. Although admission will be free on opening day, starting Saturday, a visit will set you back a whooping $20 — making the Newseum the most expensive museum in DC (and I remember how we all cringed at the International Spy Museum‘s $18).

In the nation’s capital where the majority of museums are free, the Spy Museum has actually done surprising well, but it will be interesting to see if mass media holds the same caché for tourists as espionage.

(1) US: Clinton and McCain win the New Hampshire primaries. After Obama and Romney’s victories in last week’s Iowa caucuses, campaign-watchers debated back-and-forth on whether Clinton would be able to best him in New Hampshire. As recently as yesterday, polls were showing Obama ahead. But who believes numbers anyway? As a side note, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran a story about support for various candidates on Facebook (nevermind the fact that a lot of facebook users are too young to vote). According to this article, Obama is more than twice as poplar than Clinton among participants of Facebook’s Politics Pulse page. On the Republican side, the leading candidate is Ron Paul (who received less than 10% of the Republican vote in Iowa). Frankly, I don’t even know who he is. And in closing, the WSJ has an interesting interactive graphic that shows visually how cramped the primaries are this year.

(2) France: France’s president Sarkozy has publicly discussed his relationship with Italian model-turned-pop-singer Carla Bruni. When asked whether or not he plans to marry her, he replied, “There’s a strong chance you’ll learn about it after it’s already happened.” Talk about a rumor-starting press conference…

(3) Georgia (yes, the country, not the state): Although Mikhail Saakashvili (მიხეილ სააკაშვილი) is well on his way to being recognized as Georgia’s next president, the main opposition candidate, Levan Gachechiladze (ლევან გაჩეჩილაძე) and his supporters have been complaining vigorously that the election results are invalid. “You are a falsifier, a swindler. You personally falsified the election, and you will pay for this, I promise you,” he accused during a protest rally. “Resign! Otherwise we will protest every day!” With most international organiations and media calling the elections “free and fair,” it’s hard to see how Gachechiladze is going to make his case stick.

And on a completely different note, I’m aiming to explore some more of DC’s restaurants this year. Some of the ones I’ve marked down but haven’t had the chance to visit yet are listed below. As always, suggestions are welcome!

• Arax Cafe: Westover
• Momo Sushi & Cafe: Alexandria
• Cho’s Kitchen: Fairfax
• Vaso’s Kitchen: Alexandria
• TNR Cafe: Courthouse
• Couscous Cafe: Dupont Circle