Within the past few days, the security forces have descended on Douma, 10 miles from Damascus, to take back neighborhoods they had ceded to armed gunmen.
Many of these homeowners are not planning to return, their decaying properties left to hold back neighborhoods that are struggling to recover.
For one thing, their efforts to bring back neighborhoods are now often data-driven.
JP: All that means is that you can still find it, but you have to go a little more into the back neighborhoods to find.
The room has a by now familiar louche appeal (peeling paint, tin ceiling), but haphazardness is less charming from a bartender, even if this is meant to be a laid-back neighborhood joint.
But it's in Fort Greene, a laid-back neighborhood whose main attractions include proximity to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, more French restaurants than some neighborhoods in Paris, and a farmer's market.
Up on Church Hill, the Hill Cafe, 2800 East Broad Street, (804) 648-0360, is a laid-back neighborhood spot with painted brick walls, old tables and good pulled-pork sandwiches, burgers and salads.
He and his wife also plan to partner with Takoma providers and refer patients to a wide array of complementary health services available in the laid-back neighborhood.
Two men were shot and wounded, one critically, in the Back Central neighborhood of Lowell, Mass., Tuesday night.
