Snow Job: Cleaning up from a snowstorm that didn’t actually materialize turns out to be more expensive than we realized. Somehow, the District spent $500,000 this weekend, and the Virginia Department of Transportation dumped more than $1 million into northern Virginia road treatments. No doubt some government budget wizard has already calculated how much cleaning up would have cost if the storm really happened; the difference is, of course, a savings! -3

Metro Opens Years: New Year’s Eve falls on a Friday this year, which means bars will stay open until 3 a.m., and revelry could well go on later than that. Should you happen to miss the last Metro home, the good news is, you’ll only have to wait four hours to catch another one; Metro will open at 7 a.m. on both Friday and Saturday. How you keep yourself occupied between 3 and 7 is not up to the transit agency, of course. Remember: You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here. +2

You Really Like Us: It doesn’t take a very long search to find ugly government buildings in the District, either federal or local. Which is why projects like the Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Library are so impressive. The Wall Street Journal agrees, naming the library to a list of best designed civic projects of 2010. Of course, the city’s budget is busted, and Republicans are about to take over half of Congress, so the current spate of big public buildings is probably the last one for a while. Someday, future architects will be able to take books out about public spending from the nice new library. +1

The Rich Get Richer: Today’s installment of data from the Census Bureau that isn’t actually surprising to anyone who pays attention to their surroundings is out; the District has both the highest percentage of households earning more than $200,000 and one of the lowest median incomes of states with wealthy residents. Which means a large number of the people who aren’t making $200,000 are barely getting by. Good thing the D.C. Council refused to raise taxes on incomes of more than $150,000! -3

Yesterday’s Needle rating: 70 Today’s score: -3 Today’s Needle rating: 67