Breakfast links: Get educated

by David Edmondson • April 20, 2012 8:39 am

Photo by Mr. T in DC on Flickr.

The Henderson plan: Improving proficiency, increasing graduation rates, getting more residents to go to traditional public schools, and just making students like school are Chancellor Henderson's 5-year goals for DCPS. (Washington Times)

When to mix, when to separate: DDOT's bike study recommends adding special bicycle signals and better pavement markings, and several more specifics. The study also concludes "mixing zones" work best when there are few turning vehicles and separated phases when there are many. (WashCycle)

UIP helps, hurts affordable housing: Urban Investment Partners has built a lucrative business around getting tenants to waive purchase rights, making major renovations, and promising to keep rents low for existing tenants while charging a lot more for new ones. Some affordable housing gets preserved, but much is lost. (City Paper)

Barracks Row getting more barracks: The Marine Corps has decided it has to buy more property on or around Barracks Row. They have narrowed down to 3 likely sites, 2 on 8th Street and 1 at 11th and M. The Virginia Avenue community garden, a site in the running earlier, is likely safe. (WBJ, JDLand)

Pedicab detante solidifies: NPS and pedicab operators had a surprisingly productive talk over proposed regulations. Though first met with skepticism, by meeting's end it seemed that insurance requirements were the only major sticking point. (TBD)

Williams on top: Former mayor Anthony Williams wil lead the Federal City Council, a business-led group that's promoted some valuable improvements in the past, but whose transportation focus often centers on suburban CEOs driving into the city. (Post)

CSI: Blog: TV investigators identify objects using magic databases that flash each item on the screen. In real life, they can use blog commenters. Jalopnik readers helped Waynesboro, VA police identify a car part, leading to an arrest in a fatal hit-and-run.

Build a bridge: Thanks to new techniques, bridges can be replaced in a matter of days or weeks, rather than the months to years construction projects used to take. (NYT)

And...: A tiny, 130-square-foot house is making the rounds in DC as a home of the future. (DCMud) ... College Park Metro station just opened an experimental enclosed and locked bike garage. (Patch) ... Metro is inspecting all of its defibrillators after one failed to perform during an emergency, allowing the passenger to die. (Examiner)

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22 comments

Tags: links

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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Metro already had station managers trained to inspect the AEDs. Why wasn't there a monthly sign-off that they performed the check?

It's not like the AED battery dies daily or even weekly.

Unable to set standards and hold people to them.

by Michael Perkins on Apr 20, 2012 8:46 am • link • report

Am I remembering correctly that a plan was floated a couple of years ago to turn Potomac Gardens (the public housing project at 13th and Penn SE) into additional Marine barracks? Does anyone know what happened to that plan? As a nearby resident, I think that would be a great development as long as the city worked dilligently to assist the people displaced.

by MJ on Apr 20, 2012 8:47 am • link • report

@MP

Standards? Accountability? You must be new here. ;-)

by Adam L on Apr 20, 2012 8:56 am • link • report

Not to derail this conversation out of the gate, but I don't get why people get so hung up about Potomac Gardens. As far as public housing goes, it's not terrible, and seems to adequately serve its residents without being a nuisance to the community (whose complaints about the complex seem be focused on "Eek! Projects" and crime issues that are unrelated to Potomac Gardens.

Now, if you wanted to do something to liven up the streetscape in that area (and also install streetlights on the nearby blocks that don't have any), I think that would be a far more substantial improvement to the neighborhood.

by andrew on Apr 20, 2012 9:25 am • link • report

Quick bridges are not new. Bailey bridges were built in WW2, while under fire, and are still in use today.

by goldfish on Apr 20, 2012 9:27 am • link • report

@goldfish

"ever built a bailey bridge before soldier? No? Neither have I"

Cue - music, tanks rolling north.

Switch to british paras besieged at Arnem.

by AWalkerInTheCity on Apr 20, 2012 9:32 am • link • report

I enjoyed the line in the Bridge story that quick replacements are part of an effort "to put drivers first"

by Canaan on Apr 20, 2012 9:52 am • link • report

@MJ

I think that was only a random rumor and not actually a plan.

Regardless of where the Marines end up, I hope that the blue castle development end up being a Whole Foods. I find it annoying that there isn't one in Capitol Hill.

by Nicoli on Apr 20, 2012 9:55 am • link • report

Would be nice if they used the bridge technique for the Washington Boulevard Bridge over Columbia Pike in Arlington...

by Teyo on Apr 20, 2012 10:17 am • link • report

Speaking of DDOT and bike lane pavement markings, they need to start thinking about refreshing the paint on some of the existing lanes.

It's good in many places, but there are a few roads where it's starting to wear off.

Also, they could do a better job of fixing potholes and frost heaves in the bike lanes. (Ahem, 15th St!)

On a brighter note, DDOT has done this in some areas, and fixed most of the issues that Geoff wrote about last year.

by andrew on Apr 20, 2012 10:24 am • link • report

@Andrew

Pot-hole season starts now. Report them just like you would report any other pothole.

http://ddot.dc.gov/DC/DDOT/On+Your+Street/Traffic+Management/Snow/Potholepalooza

by Kyle W on Apr 20, 2012 10:47 am • link • report

That tiny house would make an awesome in-law suite for any backyard in the district. Can we fix zoning to make that concept legal?

by MDE on Apr 20, 2012 10:50 am • link • report

@ MJ
Potomac Gardens was one of the sites considered for the Marine Barracks expansion. It was eliminated as a possibility over the multi-year decision making process that included three rounds of community involvement. The locations identified in Breakfast Links were also part of the original set of options and it sounds like that's what they finally landed on.

Not to derail this conversation out of the gate, but I don't get why people get so hung up about Potomac Gardens.

There was a drug bust at PG in 2010 that yielded 15 arrests. Some its reputation for crime is deserved. Admittedly, some of it is overblown. Here's a fairly balanced article on the topic:

http://dcist.com/2010/12/housing_project_again_draws_neighbo.php

by Falls Church on Apr 20, 2012 10:57 am • link • report

The study also concludes "mixing zones" work best when there are few turning vehicles

This is why I suggest making the left turn only lane on 15th a thru lane. Seems like it would benefit both bikers and cars in terms of both safety and speed. You could only allow left turns onto Mass and U ST and make everything in between "no left turn".

by Falls Church on Apr 20, 2012 11:00 am • link • report

Detente, not detante.

by French speaker on Apr 20, 2012 11:26 am • link • report

@Falls Church--Thanks for the background! I thought I remembered hearing something about it, but never knew what came of the plan.

@Andrew--I definitely agree that a streetscape project and better light would be a great benefit to the area. However, the uneasiness some neighbors have about PG isn't imaginary. The crime is real (ask the guys who mugged and assaulted me last year and then ran toward PG) and needs to be addressed.

by MJ on Apr 20, 2012 11:26 am • link • report

Why wasn't there a monthly sign-off that they performed the check?

I don't believe the devices require monthly checkups..rather a couple of times/yr.

Metro could've checked this out at least through a routine quarterly safety check. It's not that taxing and I imagine that the workers were just being lazy and thinking "well we rarely need these anyway."

by HogWash on Apr 20, 2012 11:28 am • link • report

Oh and I'm not sure how attainable Henderson's goals are but they are indeed ambitious.

"Make sure 90% of students like the school they attend?"

Not sure why this one made the list.

by HogWash on Apr 20, 2012 11:32 am • link • report

Teyo - You might appreciate an anecdote:
Back in 2001 just as I was moving away from the area (only to return a few years later), I was driving under the Washington Blvd. bridge at Columbia Pike. Someone (probably a junior engineer tasked to do so) had used orange spray paint to mark all of the areas where the concrete was deteriorating. From my observation, about 80% of the bridge had been spray painted orange... If that wasn't a sign to *someone*, I don't know what would be...

by Old Piker on Apr 20, 2012 3:30 pm • link • report

"A tiny, 130-square-foot house is making the rounds in DC as a home of the future."

Also a home of the past.

by Kolohe on Apr 20, 2012 7:50 pm • link • report

The thing I don't get is why they don't put the new Barracks within the walls of the Navy Yard. It's already secure, there are quite a few surface parking lots that would make great barracks (river front even) and the DOD already owns the land.

by David C on Apr 23, 2012 5:51 pm • link • report

@David C: The Navy yard people are very senior, and they pretty much all drive in from the suburbs and do not have DC parking stickers. Moreover, parking around the yard is quite difficult, and none is immediately adjacent. You are suggesting that the Navy inconvenience career executives to build a barracks for very junior Marine enlisted personnel -- how likely is that?

by goldfish on Apr 23, 2012 11:55 pm • link • report