Posts by Jaime Fearer
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Development
Vince Gray talks IZ, New Communities, and rent control
At the recent blogger roundtable, Mayoral candidate Vince Gray talked about his goal to unite residents in "One City."
He noted that while DC is currently "very divided by geography, age, gender, and race," ultimately "people have got to feel like there's a place for them." While education, economic development, and workforce education are pieces of this puzzle, without suitable and ample housing for all, we will continue to struggle as a divided city.Gray noted that he pushed for inclusionary zoning from the start of the two-and-a-half year struggle to get the regulation on the books, working through one emergency legislation after another while the Fenty administration delayed implementation. Lamenting the loss of potentially hundreds of affordable housing units during the hold-up, Gray says that if elected mayor, he will "aggressively implement" IZ.
Another housing issue we discussed was rent control. Under current legislation, which Gray co-sponsored, rent control is up for re-authorization every five years. Gray promised that, as mayor, he would work to make rent control permanent, though he acknowledged it could potentially be challenged as unconstitutional.
Avoiding displacement is perhaps one of the most daunting challenges to housing equity. Under federal programs like HOPE VI, new mixed-income, and sometimes multi-use, developments are built with the intention of providing homes for both current and new residents of the community. A hiccup comes when low-income residents "temporarily" move to make room for new construction.
Under the New Communities Initiative—established at the end of Anthony Williams' administration—Barry Farm (Ward 8), Lincoln Heights/Richardson Dwellings (Ward 7), Northwest One (Ward 6) and Park Morton (Ward 1) are to "transform [from] highly concentrated low-income neighborhoods into healthy mixed-income neighborhoods." Perhaps the most important component of this initiative is the guiding principle of "build first" which "calls for new housing on publicly-controlled lands to be built prior to the demolition of existing distressed housing to minimize displacement."
When asked how best to retain current residents while improving housing, education, and economic opportunities, Gray pointed immediately to New Communities. While not a new initiative, it is one we seem to have lost track of as the economic boom turned into a bust. The reality is that while most of us are facing challenges in the current climate, many residents in our city who were struggling at the peak are in further distress now.
Gray, at least on the campaign trail, is able to recognize this gulf that continues to divide DC, and he seems to be genuinely interested to continue to push for solutions that have been staring us in the face for years now. Issues like inclusionary zoning, rent control, and New Communities are all ways the city can help bridge that gulf—they just need to truly be championed in order to work. It will take serious sustained effort from all the city's leadership to accomplish these goals.
Cross-posted at The District Curmudgeon.
Demographics
Food desert or mirage?
Food security is an extremely important issue for the livability of cities. To educate citizens about it, accuracy in mapping is vital as well.
Upon first glance two weeks ago, I and a number of like-minded folks in the region sent along links and tweets to our contacts about "When Healthy Food is Out of Reach," a joint report from D.C. Hunger Solutions and Social Compact.
Sadly, it comes as no surprise that food deserts or or "grocery gaps," defined as an "area in the United States with limited access to affordable and nutritious food, particularly such an area composed of predominantly lower income neighborhoods and communities," exist in DC. Similarly, it comes as no surprise that, based on that definition, Wards 5, 6, 7, and 8 are the hardest hit.
However the maps used to convey the District's food deserts are misleading, particularly Maps 3 and 4 on pages 15 and 18 of the report. Below is an annotated version of Map 4, "Food Deserts in the District of Columbia."
This illustrates what Mark Monmonier calls a "Blunder that Misleads" in his book How to Lie With Maps. According to the report, map 4 combines "census tracts where 51 percent or more of the population lives at incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level" and census tracts with "below-average access to full-service grocery stores."
The blunder — not a lie but rather a "cartographic fallibility" — comes from using census block group data. Entire block groups get designated as food deserts that either have no living residents (such as cemeteries and parks) and so do not have much income and require no access to food, or house institutions (like hospitals) and so do not have much income but likely provide food on site. Nearly 1/4 of the areas designated as food deserts may technically, but not realistically, fit the working definition.
Particularly during this time of increasing unemployment, homelessness, and hunger, advocacy groups across the District and the country are working overtime. Like many others, I want to help in the fight for social justice, but we need to be sure our data are airtight in order to effectively convey our messages.
Cross-posted at The District Curmudgeon.
Retail
Thinking inside the box: Reusing Ward 5's empty big boxes
Julia Christensen has become the authority on adaptive community reuse of empty big box stores with her 6-year project and now recent book, Big Box Reuse. Empty stores have transformed into community centers, museums, charter schools, markets, and more. While Christensen's project focuses primarily on the suburban landscape, we are dealing with a similar loss in DC's northeastern Ward 5.
This past November, National Wholesale Liquidators, Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In little over a month we had two empty big boxes less than two miles apart: one at 514 Rhode Island Avenue NE in the Rhode Island Avenue Center, and the other in the Hechinger Mall at 1600 Benning Road NE. Conversations over what should next fill the space have erupted and died down many times since on neighborhood email lists.Many residents suggested filling the dead space with higher-end retail, including the ever-elusive Trader Joe's or Harris Teeter. However, Safeways already anchor both suburban-style strip malls. While the NWL on Rhode Island Avenue replaced the Ames department store (which took over Zayre's) when it left the mall during that company's death throes, we are currently in the midst of a recession. That makes the prospect of finding another big box retailer to fill 60,000+ square feet two times over in DC almost certainly impossible.
Ryan Avent, in response to Jebediah Reed's interview with Christensen on the Infrastructuralist, envisions creating a dense, mixed-use neighborhood in place of dying strip malls. This fits with recent literature on "retrofitting" or "recycling" suburbs and is, in fact an integral part of the THINK Rhode Island Avenue Great Streets Initiative. But that project has just begun and is on an extended timeline. What do we do in the interim?
Edgewood's ANC-5C08 Commissioner Marshall Phillips has seen the Rhode Island Avenue Center transition over the years, and he began thinking outside the box before he'd even heard of the big box reuse movement. At the March 17 ANC-5C monthly meeting, Phillips took the floor during the Commission's "Workshop on Infrastructure Issues" and spoke from the heart of his desire to work out a deal between property manager Vanguard Realty and the DC government to fill the dark space with community services, perhaps a combination of CSOSA, an MPD-5D substation, and a larger space for the overcrowded Brentwood DMV. The DMV is constantly overwhelmed, yet Mayor Fenty is proposing to close it in his new budget.
Phillips would like to see community services rent the space for approximately 7 years. That's enough time for the economy to rebound and the Rhode Island Avenue Great Streets to hopefully move from planning to the beginning stages of inception. Currently, Vanguard is looking for a retail tenant to sign a 30-year lease. H&R Retail manages the Hechinger Mall, and is likely looking for similar terms. Neither site is listed in the Washington, DC Economic Partnership database, though I'm not sure that would necessarily help right now.
Communities across the country are, in varying ways, reclaiming private space for public benefits. This movement, suburban in its genesis and at first glance contrary to New Urbanist ideas, sets a great precedent for what we can do with existing infrastructure here in DC, even if not ideal or urban in its form. I commend Commissioner Phillips on his vision, and hope both the community and the District government are able to work together to reopen these dark spaces as soon as possible.
Parking
Saint Elizabeths: reuse or abuse?
In mid-November, I attended the second St. Elizabeths West Campus walking tour hosted by the DC Preservation League (DCPL). Founded in 1852 as the Government Hospital for the Insane at the urging of social reformer Dorothea Dix and its first Superintendent, Charles H. Nichols, St. Elizabeths' entire campus was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990, named to the National Trust for Historic Preservation's "Eleven Most Endangered" List in 2002, and placed on the DC Inventory of Historic Sites in 2005. In 2008, DCPL named the West Campus as one of DC's Most Endangered Places.
The East Campus, now under District control, continues to operate as a hospital, and DC recently finalized a framework plan for redeveloping the site. Meanwhile, the West Campus was essentially abandoned in 1987. In 1999, Mayor Anthony Williams suggested moving UDC to the West Campus. In hindsight, and in my opinion, this proposal would have proven beneficial to both UDC and Anacostia. After all, the Center Building was designed by Thomas Ustick Walter, the fourth Architect of the Capitol and designer of the Capitol Dome. The Main Building—its three-story columns facing a sprawling quad—was designed by the Boston firm of Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge, architects of the Stanford University campus.
Outrage over the proposal, fostered primarily by accusations of racial insensitivity, killed the idea (at least on an official level) and the land was transferred to the federal government in 2004. Shortly after, GSA began shoring up the buildings with red plywood. GSA cut off public access to "The Point"—with the best views in the city across DC and into Virginia—and a cross-shaped Civil War cemetery. They will remain inaccessible to the public if the Department of Homeland Security moves forward with its plans to build up to an additional 4.5 million square feet of office space and 1.5 million square feet of parking to serve up to 26,000 DHS employees.
DCPL and community members are pushing for "a re-use incorporating rehabilitation of historic structures and landscapes, sensitive new construction, and public access to The Point." Will future generations of residents get to enjoy this site, its buildings and its views, or will Saint Elizabeths West turn into another giant missed opportunity for DC?
Bicycling
Support the Bicycle Safety Enhancement Act
Jaime Fearer has now joined the GGW contributor team! Jaime recently moved to Logan/Shaw after 3 years in the Northeast neighborhood of Woodridge, where she ran the blog Stop, Blog and Roll. Please welcome Jaime!
After Alice Swanson was struck and killed while riding her bike to work on July 8, bicyclists across the region have been clamoring for enforcement of seemingly basic safety standards. The Washington Area Bicyclist Association / WABA has dedicated much of its time in the past few months working with the DC Council to draft legislation. In October, Councilmember Jim Graham, chair of the DC Council's Public Works and Environment Committee, introduced the Bicycle Safety Enhancement Act of 2008. The bill includes:Bicycle advocate Joe Mizerek has even created bike jerseys to promote the importance of passing cyclists with three feet of space. That's already the law in many states, and hopefully DC will soon join them.
- A requirement that blind spot mirrors be installed on all DC owned heavy duty vehicles
- New bicyclist and pedestrian awareness training for DC heavy vehicle operators
- A requirement that motorists give three feet of space when passing cyclists
- A fine for the use of restricted lanes (bus/bike lanes or bike lanes) by unauthorized vehicles
The Council will hold a hearing tomorrow (Friday, November 14th) at 2 pm. WABA, Matthew Yglesias, and countless others urge you to express your support for the Bicycle Safety Enhancement Act. If you can testify in person (which makes by far the most impact), email or call Maria Angelica Puig-Monsen at 202-724-8195 or mpuigmonsen@dccouncil.us today.
If you can't testify, please send your Councilmember a letter via WABA's action alert site. I sent one to my Councilmember, Jack Evans of Ward 2, and within minutes I received a confirmation from his office. You can also send written statements to Puig-Monsen
Please take a few minutes today to show your support for this long overdue legislation!
- WMATA presents options for SmarTrip negative balances
- Teens and young adults aren't mosquitoes
- You know you've arrived when...
- Combine the Circulator and Metro maps for visitors
- For state legislature in Montgomery County
- For Prince George's County offices
- Navy Yard sidewalks get sustainable stormwater systems
Latest reported issues:
- Lights out at 152 Massachusetts Ave NE
- Bicyclists endangering pedestrians at George washington memorial pkwy Mclean
- Pedestrian Safety Program at 11th St NW and Pennsylvania ave NW
- Pedestrian Safety Program at Calvert St and Cliffbourne St
- Streetlight Repair at Westmoreland Circle Washington D C D C
Smart Growth
Add jobs, retail, and housing for all income levels in walkable places like
Wisconsin Avenue, Brookland, and Minnesota-
Transit
Provide more alternatives to driving by expanding Metro capacity, building streetcar lines, and speeding up buses. Grow ridership through better maps and schedules from signs to mobile devices. Read posts »
Public Space
Our roadways are our most valuable public places. Design them to accommodate safe walking and bicycling. Locate plazas and public parks to create numerous focal points for human activity. Read posts »
Traffic
Design neighborhoods around grids instead of cul-de-sacs. Avoid building new freeways or widening existing ones which only induces further sprawl. Read posts »
Parking
Drivers create substantial traffic by circling endlessly for scarce parking. Use pricing to manage curb space and dedicate the revenue to providing alternatives to driving. Read posts »
Architecture
Preserve our row house neighborhoods and beautiful architecture that engages pedestrians visually and functionally. Eschew bad modernism that turns its back on the street and the starchitects that peddle it to "make a statement." Read posts »
Education & Safety
Make our urban areas desirable places for people and families of all ages with the highest quality education and safe neighborhoods for all. Read posts »
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