Last weekend, seven years after the passage of the District’s Anti-Loitering/Drug Free Zone Act, D.C.’s first anti-loitering zone took effect. Squad cars and a Winnebago-sized police van idled on the unit block of O Street NW, as officers waited to spot people gathering in suspicious-looking groups so they could order them to disperse. Red fliers duct-taped to lampposts and walls marked the perimeter of the two-block zone, established for 120 hours under the law. Folks who were shooed away just gathered outside the limits. “It’s so funny,” says neighbor Chris Kelly, “because once you get to the edge of the border, there’s all the people, sitting down. They have nowhere to go and nothing to do.” —John Metcalfe