The real estate boom has touched nearly every square inch of D.C. property from Rock Creek Park to the Prince George’s line—yet a distinctive slice of blight lives on in prosperous Kalorama. At the former Royal Thai Embassy at 2300 Kalorama Road, one window is boarded up, a green ’70s-era Cadillac sedan rusts in the rear lot (most recent D.C. registration: 1995), and a fence post sports a white anarchy symbol. Though Thailand moved its embassy to new quarters on Wisconsin Avenue in 1993, it still owns the 81-year-old building. It’s not wholly vacant, Minister Counsellor Sompong Sanguanbun says: One of the embassy’s custodians still lives on the premises—which could explain the sprinkler watering the untrimmed shrubs on a recent evening. But renovation plans for the $3.5 million property have been on hold, Sanguanbun says, ever since Asia’s 1997 fiscal crisis. He offered to tow the Caddy if it would halt media coverage. —David Morton