Summer 2002

A Guide to the District

New Book Offers Details About DC Living

By Greg Licamele

The third edition of the “Newcomer’s Handbook for Washington, DC,” written by GW Professor Ricia Chansky and Mike Livingston, covers 35 neighborhoods and includes more than 200 pages of advice on finding a home, choosing schools and child care, getting around the Washington area, and taking care of every administrative detail from driver’s licenses to dog vaccinations. The third edition is also the first to include Web site addresses for community organizations, government agencies, newspapers, utility companies, and other resources. Unlike a travel guide, the “Newcomer’s Handbook” assumes the reader is coming here to stay.

“The new edition, which is more than twice as long as the previous one, is filled with important information for people new to the city and for those trying to better familiarize themselves with DC and the greater metropolitan area,” Chansky says. “At each new place that I covered for the text, I felt as though I was discovering rarely seen treasurers and couldn’t wait to rush home and write them up for the book.”

Since 1980, the “Newcomer’s Handbook” series of city guides has offered readers a unique guide to moving to and living in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC, and other major cities.
Having taught in GW’s English Department for six years, Chansky also serves as a freshman and Living and Learning Community adviser. She teaches “at risk” youths in a teen writing program that she designed at The Smithsonian Institute and is a writer for the education department of The Kennedy Center.

 

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