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*police racism and harassment is what I meant

by Falls Church in Residents want Seven Corners safer for walking and biking on May 24, 2012 7:07 pm  

Oh, and the other cheap and completely vital fix is to crack down on the blatant racism against the vietnamese businesses. We should be providing these job creators with awards, not harassing them. It's a great example of gov't gone wild, infringing on the basic rights we have in the constitution.

by Falls Church in Residents want Seven Corners safer for walking and biking on May 24, 2012 7:06 pm  

I bike to and around 7 corners semi-frequently (and certainly more frequently than driving). Tge road situation is beyond solving without massive cash which is not happening anytime soon, so its best to look at other options.

First off, its not that bad biking or even walking because everything is so concentrated and close by (particularly the short distance among target, safewat, and home depot). There are alsi two good places to cross 50, at the intersection with Pat Henry and the ped bridge. There are also service lanes that are safe and not terribly unpleasant to walk/bike along.

That said, more needs to be done to make walking/biking safe for residents even if it makes it worse for drivers going through 7 corners on their way to somewhere else. I don't know specifically what that is but traffic calming devices and service lanes would seem to be a good idea. Also, a way to get from 50 to 7 easily by bike/ped is needed. It would also be nice if some of the parking lots were turned into tax revenue generating businesses or residences. That way folks wouldn't have to traverse vast lots to get where they were going. It would also be a way to raise money for the improvements and of course fewer parking spots means fewer cars coming in and causing congestion or making walking difficult.

7 Corner's diverse population and intetesting small businesses give it a lot of potential for further development. The question is how we do this in a way that's cost effective and some quick and dirty ped/bike improvements, paid for by permitting greater density, and encouraged through less red tape and regulation (particularly fewer burdensome parking min regs) seems like the most practical way to move forward and create jobs.

by Falls Church in Residents want Seven Corners safer for walking and biking on May 24, 2012 6:51 pm  

Good luck. That place can raise tour blood pressure just driving through. Can't imagine biking there. A few years ago i drove through seven corners when the traffic lights were down. What a cluster f$@&.

by I. Rex in Residents want Seven Corners safer for walking and biking on May 24, 2012 6:22 pm  

Very glad to see your work on GGW, ruSERIOUSINGme.

by Geoffrey Hatchard in Vacant properties delay neighborhood reinvestment on May 24, 2012 5:50 pm  

planners will have to avoid shortcuts to get the maximum bang possible from buses.

Since we pretty much know this isn't going to happen, I think we should try to kill the idea right now.

by JustMe in Could RTV transform Montgomery's transit? on May 24, 2012 5:45 pm  

Perhaps a regional version could solve my principal pet-peeve about transit 'round these parts: no all-day and weekend normal transit to Baltimore or Annapolis. Gotta take the green line to the B30 to BWI, switch to light rail to Baltimore.

Annapolis? I don't even know, and it's only 45 minutes away!

by OctaviusIII in Could RTV transform Montgomery's transit? on May 24, 2012 5:42 pm  

@ xmal - untrue regarding H Street. It took so long because it was a complete rebuild of the street - pavement, utilities, sidewalks etc - not because of the streetcar tracks.

by H Street Landlord in Could RTV transform Montgomery's transit? on May 24, 2012 5:42 pm  

The ICC is already being heavily bused by MTA express/commuter buses, so there is probably also no need for the County to spend money there.

If, by "heavily bused", you mean "a bus that runs once an hour that cannot actually be boarded westbound at any of the ICC-area stops", then sure, if you say so. There's a major difference between a $5 bus that is hourly and a $2 (I assume we'll be at least to $2 by the time this is done) bus that ACTUALLY lets people board and alight in both directions.

The 201 is great for what it is, a hourly bus to and from BWI. It does no good whatsoever as local service to and from Shady Grove, Norbeck, and Burtonsville. Hence the need for some local service that actually fulfills that need. Whether or not that needs to be this RTV, or if it could be a regular Ride-On bus is naturally debatable, but the service is needed. (running on the ICC means that it'd be essentially the same either way.)

by Justin..... in Could RTV transform Montgomery's transit? on May 24, 2012 5:25 pm  

It's a shame that Seven Corners was ever allowed to become the mess that it is. I live nearby and although I enjoy the assets mentioned above, for obvious reasons I can't imagine living here indefinitely.

by J.C. in Residents want Seven Corners safer for walking and biking on May 24, 2012 5:22 pm  

When I lived in Lansing MI, a city with a big (for a city its size) abandoned house problem, the city had a "make safe or demolish" law in which inspectors could recommend that a city board order that a seemingly abandoned property either be brought up to code within so many days or it would be demolished by the city (with costs and fees charged to the owner or record).

Maybe DC needs something like that. Get aggressive.

by michiganman in 100-year old Anacostia abandominium houses crack addict on May 24, 2012 5:19 pm  

@andrew: Not true. Laying down track costs money and is highly disruptive, as was evidenced on H Street in the District recently. Check out the in-depth discussion of costs and when one mode makes sense over another here:

http://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/bus-and-rail-mantras/

by xmal in Could RTV transform Montgomery's transit? on May 24, 2012 5:15 pm  

I commute through 7 Corners every day. It's a huge mess and only going to get worse. An apartment tower and hotel are in the works for Route 50, and there are rumors about a townhouse project on the site of the medical buildings on Castle.

by Ellie Ashford in Residents want Seven Corners safer for walking and biking on May 24, 2012 4:58 pm  

The city can, and has hundreds of times, board or even brick up the windows and doors securely and charge the owner or lien the property for the work to make it secure against trespass.

I'd refer you to http://bit.ly/KuFgJb

Mostly, rather than individual owners, Pemberton is after the repeat offenders who buy up properties all over and try to hide from the tax. But it's actually pretty rare that someone actually pays the full blight tax, rather than fixes up their property or sells it. Pemberton remembers the owner of 1357 U Street NW, the old State of the Union building, whose owner just paid through the nose year after year. “He was so rich, it didn’t even matter," Pemberton says. “I wouldn’t expect anyone to pay it. It’s a little ridiculous.”

Generally speaking, unless you're a speculator, the city is incredibly lenient about dilapidated properties and tax liens. Obviously they're going to err on the side of not throwing people out on the street.

by oboe in 100-year old Anacostia abandominium houses crack addict on May 24, 2012 4:41 pm  

Yeah...if you're going to go through the effort of building a *GOOD* BRT system, the cost difference between BRT and LRT is probably going to be somewhere between negligible and nonexistent.

by andrew in Could RTV transform Montgomery's transit? on May 24, 2012 4:40 pm  

Seven Corners has character?

(To be clear, Eden Center has character. The rest of the area has ... whatever the opposite of character is.)

by Miles Grant in Residents want Seven Corners safer for walking and biking on May 24, 2012 4:38 pm  

I remember a discussion on ImagineDC about this area several years ago. In the comments the idea of turning Seven Corners into a traffic circle with Rte 50 running underneath became popular. Of course, that's a massive project that would probably cost a fortune and severely impact everyone nearby during construction. Dave Murphy's idea for an improved street grid for the area might be a better first step, since it would inconvenience fewer people traveling through the seven corners intersection.

by Lucre in Residents want Seven Corners safer for walking and biking on May 24, 2012 4:31 pm  

As horribly as The Nets have been playing lately (i.e. this past season), 500 parking spaces may be all they need for the whole crowd. Ha!

Maybe they will have a great season next year and NYC fans will flood the subways to come see them...

by wylie coyote in Breakfast links: Common and uncommon on May 24, 2012 4:30 pm  

I am so glad you are writing about 7 corners. It has a lot of potential with so much commerical zoning. Clearly thus far, none of that potential has been realized

by MW in Residents want Seven Corners safer for walking and biking on May 24, 2012 4:21 pm  

Seven Corners is so bad on so many levels, while having good stores, that improvement can not be hard. Though, what will be hard is to figure out where to start in this mess.

by Jasper in Residents want Seven Corners safer for walking and biking on May 24, 2012 4:16 pm  

I have a better idea: Why not improve the quality of service of the current Ride-on service?

If the system was optimized and functioning at capacity and that nothing else could be done to improve, I would understand why a switch to BRT would be necessary. But right now, I see a patchy service that could be vastly improved through a top to bottom assessment of what it is doing well and what it isn't...

Cost including new vehicles, new bus stop, new bus signs, increased frequency. $50 million dollar at most...

There is a reason why BRT does not exist in Europe: Bus systems are usually good enough that the next step is usually light Rail. I wouldn't call ride-on good enough sorry. it's poor...

by DCvinc2009 in Could RTV transform Montgomery's transit? on May 24, 2012 4:14 pm  

Hmmmmm ...

Off the top of my head, without a major reconfiguration of the area including rte 50, rte 7, Wilson Blvd, and several ancillary roads in the area, I think that this is a fantasy. I still think it's worthwhile to go through the mental exercise. But there has to be low hanging fruit before tackling this monster.

by Geof Gee in Residents want Seven Corners safer for walking and biking on May 24, 2012 4:12 pm  

In other words those surveyed are living in fantasyland.

by Anon in Residents want Seven Corners safer for walking and biking on May 24, 2012 3:57 pm  

The Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the new home for the Nets, only has 500 parking spots near the areana.

Unless you were attempting to say there are only 500 spots in the area (not including the 500 that will have shuttles), arena is misspelled.

by selxic in Breakfast links: Common and uncommon on May 24, 2012 3:54 pm  

I live near here. All efforts to make 7 corners a better place are welcome.

by Michael Perkins in Residents want Seven Corners safer for walking and biking on May 24, 2012 3:53 pm  

Good article. Mr. Thompson's son-in-law may well be the rightful owner. But 50 years after the Great Society, it's easier to fix abandonned buildings than abandonned people, though at some level the apparent owner may be as morally entitled to help as those with underwater mortgages.

by Jim T in 100-year old Anacostia abandominium houses crack addict on May 24, 2012 3:51 pm  

I don't understand why it's so necessary to push for the entire system so quickly. I agree it would operate BEST as a whole network - but as the article mentioned, MoCo already has an extensive "regular" bus network between metro-bus and ride-on routes. I think phase 1 should be built, and then a time to reflect should occur - did the goals of phase 1 occur, and does phase 2 make sense considering phase 1's outcome?

I agree that the Mid-County highway route seems like a waste in mid-county, and I also agree long term the Viers Mill/University Routes should look like one route. The ICC is already being heavily bused by MTA express/commuter buses, so there is probably also no need for the County to spend money there.

As for design, It would seem to me for the busy corridors, doing something similar to Ocean City's bus/bike/turn lane on the outside lanes of the road I think would be seen as an effective option that may actually garnish more community buy in. Buses have first priority, bicycles would have a fairly safe place to ride greatly increasing the bicycle network, and cars could use the lane for turning movements (enforceable by blinkers/distance traveled in lane), which would offer a benefit to auto travel in the main lines. At the larger intersections with extended turn lanes are the only places it may be a good idea to separate the turning vehicles from the bus lane.

by Gull in Could RTV transform Montgomery's transit? on May 24, 2012 3:30 pm  

@Pelham1861

You have got to be kidding me if you honestly believe the Tea Party is not trying to kill TE.

Keep burying your head in the sand I suppose...

by Kyle W in Breakfast links: Common and uncommon on May 24, 2012 3:21 pm  

Also, where the heck is Sand Box John? He should be all over this comment thread!

by MLD in How many railcars does it take to run Metro? on May 24, 2012 3:09 pm  

@MLD, @Alex B.
I am aware of the comments that Roger B. is referring to. At a Board meeting a few months ago, GM Sarles said something about replacing the 4000-series that sounded a lot like scrapping them and just getting 100 new 7000-series cars.

As far as I know Metro has not renegotiated their contract with Kawasaki, and adding 100 cars would be more expensive than just rehabbing some.

So I don't know whether Sarles misspoke or whether the plan has changed.

by Matt Johnson in How many railcars does it take to run Metro? on May 24, 2012 3:08 pm  

There was an article about the 4000 series order:
http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/5332/wmata-delays-7000-series-order-to-make-it-larger/

The 7000 Series are for:
64 cars for Silver Line phase II to Dulles/Loudoun
130 cars to get to 75% 8-car train operation
300 cars to replace the 1000-series.
90 cars to get to 100% 8-car operation

They will also be rehabbing the 4000 series as part of the contract.

by MLD in How many railcars does it take to run Metro? on May 24, 2012 3:05 pm  

@Alex

GM Sarles stated during I believe the March 8th meeting that he wanted to forgo the 4000 midlife rehab (which was to be to 7000 specs) and just replace them with brand new 7000s.

by Roger B. in How many railcars does it take to run Metro? on May 24, 2012 3:03 pm  

The 4000 series hasn't had its midlife rehab yet. They're still relatively young.

by Alex B. in How many railcars does it take to run Metro? on May 24, 2012 2:55 pm  

@ Steve & @ Alex

Don't forget that Sarles wants to scrap the 4000 series and procure 100 additional 7000 series cars to replace them....

What WMATA should do is as the 7000s come online begin a detailed inspection of all the 1000 & 4000 series and keep the top ~1% as "ready reserves" to be called into service during URGENT needs

by Roger B. in How many railcars does it take to run Metro? on May 24, 2012 2:53 pm  

The city can, and has hundreds of times, board or even brick up the windows and doors securely and charge the owner or lien the property for the work to make it secure against trespass.

Vacant houses which are easily entered are safety concerns, not just for crime, but fire hazards and enticements for children to play in.

by Tom Coumaris in 100-year old Anacostia abandominium houses crack addict on May 24, 2012 2:51 pm  

Agreed. There's certainly some un-built capacity in SW, but a lot of those federal buildings are already fairly dense as it is.

by Alex B. in Live chat with Matt Yglesias on May 24, 2012 2:48 pm  

No evidence whatsoever the 'Tea Party' is trying to kill transportation funding...but a nice catch phrase for a web site that seems to have lost its way promoting a 'GREATER' Washington. And still, no coverage her of the Federal report;level serious evidence of over-spending, fraud, no-bid contracts, etc. against the Silver Line managers -- MWAA. Why no coverage here? The WASHINGTON EXAMINER and AP has covered the scandal. Why not here? Just lame diatribes against the 'Tea Party' which is actually not an organized group...and governor of Virginia who has now been proven right about Silver Line spending.

by Pelham1861 in Breakfast links: Common and uncommon on May 24, 2012 2:48 pm  

Go Christine!

Nice article.

by Mark Dravillas in Planners are the new public health officials on May 24, 2012 2:47 pm  

Steve,

In addition, there will be a need to exercise one or more of the car options in the 7000 series car contract.

That's in addition to the 1000 series replacement, yes?

So, all told, the 7000 series could serve to:

a) Serve the Silver Line
b) expand the fleet's capabilities for 8-car operation
c) Replace the 1000 series cars

by Alex B. in How many railcars does it take to run Metro? on May 24, 2012 2:47 pm  

@Thayer-D

There are actually some plans already to do just that. For the federal buildings there is the SW Ecodistrict plan and a little further down there is the Wharf development, among other smaller plans. Now for the rest of Southwest DC, height is so much the problem per se, there are several tall residential buildings there, but they tend to be a bit "towers in the park". But as you can see from the renderings most of the new buildings going in fills up the space more. But we are getting to a point where the easy land will be essentially gone and if you want to add more housing you will have to tear down the housing that's there (essentially either townhouses or highrises, though there are a few garden style buildings). That's not impossible (heck, what we see today is essentially the result of leveling everything 60 years ago), but it is more difficult, particularly since many of the buildings are approaching historic status.

by Steven Yates in Live chat with Matt Yglesias on May 24, 2012 2:45 pm  

@oboe When was there a public outcry about the city dealing with these nuisances? When has the city tried to deal with these nuisances?

There is a way to deal with these properties and it's called eminent domain.

by Political Observer in 100-year old Anacostia abandominium houses crack addict on May 24, 2012 2:43 pm  

Another great piece Matt. Important to emphasis that the number of cars devoted to each line is a function of the length of the line and the ridership on that route.

In the FY2013 capital budget passed today there is a small new capital project to pull together the many loose ends at WMATA detailing what enhancements to the power system and station access are required to move towards more 8 car trains (where demand warrants). In addition, there will be a need to exercise one or more of the car options in the 7000 series car contract.

by Steve Strauss in How many railcars does it take to run Metro? on May 24, 2012 2:39 pm  

Maybe we need to post license plate-style panels with numbers on the backs of bikeshare bikes so cyclists breaking the law can be held accountable?

Yes, that might have helped in solving this one crime that will probably be solved anyway. Or it might not have. But it would definitely cost more money. And there is no way a criminal would learn to put duct tape over the plate before pulling the old smash and grab.

by David C in Breakfast links: Common and uncommon on May 24, 2012 2:31 pm  

What's more baffling is that the DC government doesn't even appear to have made an attempt to determine the ownership of this property after its owners failed to pay taxes year after year.

Given the sheer number of properties like this, and the amount of public outcry whenever the city tries to crack down on abandoned and dilapidated houses, I don't think it's all that baffling.

by oboe in 100-year old Anacostia abandominium houses crack addict on May 24, 2012 2:28 pm  

. I am not sure if WMATA has upgraded the system (yet, I think this is in the works) to handle added 8-car trains, either along the Orange Line or system-wide.

I am very worried about the crush at rush hour with the Rush Minus service on the blue line between L'Enfant en the Pentagon. I sincerely hope that since they can run 8-car orange lines, they can also run 8-car blue lines. Otherwise, the blue line will be the new sardine line, especially from say Foggy-Bottom to the Pentagon (and vv).

by Jasper in How many railcars does it take to run Metro? on May 24, 2012 2:28 pm  

@Charlie, I believe part of the answer to your #2, aside from having train cars available, is the power supply needs. I am not sure if WMATA has upgraded the system (yet, I think this is in the works) to handle added 8-car trains, either along the Orange Line or system-wide.

What will be interesting to watch is if WMATA gets the new 7000-series train cars in time for the opening of the Silver Line to Reston and what any new rail car delivery delays would mean for the fleet.

by Transport. in How many railcars does it take to run Metro? on May 24, 2012 2:22 pm  

This occassional series of posts on "abandominiums" is fantastic. I think it's come up on GGW before so my apologies, but does DC have anything like O'Malley's program in Baltimore (called Project 5000?) to gain control of abandoned properties and redevelop them for productive use? Among other things I believe they targeted properties where there were legal/ownership issues that had to be adjudicated before the city (or other investor) could take them over.

by grumpy in 100-year old Anacostia abandominium houses crack addict on May 24, 2012 2:11 pm  

Indeed, many cyclists are happy to use any old rack, tree, traffic sign, etc. to lock their bikes to. And for this, the bike thieves are profoundly grateful.

by Crickey7 in Bethesda gets new but terrible bike racks on May 24, 2012 1:51 pm  

Impressive work, John! I'm glad we're finally not just accepting the squalor that affects so many of our neighborhoods, especially "across the river."

But be careful out there!

by Tom A. in 100-year old Anacostia abandominium houses crack addict on May 24, 2012 1:48 pm  

" 'Well, yeah, that and the city doesn't own the place.'

That's not quite true if nobody's paying the property taxes."

It is quite true if a private party is listed as the property's owner in the city land records, back taxes or not. Hope the author doesn't get tagged for trespassing. Eye-opening look into another world for sure though.

by IsoTopor in 100-year old Anacostia abandominium houses crack addict on May 24, 2012 1:47 pm