Weekend links: The grand plan

by David Edmondson • March 24, 2012 10:35 am

Photo by Kenya Allmond on Flickr.

Downtown BID thinks big: Finishing the K Street Transitway plan, implementing performance parking, and establishing financing for a homeless shelter are among the items DC's downtown BID wants to accomplish with a ~~$0.07~~ 0.7¢ tax hike. (WBJ)

Bye building, hello parking: Capitol Heights can't afford to fix up a historic building once slated as its new city hall, so it will tear it down for a paid parking lot instead. (Gazette)

Car2go launches: Zipcar gets some competition this weekend with the launch of car2go, which offers one-way car sharing. Sign-ups are free for the weekend. (Washingtonian)

Arts get a budgetary boost: The proposed DC budget would ~~increase arts funding by at least $4.4 million, with more funds contingent on federal money~~ not really increase arts funding at all, but just reflects a shift of a program from federal to DC control. ~~The proposed arts budget~~ Even with the federal shift, the local arts budget, at $7.6 million, is still only half what it was in 2009. (DCist, City Paper)

VRE will raise prices: VRE will raise fares 3%, to cover inflation. The railroad enjoys a nearly 100% on-time rate, happy customers, and a relatively cheap fare. (Post)

Cyclists are best customers: Cyclists bring more economic activity than drivers, due to moving slower through an area, taking up less room to park, and more. Localities can use bike infrastrure and ciclovias to attract economic activity. (Streetsblog)

Better map for the Bay: The San Francisco Bay Area's balkanized transit system sprawls over the gigantic region without any unifying transit map, leading to some very confused riders. One unofficial unified map is starting to make waves. (Atlantic Cities)

And...: With Michelle Rhee gone, private grants to DCPS have evaporated. (Post) ... Charge for parking, rather then rides, for San Francisco ferries. (Greater Marin) ... Batman isn't a good driver. (DCist)

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David Edmondson is a transportation and urban affairs enthusiast living in Mount Vernon Square. He blogs about Marin County, California, at The Greater Marin.

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The post about grant funds drying up probably could easily be spun as "grant funds end for flawed Rhee performance program". the big loss is for IMPACT which like most of the Rhee legacy was about gimmicks rather than substance. A competent performance appraisal person would have come up with something that reflects what actually happens in a classroom with realistic expectations for student improvement, instead of something embedded in a system that's easily gamed by cheating and sucking up to principals.

by Rich on Mar 24, 2012 10:49 am • link • report

Wouldn't that be a $0.007 tax hike for the Downtown BID, from 15.3 cents to 16 cents?

by Peter K on Mar 24, 2012 11:56 am • link • report

@Peter K
Fixed that right up. That's what I get for writing links at 2am on a Friday.

by David Edmondson on Mar 24, 2012 1:10 pm • link • report

I'm pretty excited about the launch of car2go here. I ditched Zipcar a few years back...I figured they were just getting too expensive. For those of us trying to get by car-lite/car-free, these kind of services are a plus. The thing I miss about Zipcar is their truck...it was very useful for a Sunday run to Ikea. I don't think the car2go Smart Cars are going to be much use for that!

by renegade09 on Mar 24, 2012 2:36 pm • link • report

To clarify, the BID is proposing pay for planning for the transitway, not for building it.

by AWalkerInTheCity on Mar 24, 2012 4:11 pm • link • report