It's interesting to see how the advocates for smart growth are specifically talking about the importance of aesthetics in creating a pleasant walkable envirinment. "The plan also includes a vision for a greener, more aesthetically-pleasing look for the Columbia Pike corridor, along with wider sidewalks and better route options for cyclists."

Their renderings are very nice, but we've seen this since Seaside in the 1980's. The rubber will hit the road when construction begins and each developer will try to outshine eachother. Hopefully there are some architectural guidelines that will help create the vision they draw.

by Thayer-D on Jun 26, 2012 8:54 am • link • report

At least we know how Arlingotn plans on the mixing bikes and streetcars -- moving the bikes to the sidewalk

by charlie on Jun 26, 2012 9:16 am • link • report

@charlie: Only one of the renderings shows that, starting with a road that very few people would want to bike on presently.

The next rendering shows multiple bikes on the road.

by Gray on Jun 26, 2012 9:18 am • link • report

RushMinus update: People have adapted, or it's vacation. The sardine crush from the Pentagon to Rosslyn is gone in the morning. I even see people wait for Yellow Lines in Franconia-Springfield...

by Jasper on Jun 26, 2012 9:23 am • link • report

At least we know how Arlingotn plans on the mixing bikes and streetcars -- moving the bikes to the sidewalk

No, my understanding is the plan is to build bike infrastructure on the side streets running parallel to Columbia Pike (I think 9th and 12th). This is similar to how bikes use G and I to avoid the streetcar tracks on H NE. You only need to use the sidewalk/road for the last 1/2 block of your ride if you use the side streets.

by Falls Church on Jun 26, 2012 9:41 am • link • report

"The USGS study suggests the Northeast would get hit harder because of ocean currents. When the Gulf Stream and its northern extension slow down, the slope of the seas changes to balance against the slowing current. That slope then pushes up sea levels in the Northeast. It is like a see-saw effect, Sallenger theorizes."

So it's like a permanent "bulge" in the ocean? My mind has a hard time grasping that concept.

by MM on Jun 26, 2012 9:51 am • link • report

There no such thing as a Delmarva "region." There is the Delmarva peninsula, and then there are places that are not the Delmarva peninsula. The linked article makes absolutely no mention of the Delmarva peninsula, nor does it indicate that the Delmarva peninsula will be hit harder than the rest of the mid-Atlantic coastline.

by dukiebiddle on Jun 26, 2012 9:52 am • link • report

Barry needs to stop stoking the racial divide in the city, and Mayor Gray and the rest of the council need to be loudly calling him out on it.

It's bad politics, will keep holding back his ward, and is going to get people killed.

by andrew on Jun 26, 2012 10:01 am • link • report

@ dukiebiddle:nor does it indicate that the Delmarva peninsula will be hit harder than the rest of the mid-Atlantic coastline.

How so?

by Jasper on Jun 26, 2012 10:05 am • link • report

The land surrounding the Chesapeake Bay is sinking slightly. So that means that the Delmarva and Tidewater will be worse hit than, say, the Jersey Shore by the rise in ocean levels all along the Gulf Stream.

by jim on Jun 26, 2012 10:34 am • link • report

@ Jasper "How so?"

Um, by making absolutely no mention of the Delmarva peninsula. Is the author misusing the term Delmarva to suggest there is such a thing as a Maryland, Delaware and Virgina region? Half of the Delmarva peninsula is in the Philadelphia region, so it's just sloppy, confusing, and wrong. It would have been far less sloppy and less incorrect to say the Chesapeake and MD & VA coastlines, or the Chesapeake, Delmarva and Virginia coastlines.

The point being that "Delmarva" refers to a very specific land mass, and to use the term in manner contradictory to that specific land mass, especially when it spans part of the Philadelphia region and all of the Baltimore/Washington consolidated region, is incorrect.

by dukiebiddle on Jun 26, 2012 11:13 am • link • report

Now that Barry will not block the streetcar project, will the fuss over the streetcar barn in Ward 5 be the next roadblock for the project? What are the odds that the streetcars will start running in July 2013?

by AlanF on Jun 26, 2012 11:59 am • link • report

Barry needs to stop stoking the racial divide in the city, and Mayor Gray and the rest of the council need to be loudly calling him out on it.

You might want to ask yourself why you cast "newcomers" as white people. This blurb makes no mention of race. The linked article discussing Barry's statement makes no mention of race. Barry, makes no mention of race. Yet, you feel racially aggrieved.

It's bad politics, will keep holding back his ward, and is going to get people killed

As a concerned resident of his ward and someone most affected by online convo suggesting my potential death, it would be helpful to us potential victims if you "outsiders" don't interject race in unwarranted situations.

That is, unless "newcomers" means "new" white people since it is a healthy number who are already there.

by HogWash on Jun 26, 2012 12:05 pm • link • report

Hogwash,

You might want to ask yourself why you cast "newcomers" as white people. This blurb makes no mention of race. The linked article discussing Barry's statement makes no mention of race. Barry, makes no mention of race. Yet, you feel racially aggrieved.

Have you ever heard the term "code words" in politics? Newcomers is a code word in DC politics for white people. Here's an example of code words being used by Sen. Trent Lott which led to his removal as Senate Leader:

The Ways Republicans Talk About Race
The scandal surrounding Trent Lott is not about a poor choice of words at a birthday party for Strom Thurmond. It's about the political choices Republicans made in the 1960's to ''go hunting where the ducks are'' -- code language for winning over white segregationists who abandoned the Democratic Party in the South. It's about continuing to benefit from racial prejudice through subtle and not-so-subtle sound bites that play to the Republican Party's far-right base.

The most infamous of these efforts was Ronald Reagan's advocacy of ''states' rights'' -- the Dixiecrat code word for segregation -- at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Miss., where 16 years earlier the murder of three civil rights workers made international headlines.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/13/opinion/the-ways-republicans-talk-about-race.html

by Falls Church on Jun 26, 2012 1:31 pm • link • report

How about ddot partner with the school to provide a technical training program? Seems like a simple way to turn the car barn into an asset for the high school rather than a problem.

by dano on Jun 26, 2012 2:03 pm • link • report

Have you ever heard the term "code words" in politics? Newcomers is a code word in DC politics for white people.

I won't get into a debate about this because it's obvious that my opinion will differ than most here..as it usually does.

Why do I say that? I've repeatedly charged that terms like "old guard" and "native" DC residents are "code words" for black people. Both terms are used incessantly here and other places. In my experiences debating this, 100% (ok maybe 99%) of those responding (who aren't black) have never even mildly conceded that it could be true. Instead they offer, "well it actually refers to the old way of doing things...not race."

So what's the lesson?

White people are the authority on what's perceived as race-baiting. If perceived racial slight is directed at white people by blacks. It's absolutely race-baiting. If perceived slight is directed by whites at nonblacks, it's not race-baiting.

See Barry's "newcomers" statement as evidence.

1) It's wrong to consider hard-working, middle class residents who gentrify n'hood as a white thing.

2)It is correct to consider those hard-working, middle class, newcomers (who gentrify n'hoods) as white.

by HogWash on Jun 26, 2012 2:44 pm • link • report

Of course the optimal way of dealing with bikes and streetcar tracks is ... the separated bike line keeping everybody out of everybody else's way.

(one does hope they aren't serious about having both lamp-posts AND posts for the electric power for the streetcars)

by egk on Jun 26, 2012 3:25 pm • link • report

White people are the authority on what's perceived as race-baiting.

I guess that makes black people the authority on racial aggrievement.

If you think it's strictly a black/white thing, ask any Asian about Barry's race baiting.

by Juanita de Talmas on Jun 26, 2012 3:51 pm • link • report

Anyone else feel that breeze over their head?

by selxic on Jun 26, 2012 4:23 pm • link • report

When Barry was mayor his three biggest supporters were Antonelli and the private parking industry, Jeffery Cohen and the real estate developers, and the Korean Businessman's Association (KBA). When his life came into the hands of a Filpino nurse he changed his tune on Filipino nurses. When he was clued in that the owners of those (truly) nasty corner stores were now mostly east African he shut up.

The way to tell us old timer whites from the newcomer whites is the latter are the ones who get worked up by the race baiting and the mau mauing.

Whatever.
It is what it is.
etc. etc.

by Tom Coumaris on Jun 26, 2012 8:36 pm • link • report

Making Columbia Pike a walkable community is very nice and good, but I have not seen any discussion of the fact that VA244 is an arterial roadway, carrying up to 40,000 vehicles per day, between Little River Turnpike (VA236) and the river.

by Garden City on Jun 27, 2012 8:35 am • link • report

garden city,

should we consider whether columbia pike carries a lot of vehicles or a lot of people?

by drumz on Jun 27, 2012 9:26 am • link • report

The fear of those beyond the reach of the streetcars is they'll choke off valuble lanes for their daily commute further draging down the value of their outer ring homes.
Tough nut.

by Thayer-D on Jun 27, 2012 2:26 pm • link • report

Very few people drive from Annandale (is annandale really "outer ring" sheesh) to the Pentagon and beyond. Even with congestion, I395 almost always is faster. Annandale folks are more likely to use Col Pike to get to Baileys, south Arlington, etc. Which commutes will not be impacted by the densification of Col Pike in Arlington. The drivers most concerned are more likely to be from Lake Barcroft and adjoining parts of FFX, and from the outer parts of South Arlington. Which can hardly be called "outer ring"

by AWalkerIntheCity on Jun 27, 2012 2:38 pm • link • report

pardon- should be

"Very few people drive from Annandale (is annandale really "outer ring" sheesh) to the Pentagon and beyond on COLUMBIA PIKE"

of course lots of people drive from Annandale to the Pentagon and beyond - ON I395

by AWalkerInTheCity on Jun 27, 2012 2:40 pm • link • report

Setting aside making hay over the race dog whistles, what I do not understand is why not putting the streetcar barn in the 7 billion acre parking lot at RFK. I mean really -- why put this on school grounds? And sugarcoating this with "technical training" is flat-out jive.

by goldfish on Jun 27, 2012 8:41 pm • link • report

The federally owned and District operated for sports portions of RFK?

by selxic on Jun 27, 2012 11:50 pm • link • report

@selxic: The RFK parking lot. It has a Metro flyover and it is so big it touches Benning Rd. Is it Federally owned? I dunno, but probably. It is used much less than the school. I am sure there are all sorts of issues with this idea; that is why we have elected representatives to solve to solve them.

by goldfish on Jun 28, 2012 1:36 am • link • report

@goldfish

Why put it on school grounds rather than in the RFK lot?
1. District already controls the land - biggest reason
2. Along streetcar route (RFK lot is also)
3. Ease of coordination with school for training program

I'm not sure why the technical training part is "sugarcoating." Shouldn't we be trying to provide DCPS graduates who want it with the skills to land a good job? We currently have an obsession in this country with sending everyone to college whether they can hack it or not; we should really be championing the kind of program that gives students practical skills that can land them a job.

What exactly are the compelling reasons AGAINST the streetcar barn on school grounds? Seems to me neighbors are just complaining about the barn being anywhere near them - I don't think moving the barn 700 feet down the road is going to assuage their fears about anything and everything.

by MLD on Jun 28, 2012 9:05 am • link • report

Who owns the Pepco Site; what about placing the maintenance facility there as it also has empty space.

by kk on Jun 28, 2012 11:47 am • link • report

@MLD - Thanks for rufuting.

@goldfish - How is technical training jive? Any students who do an internship at the first car barn will have a great shot at landing jobs as the system expands. These are real (if Barry stays out of the way and the plan moves forward) jobs with good pay. Being in construction I know that a good mechanic can make as much if not more money than a project manager who went to college and got a degree. There is nothing wrong with working with your hands and its a valuable alternative to many people.

by dano on Jun 28, 2012 12:00 pm • link • report

Also remember that the training can serve a general purpose and give people skills to go into other mechanical jobs. It's not like the training is only valuable for a job in the streetcar system.

by MLD on Jun 28, 2012 12:04 pm • link • report

The training is is jive because the system will have, what, 3 guys that actually do this work. What will be the annual turnover be? The streetcar system that will have fewer than 10 streetcars for the next 20 years.

So the training will be for something in which there are no positions.

Argument against: The ROI for this is terrible, and this is not the best use of academic resources. There are many other technical trades that have far more demand, e.g., plumber, electrican, HVAC, elevator maintenance, etc.

In fact, it is the sort of bone a poverty pimp would offer up. Can you imagine building this on Wilson HS, and saying to Ward 3 residents that they will offer "training"?

by goldfish on Jun 28, 2012 12:44 pm • link • report

@ goldfish

both suburban maryland and Va will soon have streetcar/light rail lines, and Baltimore and Norfolk already have them. Does DC really only want to train people for jobs IN DC? Also the training is transferable beyond just street car mntnce, as MLD has said.

by AWalkerInTheCity on Jun 28, 2012 12:54 pm • link • report

@AWitC: The Langston campus is actually very beautiful, if neglected. They will sacrifice its frontage for something that has nothing to do with education. And I doubt DCPS wants this; more likely it is getting shoved down their throat.

by goldfish on Jun 28, 2012 12:58 pm • link • report