Breakfast links: Rethink bikes and parks

by Eric Fidler • September 16, 2011 8:22 am

Photo by The Great Photographicon on Flickr.

CaBi gets Congressional support: 6 members of Congress signed a letter thanking NPS for allowing Capital Bikeshare on the Mall and urging them to quickly actually get stations installed. (Post)

Today is Park(ing) Day: Come out and see the parking spaces converted to parklets. Today's venues include downtown, Dupont, and Silver Spring.

Council vs. bike assault and corruption: Tommy Wells has agreed to introduce WABA's cyclist anti-assault bill; Graham, Evans and others will co-introduce. Wells will also propose an ethics bill to limit lobbyist contributions and contributions to constituent service funds; other members are working on their own bills. (WAMU, Post)

Views on housing policy differ in Fairfax: Candidates in Fairfax County sparred over affordable housing incentives. Sharon Bulova (D) defends incentives while Michael Williams (R) thinks "housing is not an area where government should dabble." (Post)

Volunteers provide kids a safe passage to school: Men east of the river are volunteering to supervise children as they walk to school. The effort aims to provide positive adult influence and to ensure the children behave respectfully. (Post)

Flooded neighborhood questions future: Due to recurring flooding, Huntington residents may ask the county to build levees or allow denser redevelopment that would mitigate future flooding. (Huntington-Belle Haven Patch, Froggie)

East of the river needs movies: DC film office head Crystal Palmer wants a cinema east of the Anacostia. It could anchor other commercial development, but be smaller than a multiplex. (City Paper) ... DC used to have several theaters east of the river.

WMATA watching employees more carefully: WMATA fired a technician who allegedly took an official vehicle home and falsified records to say he was working. The agency is increasing oversight of field technicians and take-home vehicles. (Examiner)

Maryland lowers toll ambition: Maryland is easing up on proposed toll increases across the state. Bay Bridge tolls may increase from $2.50 to $4 instead of the proposed $5. No word on how to fund repairs to the aging infrastructure. (Washington Times)

And...: The DC budget passed the Senate free of riders. (Post) ... Montgomery County councilmembers debate whether the proposed curfew law is redundant. (Examiner) ... Connecticut Avenue has a pretty new median downtown. (TBD)

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Eric Fidler has lived in DC and suburban Maryland his entire life. He likes long walks along the Potomac and considers the L'Enfant Plan an elegant work of art. He also blogs at Left for LeDroit, LeDroit Park's (only) blog of record.

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Re: Fairfax BOS,

Two things, the Tysons plan is ambitious and while the criticism about funding is valid, those transportation fixes (and costs) are going to arise anyway and are overdue. The county is at least shaping a vision that should guide it.

But the main point about housing. The government absolutely dabbles in housing in many ways williams may not realize. Policy has an effect on housing even if it isn't directly subsidized. I'd want to know what he thinks land-use/zoning/transportation plays in the cost of housing in Fairfax county.

by Canaan on Sep 16, 2011 8:59 am • link • report

@ tolls
The bay bridge is undertolled at $2.50. Its defentaly a bridge were it makes sense to up the toll, but at the same time if the bridge is payed for and the toll is not going to a new bridge I can see why people would be upset.

Perhaps set the toll at $5 and set some of that money asside in a fund for a future bridge.

by Matt R on Sep 16, 2011 9:03 am • link • report

Off Topic: From a HuffPost article in the expected effects of the Dupont escalator repairs on Farragut North, this quote by Dan Stessel, WMATA spokesman:

"We're all about underpromising and overdelivering," Stessel said.

I nearly did a spit-take. WMATA - overdelivering? Come on.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/14/dupont-metro-escalator-shutdown-farragut-north_n_962004.html

by dcd on Sep 16, 2011 9:51 am • link • report

Bridges are never paid for. Maintenance costs are hefty and ever-increasing for bridges as old as these. Recall that bridges sit in one of the harsher environments: brackish water, sun, wind, freezing and thawing and those dang seagulls and their poop.

by Crickey7 on Sep 16, 2011 11:42 am • link • report

Huntington is not a good situation. Nobody wants to dissolve neighborhoods, but the best option seems to redevelop the site, building back from the floodline. Prime transit-oriented location, it could be something really catalytic and nice. Naturally VDOT will balk and recommend Huntington Ave@ 8 lanes.

by spookiness on Sep 16, 2011 12:15 pm • link • report

Also keep in mind that you don't pay the toll when traveling west on the Bay Bridge. So you have to consider the current $2.50 toll a $1.25 toll.

by Cassidy on Sep 16, 2011 2:49 pm • link • report

@spookiness: I live in Huntington and was at the meeting. Pretty much the entire neighborhood supports redevelopment along Huntington Ave proper near the Metro, but it's more split away from that, including in the flooded area. A few want to sell, but the vast majority want to remain in the neighborhood, and large-scale redevelopment would make that more difficult, not to mention change the nature of Huntington. There's no easy answer, and limited opportunity for money for a levee/floodwall (virtually all would have to come from county bonding). Supervisor Hyland gave us 2 months to come up with a neighborhood concensus.

by Froggie on Sep 16, 2011 3:39 pm • link • report

Re bike anti-assault law: people already have the right to sue, and criminal actions belong in criminal court. Can someone explain what this law would add?

by Arnold on Sep 19, 2011 3:37 pm • link • report