Comments on Breakfast links: Get educated - Greater Greater Washington

Comment by goldfish

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 23:55:41 EDT

@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?

Comment by David C

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:51:42 EDT

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.

Comment by Kolohe

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 19:50:15 EDT

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

Also a home of the past.

Comment by Old Piker

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:30:53 EDT

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...

Comment by HogWash

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:32:35 EDT

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.

Comment by HogWash

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:28:01 EDT

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."

Comment by MJ

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:26:36 EDT

@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.

Comment by French speaker

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:26:28 EDT

Detente, not detante.

Comment by Falls Church

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:00:28 EDT

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".

Comment by Falls Church

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:57:22 EDT

@ 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

Comment by MDE

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:50:11 EDT

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?

Comment by Kyle W

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:47:34 EDT

@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

Comment by andrew

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:24:36 EDT

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.

Comment by Teyo

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:17:34 EDT

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

Comment by Nicoli

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 09:55:16 EDT

@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.

Comment by Canaan

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 09:52:45 EDT

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

Comment by AWalkerInTheCity

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 09:32:40 EDT

@goldfish

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

Cue - music, tanks rolling north.

Switch to british paras besieged at Arnem.

Comment by goldfish

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 09:27:51 EDT

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

Comment by andrew

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 09:25:36 EDT

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.

Comment by Adam L

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:56:31 EDT

@MP

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

Comment by MJ

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:47:44 EDT

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.

Comment by Michael Perkins

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:46:38 EDT

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.