Police ticket cyclist in Los Angeles. Photo by alexbcthompson on Flickr.

Hurt cyclist ticketed for nonexistent violation

Police gave 3 tickets to the cyclist hit by a truck driver at 11th and U. One was for not wearing a helmet, even though the law doesn’t require him to wear one. (DCist)  

Costco “beautiful,” says Kwame

Costco will soon come to Fort Lincoln. Kwame Brown praises the development because it’ll “look beautiful” to look at the back of the store while driving in on New York Avenue. Really? (Post)  

Let’s loosen the numbers

Current budget projections for DC show a $34.8 million surplus next year. Mayor Gray thinks that’s “unrealistically low”, and is pushing back against the CFO’s projection. (Post)  

Evans has Logan Circle parking plan

Councilmember Jack Evans wants to reserve half the street for resident-only parking in Logan Circle, as is now the case in performance parking zones in Ward 6 and soon much of Ward 1. (DCist)  

Want a grocery? Add housing

Why does Foggy Bottom get a Trader Joe’s, Petworth a Safeway, but Anacostia a warehouse supermarket? Income and population density. To attract a better grocer, neighborhoods must add housing. (R U Seriousing Me)  

Hidden urbanism

Governor O’Malley’s proposed budget limits the mortgage income tax deduction by limiting tax deductions in general, and Maryland’s housing industry is not happy about it. (Market Urbanism, WAMU)  

Sprawl is really quite big

A whole village could fit inside a typical 12 acre park-and-ride lot, complete with shops, housing, and public space. (Small Streets)  

Promise and peril in public housing

Housing projects exemplify 60s-style urban decay, and few were worse than St. Louis’s Pruitt-Igoe project. Urbanists would be wise to listen to that failure’s lessons when planning newer public housing. (Atlantic Cities)  

Elect the regionals?

The only elected regional government in the US presides over Portland.  Though the experiment is a success, state and local governments have been reluctant to give away such power and follow Portland’s example. (Atlantic Cities)  

And…

A judge imposed a lifetime driving ban on a 17-year-old driver whose crashed into a tree, leaving a passenger in a coma for weeks. (CBS) … St. Louis will study whether to demolish a freeway downtown, which would give easy downtown access to the river and Arch for the first time in decades. (Streetsblog)